>> what did you learn, john meacham? >> that willie geist spent most of the olympics at the churchill -- >> amazing. yeah. yeah. what did you learn? >> nothing. just gone. >> a new poll out. politico, battleground poll has this race deadlocked and mark halperin, you believe this is closer than reality than some of the other polls? >> president's got a small lead. in this poll, we should say pre the ryan pick. >> willie, we have missed you. >> really good to be back. >> three weeks for fun, but it's time to get back to business. >> what time is it? here's chuck. the paul ryan pick has injected a shot of energy to the paul ryan campaign, energized the the debate, and given mitt romney himself a clearly visible

burst of enthusiasm. is the high here to stay and if not, how long will it last? bobby jindal speaks to us for the romney campaign. but republicans aren't the only ones smiling. team obama has been eager to run against congressman ryan and his unpopular budget plan for two years. is the ryan choice a gift to democrats? obama campaign adviser robert gibbs joins us. and how does the romney campaign navigate around congressman ryan's stormy history? all eyes as always on florida. good morning from washington. it's august 13th, 2012. this is a special two-hour edition of "the daily rundown." let's get right to an expaended first read. we start the race to define paul ryan is on this morning. the president kicks off a three-day, seven-city bus tour of iowa. his biggest barn storming of the

hawk eye state to date. facing off with obama, mr. paul ryan, who will deliver a soap box speech this afternoon at the always fun to attend iowa state fair. one thing that's clear, after the first 48 hours of romney ryan, mitt romney is acting like a new candidate. >> i guess you think i made the right decision, the right choice? people ask me why i chose paul ryan. the answer is i wanted someone who was a leader. >> paul ryan has given the republican ticket and romney himself a boost of energy and it's not just evident in the largest rallies we've seen. finally looks like he's enjoying being a candidate again. here's how he confidently took on a heckler in wisconsin last night. >> you see, young man, this group here is respectful of other people's rights to be heard.

>> and clearly, ryan himself is enjoying and he enjoyed that warm reception back home in wisconsin. >> my veins run with cheese, bratwurst and a little spot of some miller. >> now, of course, romney is hardly the first presidential candidate to try to use a vp pick to relaunch his campaign. walter mondale, bob dole, al gore, john mccain tried to shake things up. all lost any way. the question is, whether the ryan pick will be more than a short-term boost. will romney's relaunch do anything to change the fundamentals. this seems to be the big question. now, mitt romney knows that florida where medicare is king and where a lot of people are on it will be pivot come november and he's in the sunshine state

today and treading carefully. peter alexander is there with us here in a minute and he'll be doing that, but we will be moving on and we're waiting for him. is peter ready? well, let's go on to -- let's check in now with peter at that rally. romney's already been speaking there. >> reporter: good to visit with you, sorry. some technical issues on this end. governor romney's going to be here in a moment. also joining him on the podium, rick scott as well as marco rubio. he was one of the other names thrown around at vice presidential choice. we were told he was one of the last people to be told he had not been selected. as we talk to the seniors in this state, it's certainly a new energy. what we've heard from the people here is you know, we wanted marco rubio, but paul ryan's a

good second choice. >> crowd size are we seeing today? this is the first event for romney without ryan. >> i think there's going to be a lot of people trying to juxtapose the events happening here. here it is, another big crowd. we've seen some of the biggest crowds over the last two days. there were intended to be three events today. the one in the middle of the day scheduled for orlando has been canceled. the local immediamedia reportin was due to exhaustion, but the campaign is telling us it is not exhaustion. it's just a question of scheduling, they have plans to be back in the orlando area again and as we discuss, florida, the sunshine state, it is important to put up some numbers. coming into this place before the paul ryan pick, here is a poll that shows romney's

standing among retirees and baby boomers, across the board has been his strength with seniors and the ones we were talking to here, we posed questions to them if they have concerns about the language they have heard from the democrats suggesting that the ryan plan and this new ticket would not out their medicare. they say we're not worried about it. one woman said i'm not worried about it. you guys may need to be worried about it going forward. >> peter, thanks so much. one little additional reporting note. nbc has learned that paul ryan will be going to florida for his own event next weekend. unclear where it was going to be. ryan spending his day in iowa. six weeks ago, did anyone think that the republican ticket would be arguing this election is now a choice? >> so, here's our choice. do we want that opportunity of society and the safety net, the

land of upward mobility where people can make the most of their lives or do we want to go down the path of debt, doubt and despair. >> so, by pickinging ryan, romney made the calculation that he needed someone to fire up conservatives, but more importantly, give his own campaign some definitions. in other words, the ryan pick is a concession that their theory of the case, that the election could be won as a referendum on the president and the struggling economy was not a winning strategy. ryan is an articulate spokesman and known as an ideas guy. the the word of the weekend was bull. already, the romney ticket is doubling down on the argument that obama and the democrats have failed when it comes to the debt. but the only group that may have been more enthusiastic about the ryan pick were those democrats who have been dying to turn the presidential contest into a race against house republicans and their ideology and romney just

selected a house republican to be his running mate. president made it clear he plans to use ryan to make romney own the congressional republican brand. >> my opponent chose his running mate, mr. paul ryan. i want to congratulate, look, i want to congratulate congressman ryan. i know him. i welcome him to the race. he is an articulate spokesman for governor romney's vision. but it's a vision that i fundamentally disagree with. >> the other aspect to this in picking ryan is is that ryan's experience is all washington. now, romney tried to make the case that ryan was a guy that works in washington, but he's not of washington. >> his career ambitious was not to go to washington. that is not what he wanted to do. but he became concerned about what was happening in the

country. >> well, will the voters buy it? romney most importantly, romney and republicans are arguing on his behalf, kind of distancing himself a little bit or trying to from ryan's budget. >> it is the romney ryan ticket and as president, president romney will be putting forward his own budget. >> i think mitt romney aprea apprecia appreciated the the work paul ryan has done. >> i have my budget plan that i've put out and that's the budget plan that we're going to run on. >> the next battle of course is the fight over what this election is going to be about. the obama campaign will want to make it about taxes. the romney campaign going to want to make it about the economy and taxes. we'll talk the taxes fight. the question is, whether either one can the obama campaign avoid the economy, can the romney campaign avoid medicare. as we told you, mitt romney's starting his day in florida and

it will be interesting. the headlines gave us a taste of of the dangers a fight over medicare has. bkds rode to re-election demagoguing medicare. in fact, we got a taste yesterday of how heated the medicare fight is going to be as democrats came out swinging. >> paul ryan embraced extremism, suggests we should end medicare, shred the safety net. >> it doesn't ask anyone from the ver wealthy. >> the question is, do you believe in medicare or not. >> meanwhile, romney and reince priebus turns to some over the top language if you will, which was pretty much a version of the i'm rubber you're glue defense. >> there's only one president

that i know of in history that robbed medicare $716 billion. >> if any person in this entire debate has blood on their hands in regard to medicare, it's barack obama. >> well, we're going to talk about that more in the show. now, in an nbc "wall street journal" poll we conducted after paul ryan introduced his budget plan, 53% of voters said medicare was quote okay the way it is or only very minor modifications. one of romney's demographic strengths is with seniors and three of the oldest populations in the country happen to be in the presidential battleground. romney already had a disadvantage with women and latin latinos. can't have seniors turn into a jump ball in december. we'll have more on this later in the show. what happens if you take florida out of the romney equation. all right, republicans aren't the only ones excited ability the ryan choice as romney's running mate.

we're going to have that from robert gibbs, but first, we're going to talk to some republicans and somebody who was on the short list to be mitt romney's running mate. louisiana governor, bobby jindal. a special two-our edition of "the daily rundown." we'll be right back. there are projects. and there are game-changers. those ideas that start with us rolling up our sleeves... ...and end with a new favorite room in the house. and when we can save even more on those kinds of projects... ...with advice to make them even better... ...that's a game-changer in itself.

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the facts are about mr.

ryan's budget is that it really does balance the budget on the backs of the middle class and needy. don't take it from me. take it from independent economists who have studies this budget and said that if we enacted the drastic cuts that paul ryan wants to put in place and mitt romney wants to put in place because this is his budget, too, that it would contract the economy. >> democrats have been on offense ever since the paul ryan vp choice became public hoping his budget plan gives the president of seniors, a group he's been struggling with. republicans aren't taking criticism from the left lying down. bobby jindal joins me now. actually a man who worked here in washington deals with health care issues before he went to congress. governor, good morning. >> good morning, chuck. i understand that you're one of the first if not the first to confirm the ryan pick, so congratulations. i hope that means a big bonus from msnbc. >> i don't know about that, but

it's a team effort here at msnbc. governor, let me start with the vetting process that you went through. what did you submit? >> well, a couple of things. i've not commented on the vp process. i'm not going to start now. didn't do it in 2008. i will say a couple of things. one, i think governor romney made a great choice. a week before he made the choice, i had an interview with nbc, recommended paul ryan. i think this choice just solidifies the fact this election's about a fundamental choice to the american people. under president obama, we have seen record deficits, record unemployment, more proposals for spending, more taxes. look, the president's policies haven't worked with the ryan pick now with the romney ryan ticket, you've got a different proposal. you've got an idea that we need to grow the private sector, not the public sector economy. you've got the idea we need to reform our entitlement programs. we've had a trillion dollars plus a year under president obama. unemployment's been above 8% for

42 months. under president obama, we can have more of the same. more spending, taxes, borrowing. under romney and ryan, we can have more robust private sector growth with cutting tacks, spending and balancing the budget. >> are you, so it sounds like you are satisfied. you feel as if maybe romney wasn't fully articulating the points of this campaign or different things running more on the economy more as a referen m referendum. are you glad they're running a choice campaign rather than running on the unemployment rate? >> well, i think governor romney was already doing that before. i think the selection of ryan simply solidifies that, but i am thrilled this is a choice campaign. this is a very important election. four years ago, president obama said we shouldn't make big elections about small things. they said those ideas would resort to scare tactics. that's what president obama and his team are doing. as a contrast, governor romney

has been doing this. but with the ryan selection, doubling down on presenting a positive alternative to american voters. these are two very, very different sets of idea. this is a very consequential election. if we want to see what four more years o f president obama would bring, we can look to greece, look at what's happening in europe. for two years, the democrats had the senate, the white house, the president has his agenda, the stimulus bill. he had obama care. multiple stimulus bills. basically got his main proposals through congress and we've seen the results. >> i want to talk about, focus here on medicare because the tone of the language that i've seen just in 24 hours coming from both sides is, was sort of eye popping to me and the fact of the matter is in '96, clinton demagogued the issue and to political success and in 2010, republicans did the same thing on medicare. and what i found interesting is

in '96, republicans used to complain. they arenweren't trying to cut medicare. they were trying to slow the growth. the exact same thing can be said for what president obama did with medicare. they didn't make any cuts to programs. they were trying to slow the growth and yet, you guys are calling it cut. is that a mistake? >> well, i think the difference is that president obama cut medicare by over $7.5 billion -- >> let me stop you there. so now you're saying it is a cut, slowing the growth is a cut? that's what you're saying when you use the $700 billion talking point. >> let me finish the sentence though. the difference is that he didn't use those savings to extend the solvency of the trust fund. he took that money out of medicare to create a new enti e entitleme entitlement. i think this would have been a very different conversation if he said let's achieve savings to

help preserve the program. the difference is what governor romney is saying is this program's going broke if we don't do anything. you look at the premium support plan that governor romney, it has its roots in the '90s. we first came up with a concept that flushed out the details prebehind premiums. the doc supported this. the leadership of the aoa. the mayo clinic supports this. "the wall street journal" supported this. many outside groups supported this concept of giving seniors more choices, more competition, slowing down the growth over the long-term of the program. not by impacting people in the program today who are about to retire, but rather younger adults not yet near retirement age. one, there is a difference between taking the dollars out of the program, which is what the president did and secondly, you're going to hear a lot of

scare tactics out of the president's team about medicare reform. the status quo is not acceptable and this idea of giving seniors more choice, more competition, allowing them to lower their premiums. >> wait. how do you prevent medicare from turning into basically the has and has nots for seen yores? by throwing more private insurers into senior poole, how do you prevent folks who can't afford anymore than the coverage. that doesn't become more of a medicaid space station and you're create iing a situation has and have not and you won't have the best practices and you may have lower quality health insurance care for seniors because the ones that have

better insurance will get the better doctors and the ones who can't afford a new private insurer end up with lower quality care. >> three things. one, the subsidies are weighted, so those who are poorer, they get bigger subsidies. secondly, there's a requirement that all plans have to offer at least an actual equivalent in terms of benefit. they can't cherry pick. they would have to be approved by the cms to attract wealthier seniors, but third, traditional medicare continues to be an option. so the bottom line is this is about giving seniors more choices, more competition. we have experience doing this. there are already private plans in medicare called medicare advantage plans that for many years now have been offering through the private sector, have been offering seniors more choices about the types of benefits and how they, where they get their coverage. we have experience doing this. this isn't something we're not doing today. it gives more seniors more

choices, more competition. by the way, it's how we provide federal employees and members of congress their health insurance today. this isn't some new, untested concept. so often, we say why can't we give our seniors the same coverage we give members of congress. that's what premium support is. >> actually, no, that stuff is -- i think that talking point is about why can't the rest of the country that are not on medicare have the same choices that federal government has. fair? that's usually the kicker there. >> we use premium support today to offer benefits to members of congress, federal staffers. premium support is good enough for them. it should work for our seniors as well. why not give our seniors the same choice? >> playing my song because i got to pay some bills. thank you, sir. up next, we'll get a check on how wall street will kick off

the week and still ahead, with ryan now running, are democrats worried about wisconsin? robert gibbs will join me next, but first, today's first of two trivia questions on this two-hour, little easier one. one of paul ryan's earliest jobs at capitol hill involved plenty of tequila. the first connect answer will get a monday follow from us. the answer and more is coming up on this special two-hour edition of "the daily rundown." we'll be right back. whoa, look at all those toys.

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weekend and are going after the seat of retiring democrat. it's a four-way fight for the republican nomination in wisconsin's u.s. senate race. yes, wisconsin, there's something else going on besides paul ryan. in tomorrow's primary, four men are running include tommy thompson and one of the longest serving governors in wisconsin's history. the winner will face democratic t tammy baldwin. perhaps the most important foreign story going on now, thousands of people cheered in tahrir square after president mohamed morsi ordered egypt's top military leaders to retire. morsi also canceled the constitutional amendments that

gave the military power to effectively control the country. we'll see how that plays. finally, billy graham is being treated for a lung infection in a north carolina hospital. the spokesman says the 93-year-old preacher is responding well to antibiotics and should be there only a few days. and the markets, we'll see how they react. asia's markets didn't react well to the news that japan's economy only expanded by less than 2.5%. up next, running against ryan. president obama's been doing it for almost two years now. how does that strategy change? robert gibbs joins me next you're watching "the daily rundown," two-hour edition, only on msnbc cht and a choice. take advil, and maybe have to take up to four in a day. or take aleve, which can relieve pain all day with just two pills. good eye.

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ve io wo n er n . vice presidential running mate has achieved a rare distinction because it seems it's made everybody happy.

conservative elites see him as a jolt of energy. the president's people insist ryan's budget proposal is the perfect target for their campaign, but the fact is, president obama has been running against ryan for two and a half years. >> call for example, the budget committee has looked at the budget and has made a serious proposal. there are some ideas in there i would agree with, but some we should have a healthy debate about because i don't agree with. it says instead of guaranteed health care, you will get a voucher and if that voucher isn't worth enough to buy the insurance available in the open marketplace, well, tough luck. you're on your own. but it ends medicare as we know it. there is a certain crowd in washington who for the last few

decades have said let's respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. the market will take care of everything, they tell us. >> this kind of top down economics is central to governor romney and it is central to his running mate. they have tried to sell us this trickle down fairy dust before and guess what? it did not work. >> did you catch all those dates? january 2010 and it trickled down with me now, robert gibbs, campaign adviser to president obama and of course, the former white house press secretary. in a split screen, we're going to be showing a little bit. mitt romney's taking the stage now in florida. you guys seem to express public happiness about running against ryan. why? >> i think as you heard the president talk, paul ryan is a perfectly nice guy with a perfectly nice family and a series of very dangerous and wrong headed political views.

he believes and now governor romney believes that the best way to finance huge tax cuts for wealthy is on the backs of the middle class and to ask seniors to simply pay more by ending medicare as we know it. i think this was a choice in the election before. i think this is now crystallized into a perfect choice about how we're going to build this economy going forward. are we going to go back to huge tax cuts for the wealthy on the backs of students and the middle class and senior citizens? the very same policies that got us into this mess or are we going to build forward and create an economy that does invest in kids that want to go to college. >> you used a phrase that some would say, you guys are trying to demagogue. i want to play something the president said in january 2010 about entitlements.

>> there is a political vulnerability to doing anything that tinkers with medicare. we're not going to be able to do anything about any of these entitlements if we characterize whatever proposals are out there as the other party's being irresponsible. the other party's trying to hurt our senior citizens. >> that could have been a rebuttal to what you said. >> are you guys going to go over the top. how do you tackle reform if anytime -- they demagogued you guys on medicare. >> but let's talk about what we've done on medicare. right. we ended a private insurance subsidy for medicare advantage that government accounting agency said wasn't effective and wasn't working. we expanded the medicare benefit by helping seniors with the tcot

of their prescription dugs and added eight years on to the medicare trust fund. it doesn't go bankrupt until 2016. i think your previous discussion with governor jindal is a perfect one. you hit the nail on the head, chuck. you're going to hand out vouchers to seniors, some of whom have just retired or just turned 65 and then hand one to my father, who is 83, who's a lung cancer survivor and has far different medical needs than his former white house staffing needs does at 41. >> your father's not going to get that because they're not going to do anything to it. >> i wouldn't trust the republans on medicare as far as i can throw hthem. whether it's my 83-year-old dad or somebody who's 63 and has very different health conditions than somebody like me who's 41 or somebody who's 21. there's no doubt this ends exactly ends medicare as we know it. it is going to be a competition

of who is more sick and less sick is going to put greater burdens on senior citizens to come up with out of pocket costs. >> does the president owe us a plan then? ryan's got a plan on medicare. does the president owe us a medicare, okay, what do you do for medicare after 2024? >> the president has taken important steps to not only make the medicare benefit stronger, again, by adding things like preventive health care and we've extended the life of the health care. >> so, what comes next? >> i think that's going to be part of the debate. >> do you owe an alternative? >> again, i'm happy to compare what we've done and what they want to do and i don't doubt that we' have a chance to have that continued debate, but let's understand this. we know exactly what governor romney and paul ryan now want to do with medicare. we've crystallized what this race is about. >> i'm going to ask about the

question i know has been dogging you guys for a week. are you guys going to ask priorities, the super pac affiliated with the president, president's own advisers, raise money for this super pac, to not air this ad? pull it from the web. it's not aired anywhere. it seems like everybody's a little uncomfortable with it. why not just say don't run it? >> this has been perpetuated most by by the hthe romney camp. the romney campaign long ago gave up their opinion to be pious on this ad and any ad. let's examine one that we know is running. just on fox news. an ad that's on television that says barack obama has done away with the work requirement for welfare. that ad is nothing but a lie. mitt romney's entire presidential campaign right now is built around a lie. mitt romney's on that ad saying he approved it and it's a lie. >> but rationalization is well, they do it, so we're going to do

it. >> let's -- >> are you comfortable with that ad? are you comfortable with that ad? >> chuck, i don't have any control over that ad. i'm not part of priorities super pac. >> you attacked john edwards once during the primary campaign on a 527 ad that attacked you guys and said john edwards could call that and stop doing it. >> because look, i don't remember or get into the john edwards thing. i know this. you have an ad that our campaign has nothing to do with. as you mentioned, the running on youtube if you hit play. and an ad by governor romney, approved by governor romney, that's nothing by a straight out lie. not a lie that i say. everybody said. there's a op-ed editorial in the des moines register that says mitt romney is lying about the president on welfare. to have these guys fly around

the country an pretend like we're going to have a campaign based on substance when the whole thing is centered on nothing but a lie is a joke. >> governor romney hinted to me that he would like some sort of truce and he also i think in a radio show said maybe it would be nice if every ad that got fact checked is false got pulled. would you guys sign an agreement like that? >> i think mitt romney would be up with shadow puppets right now. mitt romney's first ad -- >> if you guys could come to an agreement, maybe we've got to -- >> look, let me tell you this. we'd be happy to look at what governor romney proposes as soon as he takes down the series of ads that every fact checker what that's looked at them and said they're false. i mean, i appreciate again, his piousness on this. his ad and campaign are built nothing but around a lie. >> robert gibbs, senior campaign adviser to the obama campaign, thanks for coming.

the paul ryan pick puts medicare back in the spotlight. we're going to talk about that next with our political panel and also go to the battleground map. but first, the white house soup of the day. should be something iowa related. it's greek lentil stew and don't f forget, you can follow the show on facebook. but that doesn't mean we should be penalized for it. that's why liberty mutual insurance policies come standard with accident forgiveness, if you qualify. learn more at libertymutual.com. there are projects. and there are game-changers. those ideas that start with us rolling up our sleeves... ...and end with a w favorite room in the house. and when we can save even more on those kinds of projects... ...with advice to make them even better... ...that's a game-changer in itself.

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symbols of the war. the cost benefit analysis of romney's pick is under way today, will paul ryan help romney seal the deal or drive away independents and moderates? my monday panel -- good morning to all of you. i thought i would use, we had a fun little thing, the ripon society, god father, republican party, they sent out a reminder article over the weekend. haley barbour had rules of picking vp. guy almost ran for president. i thought it was a pretty good way to start. he had four rules for picking a vice president and they were do no harm. impact on the battleground, unit the the party and be bold.

d is this a do no harm pick? >> we don't know that yet. it is a risky pick as everybody has said because it brings into play, brings into high relief if you will, the issue of entitlement reform and what paul ryan and romney have proposed on that front and it will make that debate much more visible, much more vigorous. it's going to be at the center of things for a while. >> every single politician i can think of that wanted to tackle entitlement reform during a campaign got their you know whats handed to them. bob kerry wanted to go generational warfare and was talked out of it in '92. bill clinton dogged bob dole on it and democrats lost control of congress because of it. >> that's right. don't touch medicare. you can improve it, but you can't do away with it and you can't increase premiums for seniors by $6,000 and you know the people it hurts the most are

not even among seniors. it's us, the 50 to 65-year-olds who believe they won't have time to put anything else in place, so watch it to hurt with him and to put seniors in play. >> you know, it's clearly was not a do no harm pick. >> with all do respect to everything i said, that time of small balls thinking is the kind of mess we find ourselves in now. the difference with paul ryan, there are so surprises here. he's pretty well defined. he's defined himself on physical austerity and even more so, not only has he taken on the republican lishment. everyone knows what he thinks. >> the battleground impact, i think it's clear. dan balz, where ryan runs the best in wisconsin is good democratic territory. >> absolutely. governor walker has said this since the recall election. this state could be put into

play. >> and clear they wanted to. now, they have to. >> now, they have to. in they're able to do that, it does rearrange the calculus. >> but as expand a map. celinda, pennsylvania to me is one that i know they would like to give it in play, given medicare is an issue, does it throw the idea of pennsylvania, pushes it aside? >> i think it pushes it aside and makes it better than it had been. i think it's very noticeable that romney did not take ryan down to florida with him today. >> ryan speaks to that sam's club blue collar republican in ohio, in michigan, and thus in the process puts those states in play. >> all right. uniting the party. this clearly united the party. do you agree? >> i i agree. this make the party whole. >> he he hadn't done it. >> he does not represent that rising generation that is the

future of the republican party and paul ryan does. you've now got the full package together. >> but i go back to something that i pointed out before, which is when you look at presidential candidates that felt they needed to use a vice president to relaunch and redefine their campaign, it can work but it doesn't ever get you across the finish line. >> well, and sometimes it works but not for very long. i mean, look at the sarah palin effect and i think you're going to really argue that obama is not up to the job but paul ryan is up to being president? >> is that an issue? >> i don't think so. here is why. paul ryan is no sarah palin. is he ready on day one? probably not. day two? absolutely. >> you could argue that bill clinton relaunched his campaign. >> absolutely. >> it's a fair point. i would have -- the question was, was he trying to launch a new message or launch an old message. retreive yeah time, one of

paul ryan's earliest jobs on capitol hill involved plenty of tequila. what was he up to? and ryan waited tables at tortilla coast. it's a cheap lunch place. do you have a political trivia question? do you think he should be on the show? e-mail us dailyrundown@msnbc.com m we'll use it. ♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays]

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. politics is a sport, except it's a sport that affects your life. it's a sport that really matters. it's a sport that the outcome will decide whether you feel as if your life is going to get better or your life is going to get worse. while the game is a lot of fun, it's the outcome that matters. how many years of tax returns did you turn over to the campaign? >> well, it was a very exhaustive vetting process. it's a confidential vetting process. so there's several years, but i'm going to release the same amount of years that governor romney has. but i've got to tell you, bob -- >> and how many is that? >> i'm going to be releasing two, which is what he's

releasing. >> all right. is the tax return issue, which is, of course, something that the democrats were hitting on a lot pre-vp pick. is it back or is it going to come back? robert, let me start with you. is the tax return issue -- does it just get put on the back burner or is romney ducked this? >> here's the analogy that we use. i think this is a pebble or rock in the shoe. it's going to be an annoyance, if you will. at the end of the day, it's the average american voter that goes into the voting booth who says, i'm not going to vote for paul ryan or mitt romney because of a tax issue. >> celinda, you were saying during the break that all of the congressional candidates are going to be doing this so it lives, it festers. so it a pebble a fair -- >> i think it's a great one and i think it's going to cause an infectious blister. >> dan, mitt romney will have to

release the rest of this year's tax return, as he promised, sometime in october. that's usually when you file an extension, it's due october 15th. >> and that will create at least a short flurry. i don't want to take this metaphor any further than celinda did. >> all right. some of you have got to go. everybody's going to return. still ahead on this special extended edition of "the daily rundown." he knows a thing or two of being thrust into a presidential campaign. senator joe lieberman sits down with us. it was the first in our week-long series of exit interviews with retiring senators. you're watching "the daily rundown." we'll be right back.

i'm meteorologist bill karins. on this monday, a pretty simple forecast. not a lot of dramatic weather out there. the heatwave has broke this past week. very typical of where we should be. 80s and 90s. one cool and rainy spot, chicago, could have possible airport delays. the heat does continue in many areas of the west. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics... a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis,

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