>> oh. wow, he's some -- a bit of a whiner. >> kind of needy, isn't he? i got to talk to your ma about that. >> speaking of music, i learned this is a great show to come on and talk about your book. cue the music. today when we were talking about this, he played "rocking the suburbs" by ben fold. it was awesome. >> unbelievable. cue is the best. >> i learned we have another photographer in the family. sophie, she's 12. look what happened in the cape cod chronicle. her picture of a bunny. and alex didn't want to show this. he wanted to ruin her day. >> because we're a minute and a half past and chuck todd is the most patient guy of all time. >> sophie, great job! >> sophie, great job. >> good picture! >> while we're at it, look at the picture. >> that's my cat emma. >> if it's way too early, it's "morning joe." stick around for the always patient chuck todd and "the daily rundown" where we learn more about politics in an hour than you'll learn here in three

hours. we shall return. have a great weekend! epic overrun there, mr. scarborough. anyway. summer bummer. july's job report delivers an underwhelming 162,000 new jobs. about 20,000 below expectations. unemployment rate did drop to 7.4%. but that's because fewer people are looking for work. we'll break down the numbers in just a few minutes. this news companiy comes as cos set to jet out town. what do they have to brag about to folks ba s back home? meantime, overseas, the state department says many embassies in the middle east and south africa will be closed on sunday because of unspecified threats. happy friday. good morning from washington. it's august 2nd, 2013. this is "the daily rundown." i'm chuck todd. let's get right to my first reads of the morning.

we begin with the new jobs report for the month of july. to say it's a mixed bag is an understatement. the good news, the unemployment rate is down to 7.4%. it's the lowest level since december of 2000 but just 162,000 jobs were added. well short of market expectations. and the lowest figure this year since march. we also saw a significant revision over the last two months. the number in may was revised down from 195,000 to 176,000. the number in june also revised down. over the two months, some 26,000 jobs were taken off the books. so in term, of the sector, let's take a look. business services were all up significantly. manufacturing was up. but just 6,000. look at this one. government actually added 1,000 jobs. not much but that is a turn. a sign that the public sector is hiring again after cutting more than 900,000 jobs over the past three years. we're going to have more with mark in a couple minutes,

breaking down this report further. before we get to that an i wa, o go to this story about what's going on with the u.s. embassies overseas. the u.s. state department announced it will close more than a dozen key embassies located harmly in the middle east and north africa, some central asian countries as well, on sunday, a day which is normally the start of the workweek in the region. officials say the closings are in response to terror threats directed at american targets overseas. nbc analyst michael leiter weighed in on this morning on the "today" show. >> they have something incredible. in light of benghazi, the state department is going to be extra careful. >> joining me, nbc news justice and homeland security correspondent pete williams. pete, it seems they're making this broad shutdown. does that mean they don't have a

specific threat or is this to keep their sources confidential? >> no, it means they don't know -- they know of the timing but they don't know the place. they don't know enough about it. although any is sort of a vague warning there's going to be some kind of attack on american compounds overseas. we're told this is in response to an al qaeda-related intelligence. from a middle eastern country. that was specific about the period of time. starting august 4th. but mentioning an unspecified threat to diplomatic posts overseas. so the state department says it's going to shut down all the embassies on this sunday that would normally be open. that's mostly the middle east, north africa, afghanistan, iraq, including the big ones, cairo, tel aviv, riyadh, saudi arabia, along with baghdad, kabul, kuwait city and so forth. dozens of cities. what's more, the state department says there may be additional days of closings as well. of course, the challenge will then be decide weathering to

extend the shutdown. if it goes beyond sunday, then it would affect embassies in many countries throughout the world since they would normally be open on monday. they're not telling us much about this threat, just that it was tied to the month-long muslim period of fasting known as ramadan which ends this time of the year, chuck. >> and has there been extra security asked for from the defense -- by state from the defense department? obviously, this becomes -- has become more of a focal point considering what happened in that benghazi cop pound. is there going to be increased security in addition to the shutdowns? >> not that we've been told about. for example, the embassy in afghanistan, they've been through this before. they've had many shutdowns for various security reasons. so they're doing what they always do. they're leaving all the embarrassed vehicles inside the compound. they're telling employees not to show up. they're closing the gates. but beyond that, we haven't been told about any kind of specific

beefed-up security around american embassies. i think the whole point is to keep any people away from them. that would include visitors. employees as well as for people from the countries that would normally be at that the embas embassies doing business. >> pete williams, thanks. now turning to the other story overseas that has u.s. officials pretty up in arms. russia's decision to give edward snowden temporary asylum is creating new tensions in u.s./russian relations, which are already pretty strained over syria, iran, missile defense, frankly, you name it these days. as snowden left the airport on thursday after spending six weeks stranded in the transit zone of the moscow airport, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle expressed their outrage. trying to almost one-up each other on how to retaliate against the russians. schumer called snowden a coward and had tough talk about next week's planned 2k3w6 ned g-20 m russia. >> russia has stabbed us in the back. and each day that snowden is allowed to roam free is another

twist of the knife. given russia's decision today, the president should recommend moving the g-20 summit. what russia has done is a serious blow to u.s./russian relations. >> his republican colleague, senator graham, who previously called for the u.s. to consider boycotting the sochi olympics in russia called it a game changer. saying, it is now time to make it clear to the russian government that this provocative step in granting snowden asylum will be met with a firm response. senator mccain, senior member of the senate foreign relations committee, also said, russia's action today is a disgrace and a deliberate effort to embarrass the united states. now is the time to rethink our relationship with putin's russia. over on the house side, top ranking members put the ball in the president's court. >> there's no doubt that the

relations between russia and the united states have not been on a positive track. >> i would hope that president would engage president putin on this issue and resolve it in a way that's satisfactory to the american people. >> at the white house, spokesman jay carney expressed disappointment in moscow's decision. >> this move by the russian government undermines a long-standing record of law enforcement cooperation, cooperation that has recently been on the upswing since the boston marathon bombinging,bomb. we see this as an unfortunate development and are extremely disappointed by it. >> here's what the white house is weighing right now when it comes to some sort of symbolic gesture by the russians. it includes the possibility of president obama canceling what had been a planned summit with putin that was scheduled for early next month. meeting was going to happen just a day or two before the g-20.

in a pretty clear sign that the summit -- whether the summit is in jeopardy, the white house has yet to send any staff. never has advanced the trip in moscow. doesn't have details on the trip. so that part of it is definitely in jeopardy. all signs point to the president attending the g-20 since it's an international event and you wouldn't want to snub the other countries there. lots of action there. now for more on the jobs numbers and the snapshot of the economy that we've gotten this week. it's been a particularly busy week in terms of economic data. numbers on home sale, consumer confidence, they remain near multiyear highs. while second quarter gdp numbers also beat expectations. now we've got a jobs number that shows the jobless rate at its lowest level in 4 1/2 years without creating a lot of jobs. this is the chief economist for moody's analytics. you look at this and compare it to the last summers and obviously there's been a lull,

it seems like four summers in a row. this is the best of the lulls that we've had. all of the economic data is really good except the jobs picture it explain. >> well, it's not great, you're right, it's disappointing. we've got to take a step back look at the job picture over the last several months, really over the last year. it's okay. it's not too bad. unemployment is slowly but steadily ticking up. it's not good . the unemployment rate. but we're making good progress. >> july 2011 was 78,000. july 2012, 153. july 2013, 162. we've seen this sort of summer dip. there was one number i wanted to point out. we'd heard about some evidence this was coming back. that is the fact that the government hiring number was

actually positive. that seep seems to be the star something that could also lead to an increased jobs boom, could it not? >> yeah, good point. a lot of that is in state and local government which had been laying off very significantly throughout the last several years. that's over. state tax revenue's improving. i expect more job growth at state and local. at the federal level, we still have the sequester and other budget cutting going on. more importantly, hours worked cut back because of furloughs. they're losing hours because of the sequester-related furloughs. >> i want to ask about the gdb number. it was a little higher than some thought it would be. what is your estimation of how much sequester the government, automatic government cuts, what is -- what would number have been without it? >> okay, so in the first half of the year, gdp growth rose at

1.3% at an annualized rate. if we didn't have the sequester and other government spending cuts, then growth would probably have been closer to 2%. so it subtracted .7% from growth in the first half of the year. which is consequential. >> how many jobs does that translate to approximately? >> well, less jobs, only because a lot of it's happening again through those furloughs. the defense workers aren't losing their jobs but they're losing a boatload of hours. so that hits gdp but it doesn't hit jobs. >> mark sandy, appreciate the monthly check in. still to come on "the daily rundown," we'll get the white house's first take on the brand-new jobs numbers. plus, more first read, as congress leaves town for the august recess. man, unbelievable. how they're leaving this town. everything we expected would get done didn't. and we'll look at why the heat is on the republicans as they head back to their districts to see if they can unify on some

sort of strategy for the fall. first, a look ahead at today's politics planner. all the governors are hanging out in milwaukee because where else would you want to be? hopefully, they're having some shot beer. you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. [ metal rattling ] ♪ boo! i am the ghost of meals past. when you don't use pam, this is what you get. residue. [ female announcer ] bargain brand cooking spray leaves annoying residue. that's why there's pam.

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well, it's get out of dodge friday. much more ahead. we've got the full rundown here. members of congress head for the hills, tail between their legs. the biggest event in politics won't be the picnic for mitch mcconnell.

the senate minority leader is fighting on two fronts now. there's another republican in hot water with the tea party, senator lindsey graham. we'll tell you who's about to take him on in the south carolina primary. maybe in the toughest shape of any republican incumbent dealing with a primary challenge. first, new york's barbara buono and milly silva are now the third all-women gubernatorial ticket in u.s. history. what two other states have had all-women gubernatorial tickets? the answer and more is coming up. [ male announcer ] the biggest news in breakfast is actually tiny.

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what could have been our lead today is congress getting out of town without getting anything done. later today, congressional lawmakers leave town for the month long break in august. and you'd be probably hard

pressed to find many americans who think they deserve a month-long vacation. the senate and the house will be out for the rest of the month in the first week of september. not heading back to work on capitol hill till september 9th. with congressional productivity at its lowest point in 60 years and public approval cratering, people won't notice, maybe they won't care. everything we expected would get done or progress being made on didn't. including immigration, farm bill, hasn't always been this way. years past, lawmakers spent the last week before the august break trying to wrap up a few successes to take home. last year, the house and senate passed legislation to extend the bush tax cuts. in the 2011 break, congress passed the budget control act and the senate approved a new term for the fbi director mueller. first week of 2010, they confirmed kagan to the supreme

court. in '09, they confirmed a supreme court justice and authorized the cash for clunkers bill. this time, both sides spent their energy simply drawing battle lines for the fall. >> the point is, if washington spent as much time and energy these past two years figuring out how to grow our economy and grow our middle class, as it spent manufacturing crises in pursuit of a cut at all costs approach to deficits, we'd be much better off. i don't want to go through the same old arguments where i propose an idea and the republicans just say no because it's my idea. >> instead of working together, the president yesterday threatened to shut down the government and recycled some of his old partisan proposals. if i had poll funs as low as his, i'd probably be out doing the same thing, if i were him. if i were him. >> actually, his poll numbers are lower. that was sort of a weird line there by the speaker. the dysfunction is pretty wide spread. but it's not being felt equally.

republican infighting has splintered the party and diluted their message. conservatives seem more interested in talking about how to prevent health care from being implemented. we can expect that to be a big topic during town halls this month. not necessarily because the public wants to talk about it but because special interest groups do. the conservative heritage foundation has already scheduled nine town halls of their own in nine states later this month. republican members of congress are holding at least nine more of their own. among them, tom cole who called it as a way to try to defund health care refor. it's just the latest evidence of a party divided. the 2012 election may have been last time the gop had a real chance to be united. democrats on the other hand appear to be moving in the opposite direction, pulling together as it prepares for the fight. under reid the senate has shown

it can function a bit when necessary even if it's slow and mostly on the confirmation front. at least a half dozen republicans, reid can safely rely on to help him get to 60 votes on a lot of legislation. the house, speaker boehner and his team can't get on the same page. that makes the challenges looming in the fall that much more difficult. this is the party that actually got a big win two years ago. getting the white house to agree to putting the sequester threat into the budget control act. now that the sequester is actually come to pass, house republicans don't want to give it up. senate lindsey graham said, simply, quote, we screwed ourselves. all this sets the stage for more big fights this fall. once congress returns, the senate will be in session for 15 days before the session ends. large parts of it could be forced to shut down october 1. the following month, another potential showdown over the debt ceiling. gop's inability to get behind

any plan has hamstrung the president. house republicans can't pass what one would think would be as simple as spending bills. the senate republicans are watching the house's inability to give them leverage and are now splintering. knnegotiating their own deals, showing up at the white house. the fact remains, they don't have any agreement on what they want in any realistic budget negotiation. said senator mccain, i still don't see the strategy for the path towards result. he joked, it's always darkest before it's totally black. what can we expect? let's bring in our gaggle. friday gaggle nonetheless. georgetown university dean, that's a nice new title, robert trainem. lisa from the associated press. and former democratic congressman from pennsylvania patrick murphy. welcome all. all right, robert, you used to work on capitol hill for the republican side of the aisle. this lack of unity here is

strengthening the president's hand every single day. >> it's not even a lack of unity, it's a lack of communication, a lack of personal relationships. there used to be a point when transportation bills, all those things just went through. and there also used to be a time -- i remember when ted kennedy would sit down with my former boss rick santorum and have a substantive -- >> they could cut deals, think about that. >> absolutely, two polar opposites. >> it takes a few years to decide to work within the confines of the senate. >> there was a legitimate relationship when they could get things done. i don't see that today. don't see mcconnell sitting down -- ted cruz for that matter. doesn't seem like it's happening. >> what's going to be interesting is what dog bites in august, right? three weeks ago, we thought, could immigration be the dominant issue? these town halls? i feel it's going to be republicans feeling defensive over health care. the grass root, conservative grassroots here are able to spin that up. >> i think it's going to be

telling this august. angry at ing we know what's o dysfunction they're going to end up blaming everybody and go to democratic town halls and republican town halls -- >> and just rage. >> and rage. i think we could see part of that. i think at the heart of all of this dysfunction is the fact that the extremes of both parties have had the deal makers of both parties kind of on the ropes here. and both sides are looking and saying, you know, i really think that i can't move too far in the middle and to make compromise because i'm going to, you know, invite primary challenges like lindsey graham. >> i have a feeling the public's going to say, i don't care be i'm not paying attention anymore. i can tell simply just in our own internal meetings here, you talk to folks just in new york, and they're going, you guys are a mess down there, it's an ugly story, the public doesn't care. >> by the way, most americans are saying with the 10% approval

rating of congress, they're saying, don't even go back to washington, just stay home the rest of the year it even though they have nine days left till september 30th. when you talk about being on the ropes, i think it's speaker boehner who's on the ropes because his hands are tied by the extreme right wing of the house republicans. who are demanding the immigration, demanding -- let's keep sequestration cuts. their appropriations chair just yesterday said it is not working politically or policywise. >> they tried to write a bill -- the bill that they passed, this was how rogers frustration. he wrote the bill under the rules they passed essentially. used that framework. and they couldn't pass it. >> i have a different theory. i think the american people do care. the extreme right and extreme left really do care. the transparency through the blogs, social media -- >> it's the middle america that doesn't care. if you don't have the swing voter that cares -- >> the swing voter's not the

most vocal person out there the. >> they need to show up. >> when they hear from the constituency -- >> they're only hearing from the base, right, the middle, the sort of rational middle, the angry middle, they're not going to town hall meetings. >> look, gerrymandering, think about it, right, we go back to it every time we talk about it. there's no incentive for house republicans and democrats to compromise. >> but you're talking about the vise that boehner's in. look at mcconnell. he's taking the opinion, it seems, he used to rule with an iron fist. he basically is going it's every man for himself. i feel like he's basically saying, i got to deal with my problems and i know it makes me probably a less affective leader so he's backing off. he's letting -- what's interesting to in, he's letting

some republicans -- yeah, you want that, go for it. >> mitch mcconnell, he's going to that fair this weekend, and he has a millionaire right winger going against him. he has his own senator, ted cruz and ron johnson, that's not going to endorse him for re-election. >> that's no different from tom daschle and his issues back when he was rubbing for re-election. >> look, it speaks to the threat that mitch mcconnell thinks he's facing right now. >> dashchle didn't have a threa on the left. all right, you guys are going to be sticking around. up next, that deep dive we've been promising you on the crowded race to be detroit's next mayor and why the motor city's next leader won't really be in the driver's seat. come on, we had to do all those puns, right? we'll do motown next. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. s cash fl by shopping at walmart. come on. sherri, look at all these products that you can buy for your family with box tops. and look, four box tops in one box. that's awesome! more cash for our school.

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♪ (woman) this place has got really good chocolate shakes. (growls) (man) that's a good look for you. (woman) that was fun. (man) yeah. (man) let me help you out with the.. (woman)...oh no, i got it. (man) you sure? (woman) just pop the trunk. (man vo) i may not know where the road will lead, but... i'm sure my subaru will get me there. (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. it's quite the job description. who would like to run a bankrupt city trying to run out of an $18

billion hole while trying to grapple with a crime rate five times the national average? apparently lots of people want this job. today, the next mayor of detroit. tuesday's primary will feature at least 16 candidates fighting for the job. >> we'll take back our city. we have to resurrect and come back to rebuild detroit. >> we just need to have a mayor in place who's going to put people in those key positions who know how to get money. >> i still believe in detroit. together, we can make our neighborhoods livable, walkable and sustainable. >> that's just a few of the candidates vying for the chance to replace the mayor. like bing, whoever actually wins will find themselves in the unusual position of having no say in the city's biggest spending decisions. bing says he didn't want a second term because he didn't want diminished powers. the man who runs detroit is kevin orr, the emergency manager

in charge of steering the city through the bankruptcy process. there's at least half a dozen candidates believed to have a shot at becoming one of the top two finishers in tuesday's primary and earning a spot on the november ballot. and it's an interesting bunch. let me run through some of the candidates. tom barrow has run three times. he's also served 18 months in jail for tax evasion. there's crystal crittendon. she was let go as the city's top lawyer and is now trying to channel anger over the state tackover. representative durhall and former rep lisa howls are both playing the experience card. at least two candidates most often mentioned as the front-runners, wayne county sheriff benny nap pallon and the former ceo of the detroit medical center mike duggen. duggen's road got tougher. first a judge ruled he would have to run as a write-in candidate. then came word of a late entry into the race.

a barber named, ready for this, mike duggen. slightly different pronunciation. a way to potentially muck up the write-in process. the first mike duggen tried to clear things up about how to write his name in. >> i'm not going to spend any time criticizing anybody over it but we're going to work really hard. d-u-g-g-a-n. please spell it with two gs. >> joining me now, our next guest who was part of the panel of questioners at tuesday's debate. i know you're very passionate about what happens next in detroit. before i get into you breaking down this race for me on the campaign to be mayor of detroit, why does it matter who's mayor right now? the mayor's not going to have much power, are they? >> well, it does matter. because right now the emergency financial manager was appointed

for approximately an 18-month period. what's happened going into this primary that everybody has spent all of their time talking about why they don't want the emergency financial manager, about how this person is not legal and complaining on everything related to it. and instead coming out of this bankruptcy that's now been filed. the city hopefully will have eliminated 40% of its debt or 40% of the money now. the budget will be available to spend on many of the problems that detroit continues to be plagued by. the efm's going to put in safety measures. when the efm leaves, you need a mayor in place that's going to take over and run the city. >> we heard why dave bing didn't want to run for a second term. i'll admit i was surprised it he basically said he might end up trying to run for the county executive position, believing he would have more influence that way on sort of the future of detroit. let me ask you, you know the state well, you know this area

well. where's the more powerful place to be if you want to have an impact on the future of detroit? is it for the position of being the wayne county executive? or is it from the position of mayor? >> i am going to answer this differently. i think we've got to look at local government across the country and look at urban policy. the fact of the matter is, we had a stronger regional government, detroit and wayne county could be working much closer together. the fact of the matter is, people need to start talking honestly back here in michigan. wayne county's got a lot the same problems detroit does. they need to bring in -- we need an executive that's going to go in and clean up wayne county and we need to be talking about regional government in this area. >> when you say regional, i hear you on regional government and different ways and different places. sometimes those regional governments can be strong. in this case, there's no history of it, is there? >> no, well, we are starting to see. when i say that, i don't want to get everybody in a total state of panic as i'm talking about it but, you know, we have to look at the number of school districts, the number of police

departments, fire departments. you need to be looking at shared services. you need to be talking about how you reduce overhead between local levels of government and municipalities and how you can to shared services. we need to be doing a lot more smart thinking in urban policy. >> let's go to the campaign itself. you were a questioner at the debate. all the wise gals and -- guys and gals of detroit politic, say it's benny that pollian and mike duggen who are the front-runners. of course mike duggen having to do this extra hurdle here trying to get on the ballot as a write-in candidate. then it will be a runoff of sorts in november. how did they do in the debate? what did you think of the two of them? >> well, this debate was i think probably one of the zooeyest things i'd ever done. it had 13 candidates added. i'm not sure any one candidate

really stood out. which was kind of disappointing in a way. there's a new poll out that shows mike duggen at 40. napoleon at 30. i think many pundits think those will be the two that come out of this. although i think you're going to continue to see court challenges. this has been a hlitigious race. >> the other write-in candidate could cause chaos when they decide whether or not the mark duggan write-in names are allowed. if it compaes on this, that wou be -- there could be a racial split here. this is a -- do you expect, if it's a runoff between napoleon and duggan you'll see race play

a bigger role? >> it's been one of the underlying threads of the campaign. they're very strong passionate feelings. that's what concerned me the most about the debate tuesday night, those very strong feelings. i think that you also see a lot of people -- young people, even quite frankly african-american women over 60, who just want to see their city succeed. they want to move on. i think we're also seeing generational changes. we're seeing those that remembered '68 and lived through this and young people who want to have a healthy future. >> all right, debby dingell, who's very passionate about her state and her city there in detroit, i love having you on, thanks for doing this. >> you know what, i love being here chuck, and when people ask me where i'm from, i proudly say detroit. that's what people needs to remember. detroit represents many things. >> i think in there case there is a bipartisan group of folks

rooting for the success of detroit. thanks very much. >> thanks, chuck. >> for more, check out our website. it's one of a handful of mayor races we think you should keep an eye on this challenger year. for the last type -- i know we said that the last time, but we really need it this time. it really is the last time as the president's chief economic adviser allen krueger join us on the july numbers just out this morning. plus primary problems not for one, not for two, we're up to three senators with big primary challenges. the challenge ahead for mcconnell and graham are unique amongst themselves. the gaggle will be here. first, the white house soup of the day. it's friday, means it's a seafood day, and they throw in to make it a little spicy, seafood gumbo. we'll be right back.

the july jobs report came in short of market expectations. even with the jobless rate falling the last two months,

were also revised downward. wall street is taking a dim view of things. not surprising. they had a boom day yesterday. all three indicators are in negle negative territory. actually, are you technically not chair today? jason, you're still chair till the end of the business day, right? >> till 11:59 p.m. that's when my resignation takes effect. >> fair enough. i know you're looking forward to going back to the private sector. this was a big week of economic data. you got a -- we got more than just a job snapshot of sort of the health of the american economy. ste it seems as if the american economy is fairly healthy. but there's this big but, it's the jobs part that seems to be the least healthy. is that a fair way to paint this picture? >> i don't think i'd put it that way. as i've said basically every time i've been on your show, we're seeing the economy slowly

recover from the worst crisis of our lifetimes. i think it's important we do what we can do speed the recovery. if we get faster economic growth, we'll get faster job growth. most importantly, congress should avoid getting in the way and manufacture crisis by not raising the debt ceiling in a fashion without any drama. >> i mean, i think we've discussed this before, but isn't the dirty little secret here about this sort of -- jobless recovery is too strong a word and i know you wouldn't use that. sort of the fact that jobs aren't coming back as fast but corporations are doing well, they're sort of fundamentals of a lot of the american economies doing well? a lot of corporations just figure out how to do more with less? >> i think it's a mixture of things. we're now seeing 41 months in a row with 7.3 million jobs added over that period. the problem is we lost nearly 9 million jobs during the economic crisis. so we're slowly digging our way out of the deep hole. we want to accelerate that.

over the last 12 months, we've added 2.3 million job. this recovery's faced a lot more head winds than other recoveries. policies like the sequester are show slowing down the economy. >> do you buy into this criticism that the increase in part-time jobs is directly related to the potential implementation of the president's health care plan? >> i think that's highly misleading. if you look over the recovery, over 80% of the job growth has been full-time jobs. since the aca passed, over 90% of the job growth has been in full-time jobs. >> and we have seen some -- this sort of some increase in the part-time job sector though in a faster rate, have we not? >> no, we haven't. we saw last month blip up in part time for economic reasons which was driven in large part by federal workers who were on furloughs. >> i got you. what kind of optimism? you leave this job at midnight tonight, what kind of optimism

that in the fall when you're watching as an observer that somehow things start sorting itself out with the government? >> i've been all along optimistic about the future of the u.s. economy. i think if congress avoids the unthinkable, if they avoid unnecessary government shutdown or, worse yet, a fight over the debt limit, which jeopardizes our credit rating, which puts the full faith and credit of the u.s. dollar at risk, if we avoid those very avoidable problems, i'm optimistic we'll see the u.s. economy continue to recover and this recovery gain speed in the year ahead. >> all right, alan krueger, your last appearance as the president's chief economic adviser, always been very kind on this show. thanks for your time this morning. >> thank you, chuck. >> all right, good luck. trivia time. we asked, besides new jersey, what two other states have had all-women gubernatorial tickets,

the answer, illinois and kentucky. for moran the who, who ran on those ticket, head to our website. congratulations to today's winner. i don't think he's eligible. i think richard richard skinner the last 30 days but ulysses canton answered that louis marony was the last mayor of detroit. we will be right back. ♪ even superheroes need superheroes, and some superheroes need complete and balanced meals with 23 vitamins and minerals. purina dog chow. help keep him strong. dog chow strong.

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we have debating dead head things here off the camera. looks like senator lindsey graham has nancy mace to deal with. the first female graduate of the

citadel. she will officially announce her candidacy on saturday and she joins businessman richard cash in the race against graham but this is more complicated. let's bring back our gaggle. liz, mitch mcconnell's primary challenger a nuisance to him. he has rand paul. i think he is going to be fine. in a way you think, i'm not sure. lindsey graham, you always thought the minute they find somebody half credible that the establishment conservative world could rally around he would be in big trouble. >> here is what happened. he dared them. he dared them. what he has done is also to other republicans but to the middle of the country could be seen as very admirable. he said i'm going to work with democrats and do this to solve the country's big issues. okay. so what happens now he has drawn not just one but a couple of challengers and it could very well split the conservative vote and -- >> interesting. south carolina it has on one

hand there is a tea party strain and given us jim demint and tim scott and sort of new but always a part of south carolina republican politics establishment that is very, hey, you know what? why do you think so many military installations in that state? you cut deals. lindsey so split the difference. >> he is also a veteran. don't forget that. that goes into play. remember a year ago when he was so against being in charge against ben ghazi. now he is like you're right. he is challenging them but that's why you're seeing the clown car come out and adding all of these other candidates. >> if you were lindsey, do you do the -- do you start having as a backup plan the lisa murkowski comeback playbook? >> absolutely. >> he is unbeatable. the best thing that happens to him two people in the primary --

>> south carolina is a runoff state. >> ask david dewhurst what a runoff is like. >> that's true. >> steven star has a great new restaurant on 14th street. a french restaurant. i was there three times the last couple of weeks. i'll be there tonight. join me. >> i ate there tuesday night. >> did you like it? >> yes! what am i going to say? >> i'm going to pennsylvania for dinner with my wife and kids. >> where is your restaurant? >> almond cancer fund board of advisers. volunteer opportunities are available in d.c. and they are moving down here from the columbia, maryland, area. >> touch of gray made it to number nine on the billboard charts. never thought they would crack the top 20. that's it for "the daily rundown." coming up is chris jansing. bye-bye! [ female announcer ] when you're ready

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