stick around for the daily rundown." 35 days before the iowa caucuses. good luck looking for the republican field to settle. over the last 36 hours alone, the surprise endorsements, tv ad clashes and claims of extra marital affairs. talk about twists and turns. also, mitt romney getting hit from all sides. the democrats pushing the flo - flip-flopping message. the campaign decides to go into overdrive responding to obama with a dozen conference calls. and congress has work to do. what is it going to take for the two parties to agree on extending the payroll tax holiday. it's tuesday, november 29th, 2011. this is "the daily rundown." i'm chuck todd. we have breaking news out of tehran around 100 iranian students have stormed the british embassy compound.

the students were protesting london's support of new sanctions when the crowd grew violent. clashing with riot police and entering the compound while chanting "death to england." once inside, students looted and burned embassy documents and replaced the british flag with an iranian one. embassy employees were able to flee the embassy and iranian security forces are trying to clear the compound. so far no casualties have been reported. the british foreign office has released a statement condemning the incident and calling it utterly unacceptable. there are also reports the iranian government is denying they were behind this protest as we have seen in the past. but this one a lot more violent than we have seen in the recent past. all right. let me get to my first reads of the morning. we're going to continue to track the iranian story throughout the hour. it is t-minus 35 days to iowa. if the last 24 hours tells us anything, it's that in this wild primary cycle, writing

tomorrow's story today, not a good idea. the last 24 hours was supposed to be about two stories. gingrich's endorsement by new hampshire's largest newspaper and most conservative. and the dnc doing what no republican candidate has done. trying to hit mitt romney as a serial flip-flopper. instead, another herman cain side show. another bad story for the campaign that only cements his fading status. the cain campaign is in what i'm calling the sixth sense phase. everyone seems to know it's dead, but the candidate himself. now we know the news cycle has sped up. in this case, the denial came before the accusation about an affair. georgia businessman georgia white says it lasted 13 years. >> i acknowledged that i knew the woman. i acknowledge that i have known her for about that period of time, but the accusation that i had a 13-year affair with her, no. >> was this an affair? >> no, it was not. >> there was no sex. >> nope. >> none? >> no. and if this woman says there is,

she's lying? >> let's see what the story is going to be. i don't want to get into being pinned down on some things until we see what the story is going to be. >> boy. lots of parsing there. cain's latest accuser told a local atlanta tv station she met cain in the late '90s and the physical part of the relationship ended eight months ago, right before cain announced for president. >> it was pretty simple. it was uncomplicated. and i was aware that he was married, and i was also aware that i was involved in a very inappropriate situation, relationship. >> white produced records of 61 phone calls and texts over four months to cain's private cell phone. when the station texted cain from the number, they say he returned the call. now even as cain was going on tv to deny the affair completely, his lawyer issued a statement which was far from a declaration of innocence. here's what the statement said. this appears to be an accusation

of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults. no individual whether a private citiz citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official should be questioned about his or her private sexual life. when you read that lawyer's statement before you heard herman cain it read as if it was practically confirmed in the allegation but simply trying to send a message to the media. hey, this was consensual. nothing illegal happened here. don't snoop. keep the private life. but as we know in presidential politics, nothing stays private. and as the lawyer or herman cain were not around for the '90s, for edwards, for all the various clinton and various stories that have come to the forefront. finally, while the cain campaign has faded, the candidates who would like to take a share of the vote have

been unable to land a punch on mitt romney leaving the democrats to take the swing. specifically in a very small $22,000 ad buy, call it a press release ad buy, the romney campaign responded yesterday with no fewer than a dozen conference calls. in minnesota, new hampshire, massachusetts, florida, north carolina. you get the picture. the strategy, they want to do amplify obama's attacks. >> this is clearly an attempt by the president to focus on his record. >> president obama when it comes to the economy is essentially barney fife profits. >> as we told you yesterday what this is about is this. the romney campaign believes the best way to win over base republicans is to amplify attacks from obama. to be able to say if obama and the dnc are afraid of me, then you should rally around me. the enemy of my enemy is my friend. what is the obama and the dnc up to? they are frustrated that no

republican has taken the shots at romney. they expected romney to have to go through a phase of defending the various flip-flops he has had on certain conservative touchstone issues. hasn't happened yet. this is their attempt of saying, laying out the blueprint and hoping some candidate, some republican picks up on it and does it. guess who is winning the ad spending race. it may be five weeks to iowa but it's not a republican presidential candidate. according to our nbc news ad tracking source, it's rick perry leading the 2011 spending race on the republican side. he's spent $2.8 million so far. ron paul is second. he has spent $2.1 million. mitt romney has spent $134,000 so far. in all, about $5.1 million spent this year by the republican presidential candidates. that is dwarfed by the $6.8 million spent by the democratic national committee and president oba obama. if you throw in the super pacs it puts the republicans collectively about even with the

dnc. but, folks, we're 35 days away from iowa and the guy, by the way, who is second in many polls, first in some, newt gingrich, he's spent zero. congress is back. and so is the partisan gridlock. this time they are squaring off over a plan to extend the payroll tax holiday for workers and businesses by raising taxes on millionaires. south carolina congressman jim clyburn is the assistant democratic leader in the house. it looks like this is not going to pass this week. the plan that's happening in the senate to have a millionaire surtax essentially be the pay for on the extension of this payroll tax holiday. why go through the motion. >> i'm sorry, chuck. i'm not able to hear your questions. i heard you start out a question. i didn't hear it. >> okay. well, as we fix your audio, we'll take a commercial break

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all right. we believe we have got the audio fixed for congressman clyburn. congressman, let me just start straight up with the question i did ask. i understand we got this fixed which is why go through the motions this week of what appears to be just sort of political gamesmanship when we know this version of the payroll tax holiday is not going to pass the united states senate? >> well, i'm not too sure that it will not. i'm still having some difficulty hearing you, but i think i got the gist of your question. look, we have an extension on the table which i think is a good one. now i understand that senator kyl who i've gotten to know very

well working on the so-called super committee, says it's not the best way to do it. why not come forward with a way to do it? what we want to make sure is that 120 million people do not see their taxes go up. we would like to see them extend this holiday and be able to get around $1,000 per household income that will be plowed back into the economy. and if 3.25% surcharge on income over a million dollars is not the best way to do it, why not come forward with what you consider to be the best way rather than just say no. that's the problem we're having here. yes, sir? >> okay. there does appear that we're going to see a couple of weeks of negotiations. and what i'm curious in your mind is what is on the table and what is not on the table. there is some talk that

republicans would like to redo the so-called sequester. you were on the super committee. and since it failed, the sequester that would include some automatic cuts in medicare and defense, that there are some republicans that would like to redo the sequester, would you be open to that as part of the negotiations in extending the payroll tax holiday? >> yes, i would be. i don't think that we're a lock in to sequester being in its current format. we looked at doing a down payment when we were in the super committee of something less than $1.2 trillion and triggers to come if the committees cannot do their work. and in some time frame, maybe april of next year. all of that should be on the table. i don't think that we should close out negotiating, trying to reach a compromise on anything. that is how our government is

operated in the past. that's how this country has gotten to be what it is. and we ought to all sit down and find out a way to make sure that we don't raise taxes on middle income people, the working people continue to be a part of this governmental process. and if it calls for redoing the sequester, that is something we might ought to look at. >> you know that puts you at odds with the white house. senior aides told me yesterday, sequester is off the table on anything that they will not negotiate on sequester, period. >> well, that may be true. it won't be the first time that i've been at odds with the white house. but i will say this. i believe that when you are trying to legislate, you try to create an environment within which you solve problems. and that's what we're trying to do. and there are times when the way we do things legislatively may not square up with an

administrative way to do it but that doesn't mean that we ought not try to find a way. i am all for the $1.2 trillion sequester as it is. but i would love to see us do something that will not require that those triggers get pulled because if those triggers get pulled, it's across the board. it is going to be nasty. it will be a meat ax approach. i don't think that's the best way to do it. we have until december 23rd to act as a full body of the house. though the committee -- the super committee didn't do it, the house can still do it. >> after the super committee came out and said they failed to come to an agreement, there was a lot, particularly among, i'd say, almost a dozen senate republicans who at least showed an openness to the simpson/bowles plan, that the president never fully endorsed,

but this simpson/bowles plan. would you be in favor of a straight up or down vote on the simpson/bowles plan for deficit reduction? >> well if that were the case, that's not the best scenario. i do believe that there are some things in the simpson/bowles plan. remember, i was on the biden group. so we studied that plan real well. we study ied domenici a whole l. we looked at the gang of six. i think we ought to look at all of these plans and see whether we can meld them and come up with a document that will be palatable for everybody. there are things in the simpson/bowles plan that i am not all that enamored with. but there some are things i like better in this rivlin/domenici plan. there's nothing wrong with us looking at all three ofs the plans and coming up with something that i think all of us could be comfortable with.

that's what we ought to do. >> congressman jim clyburn. democrat from south carolina. thanks for coming on this morning. apologies for some of the audio issues. >> thank you so much for having me. >> all right. well, in the past five weeks, we've seen herman cain fade, newt gingrich surge, mitt romney do his best to stay above the fray. five weeks from now iowa republicans cast ballots in this 2012 race. between now and then, it's anybody's guest. with me now, "the washington pos post"'s chris cillizza and jonathan martin. you guys have already been cracking each other up here. okay. the last 36 hours tells us anything, it is that we have no idea what the next 24 hours is going to be. but herman cain, do we even bother anymore? >> absolutely. he is still very much a contender, at least if you look at a lot of polls. he's got support in places like iowa. there are people who, frankly, don't believe any of the

allegations. so, yeah. he's still a candidate. now, look. clearly he's lost a lot of his support in the course of the last month. but i think there are still folks who are on board the cain train. >> but both you, chris and jonathan, you are readers of the twitters. when the first round of allegations came out in your story in politico, jonathan, there was a rally around cain approach. >> that's not -- >> i did not see -- >> i recall that. >> i did not see that yesterday. >> look, jonathan is being fair minded and right that if you look at polling, herman cain is still what we would describe as kind of a top tier maybe right on the verge of the second tier candidate. the problem is, chuck you know that we all know this. politics about trend lines. it's about where your line is trending. newt gingrich line is trending up. herman cain thing was already trending down. and this isn't going to help. i think even if you did stick through those first four allegations of sexual harassment it just feels like, this again?

and that mentality -- >> here we go again. >> and that mentality usually does not -- >> and the lack of defense was really striking out to me. very few conservatives. dick morris was one of the few -- >> if dick morris is the guy supporting you -- >> compared to rush limbaugh. >> who was not there. >> lots more -- everyone was behind -- >> not there. when dick morris is your lone defender, that's not something to be proud of. >> when the conservatives just stay quiet and their past defenses fall into the memory hole, as i call it, it's not a good sign. >> let's talk about newt gingrich. he's delicately now trying to draw a contrast with romney. here's what he said on the radio yesterday. >> anybody who is honest about it knows that no person except christ has ever been perfect. and so i don't claim to be the perfect candidate. i just claim to be a lot more conservative than mitt romney and a lot more electable than anybody else. i wouldn't lie to the american

people. i wouldn't switch my positions for political reason. because then people have to ask themselves, what will you tell me next time? >> there it is. that's the -- that's the -- >> that's the contrast. >> it's so striking he'd go after mitt on talk radio but yet won't do it in debates. i think it's because he's smart enough to recognize that a lot of republican activists and millions of them are watching all the debates don't like gop on gop violence. and so what he does, he does it in that kind of an environment which gets him the earned media hits afterwards, but does not reach as many voters at the moment. >> i agree with -- i think jonathan is exactly right. i think people say, let's focus on the commonality and that's barack obama. these elexss are about choices. at some point you have to take it off of talk radio and put it on television. >> we assume a super pac is going to try to do it.

>> there are 35 days left. do you attack romney in iowa? do you attack him in new hampshire? south carolina? it's not a simple equation. and while all of this is so new to newt. he's saying, i'm raising a lot of money. >> sure. but there are 35 days left before iowa. how much could he raise? >> and what kind of infrastructure. >> the primary strategy for romney is attack obama and hope that he gets the enemy of my enemy support from the debates. here's romney about an hour ago in miami. here's what he said about obama. >> i think president obama is a nice guy. but i don't think he understands america. i don't think he understands our economy. i don't think he understands the power of free people, free to choose their course in life. and instead he believes that government has the answers to all the challenges. government can do a better job guiding our economy. that government can tell us how to live our lives better than

free people. >> every day the romney people believe they can have a -- >> the romney campaign believes this campaign is going to be won by that candidate that can make the best case against barack obama. that's what they say. what they won't say is the more robust case he makes against obam thaerks more likely it is to make republican voters forget about his own past. if he's seen as the aggressive hard-charging candidate, taking the case to obama, that then diverts attention of republicans. 5 days from now, given the fact there are no negative ads against them from anybody in the actual primary, he may be able to pull that off. >> isn't the next 35 days going to be about people basically dusting off their old gingrich material and -- >> right. >> there's no reason for rick santorum or michele bachmann or even really rick perry to go after mitt romney. >> especially in iowa.

>> he's the guy who is now the herman cain, the rick perry. and the thing that's amazing, the person who will go after romney is jon huntsman. an incredible messenger. do folks care? and that's what we don't know the answer to. jonathan's point is well taken. there are 35 days until iowa. not one single negative ad against the guy who has really been the front-runner. it's remarkable. >> it reminds me of 2008 when john mccain in south carolina, that purportedly down and dirty, tough politics. didn't face one single negative ad from any of his rivals. and that's what -- every day that obama attacks romney is a good day for romney. >> up next, a major u.s. airline files for chapter 11 protection. we'll get a check on how that will impact business today on wall street and your frequent flier miles. plus, pakistan pulls out of a key conference on the future of afghanistan.

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simple blood tests will check for liver problems. tell your doctor about other medicines you're taking. or if you have muscle pain or weakness. that could be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. is your cholesterol where your doctor wants? ask your doctor if crestor is right for you. [ female announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astra zeneca may be able to help. just minutes away from the opening bell. becky quick standing by for our market rundown. beck eamerican airlines, this used to be every six months some major airline filed for chapter 11 protection and they'd reform and all this. but we haven't had one of those in awhile. and it's american airlines. >> it's american. and that's the key, chuck. american has never filed for bankruptcy before. this is the last of the big legacy carriers. now you can see every single one of them has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. now it's not a huge surprise that american is filing for bankruptcy, although the timing did surprise a lot of people in the market today.

it's been talked about for some time that american would have to do something like this because it's gotten so difficult to compete with the giants that are now delta and united airlines. this is american had been the only airline that had not been profitable over the last year. they'd been bleeding money. they said this is the time they're going to do it because they have $4.1 billion in cash on hand and that should get them through this bankruptcy process is what they believe. they expect to come out the other side of this in much better shape. if you are somebody who is flying american if you have a ticket that you have booked either today or some time over the holidays, don't worry about it. american says that they are going to continue operating all of their schedules, all of their flights in the same way that they had been. all of those tickets will still be honored. they are still going to be making sure that they stay in that alliance that they had been part of that none of that changes. they are still going to be paying their employees and making sure they keep current with their health benefits and probably most importantly for anybody who say frequent american flyer, they are going to be keeping those frequent

flier accounts just as they are. they're not going to be messing with any of that. if you are a consumer and somebody who is using this it should be business as usual. they hope to come out of this as a much leaner and meaner company where they can actually compete with some of these big giants out there. >> very quickly, what's europe doing to the markets this morning? >> europe actually was helping things out this morning. chuck, i've missed you, but while you were gone, europe has been swinging the markets one direction or the other. when we came in this morning, we were very worried about an italian debt auction. that italian debt auction came off and the people showed up to buy their treasuries which is a big relief. 7.5 billion euros of it were sold. that was the sigh of relief. they had to pay an awful lot of amount to get people to lend them money. that's in the nose bleed arena for how much you'd pay. over the course of the morning

it's come back down and it looks like we're going to open up by 25 or 30 points. >> all right, miss quick, thanks very much. >> i missed you. >> i missed you, too. glad to be back in the normal role of things. still ahead -- who benefits most from herman cain's downfall? and new questions about what really triggered the nato strike that killed two dozen pakistan soldiers. was it a case of mistaken identity? everyone have their new blackberry from at&t? it's 4g, so you can do more faster. so, kathryn, post more youtube videos of your baby acting adorable. baby. on it. matt, ignore me and keep updating your fantasy team. huh? jeff, play a game. turbo-boosting now, sir. dennis, check in everywhere you go on foursquare. that's mayor dennis... of the water cooler. you're the best. liz, rock out to pandora. oh, no i'm an only child. and nick, you shouldn't even be here, you can do everything from the golf course. good? good. [ male announcer ] on at&t, blackberry® torch moves at the speed of 4g.

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gives you the lowest plan premium in the country... so you can focus on what really matters. call humana at 1-800-808-4003. nyquil tylenol: we are?ylenol. you know we're kinda like twins. so you can focus on what really matters. nyquil (stuffy): yeah, we both relieve coughs, sneezing, aches, fevers. tylenol: and i relieve nasal congestion. nyquil (stuffy): overachiever. anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't. welcome back to "the daily rundown" at the bottom of the hour. here are other stories making headlines. iranian security forces are trying to clear the british embassy in tehran after dozens of student pros testing sanctions ended up storming the compound. once inside, they burned embassy documents and replaced the

british flag with an iranian one. the british foreign office released a statement condemning the incident. the iranian government said it did not have a hand in the protests. embattled businessman james murdoch has been re-elected as chairman of the british broadcasting company b sky b. murdoch received more than 80% of the vote at the company's annual meeting. and facebook is reportedly planning its highly anticipated ipo for some time next spring or early summer according to "the wall street journal." the social networking giant is exploring a target sale of around $10 billion. that would be five times larger than google's ipo in 2004. the previous record for an internet company. well, tensions between pakistan and the united states are extremely strained today as opposed to just strained as the fallout continues after a nato air strike killed 24 pakistani soldiers. a pakistani general says the

attack wasn't accidental but deliberate. to say this incident is causing a rift between the united states and pakistan is an understatement. but what is going on here? how much of this is the fog of war? how much of this is conspiracy theories? and how are we ever going to know the truth? >> that is actually the big question right now, chuck. no one knows the truth just yet. we're hearing different accounts from different sides of the border, from the u.s., nato, the afghans, the pakistanis. right now the information from nato is that they are still investigating. the afghans are saying they were actually on patrol with u.s. and nato forces along the border when they received fire from those pakistani border posts and that's when they called for air support and targeted those border posts where those 24 pakistani soldiers were killed. the pakistanis on the other hand are saying that they did not fire across the border into afghanistan. in fact, while they were receiving fire from the u.s. and

afghan forces, that they, in fact, called nato and told them to stop firing at them but it was too late. in the end, those 24 soldiers were killed. so there's a lot of confusion going on right now. but to give you a little aspect from the afghan side of things. when i've talked to troops alongside the border or african officials here, they'll say for many months they've been receiving fire from the pakistani side of the border. many afghans are pointing the finger to the pakistani forces, not necessarily the taliban. afghan media reports for the last two to three months have been focusing on that issue. nato hasn't really talked about it because of the diplomatic issues. and pakistan says that they, in fact, don't fire at u.s. and afghan forces. they are actually firing at the taliban who they say is trying to cross the border into pakistan. chuck? >> so this pakistani general that's accusing nato of a deliberate act of aggression is that -- what would be the basis of that? i mean, what is theological

thinking there that somehow, why would nato want to attack this unless they were fired upon? >> well, it's no secret that when it comes to pakistan, the u.s., nato, afghanistan, there's a lot of distrust and animosity. you'll have conspiracy theories on both sides of the border. so there is a lot of distrust when it comes to the pakistanis. they have gotten angry at the u.s. and nato in the past. when we look back during the osama bin laden capture and kill mission, the pakistanis weren't notified. when you go to disstris on the nato afghan side, they say the reason they didn't tell them they were sgog pakistani land was because they were afraid to tell them. afraid osama bin laden would get the notice and actually leave. so, obviously, the distrust is there. the pakistanis not happy. rightfully so. 24 of their soldiers were killed. but what we're hearing from this side of the border was that they were just responding to the attacks that they were getting from that side of the border.

>> all right. atia abawi in kabul for us. thanks. it's day two of newt gingrich's swing through south carolina. today he's traveling throughout the state with at least five events. last night he packed a town hall meeting hosted by tim scott. an extremely popular hometown lawmaker. freshman member of congress there. ali weinberg joins me on the phone. gingrich as top tier candidate, you've been to a lot of these tim scott town halls already. describe the atmosphere in this one. compare it to others. >> good morning, chuck. yeah, this tim scott town hall, he has held one with almost every single republican presidential candidate so far. and this was definitely the biggest and most packed audience i've ever seen. there were about 700-plus people in the theater last night. according to the fire marshal, about 125 people were turned

away. so this was literally overflow crowds, packed to see newt gingrich. they were very spirited and applauded at a lot of his lines slamming the obama administration over the holding up the south carolina immigration law and issues like that. this was, by far, one of the most spirited but definitely the biggest attended scott town hall i've been to. >> i want to play a couple of clips. first, here's newt gingrich sort of defending nice his stance on the idea of whether or not he is for amnesty. here's what he said. >> several of my friends have said i'm for amnesty. that's not true. at least one of them is running around saying i want amnesty for 11 million people. i don't believe you'll ever pass a bill which requires us to hunt down every single person who has been here for a quarter century. >> ali, underscore the importance of the immigration issue inside with the south

carolina republicans. when you go to these events, how often does that issue come up more than others? >> yeah, the immigration issue is really important here in south carolina. the state senate recently passed an immigration law here that is very, very stringent. has a lot of the same proposals and laws that the arizona law would have. and that law, parts of the south carolina law are currently being held up by the justice department. so this is a huge issue for voters here. it's a big issue for south carolina governor nicky hailey who has yet to endorse they candidate. so this issue does frequently come up with south carolina voters, though he definitely took pains last night to clarify he doesn't favor amnesty and some of the candidates are saying he does. and that he would, in fact, support deportation for the vast majority of immigrants that he's allowing some immigrants to stay

in the country would only apply to a very small portion of the illegal immigrants in the country. >> very quickly, when it comes to gingrich and this quick rise in the polls. the question is whether he'll have an organization to match his standing in the polls. your seeing any evidence? i know he signed up andre bauer, somebody who ran for governor, one time lieutenant governor. does that make an organization? >> well, endorsement may not make up an organization, but he certainly does have the strength and ground game in the last month. he has about ten people working for his campaign here which is the largest organization any of campaign in south carolina. and by the end of this week, he'll have five campaign offices opened here. so in terms of a ground game, he is starting to materialize, albeit rather late in the season here in south carolina, chuck. >> ali weinberg, good stuff. thanks very much. >> thanks. up next, new allegations of personal misconduct against

herman cain. he denies it, but the firestorm is building and may have just consumed the entire building. is this the beginning of the end for the cain campaign. team obama makes their first ad campaign buy. you better subscribe to directv if you actually want to see it. we'll dig into more about that with our tuesday super tuesday political panel. first, white house soup of the day. this is a classic thanksgiving leftover soup. loaded potato because you can just -- as long as you have potato in there, then load the soup up with anything. there's a new toothpaste that says it has the same whitening ingredient as strips. but that mostly dilutes away within seconds of brushing. hmmm. having the same ingredient doesn't mean you get even close to the same whitening. trust the whitening brand most awarded by beauty editors. crest 3d white.

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not much circling of the proverbial wagon here. one of the only resounding defenses we've heard over the last 24 hours came from this

guy. >> it's an old-time vanilla scandal. you know, there's no sex harassment, so he had an affair. >> i think it chipped away at his likablity. i think it created doubt in people's mind whether or not, quote, another shoe will drop. >> there's no credibility in the fact they were friends and he had text messages. so what? >> i'm not going to dip my toe into that water. let's bring in steve mcmahon, "the washington post" anne kornblutt. why did you guys laugh? i don't know what you are talking about. >> it was a very good line. >> at this point, the cain campaign is in side show mode. the question is, it sort of lingers. it has money. if you were the other candidates, what do you do? >> i think you just allow cain to sink of his own weight. you know, this is a candidacy that gets in the news only when they are doing one of two things. herman cain is demonstrating his ignorance about the world or some woman is suggesting he's a little too familiar with them.

that's the only time he gets in the news. he's decreasingly relevant. the other candidates should steer clear of this. >> anne it obviously takes a campaign. they are the last to know when their campaign is over. particularly the candidate. it feels weirdly enough. i'm going to go back to gary hart. when he kept campaigning for a while when everybody else sort of said, buddy, it's over. i don't know what you are doing. he kept going and he wasn't a factor. but at the same time, he is out there and at least until yesterday, had some tea party support. >> and in fairness, look. you could have made the argument that newt gingrich should have dropped out at a certain point earlier this year. look where he is now. people say -- >> what's the incentive? >> tim pawlenty should have stayed in. why not? crazier things have happened. it's a hard conversation with a cand indict sidate to say, it'sg to happen. i'm in favor of everyone staying in. >> it's more entertaining. >> well, yeah. >> one thing we haven't seen,

we're 35 days out. if you remember, 35 days out from iowa, how many negative ads during the -- how many negative ads were on the air 35 days out from the iowa caucuses? >> countless numbers. >> we haven't seen one yet. the closest you will see an attack on the front-runner by another republican is this from jon huntsman yesterday. >> you should be wary of any candidate who carries all the endorsements of the members of congress because it means they'll be a status quo president. and anyone who is in the hip pocket of wall street because of all of the donations that they are picking up, like mr. romney is these days is not going to be a change agent when it comes to fixing the too big to fail banking system. >> so is that a good republican message? >> it's -- no, it's not a very good republican message. here's a memo to campaign staffs. if you want to take down mitt romney you need to engage. the obama campaign seems to know what it's going to take.

everything is right there in front of them. the polling suggests that people do not want mitt romney. 75% just continue to resist him. but nobody is going after him. he may probably end up with the nomination. >> if you are romney, do you want to go through -- do you want to relitigate this stuff now or want obama to relitigate it in six months. >> there's a certain amount of inoculation that takes place if it becomes an old, stale message that obama is repeating. we're getting an old, stale message from romney in response. >> i guess anne, what i'm saying if you were the romney campaign, do you feel as if, wait a minute, maybe we need to take a little more incoming now to deal with some of this. >> maybe. but they've been enjoying flying under the radar now. if they can just keep doing it for another 4 1/2 weeks, there they are. >> steve, anne, ramesh, stick around. which current member of congress once told colleagues, quote, i have always had a

reputation for honest enot always tact or tolerance? the answer is or tolerance. the answer was retiring congressman barney frank. he made the comments in july 1990. being reprimanded for his relationship with a male prostitute. we'll be right back. let me tell you about a very important phone call i made. when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65,

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i need you to do me a favor. the outcome of the campaign will depend on what you do. starting right now. it's up to you to fight for the values we all share. don't sit this one out. >> let's bring back our panel. that is the first official campaign ad with barack obama, candidate to camera, paid for by the obama campaign. we spotted it on satellite television out in iowa. it's been sprodically spotted.

what are they up to? this seems to be doing something. >> there's a couple things going on. there's an addressable technology that's available. i'm sure they are taking that for a test drive. but i think they are just trying to put the president out there in the states that are going to be the battle ground states. and perhaps not do it on broadcast, but to start the conversation in places that a lot more affordable. >> he's got a couple versions of the ad he does that. i picked that one because he said the campaign is underway. we have both been in the room when the president has said he's not yet ready to engage in the campaign. >> the campaign is underway, but he's just being president. >> it's him saying it. s that always different. >> they can't deny it. they were going to bract the republicans in iowa. iowa is a swing state in the general election. they can't just let it go completely unanswered.

they are trying to at least remind voters that there's going to be another party. so we're going to see the president increasingly with his trip tomorrow being a candidate. when he goes to new york, he's going to fundraise. it's going to start blending together. >> should republicans be concerned that it is the republican field that's outspent them? >> that's one of many reasons that republicans ought to be concerned. i still hear a fair amount of complacent si from republicans. anybody can beat president obama. i don't see e evidence that that's the case. >> shameless plugs. >> my colleague has a nice column about the republican side. >> the november purple poll is out. it shows the president struggling in the 12 purple states that will decide the election. and romney and gingrich is

strong in those states. >> this is a poll that steve mcman refuses to e-mail me the results. >> there you go. there it is. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." coming up next "jansing and co." . i've found one cream with everything i'm looking for... olay total effects. with 7 age defying effects in just one, easy to use cream. i've swapped to all-in-one total effects. why don't you swap too? or creates another laptop bag, or hires another employee, it's not just good for business. it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities.

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