states, but best looking city in the united states. >> seriously? >> this is a beautiful, beautiful place. >> i'm just excited to welcome you to my state. enjoy this wonderful hospitality. >> i learned this primary is slow in heating up. the last 48 hours between gingrich and romney is going to be very good. >> this is going to be exciting. willie, it's way too early. what time is it? >> it is "morning joe." we'll see you tomorrow. stick around right now. >> romney's roller coaster ride. his image of inestability takes another blow. word that a new count of the iowa caulk yes, sey iowa caucus put him hipped rick s hipped rick santorum. >> and we have brand new poll numbers that show the wind is at newt gingrich's back in south carolina. but what happens if romney's

story goes from 3-0 to uh-oh? first, gingrich has to overcome an explosive interview with one of his ex-wives. and back in washington, the obama administration hits the brakes on the keystone pipeline plant. the president bolstering his base at the expense of critical independence? by the way, he's up with his first ad and advertise defensive. good morning from south carolina. it's thursday, january 19th, 2012. it's "the daily rundown." i'm chuck todd. i'm right here in rock hill. we got some early risers here. of course, you know, 9:00 a.m. on a college campus, how many people are here? let me get to my first reads of the morning. could mitt romney's coronation be stalling? two days ago it looked like romney was on his way to wrapping up the republican nomination by the end of the weekend. going three for three in the first three contests, something that's never been done by an nonincumbent republican. but today that iowa win romney

is touting will be recinded. nbc news confirmed that new certified totals from the caucuses from the state party will reveal that rick santorum finished ahead of romney by 34 votes. now there are some in the republican party who will make the announcement in a statement moments from now because the results from eight presirvegts are missing. they're not going to declare an official iowa winner. they say the missing precincts would increase santorum's win if the numbers stayed the same. romney responded to the news this morning by saying, "the results from iowa caucus night revealed a virtual tie." as they did arguably the first time that he declared victory the first time. that is the language santorum had been using to describe the supposed near miss. now in south carolina, a new nbc-marist poll shows that newt gingrich is closing the lead.

romney leads newt gingrich by ten points. romney had a 15-point lead the first night we started polling which was the night before the night of the monday night debate but before the debate. that lead sh rufrpg to just 5%. you always want to be careful in deal with one night samples. the trajectory was clear. it was amazing to see newt's numbers change overnight. he suddenly went from losing to romney to winning. he went from a narrow lead among very conservative voters, a quarter of the electorate to a double digit lead. he could win the now gingrich's surge has romney on the defensive and the campaign hastily is recycling the same attacks they used against newt in december. they're arguing that gingrich is unreliable and undisciplined. they did it with conference calls with reporters and web videos like these featuring

former house colleagues. >> chaotic decisions, erratic behavior. it's a problem when you're own leader is the biggest political problem that you're dealing with which is why we removed him as the speaker. >> one of the problems came from sort of the discipline that he lacked in order to get the job done. the last time newt gingrich was the head of the republican party as speaker, he became so controversial he helped re-elect a democratic president. >> for the first time on the trail in some time, romney actually lashed out at the former speaker by name. >> the speaker today at the debate was talking about how he created millions of jobs when he was working with the reagan administration. he was in congress two years. taking credit for helping create jobs is like al gore taking credit for the internet. >> of course, gingrich almost relished the attack and fired back. >> i fully expect the romney campaign to be unendingly dirty

and dishonest for the next four days. they're desperate. they thought they could buy. this they're discovering they can't buy this. >> but unlike iowa when gingrich failed to respond to the romney attack, the superpac backing gingrich and this morning the campaign is out with a new web video using past clips from romney's surrogate john mccain and mike huckabee. >> why is mitt romney attacking newt gingrich? ask john mccain. >> the best indicator that i'm doing very well is to win your attack by romney. >> mitt romney has a history of false attacks and negative campaigning. ask mike huckabee. >> mitt romney is running a desperate and dishonest campaign. >> mitt romney will do and say anything to become president -- anything. maybe that explains all his flip-flops. >> i don't know how to respond to some of it because his position may change tomorrow. >> so things are look going for newt, right? the elephant in the room. her name is marianne gingrich,

nooult's second wife. he does not speak to. has given a two-hour interview which is likely to air tonight on abc. his daughters have already defended him in a statement. his daughters are from gingrich's first marriage. this morning on the "today" show, gingrich was asked if marianne's testimony is likely to be damaging. >> is your ex-wife someone that you think people should see as credible on your character? >> i think that my two daughters are very decreed of my character. i think people that have known me a long time are credible. i think we have lots of folks willing to speak about this. i'm not going to. people have to judge me. i'm a 68-year-old grandfather. they see how close i tom my wivment they'll have to make their mind up. >> finally, the obama campaign is up with the president's first re-election ad. and it's a response ad. it is early proof that general election is going to be negative, expensive, and outside groups are going to have a huge influence. the ad, the obama ad is airing

in iowa, michigan, north carolina, ohio, virginia, wisconsin. but it's a response ad to a $6 million media blitz in the same states by america's prosperity funded by the coke brothers, the wealthy conservative businessmen. >> the true engine of economic growth will always be companies like solyndra. >> we all know about solyndra, the white house e-mails, the fbi raids. solyndra investors raised campaign money for obama. the government gives solyndra half a billion in taxpayer money, politics as usual. >> now the obama ad is set up from its very first line to refute not just the ad but the funders. >> secretive oil billionaires attacking president obama with ads fact checkers say are not tethered to the facts. what independent watch dogs call this president's ethics unprecedented and america's clean energy, 2.7 million jobs

and expanding rapidly. >> so what do we make of how the president is launching his re-election campaign? number one, it's clear that solyndra and the hits on solyndra have taken a toll. that's why you make your first ad about that apparently. and we know the outside groups that can have an impact on -- and this is good news if you're mitt romney. because if you're getting drawn into a now longer primary campaign which may be possible. we'll see what happens saturday. the outside groups are going it keep the president and his re-election team busy as we see with the very first ad. all right. back to our poll. saturday can't come soon enough for mitt romney who has seen the lead shrink. the latest abc news/marist poll. lee, normally nobody likes to talk about one day samples. this is a unique situation. it's a fast moving race.

explain your confidence level if our poll on the one sample on monday night versus tuesday night. >> well, the trend is unmistakably evident in these numbers. clearly, it's a two-day poll. we broke it down to predebate and post debate. a 15-point lead for romney going into the debate. again, with a whole crowd for gingrich. that became a five-point advantage. a huge dramatic shift. it is clearly trending gingrich's way going into the final debate tonight. and gingrich right now is in striking distance. so this is a real dramatic important finding in this poll. >> all right. let's go inside the numbers a little bit. didn't get a chance to do that like i normally like to at the beginning of the show. like i tweeted, we have four potential leads today. one of those crazy busy days. gingrich's strength and romney's strengths inside the numbers.

first deal with gingrich where is he? where are you starting to see coalescing for him among key constituencies in south carolina? >> what we've seen here in the primaries coming to south carolina is the conservative vote is split. now it's much more solid around gingrich. and we see a reversal in the pattern. so if you look at the very conservative voters who are one in four of the likely electorate on saturday, gingrich was ahead by five. now he's ahead by 16 over romney. so if a sense the end roads, romney had made was some conservative voters, that's eroded right now. gingrich sitting at a much better shape with a critical constituency that romney's been able to sort of play divide and conquer up until this point with the whole field of conservative candidates. now gingrich seems to be primary challenger to romney. >> all right. let's talk about mitt romney. there was some good news in this

poll. it had to do with basically the way he's making his pitch to south carolina voters. and that is now the importance of electability from our last poll here in south carolina about a month ago. >> yeah, first of all, electability was the fourth motivator of voters in south carolina. and we saw an absolute flip in the numbers. right now the things that driving the voters in south carolina the most is electability. and that is romney's strong suit. but again, in the predebate and post debate picture, well, the numbers changed. romney had a 21-point advantage on monday among those voters who think they're about to pick a nominee. and that shrunk to eight points over gingrich. so in a sense, gingrich has successfully pierced the armor of the strong suit that romney's brought to the table. >> and one other question that we added. we anticipated a lot of the conversation about bane, private equity firms. we asked both all voters in

south carolina and republican voters is bane a dog that bit or did not bite? >> what we're seeing in the bane numbers, chuck, is that people feel the criticisms have been largely unfair. not so for democrats and independents. but republican primary voters think those have been unfair. but for romney, it's a lot of things that have been going on. it's the pink slips. it's the bane criticism. it's the not releasing of the tax returns. you know, that he doesn't make a lot from speakers money. all those things seem to be dots that have been forming a picture about mitt romney. so he's getting hurt on the coupumulative effect on the so-called wall street candidate issues. it's affecting his image with voters right now. and that in part explains why these numbers are as close as they have. >> and obviously one of the ways, last question here, lee,

one of the way that romney wins is how much the other vote, the nongingrich vote is taken up by santorum, by perry, by ron paul? seemed to be a noticeable decrease in rick perry. santorum is sort of flat right now or are we seeing movement at all? >> no. we're seeing exactly that. the debate did him no good as far as santorum is concerned. you know, polls getting the vote. it's younger folks and more independents. that sort of an item unto itself right now. santorum surge are no long twoer words that go together well. and so right now we're seeing that important thing that we haven't seen up until this point. and that is a coalescing of the conservative anti-romney vote around one candidate and that is newt gingrich. it still could go either way. but it's trending gingrich's way. tonight is going tobacco ve be important and as well tomorrow and saturday. >> i wish we could be tracking

every night. but we know wednesday nights are not a good night to poll here. we have a debate. so at this point, we'll wait for saturday. >> we'll wait until saturday. >> all right. thank you, partner. up next, south carolina congressman joe wilson is here. he backed pawlenty in the beginning. now he is staying neutral. does he think about increasingly toxic tone of the primary battle in his home state? and still ahead, president obama says no to the keystone pipeline project for now. republicans have a lot to say about it. but first, a look ahead to the president's schedule. what do you do on a thursday? i think he's going to disney world. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. ♪

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they're discovering they can't buy this. i think they're now going to have -- i think they have internal polls that show them losing. i think they will do anything at any level and i need your help. people power will beat money power and i need your help to beat romney. >> well, we're still monitoring, waiting on breaking news. the statement from the iowa republican party. how are they going to talk about what are they going to declare as far as santorum and romney with the certified count? also following a lot of chatter going on as far as rick perry's campaign is concerned. when we have something for you, we'll bring that you to. newt gingrich is gaining traction as he tries to overtake mitt romney here in south carolina. but is it too little, too late? with me now, republican congressman from south carolina, joe wilson. congressman wilson, first let me

ask you, are you going to make an endorsement between now and saturday? are you going to publicly say who you're voting for on saturday? >> first of all, we're delighted to have you in south carolina. i'll remain uncommitted. i was the state co-chair for pim paul enl tim palenty but i'll remain uncommitted. >> what matters to you more as a republican congressman, as a republican in south carolina? are you looking for someone who you believe is the most electability? are you looking someone that is going to stand firm and has a history of standing firm on the conservative principles? >> i want somebody that is going to stand firm to create an environment for jobs. sadly, chuck, our state has been under assault by the current administration. they were trying to close the boeing plant in charleston, a million square foot plant.

1,000 people employed, 7,000 more suppliers in south carolina jobs. and so the people of south carolina feel put upon by the current administration. it's just been unprecedented. we never had such a situation of an administration destroying jobs. >> when you saw the debate on monday night and watching -- it's interesting you talk about -- you saying that south carolina voters and south carolina republicans feel as if they're under attack or under siege from the obama administration, obviously they would debate that point, but watching the response to newt gingrich and our polling versus mitt romney, do you think mitt romney is channeling that enough? channeling that sort of fire that maybe south carolina voters are looking for? or is gingrich tapping into it a little bit better? >> well, chuck, i -- mitt romney should be channeling and, for example, we have staples stores throughout our state, jobs.

he should be pointing that out. and so the people of south carolina are very discerning. i like to point out where you are in york county. actually, a majority of the people voting in the primary are transplants from around the country. >> do you think romney didn't do a good job or could do a better job talking about his own private sector experience? >> i see his strength as whether it be the olympics or whether it be reviving businesses and creating businesses. that should be a focus on his campaign. and i truly see -- we can see within the state of south carolina that jobs are being created. that's what he should be pointing out. >> you know, the history of south carolina, republican politics, seem to think that sometimes social issues will trump economic issues.

do you see that as the case this time? do you think the south carolina republican voters are going into that voting booth on saturday thinking about the economy first? >> well, social issues are very important. values are very important. but sadly, we have 9.9% unemployment. we never had unemployment at that level. so people -- and we all know families that are hurting. we know that the president by his stimulus promised that unemployment would not exceed 8%. but our state has seen the negative. we know at the savannah river site the negative consequence of not allowing yucca to open. we have fun lar waste in our state that should not be there. there are so many issues that are very important to the people of south carolina. and to reiterate, south carolina is a composite of america. in lexington, 75% of the people voting in the primary are transplants, mostly from the midwest and northeast.

>> let me ask you this. will you be comfortable running with newt gingrich at the top of the ticket if he ends up the nominee? >> actually, any of the five. i look forward to the campaign. it will be a campaign of positive message of how we can create jobs. we can create opportunity for the people of our country. >> all right. congressman joe wilson, i'll leave it there. you did an mazing job of staying neutral the entire time in our conversation. thanks for coming on. >> honored to be with you. >> thank you. all right. well, as we told you here are the official results now. iowa republican party releasing, they have rick santorum at 29,839. mitt romney, 34 votes less. that's something they're not declaring a winner much nbc news is not declaring a winner. and before we had only said apparent winner when it came to

mitt romney at the time. that is the language that the republican party was using at the time. apparently they're not declaring any winner. in case you care, it doesn't change anything. both santorum and romney qualified essentially for as many as ten delegates each. of course, none of those were going to be binding as it is. up next, we'll check in on how wall street will start its day. still head, what matters most to voters here in south carolina. nbc's tom brokaw, he hit the campaign trail and he tried to find out. plus, republicans pounce on the president's decision about keystone, put that on hold. a lot going on here following the rick perry chatter that's out there. we'll bring that you to as soon as we know it. but first, today's trivia question. this is an rc robotic claw.

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all right. we're minutes away from the opening bell. becky quick is with me. i heard the jobless claims numbers, lowest in four years. >> yep. almost four years, chuck, since we've seen numbers like this. a drop by 50,000 over the last week to 352,000. not only is that the lowest level we've seen since april of 2008, it is the lowest -- the biggest drop we've seen in a single week since back to september of 2005. it has a lot of people thinking that this is for real. we're really seeing people going back to work. we're really seeing companies hire. the question is what that does to the unemployment rate. of course, as the jobs come back, you continue to see more people who come back into the

workforce. that is the deciding factor what happens with the major overall unemployment picture. very good news for the markets. right now, it looks like the mashlgts are going to open flat though. that may be in part because we also got housing starts about an hour ago. the housing starts was a disappointing figure. we saw a drop of more than 4.1% to 657,000. that was a bigger drop than had been expected. so mixed economic news out there. of course, that all plays right into the campaign and the stuff that you're watching so closely every day. chuck? >> it sure does. thank you, becky. the daily rundown will be back in 30 seconds.

this little update, rick perry has an 11 a.m. added event in charleston. a lot of chatter out there. a lot of other news organizations reporting about what rick perry's future may be before the saturday primary. we have confirmation, we'll share it with you. republicans were quick to criticize obama's decision to reject a proposed 1700 mile an hour oil pipeline from canada to texas. the president temporarily blocked the keystone pipeline application. they say more environmental studies are needed to assess potential risks. house speaker john boehner accused the president of destroying tens of thousands of jobs. though the idea is tens of thousands, that debate is going on as well. and we may in three or four months get a different review when all is said and done.

the captain told prosecutors that he didn't abandon ship but he tripped and fell into a life boat. okay then. the search continues aboard the ship. rescue officials say rough weather could delay attempts to locate the 21 people that are still missing. rue pert mur dpert murdoch's co to pay millions of dollars are to those in the phone hacking settlement. jude law and john prescott. news corp was facing at least 60 lawsuits. all right. we've got the nbc campaign imbed with the latest news. a lot of chatter about what's going on with rick perry's campaign. there were calls over the last 48 hours for him to drop out before saturday. carry dan, what do you hear? what do you know? >> rick perry was cleared much of his schedule over the last few days just announced an 11:00

a.m. press conference. that press conference will be for him to drop out of the campaign. he's been under a lot of pressure in the last few days for conservative commentators. eric ericsson was actually introduced him at an event where perry later went on to announce his candidacy right here in charleston where we are tonight. i was told yesterday that perry thought he was getting very good at the state and wanted another chance to show hisself and see how it went. i was told yesterday he would rather lose than quit. he would rather go through and finish the process. however, he did take a blow yesterday. there were a lot of endorsers leaving him and going to other campaigns. one that was very personal for him was general livingston, the head of his veterans commission. people that stuck by him the longest in this process were the veterans, were the people who had served. he's one of the only kanlt dates for ron paul who served in the military. those were the people he was closest to. losing that endorser to newt

gingrich was very personal for him. >> you know, carrie, yesterday you brought up the endorsements. it seemed as if it was a trickle that started turning into a full fledged flow of perry people. mostly moving to newt gingrich. so, of course, the question is going to be is rick perry going to express a preference today at this press conference? what you are hearing on that? >> there are a lot of connections between the perry campaign and the gingrich campaign. rob johnson later moved on to be -- as well as carney, big advisors for perry, had moved to newt gingrich under the assumption that at the beginning of the summer that perry was not going to run. they joined gingrich's campaign and went back to perry. so there are a lot of connections. the two men are personally close to perry but they're more ideologically aligned especially than a peary and mitt romney. he what personally close to jon

huntsman. maybe took a couple cues from seeing that and maybe looking for something new. >> we shall see. he wasn't actually garnering a lot of support if our most recent poll. stay on the story. we'll see you at 11:00. thanks for phoning in. this breaking news. rick perry dropping out of the presidential race. by happenstance, i'll bring in my friend and colleague tom brokaw joining me now. tom, you were just down here a couple days ago in south carolina. boy, is this race moving really fast in the last 48 hours. just hearing the news of rick perry, what do you make of it all? >> well, i think fluid is an understatement. on the rick perry situation, i can't imagine that he's going to an 11:00 news conference to remember that he remembered the third federal agency he wanted to get rid of. it looks as if he's going to exit the race or at least suspend the campaign. that is not good news, obviously, for governor romney. he'll find out very much as he

has already in the last 24 hours between now and saturday he is going to be the favorite pinata of newt gingrich and rick santorum. a lot depends on the debate tonight, chuck. the economy is getting jobs back into south carolina. the unemployment rate is 10% there by the way. but how much that has changed in the last 24 hours. it's very hard to take an accurate measure of that right now. >> well, you know, you talk to a number of very familiar faces in south carolina voters. i want to play part of an interview you did with ambassador david wilkins, the south carolina campaign chair for bush-cheney. i think he was a former state speaker of the house here and then ambassador to canada. here's what he said. >> i don't accept service that is nasty or here. i think it is important here. i think that's why the intensity

level is raised and the national attention is more focused here and to a lot of candidates do or die is going to separate the men from the boys. some candidates will get out of the race perhaps and some will pick up momentum and move forward. south carolina is hugely important for all the candidates. >> and it certainly has been -- >> tom, one of the things, they -- >> go ahead. it's your show. >> go ahead. no. >> one of the things that struck me is that a lot of the big leaders have actually stayed on the sidelines this time. >> they have. even jim demint who is the great champion of the tea party. there i spent time with lindsey graham. he has not come out for anyone specifically. although he was speaking quite encouragingly about mitt romy and what he could do for the economy and running against obama. the one who has come out and endorsed someone is nicky haley, the new governor of south carolina. she has her own difficulties.

he had a robust state the state speech yesterday. she is working very hard in getting more jobs into south carolina. this is so typical of south carolina, as you know. he came to south carolina and it was open warfare on john mccain for the following week. at that point, george bush had the support of the south carolina governor. and they went to the mattresses over the state. what is so interesting to me having spent time down there is the social conservative issues have not resonated in the same way. i just like to roll a part of an interview i did with ernie siegers, county administrator in the middle part of the state. it is the buckle of the bible belt. here's what he had to say about the impact of all of that on this race. how much are the religious social issues important to the voters on a saturday? >> i think very important.

i grew up here, i go to church here. it's a strong moral issues are certainly important. but i still think the folks that i see and talk to, jobs are the key issue right now. and i think when the economy is better and things are improved and certainly those items are important and from what i see, the jobs and the economy are the major issues right now. >> i think that pretty will sums it up, chuck, for what mitt romney has to do. he has to demonstrate set best equipped to bring jobs to the state. at the same time, he is very much in tune with the social conservative issues. and that's going to be a tricky piece for him. because he's back on his heels at this point. he's under assault. newt gingrich is very, very good on the attack. he's been at this a locng, long time. we'll see what mitt romney is made of. >> it also strikes me. you brought up nicky haley. you know, in the local south carolina races, statewide races, the candidate that channels sort

of a little bit of that populous outrage wins primaries here. but in presidential primaries, the establishment ends up rallying around the establishment figure. sort of sometimes two different messages. nicky haley is somebody who the establishment here in south carolina is very unhappy with in the republican party. yet, she's with the establishment. so it's an odd fit. >> it is. that's what makes south carolina not just so interesting but also so important. this is the first test in the south. and the south is obviously going to be very important come the general election in the fall. barack obama thought he had a shot at it the last time around. they want to secure this not just for this primary but as a linchpin for going forward in the fall, obviously. and it's not a natural fit for mitt romney. we heard very little, by the way, of the baptist faithful about mormonism. there is a question about where

he stands on abortion. leading pro-life advocate in the state said she had a heart to heart with him. she's confident that he's on the right side of that position. she also felt strongly that there were too many unwarranted attacks on romney. this is rock 'n' roll for the next 48 hours, chuck. >> boy, it sure is, tom. anyway, we'll get more of your report on the nbc "nightly news" tonig tonight. thank you, sir. his most recent book is titled "the time of our lives." i think i'm having the time of my life following this race. tom, i guessing you are, too. >> i always am. >> thank you, sir. >> my pleasure, chuck. >> you got it. all right. rick perry is ready to end his hunt for the republican nomination. how will that impact the rest of the field? our political panel is next. but first, yeah, it's sports. the soup of the day. it is chicken tortilla. i have to say not very april tiesing to day. sorry guys. you're watching "the daily rundown."

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well, the breaking news, of course this hour, south carolina claiming its second victim of the race and the voting hasn't even started. rick perry is going to be getting out at 11:00. likely giving his support to newt gingrich. mitt romney' opponents have two more days to make him unacceptable to south carolina voters. so can they do it? let's bring in our political panel. robert trainer, shira tuplet. i don't think i planned on talking about rick perry. his relevance in the race was decreasing by the hour, if not the day. but essentially, james bennett, john huntsman gave romney a day

to look like the candidate of inestability by dropping out and endorsing somebody he wasn't too friendly with. and now rick per ji going to give a moment to newt gingrich in an hour here which has to be help will. >> yeah. i mean you're not going to get the same perception of the field consolidating around clear choice. obviously, rick perry doesn't have a huge amount of support in south carolina or it seems anywhere else except possibly texas. i think he's within the margin of error for any support at all in your poll this morning. he's at about 4%. but perception matters hugely right now. and the fact that, as you say, he looks like he's going to break to gingrich gives the speaker a shot in the arm. >> and robert, you know, we heard over the tlast two days newt gingrich trying to drive santorum and perry out of the race by saying any vote for those two is a vote for mitt romney. you're rick santorum this morning. you found out you -- in your mind, you won iowa. you know, nobody -- iowa

republican party is not going to declare a victory here, a victor here because of those unknown precincts. but essentially now the certified vote total has you ahead. >> you're right. i think from a technical standpoint, you know, senator santorum said he won already. he said that a week and a half ago n terms of him getting anything out of this, i'm not sure where he goes except he can probably make the argument that, a, look, i have the momentum on my side from a financial standpoint, from a fund-raising standpoint. not only did i raise $3 million over the last two and a half weeks, but give even more money to social conservatives so i can be the conservative alternative here, especially fli south carolina but especially even more importantly in florida. so the real question is whether or not senator santorum would use this to my point as to use this from a fundrai-raising standpoint to keep him alive if, you will, going into florida. >> and shira if, you're santorum, the perry news, particularly if he does make a full throated endorsement of newt, suddenly trumps this iowa

news. but collectively none of it is good news for mitt romney. >> yeah. absolutely. i think the way if we weren't already viewing this race as mitt romney versus the world, this is the way we need to view this race from now on. and definitely a bad day for rick santorum. totally rained on his parade. this is the day he should have held up that "des moines register" that said romney won. no, rick santorum probably lost or it's a tie. definitely a bad day for rick santorum. >> so it's a defeat. i bet a lot of people wish they had that collector's item. you had a lot of experience covering the scandals of the '90s. and now we're going to feel like we're going to get a flash back tonight with a marianne gingrich interview. in the grand scheme of things, the impact of this? the television interview versus what we already knew she thought of newt in her various print interviews. give perspective on that.

>> well, it's -- it's very tough day for the speaker. he's got to go to the debate tonight knowing that this interview with his ex-wife is going to air directly after it. and it plays very much into the story line that the romney campaign is trying to put out about newt. they put out surrogates yesterday, doing it again today to basically say with newt it's always all about newt. he brings a tremendous amount of drama with him, distracting personal drama. and there's a very specific problem that polling is consistently shown that newt gingrich has which is with evangelical women. he's doing much better in your poll with evangelicals generally. but evangelical women are a big soft spot for him. this is not going to help him with that crowd. >> it's an interesting point, the gender gap is a big thing throughout the early tests. >> particularly for gingrich. and, you know, his wife is always at his side when he does

public events. she's always there with him. he's made a point of sort of frankly acknowledging that he has this baggage but that he -- he tried to tell a story of redemption and growth about himself that he's a more serious person and so forth. it's just a question of whether that message is going to get heard. >> chuck, james brings up a good point. the real question is after marianne gingrich gives her interview tonight, how well gingrich does in the polls, you know, tomorrow or saturday leading into the tuesday primary. if i'm the romney campaign, you know, marianne gingrich is the gift that keeps on giving. two hours in front of the camera talking about, you know, newt gingrich for 18 years of marriage? my understanding is that she's very, very bitter. and my understanding is that she knows where the skeletons are buried and she knows exactly why newt gingrich left his first wife for marianne gingrich in the mid 1980s. so this will be a very interesting interview. >> it could get sympathy for newt gingrich as well. there could be some backlash here. as you said, chuck -- >> i was just going to say.

that's right. >> it depends on what she says. it could have an adverse reaction. >> right. all right, shira, james, robert, stick around. i have to do trivia and come back after schetick around. let me do the trivia. rock hill, south carolina is home to vernon grant, who is known for creating what cartoon mascot -- probably took you some wikipediaing -- the answer snap, crackle & pop, the cartoon mascots for rice krispies. if yol is the pain reliever orthopedic doctors recommend most for arthritis pain, think again. and take aleve. it's the one doctors recommend most for arthritis pain... two pills can last all day. ♪ like splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweeteners. this bowl of strawberries is loaded with vitamin c. and now, b vitamins to boot.

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let's bring back the panel. the congressional republican leadership, that mitch daniels is going to be giving the official republican response to the state of the union. let's talk about timing.

that's next tuesday. having a guy that a lot of the establishment wanted to see as the nominee, give the republican response, that can't make mitt romney too happy. >> it's probably not the best thing for romney. mitch daniels is definitely seen as a numbers crunchers. he was senator lugar's former chief of staff. he definitely knows the budget and he loves it in a very different way than mitt romney, i think. i think mitch daniels actually is an excellent choice. the one thing i worry about him is mitch daniels is not known for going gregarious or eloquent in his speaking style. that will be an interesting contrast. >> true, but james, the last them the campaign needs is this idea, and you wonder if he doesn't win here, the pining for

somebody else. >> it's the might have beens, chuck, and it shows up in your poll this morning. it's interesting, republicans seem to becoming more unhappy with their field rather than saying we feel good about these guys. there's still pining for who might have gotten in and who chose not to. >> i've got to leave it there. robert, shameless plugs, go. >> i know this is sappy, but i say "war horse" over the weekend. i think it's an excellent movie. everyone should see it. >> we like sappy here. go. >> this morning in "roll call" about john bray bender, i call it a tale of two yenzers two pittsburghers. >> first guy that did hd tv ads in politics. >> truly shameless plug for the cover story in the current issue of "the atlantic dwgs focused on

south carolina, the story of what's happened to american manufacturing, and the structural changes in our economy. very provocative look at it. it's the issue voters actually care about and not what the xaents will be talking about for the next few days there. timing is everything. i love the atlantic. my shameless plug, my friends at winthrop university. thank you all. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." tomorrow tim scott joins us. coming up next on msnbc, chris jansing & company. and andrea mitchell reports. it's a huge day here in politics. we have got it all. bye-bye. my name is robin.

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[ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix whee wheeeeeeeeeeeee! wheeeeeeeeeeee! whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee-he-he-heeeeee! whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee! pure adrenaline. whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee! everything you love about geico, now mobile. download the new geico app today. whee wheeeeeeeeeeee-he-he-heeeeee! good morning. i'm chris jansing. boy, are things changing in the presidential race. the breaking news that just happened within the past hour, rick perry is