>> joe, what did you learn? >> and i learned that washington, d.c. should follow howard dean and me when it comes to keeping debates -- i love you, howard. >> lot, if it is way too early, willy, what time is it? >> it is "morning joe." stick around for chuck todd. thank you, gentlemen. moments of encouraging news on the economy appears to be sinking in with the american public a preview of our upcoming nbc news/"wall street journal" poll finds americans more could have dent about the administration and the country's direction. year-high spikes. how much will president obama benefit politically if this optimism continues? and the florida race, it is neck in neck, newt gingrich, mitt romney, they hammer each other on immigration as they court florida's key cuban population. also, gingrich takes heat for past infidelities, romney struggles to defend as well. and do we really need a colony on the moon?

tonight, the candidates take their fight to another debate. we will have a preview. and a testy welcome, strong words, exchanged on the tarmac between president obama and arizona governor jan brewer when he landed in phoenix. we will tell you what start it had all t is thursday, january 26, 2012. this is "the daily rundown." i am achuck todd. get to my first reads of the morning. we begin. newt gingrich and mitt romney meet tonight in their final debate before the florida primary, next tuesday, frankly, a coin flip. will aggressive romney or passive romney, good newt or bad newt? who knows up tonight. the last 24 hours is any indication, it is likely to be a testy exchange. escalating attacks on the trail turned into a nasty battle for florida's fairly large hispanic vote in the republican primary with gingrich and romney hurling insults, hispanics represent nearly a quarter of florida's population and about 12% of registered republicans in the state, half of them being

cubans, with a unique relationship to the immigration issue and it dominates that vote but immigration is still a big issue in south florida. univision forum in miami, gingrich ridiculed romney's position that withholding public benefits could somehow persuade illegal immigrants to, in his words, self-deport. >>ky ask you a question? >> sure. >> how close are you to breaking up laughing out loud at this fantasy? i think you have to live in a world of swiss bank accounts and kayman island accounts and automatic, you know, $20 million a year income with no work to have some fantasy this far from reality. >> wow. using the tax return hit. romney fired back. >> that is very sad. >> immigrant. >> very sad for candidate to resort to that kind of epithet, just inappropriate. i recognize it is very tempting to come to an audience like this and to pander to the audience and say what you hope people

will want to hear but frankly, i thank you is unbecoming of a presidential candidate. >> gingrich got a public comeuppance from florida senator marco rubio, who has pledged to stay neutral in the race. the gingrich campaign ended up pulling down a spanish language radio ad that called romney "anti-immigrant" after rubio told the "miami herald," "this kind of language is more than just unfortunate it is inaccurate, inflammatory and doesn't belong in this campaign." big, quick response from the gingrich campaign there as you saw. meanwhile august pro-romney super pac released this spanish language spot reminding voters of comments gingrich made in 2007. [ speaking spanish ] the language of the ghetto remark made it into that ad. according to a count by "the new york times," gingrich mentioned ronald reagan's name 55 times in the past 18 debates. in another romney super pac ad, questions the entire reagan story.

>> from debate, would you think that newt gingrich was ronald reagan's vice president. >> i worked with president ronald reagan. ronald reagan. ronald reagan. president reagan. >> but in his diaries, reagan mentioned gingrich only once. reagan criticized gingrich saying "newt's ideas would cripple our defense programs." on leadership and character, gingrich is no ronald reagan. >> last night, gingrich returned fire on the attack. >> governor romney was against ronald reagan. governor romney 1994 senate race he was opposed to going back to the reagan/bush policies. governor romney was giving money to democrats to suggest that governor romney is more reagan-like than i am is an act of total fantasy. >> the candidates were doing their best to play to the hometown florida crowd. some other remarks. >> could you be the first hispanic president? >> i would love to be able to convince people of that particular any a florida primary. i don't think people would think

i was being honest with them if i said i was mexican-american but i appreciate it you would get that word out. >> by the end of my second term -- [ cheers and applausechai [ cheers and applause ] >> we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be a american. >> a little context there the univision event, the host asked about romney's mexican roots, his father's mexican roots. and that was on the space coast there newt gingrich making the pledge about the moon. even so voters got another look at each candidate's baggage. univisions jorge ramos grilled the two, tearing into gingrich on his personal life. >> when you were speaker of the house, you criticized president clinton for having an extra marital affair. no, i criticized president

clinton for like under oath in front of a federal judge, committing perjury, which is a felony for which normal people to go to jail. >> however, at the same time you were doing exactly the same thing. >> i wasn't. >> that is hypocritical. >> because they listened to your question and they don't listen to the facts. >> mitt romney's personal wealth is likely to be an issue again tonight, especially after this direct question. >> how much money do you have? >> well, you tell me and i'll tell you. no, i'm kidding t is between 150 and about 200-some-odd million, i think that's what the estimates r by the way, i didn't inherit that. >> look, one thing about miami politics that you got to know it is very raw. the expectation is you talk about everything, sometimes when it's uncomfortable. so, that's why you saw some of the more rawer moments there in that little forum. all right, finally, as the president continues his five-state battleground swing with stops in las vegas and the denver area today, new numbers from our nbc news "wall street

journal" poll indicate the american public may finally be feeling the improvement in the economy that statistics have been showing the last six moment, 30% believe the country is headed in right direction, up eight points from a month ago, but let's remember, the wrong track is still sitting at 61%, but that is an improvement from 69%. now, last month, president obama's handling of the economy was 40%, 50% still disapprove of it, but it's a trend line and 37% who believe the economy will get better the next 12 moment, up from 30% a month ago the result of that growing optimism on the economy, well, it has helped the president's overall job approval number, right side up in our poll for the first time since june, before the debt ceiling debate. 48% approve of the job he is doing and that is up two points from a month ago. now, obviously, if this is stuff that continues, it could have a

larger impact on the campaign down below a word of warning, we have seen this optimism, green shoots, public perceptions about the economy, one time in 2010, one time in 2011, it came crashing down, usually thanks to greece. all right. the president tried to build on the poll numbers as he meets with voters as his swing through five battle ground states, of course, not official lay campaign swing. stephanie cutter is the president deputy campaign manager and she joins me now. all right, stephanie, let me ask you, good morning. let me ask you about an interesting report that was in the "washington post" this morning with dan balz, a lot of anonymous quotes from folks at the campaign, but one in particular caught my eye, that is this idea that folks in the campaign team believe that mitt romney has done self-inflicted wounds his narrative, full, which one were you guys referring to? >> well, i can tell you what my

belief is on the self-inflicted wounds, i don't know hot anonymous quotes are, but created the crisis over his tax returns, if he had just put these tax returns out like everybody else does, you know, maybe people wouldn't be going through and nitpicking them. he made self-inflicted wounds about the tax forms he released and he never previously disclosed his bank account, never previously disclosed foreign investments he has. these are self-inflicted wounds, mistakes. also a hard time on the ground empathizing with what people are feeling. you heard his comments on house the other day. he said, you know, banks are feeling just what you are feeling, they are going through a hard time, too. that's almost incredulous that a presidential candidate campaigning in a state where 44% of voters -- of homeowners are underwater on their mortgages to say something like that, so, these are self-inflicted wounds. normally in a presidential primary, a tough one like the

republican primary that is going now candidates come out strong, battle tested, ready to go, that's not happening here. for independent voter, a 2-1 up favorable view of mitt romney and that's tough position to be coming out of a presidential primary. >> you know, there was another provocative quote in there again, i think it was one-a on background, to do with your candidate, president obama in 2008 versus where mitt romney is right now and that is that somehow, standing up or beating hillary clinton, thought of on a high level as a presidential candidate helped boost his numbers. so, is the assumption that mitt romney sort of playing down, punching down by struggling against a newt gingrich? >> i think they are struggling against each other. what we didn't have in 2008 when

barack obama and hillary clinton were batting through the democratic primaries, they weren't pushing each other further to the lift. they were standing true to their positions. that's not the case here. i was listening to your report earlier and mitt romney saying this newt gingrich is pandering to the hispanic voters in florida. you know, they are both pandering to hispanic voters in florida tend of the day voters see this and voters understand that and that is a real problem for them, they are not moving each other to aspirational tones. they are not putting out new visions for this country. batting each other, they are moving each other through to the right. they are mud slinging. you know, as a political observed, it is interesting to watch, we don't know where it's gonna end up, you know, florida is neck in neck. it will be interesting to watch the next several days as we move up to the primary. >> let me ask you about your own campaign message, seems as if the president and campaign team is moving in a more populist -- of a more populist message and

republicans believe that this is a mistake on your part because any time the democrats come out as anti-wealth, anti-business, anti-rich, there has been a little bit of a snap-back with independent voters little bit who don't like -- don't like when it goes a little too far. any concern there? you look back on past history, democratic candidates, al gore, john kerry in particular have gone the people versus the powerful, it is not quite worked? >> well, i think the concern is on the republican side because they are not understanding the president's message and not understanding where the country is. it is not about populism. it is not about people versus the powerful it is about how we are going to build an economy that is meant to last it is how we are going to create new and better jobs so people can actually get ahead, make a wage, save a little, send their kids to college, buy a home, these are the american values that made this country strong and the president wants to return to t and it is not a shift for him.

these are things that he has been talking about since he ran for the united states senate in 2004. these are things that i heard personally in the 2004 democratic convention, he said to a national audience. so i think there is a fundamental misreading on the republican side about what the president's message is and what his vision is for the economy. he said it best, you know, it's not class warfare when a millionaire is paying less -- a millionaire or a billionaire is paying less in taxes than his secretary that's not class warfare it is common sense to want to fix that and that is where the american people are, it is not democrat it is not independent, it is the american people and he has been talking about it for some time. look at the policies that we have put out. you know, going to iowa and talking about increasing manufacturing, which for the first time in nine years is actually creating jobs, that's not populist that is building a strong foundation for this country, an dmae is meant to last, not a bubble economy, based on recklessness and paper

profits. but again, he is in -- out west today, talking about how we are going to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, the loews point in 13 years, our dependence on foreign oil, because the president has increased production at home, has increased investments in renewables, double fuel efficiency standards, things we need to do if we want a strong, lasting economy where everybody can get ahead. into the populist message, but the message the american people are looking for. >> let me ask you, since i last talked to you on air, went up with your first tv ad from the campaign and it was a defensive ad and it seemed to be a defense against a third party group that has been hitting the president on sol lynn draft. how much damage that was ad doing that you guys felt you had do a response ad? >> well, you know, chuck, tens of millions of dollars has been spent on the president in negative advertising, just in the republican primary and when the third party sol linda ad

went up, we decided we are going to fight this on our terrain. any time we talk about clean energy and the president's clean energy record, it's good for us. he is the first president in modern times to actually move this country forward on clean energy and reduce our depend sense dense on foreign oil. so any time we can have that debate, we are happy to have t. >> stephanie cutter, deputy campaign manager for the obama campaign, stephanie, thanks for coming into -- >> thank you chuck. >> down the street, right down there at 'maq, thanks. florida florida florida, the state that makes magic when it is time to vote, turn die-hard republican candidates softer on issues like the environment, oil drilling, even immigration policy. with the race tightening, sunshine state is shaping up, a must-win for both romney and gingrich. what is at stake with two guys who know the state inside and out. but first, a look ahead at the president's schedule. it starts in nevada, then goes suburban denver. maybe the most important swing

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five days to florida can mitt romney rebound after his south carolina slump? could a newt gingrich victory send romney's team into complete panic mode? joining me now, republican strategist brad todd, who was a top adviser to florida governor rick scott's 2010 campaign and steve shale, the 2008 florida manager for president obama and a numbers geek like me when it comes to this stuff. brad, steve, thank you both. brad, i want to start with you. >> thanks a lot. >> you were part of the

scott/mccollum primary, working for rick scott? >> yes. >> what's interesting, feels like a lot of sim laters to romney/the new what are the similarities? what are the difference? >> the first off is the difference in that race, who was more of a strong candidate? strength and independence is where primary voters are now ork the strength in this race -- newt gingrich's strength is the strength. republican primary voters. telling me before heat. >> heat. >> the primary voters are reacting to the heat that he brings that romney doesn't. >> more of a emotional decision when gingrich is riding high, more of a logical decision, right brain/left brain thing. romney's challenge, he has to bring more heat in these closing days in florida. >> steve, you have been doing a bunch of numbers breakdowns in the counties that matter, put up a graphic here, the ten most populace counties of -- when it comes to republican primary voters, some will be very familiar to people, a chunk in

south florida. but the biggest chunk, you say, is the i-4 corridor that is somewhere where that will be where a lot more of the vote is than people realize. >> yeah, almost half the vote in the republican primary is in the i-4 corridor. i think folks assume that north florida being a big conservative area has the largest chunk but really is fairly small. chuck, your county of dade is the biggest chunk of republican voters of any county in the state which is why i think they have spent time down there four years ago is what drove mccain's victory, more than half his margin over romney was in that one county. so, it really does come down to who does well in the i-4 corridor. the cnn poll yesterday showed romney sort of taking a little bit of a led there in tampa going south. so i think the challenge for gingrich is going to be appealing to those voters on the i-4 corridor, while republicans, still more moderate than your upstate republicans, doing better these days. >> let's talk about your race when itomes to scott and

mccollum where. did scott overperform that put him over the top and where -- where is it -- same exact places that newt needs to overperform. >> first off in florida to know where voters are going, tough know where they are from, a transient state, lots of transplants, retirees, southwest voters more from the midwest, upper midwest, ohio, michigan, india indiana, that's where rick scott did well. southeast voters more from the east coast, retirees from the east coast. that's where bill mccollum did well. i think mitt romney, like jrnlgs will do well in southeast florida. romney has the ceo demean her rick scott had should work well in southwest florida. mitt overperformed in jacksonville in the 2008 race so did rick scott t is a very conservative market, much like the panhandle. some folks say jacksonville is the second largest city in georgia. i think that that's going to be a pretty good place for newt gingrich. >> and you know, that's what's interesting, steve, a place that romney, when he was running as the conservative alternative to mccain, could overperform in

some places like jacksonville, but you also broke down something else for me that i love and will be stealing on tuesday night, which is you looked a sort of the six counties that have -- that have picked it exactly right in the last five major republican primaries, identify the most familiar ones to me. >> well, i think first of all, brad's take on florida is spot-on. and it is going to be fascinating as it place out, i think large loin the map what is interesting to me, the romney win strategy in a lot of sways following the mccain win strategy. i don't think romney will do nearly well in the counties he did as well in 2008 in 2012 if he is going to win. no, i think, you know, listen, three or four counties right there around the tampa area that are going to be key to watch. sarasota county, where newt gingrich turned out something like 4,000 people ho, how he does in polk county, hillsborough, pinellas. the tampa bay media market, interestingly, todd and chuck, you may have seen, i think it was within a point being dead

on-nailing the 2004 senate race, 2008 presidential race, 2010 governor's race, what happens in hillsborough, pinellas, few counties around it give us a key how the nights turn out. the good thing for us, those report early. >> very quickly, blood, it comes to, let's talk about sarasota for a minute. i mean it is -- it feels like that that is sort of the gingrich problem. he is not the businessman that should help romney but romney not the conservative that afeels the midwesterners. >> i think romney's demeanor suits southwest florida pretty well. he has to prove -- get over the hump on the conservative angle f there is an ideological race on tuesday night, that's not great for romney, florida is a much more conservative state, even in this primary than folks have talked about. sarasota/bradenton area, a lot more like southwest florida than it is like the rest of the tampa media market. if the tampa media market is a tie it is going to be because romney did well in sarasota. >> sarasota, jacksonville and miami-dade. there you go these only 75% of

the vote to watch. all right, steve shale, thank you very much. brad todd, good stuff. we will have more of this as the five days move on. all right, well, do the fed's plans for interest rates boost wall street for a second day in a row? that is likely. the market run down is next. the mystery of mitt romney, talk to an author pulling back the curtain on romney's past, digging into the family history and his business background. first, today's trivia question. how did former florida governor lawton chiles earn his nickname walkin' lawton? tweet met answer at chuck todd at daily run down. first correct answer will get a follow thursday from us. the answer on "the daily rundown" this is an easy question, so give me the year for when he earned this name. we will be right back. ♪

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we are just about a minute away from the opening bell, time

for the market run down. cnbc's becky quick here. the fed going to make the market happy today? >> so far, so good p the fed said we are going to keep low rates forever essentially, what they came out with makes the market feel good about things. this morning, chuck, looks like we are going to open up 50 points on the dow this is important, because if we close by 52 points higher on the dow today that is going tonight highest level in three and a half years for stocks. so, that's big key, something we are watching out for. now, we got jobless claims a little earlier this morning and we did see an increase of 21,000 to 377,000. you might be concerned about a jump like that but remember, last week, it was the lowest level we had seen since april of 2008, almost four years going by and the reason you probably saw a big one off last time around is because of the way the federal holidays fall at this time of the year, it is hard to get any real substantial numbers, 377 sounds about right, market wasn't too spoofed by any of that did gettern earnings from three dow components, at&t

came in with a penny below expectations, stocks bouncing around. two dow components that beat expectations, 3 m beat by 4 cents and caterpillar knocked it out of the park, a massive beat for caterpillar in terms of the bottom earnings and revenue. 33,000 jobs since 2010, 14,000 were right here in the united states. something to feel good b >> those are construction jobs more than likely, more than anything else. becky quick, thanks very much. daily run down will be back in 2 330 seconds.

few of the stories making headlines, egyp, authorities are stopping the son of the transportation secretary ray lahood from leaving the country. sam lahood is the cairo chief of international republican institute and was blocked from boarding a flight last night. the iri is one of those things that are funded by the republican party that help with international leekses, observing international elections a lot of times they work together overseas. timothy geithner says he expects the president will replace him if president obama wins a second term n an interview with bloomberg tv, geithner did not specify what he will do next but anticipating the president won't ask him to stay on. remember, actually, the president had to beg him to not resign about three months ago and so part of that deal apparently was don't ask me to stay for a second term. australia's prime minister julia gillard stumbled but was

caught by a security guard as she tried to pass through a path of protesters today. gillard was not harmed and come mended police for their assistance on australia day, which commemorates the arrival of the first british colonists in 1788. all right, what makes mitt romney tick? the new book "the real romney" an unvarnished report by "boston globe" reporters covering him for years, maybe we should say decades. co-author michael cranish joins me now. congratulations on the book. >> thank you. >> all right. let's start with the sort of three components of mitt romney -- of the massachusetts mitt romney in general that i think folks don't know as much about. we will start with bain and one e excerpt, they operated more like a group of bankers, careliful guarding their cash an an aggressive firm eager to embrace giant deals. some represented romney had one eye on his political future whereas most entrepreneurs accepted failure as an inherent

part of the game, the partners worried that romney said a single flop would bring disgrace. every calculation had to be made with care. he was nervous about what the public would think of some deal at a later date? >> right. i think he was always looking ahead for political office, governor, senator or the president, which people have said he wanted to do for years, make up for his father's failure and that is the way he operated. in fact, he was sort of risk averse in a risk business, really interestingly, one of his partners quoted in the book saying there were times he wanted to punch romney in the news, there was a deal, thought they were making a lot of money, romney's tie would go back and forth, mimicking heart palpitations, he was nervous about certain deal he is. >> what is it, a deal that didn't happen because of romney being risk averse? >> bain capital was humming along at the time of high-tech, things were going big in high-tech and romney very concerned there would be a bubble. as it turned out, there was a bubble later, missed a lot of profits in the inter rim. an example where partners said we made a lot of money could have made a lot more money if

romney hadn't been nervous about some deals. >> another part i think of mitt romney that i think all of us are curious about, hard to crawl inside a father and son is the relationship he has with -- that he had with his father and how that impacts this presidential bid. here's what -- here's what you wrote. if george romney shot from the hip, his son before he shoots the all carefully studies the target, lines up the barrel just right and might even fire a few practice rounds. mitt romney who sought shortcomings of his father's approach has often been more inclined to identify the consequences of what he wants than figure out how to get there. boy you it sounds like exactly what you just described with his time at bain. >> well, you know, george romney famously, his presidential hopes were dashed when he had one sentence on television he said i have been brainwashed by the generals of vietnam, lost his presidential camp neighbor 1968. mitt's sister quoted in the book saying that, as a result of that, that affected mitt, that he is more cautious, more scripted. had this also flies why romney doesn't connect well some people, he comes across sometimes as wooden and robotic,

one of his greatest challenges in running for the presidency. >> sounds like you are painting a picture here of a guy always concerned what other people think. >> right. this is one of the key questions about him what are his core convictions, operating from a central belief system or operating from system in which he will be elected and then go with what beliefs work for the moment? >> and actually fits into the ex-excerpt i pick, had to do with the '94 race with ted kennedy. you writer, some of his positions seem to be calibrated for voter approval, not necessarily reflective of his personal convictions, strategy trumped ideology what kind of candidate did he need to be to win? some were furious at his reversals on issues this were personally important to them. others felt his presidential ambition also cloud his judgment about what was best for massachusetts. again it goes to the central narrative. >> if you are in business, it makes sense to understand the market, change according to the market and so forth, politic it is a little bit different n massachusetts, when he ran for the u.s. senate against ted kennedy, said that he was basically a moderate, didn't with ament to go back to

reagan/bush. he opposed the contract with america at the time newt gingrich was taking that to be house speaker. there was a different back then and today, those who watched both races see a pretty much different mitt romney, i'm sure he would say, look, i have changed over time and so forth. clearly, he has run very differently nationally than did he to win in massachusetts. >> simple question. who is he? >> who is mir. he is a man who believes deeply in a business, has the anticipate to a lot of problems, believes in this theory called creative destruction that there is this natural turmoil in things, jobs were lost, deal he is did which he made money, he stayed this is part of the natural churn of business, does believe government's too big and should be stripped away. he is also a pragmatic person, worked with a very democratic legislature, health care passed, that wasn't even something he ran on, he ran for governor, he saw there was an open there thought he could do it thought it would be a key issue in running for president. >> i got leave it there, michael cranish with other "boston globe" reporters, "the real romney," just is fascinating to

me how all of these separate examples all tie together in the central narrative. thanks very much. >> thanks for having me. three of the four right now, live pictures, you see there, newt gingrich and rick santorum, campaigning in the sunshine state today, so is mitt romney, a busy day there gingrich speak act a tea party rally in mount dora, florida, and santorum holding a town hall in tallahassee. all right. are we seeing a turning point for president obama? we will talk about that with our panel next. plus, the coin flip in florida, tell you what to watch for in the sunshine state. but first, white house soup of the day. not tomato but looks like it roasted red pepper, watching "the daily rundown," only on msnbc. we will be right back. [ female announcer ] investing for yourself isn't some optional pursuit. a privilege for the ultra-wealthy. it's a necessity. i find investments with e-trade's top 5 lists. quickly. easily. i use pre-defined screeners and insightful trading ideas

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or did not have sexual relations with that woman, ms. lewinsky. >> flashback to this day in 1998, when president clinton famously wagged his finger at the cameras and denied having a an an affair with monica lewinsky, clinton later impeached by the house, led by newt gingrich, for like under oath about the matter which, of course, somehow came up yesterday. the fight for florida is five days awake the numbers tightening up in this latest cnn/"time" poll. romney maintains a slight lead. santorum at 11, paul is behind with 9%. 16en h 16% surge for gingrich, minus 7 for romney.

this has a most bizarrery volatile race, a pollster affiliateded with one of the campaigns said they never seen one-day moves in tracking. very unstable race. >> clear republicans want a nominee but they -- >> want a nominee. >> not going to tell the public hot nominee is until the day after the election. >> the calculation who that is keeps going around the moon. >> you bring up the moon. fair enough. yesterday, interesting to hear how newt gingrich's talking point against mitt romney and the democratic talking points against mitt romney started to con verge. i want to play two sound bites back-to-back from gingrich and dick durbin. listen. >> i think you have to live in a

world of swiss bank accounts and kayman island accounts and automatic $20 million a year income with no work to have some fan fantasy this far from reality. this is an obama-level fan it is a i is. >> if we have reached a point in america where it is considered normal and expected that american business leader opens a swiss banking account or invest in notorious tax havens like the cayman islands in bermuda, if that has become normal, i think we need to have a new normal. >> tomorrow perriello, center of american progress, big democratic think tank, going to be using that line on swiss bank accounts on mitt romney all the way to november? >> i think what you are seeing here is a huge shift from what the beltway loves as a right/left conversation from a main street conversation about what's normal and what's fair. >> you think gingrich is on the right track here? main street conversation then mitt romney is? >> sure, but not guilty's problem is under the tax plan he

propose its, mitt romney would pay nearly zero dollars in taxes. what we see is a convergence of conservative plans that actually really hit the working and middle class and hit seniors and really protect that top 1%. so the same thing with the freddie and fanny conversation, not just something hitting gingrich because of his fees it is something where romney himself has made a lot of money from investment, the same people that control yaetd many of the problems that left floridians under water. getting conversation about the kitchen set of table for work and middle class families and one i think has conservatives on the retreat. >> but ram meesh, karl rove the other day said he is very concerned at the tone of this campaign, they are essentially both severely damaging each other for a potential general election. do you buy that? >> that is a primary, you know? the incentives of each of these candidates is to tear down the other, not look ahead to what happens november and the case that they lose. they don't care about that as much. i'm actually not as worried

about that i think that either the public is going to find the swiss bank account attack important and convincing or it's not. either romney is going to have the nominee, a good response to that or not and the fact that gingrich happened to make the same claim in the spring the democrats are going to make in the fall is a smaller factor. >> susan page, another part of this campaign i think is history making is that newt gingrich essentially has one backer, it is the adelson household in las vegas. the first time, gingrich was asked about this and about these donation, super pac and what is sheldon adelson's motivations behind it. here is what newt said. >> have you promised him -- >> i promise had that would seek to defend the united states and the united states allies and -- >> [ inaudible ] >> i don't know anything about the super pac except what i read in the newspapers. he is deeply motivated by the question of having a commander in chief strong enough and

following make sure that the iranians do not get nuclear weapons. >> this is what mike isikoff's reporting, that the number one issue is israel. >> of course that is the issue which he and newt gingrich originally forged a friendship. >> gingrich changed his bruce a two-state solution more so since he has got ton know adelson. >> and commitment moving the u.s. embassy to jerusalem, he made, promise he would do it in the first two hours of his presidency. newt gingrich's campaign consistents of things going from debate to debate and putting up ads paid by sheldon adelson. so that is allowed under the rules that we are operating under this time that haven't operate operated under before and a different scenario for a president presidential campaign. >> it is not just a concentration of economic power that mirst represented with these tax return bus a concentration of political power, this isn't about adelson this is about moving us to a

point where a few individuals can dominate the political process people looking at calculator how much it takes to make their income. >> he andson going to be a negative? >> too pro-israel in a republican primary. >> stick around. trivia time, we ask, how did former florida governor lawton chiles earn the nickname walkin' lawton? the answer was by walking across the state, trust me, a big deal to do that 1970, while campaigning for the u.s. senate, nobody heard of this guy, child walked 1,000 miles from the panhandle to key west. the trek took 91 days and earned chiles the senate seat and the life long nickname and i can tell you this, a few campaigns later, others borrowed it, republican and democrat alike, i think lamar alexandra did it in his first race for governor, 18978 in tennessee. we will be right back. you can watching "the daily rundown," only on msnbc. ethe mos

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the republican establishment is just as much an establishment as the democratic establishment and they are just as determined to stop us. make no bones about it, this is a campaign for the very nature of the republican party and the very opportunity for a citizen conservatism to defeat the power of money. >> well, that was newt gingrich just moments ago speaking to a tea party rally in florida. he also added a few minutes later, guys, about mitt romney, talking about whether he's really a conservative or not. he said we're not that stupid and you're not that clever. he said youtube does exist. new to the tea party candidate, on the one hand, yes, he's an insider but one of the things that people -- that isn't -- that's also true of newt is he was never comfortable as the insider. >> i think it's totally fair to

say that he doesn't have a kind of establishment frame of mind but it's also true that the reason the establishment of the party is against him because so many of know him well and do not trust him to win an election or govern successfully. >> that's the thing. we've got a new poll that's going to talk about and look at examine the electability arguments versus what's going on inside the primary, active conservative, southern conservative ver everses the ret of the party. i want to talk about jan brewer and the tarmac. that's probably a good confrontation for both of them. >> i think both probably come out political winners this year. who really knows what went on. we can get too much into these confrontations and sometimes a picture is worth 1,000 words and sometimes it's misleading. i think this is a year that the president is trying to show that she's serious about wanting to do something on comprehensive immigration reform. i think jan brewer has made her bed in terms of where she is.

i think this is a situation as well where the president has been essentially a calm force through some very tough times and i think in that picture he looks like the calm guy trying to be reasonable. >> you know, susan, bringing up immigration here a minute, arizona is the -- might be the next big primary fight. it's a month away. and i've been intrigued listening to the conversation romney and gingrich is trying to have with hispanics in florida yesterday and wondering, boy, they're not going to have that soft rhetoric actually could play poorly among arizona republicans. there are not a lot of hispanic arizona republicans. there are in florida. >> you can't make these kind of pivots and keep your currentibility. they have both taken pretty strong anti-immigration stance, romney in particular. >> i don't think newt has. >> gingrich has and paid for it. i mean, it cost him some. he's in a better position in florida. what do you do in arizona? this has been a national campaign in some big ways. you know, new hampshire and iowa

were getting shaped by the iowa debate. it's not been a series of local contests. in this day and age where everybody's got film clips it is not possible to pivot on these positions. >> in florida has been more localized. right? you have gingrich pandering to the space community. you have romney who changed -- no, no, no, no, i wouldn't veto the dream act. i would change at this time way newt want -- he wouldn't have -- he would not have jumped in like that if the debate had been in arizona. >> if you go back to arizona the general election, remember, the obama team is convinced that if mccain hadn't been the nominee last time they could have won arizona because of the demographic change there. >> one more factoid about arizona, the last time there was a competitive republican primary in arizona, 1996, it was a race to the right, democrats carried arizona. >> i was actually just going to defend newt and say the pandering on the space program, he's been fairly consistent on that.

i think that's something that's been a strong voice and he should get credit on that. >> let's plug susan. >> you had on co-author of this book on romney, if romney is going to be the nominee the book is going to be a big resource for journalists. >> george romney or mitt romney? >> it's remarkable. >> congressman, what have you got? >> just joined the center for american progress. i hope people go to thinkprogress.org and see the research we've been doing including on the economic plans and what it means for the middle class. >> national view online. my employer has a great group log called the core. tenth anniversary. >> good nor them. congratulations. captain lopez who seems to be the anchoresque of that corner. congrats to all of you. all right, that it forred this addition of "the daily rundown." see you right back here tomorrow with even more results from the big nbc news/"wall street journal" poll, deep dive into the republican primary. at 1:00, don't miss "andheya just perfect. we were having too much fun,

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good morning. confidence in the economy is inching up. if that keeps up, it could be a game changer in the race for president. a new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows 30% of people think the economy is on the right track. may not seem like a lot but that's up eight points in a month. also on the way up, approval of the way the president is handling the economy. that's up six points. and the long-term outlook is getting more positive as well. 37% think that in the next year, things are going to get better. that's up seven points in just one month. of course, we get these numbers as the president continues a three-day trip to five swing states talking about a plan to turn the economy around. charles flow is a columnist for the "new york times." gentlemen, it's good to see you. along, charles, these numbers don't look remarkable but the jumps are big in polling numbers we were so shocked we actually released the poll numbers early. what do you think is going on here?