santorum has a major delegate problem in the land of lincoln. he can't afford a big popular vote loss. president obama announces february fund-raising numbers. 45 million bucks. that's a big leap from january but he is still less than he was pulling in back in 2008 believe it or not. the president has a big donor problem. what's hurting him more with big donor, disillusioned ex-wall streeters or that he doesn't need money given the competition he may face. staff sergeant robert bales beats with his attorney today for the first time. formal charges to come within days. we're live at ft. leavenworth. it's monday, march 9th, 2012. the last full day of winter. this is "the daily rundown." i'm chuck todd. let's get to my first read of the morning. in less than 48 hours, mitt romney gets his next midwestern test. can rick santorum do what he's done in every midwestern battleground state yet and turn it into a nail biter. romney started his day in

illinois with another win under his belt. he walked away with landslide victory in puerto rico's primary. romney said that his victory signaled republicans can win hispanic voters in november. >> this isn't some little island. it's 4 million people. if it were a state, it would be the 25th largest state in the country. those people who don't think that latinos will vote for republicans need to take a look in puerto rico. >> santorum who made a tactical choice to take two days away from campaigning in illinois to try to keep romney's puerto rico delegate number down released a statement allegedly in congratulations but saying "we know mitt romney will do and say anything to get votes and this is just another example of that. i think 90% of americans who believe english should be the official language of this country must be wondering why

mitt romney disagrees with that." now on to illinois where romney and supporters are outspending santorum 7 to 1. no question who will win the delegate fight tomorrow. santorum is only eligible for 44 out of illinois's 54 delegates but santorum says he can squeak out a surprise victory in the popular vote. >> if we're able to come out of illinois with a huge or surprise win, i guarantee you that we will win this nomination. >> this morning on "morning joe," i asked santorum about how he plans to convince republicans he has got it together enough organizationally to challenge president obama in the fall. >> chuck, you know that the organizational issue that i had in illinois and ohio and a couple other states, these delegates had to be filed in november and december. i'm in the state of iowa and i have as you know limited resources going around driving around in a truck with a guy

named chuck in a dodge ram pickup truck doing town hall meetings. >> still, it is a problem for him. he could lose as many as -- he could only get as many as 20 delegates tomorrow. 21. the way this system works in illinois, wait until i show you the ballot that republicans in illinois will look at tomorrow. we've got these ballots up. they are crazy and they mean bad things for santorum delegatewise because of the order of the ballot. santorum responded to romney's charge that he's an economic light weight. >> i'm convinced that america is going to have the best chance of replacing an economic light weight if we nominate an economic heavy weight. senator santorum has the same economic light weight background. >> of course when he was governor of massachusetts, his heavyweight record was 47 out of

50 in job creation. >> let's look at big numbers here. after picking up 20 delegates in puerto rico, nominee has 443 delegates in his column. that's double santorum's 184. romney, whose campaign made the math argument for weeks, the candidate himself made the math argument, says he's now not paying attention to the math. >> i know a lot of people will talk about delegates and strategies and math and that's interesting to the insiders but i think the american people want to see someone who has the leadership, skill and experience to defeat the president. >> somebody got the message memo by the way. stop talking about the math. santorum is looking ahead to louisiana's primary this coming saturday. he spent yesterday at lsu and baton rouge getting batting practice. >> got on top of that ball. lsu baseball very, very big.

more important than basketball at lsu. only second to football. and in the latest sign santorum will not leave much of anything on the table, romney's dog on the roof story got a mention yesterday from santorum. >> as far as shameless the dog, all i would say is issues of character important this election and we need to look at all of those issues and make a determination as to whether that's the kind of person you want to be president of the united states. >> talk about this more later in the show but it's interesting to me two big democratic talking points against romney that santorum is picking up on. one is the idea that romney doesn't have a core using the exact phrase and words that david used. this marathon campaign led to increased talk that nomination fight could for the first time in 36 years go all of the way to the convention. republican heavyweights including the nominee last time

around did more hand wringing about the party on sunday. >> it's the nastiest i've ever seen. it's gone way too long and gotten way, way too personal. >> i don't think anybody in their right mind think the way the primaries have played out is good for republican chances. >> so if that's the case, this was kind of striking. haliley barbour says it may note bad for the party. >> it's left between voters. we've had twice, three times really, governor romney look like he was poised to begin coalescing and he lost the next week. a contested election isn't bad. >> is this a former chairman of the rnc, as big as part of establishment is he, is he

inviting primary voters to engage in this? he said he voted for newt. mccain weighed in on the controversial arizona bill saying they are using birth control for uses other than preventing a pregnancy. he scolded the party for focus on the contraception issue. >> do you think there is something of a war on women among republicans? >> i think we have to fix that. i think there's a perception out there because of the way that this whole contraception issue played out. we need to get off of that issue in my view. i think we ought to respect the right of women to make choices in their lives and make that clear. get back on to what the american people really care about. jobs and the economy. >> mccain wasn't the only one who dinged the party on contraception. listen to this jab by scott brown at a st. patrick's day roast yesterday in south boston.

>> i see that both newt gingrich and rick santorum now have secret service with them on the campaign trail. in santorum's case i think it's the first time he's ever used protection. >> senator conan o'brien called, he wants his joke back. as more cities face $4 gas, republicans are trying to turn high prices to their advantage on the trail. >> this gas hike trio has got to resign or get fired. we have to get them out and get people in who will bring down the cost of gasoline. >> the white house continues to act like a white house that's very concerned about this issue. later this week the president is spending two days on the road talking about what the white house believes is a better story to tell on energy than they are getting credit for. obama will make stops in nevada, new mexico and ohio and cushing, oklahoma. it will be the first trip to

oklahoma since obama has been in office and the campaign announced that it raised more than $45 million for the campaign and the dnc combined in the month of february. that's more than twice of what they did in january. for an incumbent president, he's doing surprisingly poorly with big donors. according to analysis by "the washington post" this morning, at this point in the last election cycle, candidate obama received donations of over $2,000 from more than 23,000 different people. more than double the 11,000 who have given him that much this time around. president george w. bush had more than four times that number of big donors at this point in his re-election in 2004. speculation in the peaiece as t why? complacency about the campaign. now we know why the president is devoting so much time lately attending campaign events. now to the issue about afghanistan. the defense team for army staff sergeant robert bales will meet their client for the first time

face to face today inside ft. leavenworth's military prison. attorney john henry brown suggested that bales' repeated combat tours may be key to his defense. >> there's a lot of people asking questions about why someone with his sort of injuries was sent back to the middle east. >> in terms of repeated deployment, the one-year delay and turnaround, is that going to be a point you think the defense will raise? >> of course. >> that voice, that's nbc's john yang. he's live at the prison in kansas. john, you put it bluntly to me this morning. the defense pretty much wants to put the war on trial. >> reporter: that's exactly right. you asked john henry browne whether that's his goal, he says the american public is doing that. he's going to talk about repeated deployments. staff sergeant bales was sent overseas four times since 2003. three times to iraq this last tour in afghanistan.

he wants to talk about ptsd, post-traumatic stress disorder. he suggests that any troop that's been deployed four times to the middle east might have ptsd. he wants to talk about traumatic brain injury. on one of his tours in iraq he says that staff sergeant bales suffered a head injury when a vehicle rollover hit an ied. he really is hitting all of the hot button issues and things people have been talking about the afghan war. he says that -- it's an interesting defense. never has he denied the accusations against his client. he's talked about ptsd. he's talked about repeated deployments. he's talked about the injuries that his client suffered in iraq and when he says that people often ask him do you think this case will have something to do or have any impact on the length of the war in afghanistan, he

said i certainly hope so. >> john, let's be realistic. the trial itself, is this isn't a regular courtroom trial. there isn't going to be cameras. there isn't going to be a jury that -- the jury of his peers is not a jury of the american public. >> reporter: that's exactly right. it will be military people and because he's an enlisted man he can ask for enlisted men on the jury. he can ask rather than all officers on the jury. whether that will play a role, whether you can get enlisted men who have had repeated deployments, there's no indication of where this trial will take place. it could happen here at ft. leavenworth. it could happen somewhere else. whether he gets a jury literally of his peers of enlisted men who have been overseas time and time again is going to be an interesting thing to watch too, chuck. >> all right. john yang on the beat for us at ft. leavenworth. john, thanks very much.

coming up, senators at risk. why are so many incumbents feeling nervous in their fights for re-election? buckets and buckets of detail on this. trust me. with all this talk about a long and nasty battle for republican nomination, we'll look into a chapter from history that the party would both like to embrace and forget at the same time. it's that famous '64 campaign. what can today's gop learn from the events of almost 50 years ago. a look ahead at the president's schedule. nothing public other than a campaign event. he's got his big trip across the country talking energy later this week. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. [ donovan ] i hit a wall. and i thought "i can't do this, it's just too hard." then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going. go for olympic gold and go to college too.

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>> many senators are facing tough re-election battles this year. there are always 33 or so up. orrin hatch in utah is facing a tough challenge from the right. others are newer faces like massachusetts senator scott brown fighting to keep his seat in a blue seat. joining me to discuss who is in trouble, our guests. we have four buckets of senate races i want to talk about. the first bucket is probably the race as far as new york/washington amtrak corridor is concerned. that's massachusetts susan page. elizabeth warren and scott brown. winner gets to run for president in 2016. loser gets a talk show. >> that's right. we saw something where you would think democrats would win massachusetts senate race. should be a done deal. we saw one reason why you

couldn't this weekend with the st. patrick's day stuff in massachusetts which is scott brown comes across as a regular guy. a guy you would love to have a beer with. the same kind of appeal that helped him win in that state before. >> what's interesting is they are both trying to hit the other for being a little elitist. >> i learned that things change fast in politics. for instance, one day scott brown is aer? fold for "cosmo" and next a poster boy for goldman sachs. >> i hope you didn't get lost leaving cambridge again today. >> there you go. one trying to hit him for being a little bit of a star and embracing stardom which we do notice every now and again and this harvard/cambridge hit. >> the way that republicans win this, if you look at the numbers here, scott brown should lose. the way that republicans win is to say to those south democrats,

socially conservative, very fiscally liberal but long-term democrats that are conservatives. he has to win those. you do it by saying from harvard. >> maine is one. it's complicated. we'll get to that later. let's talk about republicans having to deal with primary challenges. we talked about orrin hatch. he looks to be in better shape that he's prepared for this fight and his twin here is dick lugar. both came in in 1976. if they win, lugar gets to be senate president. if republicans get control -- >> because it's the bigger state? >> you know this stuff. if lugar obviously if only one wins and that stuff. this is for the most senior post inside the senate republican party. dick lugar two polls out. one from democrat and one from republican firm showing lugar

under 50. >> if lugar loses the primary, we could be talking about indiana in the fall as a competitive race, right? congressman joe donnalley running for republican seat. we think of indiana being a safe republican place. if the tea party candidate wins the nomination, it's possible this could be in play. also amazing that being the senior senator may not be such an appealing label in a year when everyone hates washington. >> i was going to say. if lugar loses, he loses the way other guys have lost when it looks like they've lost touch with home. tom daschle we saw it happen with him. santorum in a senate race. >> he came into the leadership. >> he got dinged for not living in pennsylvania. >> lugar we found out last week can't vote in indiana. how do you -- another one to add while we're at it. elizabeth dole. same problem. the problem for lugar, if lugar

loses, it's his own fault. he refused to walk back moderate positions he took. >> his own fault but -- >> in a primary like this, he -- >> that's right. they both face tea party challenges. one said i'm with you. the other said i am who i am. >> is barack obama's favorite republican senator also not a label you want to have when you are being challenged by -- >> there it is. i got two other buckets i want to get to quickly. one is democrats having to hold seats in red states. montana, north dakota. nebraska. by the way, it's missouri. even though claire mccaskill would like to think otherwise. >> i think nebraska and north dakota are hard for democrats to win. >> they outrecruited the

republicans in both cases. >> yes. both quality candidates in a presidential year you have to overperform by so much. missouri. we focus so much on the republican race and the republican field is bad. it makes republican presidential field look like an nba all-star game. it's a bad field. i don't think president obama spends one real dime in missouri because i don't think it's a state they can win. that might help mccaskill. it's going to be a republican state and she's going to struggle. >> she needs president obama to get 47. she needs him to go get it. if he doesn't, then there's trouble. >> you saw her breaking with him on energy on the keystone pipeline. >> the question is if you look cable television ever in 2008 campaign, she was his main surroga surrogate. that's a problem. >> with the decision in maine by

olympia snow, so goes control of the senate. we have virginia. nevada. you can throw in michigan. definitely ohio. it is clear. wisconsin. presidential battleground, new mexico even. the senate battleground are intertwined. >> we polled 12 states. seven of them have competitive senate races. that's got to be some kind of record. the overlay of the states with competitive senate races. that's why republicans are alarmed about rick santorum getting the nomination because in these battleground states he could have a really hard time. >> so many of them are going to be so close. the senate races. it could matter. one or two points at the top of the ticket. if obama pulls out of a state or mitt romney pulls out of michigan at some point. now debbie stabinow looks stronger. the margins are what we'll talk about. a lot of races are close. >> wisconsin and florida feel like the two that are more so

than anymore. most impactful. we'll see. we'll see. we got to 15 senate races in ten minutes. that was good. you're the only one with a team left. >> go kansas. >> they will continue to make it look hard. up next, the $100 billion question on wall street. what will apple do with all their cash? how about give us an app for it. and an romney's appeals to women voters. can she repair some of the fallout from this contraception debate that hurt republicans. which u.s. president was forbidden from running for high school senior class president? tweet me an answer at chuck todd. the answer and more coming up on "the daily rundown." [ male announcer ] this is coach parker...

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soreies making headlines overseas. one adult and three children are dead after a shooting by an unknown motorcyclist. rough storms in central nebraska overnight spawned two tornadoes. possible twisters were reported no northern nebraska as well as southern south dakota and western oklahoma on this last day of winter. now to march madness. kansas jay hawks nearly become the third number two seed to get knocked out but survived to beat tenth seeded purdue 63-60. purdue had a chance to win with time expiring but the shot was off the mark. how about the state of ohio? four sweet 16 teams. first lady michelle obama is headed to new york today for a fund-raiser dinner. then she hits late night. apple announced what it will do with part of its nearly $100

billion. apple ceo tim cook announced the company will initial naturete a dividend. okay. so could apple go to $700 this week? >> just when you think the stock can't go higher, it goes higher. this news is expected to have a positive impact on the stock. it's up in premarket session. apple is being seen here to do a little bit of everything. distributing some of the cash to shareholders. saving some for reinvestment and buying back stock. all in all it is good news. it was expected and might temper the kind of gains we see today. other stories we're watching here at cnbc. starbucks expanding from java to juice. "usa today" reporting the company is going to open its first evolution fresh juice store in bellevue, washington,

today. the pilot star will help starbucks decide whether it will get into that $50 billion health and wellness industry. the store will offer fresh squeezed juices for around $8 for 16 ounces. holy cow and vegetarian and vegan dishes. chuck? >> now they're going to charge us $8 for a class of orange juice. they'll probably get away with it. >> and the share price will probably rise. up next, a deep dive into the 1964 campaign. can republicans avoid another goldwater debacle although historically it was good for them. we'll tell you why. "the daily rundown" will be back in 30 seconds.

today we take a deep dive into a long and bitter republican primary campaign. we're not talking about 2012. 1964. when arizona senator barry goldwater and his army of conservative supporters staged a gop cue of sorts. goldwater was coaxed into the race by a three-year long draft movement. it took a hard line against communism abroad and big government at home. he was already a well known for his blunt talk including one suggesting the use of tactical nuclear weapons by nato commanders. kicking off his campaign he explained his decision to run as a staunch conservative. >> i have not heard from any announced republican candidate a

declaration of conscience or political position that could possibly offer to the american people a clear choice in the next presidential election. >> you heard that before? clear choice. the '64 campaign shaped up as a battle between goldwater and various not goldwater candidates. new york's popular governor at the time, nelson rockefeller was the initial front runner but the campaign was doomed from the start after a divorce from his first wife and marriage in 1964 to happy. first there was new hampshire. goldwater and rockefeller lost. next was oregon. both goldwater and rockefeller were on the ballot, rockefeller had to define what goldwater stood for. >> radical extremism, which a vast majority of american people

would reject in november. >> he won oregon. two candidates clashed over everything in california from united nations to the ideological direction of the republican party. >> senator goldwater said he would have us pull out of the united nations and specifically mentions that with respect to red china. >> there can be either in the united nations or in councils of the free world no substitution for leadership of the united states. >> this is one of the basic issues today as to whether the extreme right will take over the party and pull a party out of the mainstream. >> express yourself at the polls in the way you feel is best for your country and don't let any politician scare you out of it. >> goldwater surged in the final weekend and won june 2nd primary. goldwater won the battle for delegates by packing state party conventions with his supporters.

it allowed him to lock up delegates throughout the spring and summer. the conference in june, top republicans wringing hands over how to stop goldwater. after goldwater voted against the civil rights act on june 10th, a feurious scranton reversed course to offer a run. >> i reject the echo we have thus far been handed. echo of fear and reaction. >> it was too little too late. by the time of the republican national convention in san francisco goldwater had won the delegate race with texas giving him the 655 delegates he needed to go over the top with goldwater forces controlling the convention, nelson rockefeller used his five-minute speech to defend his own principles and warn of extremist as supporters

shouted him down. >> goldwater won the nomination on the first ballot in his acceptance speech he threw down the gauntlet against lbj. >> i would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no bias. >> there it is. perhaps the most famous quote goldwater uttered. president johnson capitalized on the gop civil war with his tv ad using goldwater's opponents' words against goldwater. >> governor rockefeller, before the convention he said barry goldwater's position can and i quote spell disaster for the party and for the country. or this man, governor romney. in june he said goldwater's

nomination would lead to suicidal destruction of the republican party. so even if you're a republican with serious doubts about barry goldwater, you're in good company. >> that's just one of the many ads that sunk goldwater in the '64 campaign. a chapter in gop history that today's republicans on one hand want to avoid repeating with their eventual nominee and yet there's many conservatives that look back on goeldwater's run that wouldn't have had ronald reagan that was another star at that '64 convention. one of the lessons here. i know a lot of republicans and romney campaign want to talk about 2008 and democratic primary campaign. the bottom line is when you have ideological fights inside a nominating process, you are dooming yourself for the general election. it is hard to look at '76, look at '80 and democrats and look at '64 and republicans. you have these ideological fights like this. look at '92 to a lesser extent.

it's hard to imagine how you unite the party and not give opposing party the opportunity to run against that dysfunction. up next, our monday political panel breaks down ann romney's pitch to voters. we have the delegate math and why rick santorum defends staying in this race. white house soup of the day, this is always a good one because i should make you try to name the 15 beans. 15 bean soup. loose definition of the word bean to make a good 15 bean soup. everyone in america depends on the postal service.

i get my cancer medications through the mail. now washington, they're looking at shutting down post offices coast to coast. closing plants is not the answer. they want to cut 100,000 jobs. it's gonna cost us more, and the service is gonna be less. we could lose clientele because of increased mailing times. the ripple effect is going to be devastating. congress created the problem. and if our legislators get on the ball, they can make the right decisions. but i have this new smartphone. and now i can see everything more clearly.

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when president george w. bush ordered the start of the iraq war. president obama would declare the end to major combat operations less than three months later u.s. combat forces would not officially exit the country until december 2011. one of mitt romney's most powerful surrogates is his wife, ann. she's making a direct appeal to a voting block that's been hurting the republicans lately. >> women are talking about jobs. women are talking about deficit spending. thank you, women. we need you. we all need you in november too. we have to remember why we're upset and what we've got to do to fix things. >> my panel today, how are you doing guys. welcome all. so ann romney as a surrogate. i have been sort of perplexed at how little they use ann romney. >> she's tremendous. one of the things that mitt

likes to say on the stump is if you want her, you have to vote for me. that may be an effective argument. >> i put this to the campaign. they say, you don't understand, trust us. we would be running more ads with her if we thought they moved conservative voters. she'll be an asset if the fall but not in the primary. >> she could be. the southern part of the state will go santorum in illinois. ann romney right now is important for tuesday and tuesday is very important for romney. >> i think we'll see more ann romney. more and more on the campaign trail because i know general election wise it's something they need. >> we have to remember she has m.s. she has to deal with that on a daily basis. >> days she can't be on the trail as much. >> however, i'm also told she loves being on the campaign trail. to your point, the campaign is trying to figure out what's the best way to use her.

every time she's around the governor, mitt romney, he's more relaxed and he's in a better move. >> i've seen him with her. >> i'm also told by two pollsters over the weekend in pennsylvania that the women issue, contraception issue, sandra fluke issue, is tearing the party apart saying i will vote for obama if republicans continue this hate talk. >> you'll see ann romney a lot. >> if illinois is a big win for romney. the greater chicagoland area and greater philadelphia land area. i want to get to something, molly. santorum is now borrowing a lot of the democratic talking points. listen to this little mini montage i put together. >> this is someone who doesn't have a core. he's been on both sides of

almost every single issue in the past ten years. >> i would make two points about him. one is he has no core. and every day almost it seems to be we find another issue. >> yesterday he also brought up the dog, which is an obsession of the democratic team over there. they think the dog story with romney is something that can help them. >> dog has legs. >> the more santorum is able to use democratic talking points to attack romney, that plays radio it's into what obama wants. >> this is exactly what the republicans fear from the long primary. it would be one thing if they were boast just exciting two separate bases of the republican party and everybody was getting into it. you do have democratic attacks. the whole point of the sort of long game democrats have been playing, they've been running against romney for a year now. the whole point is to solidify these perceions, to create impression of romney that's rock solid by the time we get to general he can't do anything. >> it's reinforced by a republican. >> almost like an echo.

>> used by democrats is what they are most looking forward to as they size up romney. >> did you see in the lbg ad? you're in good company. >> on core and values they can now quote rick santorum and others. and on these big met ricrics of romney is, they'll use republican voices nearly as much as they will use their own. >> i want to bring up. how about haley barbour this weekend. he voted for newt in the primary. his nephew working on romney's behalf trying to end this thing. haley clearly signaling, if you voters don't want to end it, that's okay. we can handle this. what's he up to? >> he said this is a is firing squad. inviting chaos. what's interesting here is he's sending a signal to santorum to stop this. >> he is?

>> i think so. >> i thought he was sending a signal to say let's have a brokered convention. i'm here to run it. >> i have a triple bank shot analysis. sarah palin said she voted for noout. haley barbour said he voted for newt. who does it help? it helps romney. that doesn't help santorum. it keeps gingrich around and gives him oxygen that he didn't otherwise have. and the longer he's in and longer you can say -- >> splits the vote. >> i have another conspiracy theory. i think mitch daniels, paul ryan, jeb bush, i think they all want to say four years from now they didn't support mitt romney when it mattered. >> that's guys a conspiracy theory. i have written about this phenomenon about this republican establishment and why not shut it down. so many voices out there if they wanted to make a push and say let's shut this down, this is terrible, they could.

>> haley barbour could have done it in the voting booth and he didn't do it. i'm sorry. it's crazy. >> i agree. what he's doing is santorum and gingrich split the conservative vote which helps romney in the short-term. >> it means that haley barbour can say he didn't support him. >> why does he want to say that? >> that's my question. there's a calculation going on. a fear that a vote for mitt romney will hurt your conservative four years from now. >> he's not going to vote for rick santorum. if he said i voteded f ed fod f santorum, that would -- >> newt is the safe vote. >> this is another instance where romney is in a no-win situation. the tea party base to them he's the establishment candidate. but to the actual establishment, they don't like him. they don't trust him. he doesn't win there either. >> you know what -- >> the establishment knows it can't force an outcome. the closest thing it can do is influence the outcome by sending

different signals. that's what sarah palin and haley barbour is doing. >> mitt romney is a victim of his organizational success. they actually have tactically run as good a campaign as they could run for nothi being a conservative. stick around. i want to talk obama and money because i know people think we're crazy on this. he actually might have a mini money problem. trivia time. which u.s. president was forbidden for running for high school class president? bill clinton. he had won so many awards and honors at his arkansas high school the principal thought he needed to give someone else a chance and wouldn't let him run. we'll be right back. talk about repealing the 20-second amendment. now we know why the president wanted to repeal that one. americans believe they should be in charge of their own future. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want.

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let's bring back our panel. a very lively discussion about the republican campaign.

president obama spent all day on friday raising money. understandable. they have been behind financially just a little bit, and they admit it started with debt ceiling. the they had to cancel 30 fund-raisers between july and august and it doesn't look like they've ever caught up. now we're seeing some interesting analysis with a big donor problem. >> the small dough authors aren't at the level they were in 2008 either. you can say, well, it was 2008. it was different. everyone was excited. but this is a situation where, you know, we talked so much about how unexcited the republicans are. democrats are not all that excited either. >> disillusionment from big donor washington folks which could be a badge of honor. >> if you were among the biggest contributors if not the biggest contributor -- >> and the 0 other one is oddly enough complacency. it looks like, he doesn't need the money. >> continues to to say do not get complacent. we're begging you, don't hold your cash. don't hold your checks back until june, july and august

because we need to build our infrastructure thousand. there's an interesting conversation going on behind the scenes about the clinton big bund letters and big donors and that matrix that has never fully aligned itself internally within the party with the obama donors and those conversations are going on. obviously they haven't gelled yet but it's a project ongoing. >> single most intraeging person invited to the state dinner that a lot of clinton world was shocked to see? >> was it richard branson? >> it was not. trying to smoke weed at the white house. it was terry mcauliffe, the man who is probably the linchpin to the clinton -- to this clinton money coming in, robert, and when is this money plane going to land? >> that's the real question. people are saying when is clinton going to be back on the ticket again? that is happening to a certain degree. terry mcauliffe is the rainmaker when it comes to the -- he's the dam, if you will. if you break that dam it will open up to the obama campaign.

he is yet to endorse, so to speak, and release and given the permission for the clinton folks. >> we haven't seen the big obama -- you know there's going to be an obama/clinton fund-raiser somewhere. just the two big doings. >> and maybe three, maybe four. no commitments yet. all of that is delicately negotiated. >> and it's in more than one place you would assume. >> right. >> bubba and barack and then -- >> the star ticket, absolutely. >> the obama campaign doesn't want it to be that. they want everything that is underneath that large person. >> the scene from that press conference where bill clinton took over the podium. >> this is what i think drives the obama people -- this is why -- the lyclinton people expt to be wooed. and the obama people don't like doing that. right, molly? >> they like to play hard to get. they like people to come to them. they're too cool for school. >> the sleepovers, the coffees, the clintons were good at donor mant thans.

the obamas don't have the experience. these guys have only been on the national scene for six years. >> it's a fundamentally different approach. grassroots is serious. grassroots is not a notion. grassroots is their ethic and the ethic is -- >> and they believe in it more. >> you organize at the lower level and the bigger money will follow. it did four years ago. that is real, genuine, and they believe it. >> they do have more -- >> it's created some tension right now but they do believe it. >> my shameless plug interest for you was putting the romney campaign on the couch. what have you got today? >> thank you so much. i have to plug my colleagues over at national journal launched a terrific year long series on restoring the american economy, first cover story came out. it's terrific. >> by the way, couldn't be more excited that he got to go and edit. >> 7:00 to 9:00, we are hosting a new show. >> love it. >> my colleagues at "the atlantic" have a piece on ben

bernanke. >> my shameless plug is for frank. that's it for this edition of da "the daily rundown." tomorrow on the show we'll have our must-see illinois primary. up next is "jansing and co." have a great day. sorry, buddy. here is your business travel forecast. today it's about severe weather and thunderstorms in the middle of the country, areas of oklahoma city, dallas, austin, down into san antonio. even detroit in areas of the great lakes region will have isolated pop-up storms later on today. the warmth continues in many areas. the cool weather in l.a., 61 for a high for you. phoenix one of the cooler spots in the west.

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hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy. and good morning. i'm richard louie in today for chris jansing. first off, this morning mitt romney and santorum are eyeing illinois. romney met with voters in charlie parker's diner and rick santorum is expected any minute in rock ford. this nomination battle just keeps rolling along. romney picking up states and delegates but not being able to seal the deal. that's the map so far. this new romney campaign got our attention. take a look. >> i think everybody knows, nobody puts words into my mouth. the words out of my mouth were that if