>> it is mike. >> hey, mike. mike, why don't you do the toss for us. if it's way too early, it's "morning joe." >> but what time is it now? >> what time is it now? >> [ inaudible ] >> "the daily rundown." >> matt, great job. feeding the frenzy, the latest major distraction in campaign 2012 fuels outrage and ultimately an apology but does this moment really amount to more than one person's out-of-bounds comment? north korea launches its rocket but it doesn't get very far, crashing into the sea after just a few hundred miles. what all right u.s. and allies do to keep them from trying that again or something worse? a daily run down deep dive into the historic republican convention of '76. the most consequential republican con ven negotiation recent memory, what can mitt romney learn from that infamous fight between ford and reagan?

good morning from washington. watch out, it's friday the 13th. this is the daily rundown. i'm chuck todd. get right to my first reads of the morning. welcome to the world of the shiny metal object. a person no one agrees with his igniteded a mefrd controversy, rather than sparking a debate about the role of women in and out of the workplace, a debate have and making that decision, the last 24 hours has turned into hilary rosen versus everybody else. the democratic strategist and cnn paid commentator tried defend herself yesterday after she set off a fire storm on cable and social media by saying ann romney "has never worked a day in her life." >> look, mitt romney has brought his wife into this conversation. i don't -- this is not about ann romney this is about the waitress at a diner in, you know, some place in nevada who has two kids whose day care funding is being cut off because of the romney/ryan budget.

>> now, the romney campaign fired on all cylinders, they called receipt marks a kill ann strategy. ann romney wrote her first tweet, i made a choice to stay home and raise my five boys. she also went on choice. >> my career choice was to be a mother. i think all of us need to know we need to respect choices women make. other make other choices to have a career and raise family which i think hilary rosen has done herself. i respect that. >> the thing is the last 24 hours didn't produce a debate. instead, it was hilary rosen versus former first lady barbara bush. >> five boys is a handful, trust me. raising george walker was not easy. i'm not criticizing hilary what's her name. i'm being corrected but whatever her name is. >> hilary rosen. >> hilary rosen chose to do it the other way, that's fine there are choices in life, i think that's great, but i also think if you stay at home and raise

five great children, which i immodestly say i have done, i think it was worth the trip. >> it was also hilary rosen versus vice president joe biden as the obama campaign and the white house waste nod time distancing themselves from the comments. >> that's an outrageous assertion. look, i have fought my whole career, i'm no hero, i don't want to make it like, whether it is the women act or equal pay, my entire career as a senator and vice president is to get to point one, where my daughter is able to make whatever choice she wants and no one question it. >> finally, it was hilary rosen versus the president. >> i've watched michelle, who, you know, for most of her career had to juggle work and family but there were times when she was on maternity leave and i promise you, that's work.

so, i think it this was an ill-advised same by somebody on television. it is not something that i subscribe to and moreover, my general rule is you don't talk about the spouses of elected officials. >> so what debate was sparked? there is no debate about whether mothers that stay at home are working or not. that's not the debate. what was debate that was sparked? we are actually going to get into that a little bit later because the debate -- there could be a debate worth spark that hasn't happened. now, let's talk about the manufactured process of this. manufactured controversies like these are nothing new in american politics, for as long as there have plan political consultants have have been folks trying to manufacture controversies during campaign years. president nixon had checkers. >> my little girl, tricia, the 6-year-old, named checkers. and you know, the kids, like all kids, loft dog. and i just want to say this

right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we are gonna keep t. >> four years ago, political precious obsessing over john mccain's seven homes and michelle obama's patriotism. what's new though this cycle is how much faster and how professionalized these manufactured controversies have become with a campaign apparatus on each side whose sophistication of new media sun matched. this is the third manufactured controversy in just the last 30 days in this campaign. we had etch a sketch. >> he said it's like an etch a sketch. >> he said it was like an etch a sketch. >> like an etch a sketch. >> this is an etch a sketch. >> an etch a sketch. >> an etch a sketch. >> an etch a sketch. an etch a sketch. >> how many of you have ever use and etch a sketch? >> my daughter used the etch a sketch. >> we had the open-mike episode, hillary on this rnc ensoechld. >> your mission is simple, mr. obama, whip one last election to

gain unchecked flexibility. dimitri will transmit the information. >> starring barack obama as president flexible, dimitried meed very dead as dr. transmitkov and vladimir putin as himself. >> the rosen comments only take away from these comment, you learn how a candidate in a campaign handleds itself under pressure, learned a few things in the past 24 hours, one, even skeptical conner is vat trifs ready to rally at a moment's notice around the "moderate" mitt romney. >> the comments that hilary rosen made today certainly awakened many mama grizzlies across the nation. i'm convinced governor romney if he is our nominee and elected president, he will know to surround himself with those inherently know to go right. >> sheflt idea that conservatives will sit on their hardens in this election. number two the romney campaign is very worried about this gender gap. expect to see more of ann romney

on the trail. the romney campaign is fund-raising off of rosen's remarks, by the way with a low-dollar campaign, donate $6 to get your "mom's drive the economy bumper sticker and send a message to president obama" the fund-raising e-mail says. number three, this is what the next three months and maybe six months will be like, whether it's the president's religion, romney's religion, some other off-the-cuff remark by a commentator that had no connection to i have not campaigns this won't be the last manufactured con throw verse soift campaign. it seems both parties have an apparatus at its will and sometimes advocacy media outlets to allow these things to go viral quickly. finally, this is the end of the first week of the general election. it was supposed to be a week that the white house and the obama campaign were going to be on offense as well. they focused on tax fairness and mitt romney's personal wealth punctuated by the release of tax returns. instead, the campaign to tie

mitt romney to tax fairness argument by biden on the trail. here is what was said yesterday. >> the romney rule proposes to give another $250,000 a year tax cut to the average millionaire. i don't blame her for crying. she's gonna -- she is gonna inherit it. she's gonna pay for t that's one smart baby. >> of course, culminate in the president ex-plus sitly singling out romney by name last night. >> because of the kinds of policies that mr. romney's proposing we go back to we went through the worst financial crisis and the worst economic crisis in our lifetimes. >> the fact of the matters is the tax fairness message they were trying to push this week got lost and team obama lost the week, began with the with the market reaction to last fry

friday's jobs report, continuing around the romney after rick santorum's exit you the hillary rosen manufactured flap and the romney campaign success in create that distraction and totally getting rid of this push by the obama campaign to make wealth an issue this week, by the way, the romney folks finding a way to at least have a conversation about this issue with the gender gap. even the president's attempts to sell the buffett rule by giving interviews to local stations didn't go as planned. >> some of our viewers complained they can get frustrated, even angered when they see the first family jegt around different vacation and so forth, sometimes maybe they think under color of state business. and you're out of touch you document know what they're experiencing right now. >> i don't know how many viewers you're talking about that say that i'm raising a family here. when we travel, we got to travel through secret service and air force one, that's not my choice.

i think most folks understand how hard i work. >> folks, we have learned this is gonna be -- realize this is going to be a very close election. north korea's high-profile rocket launch ended in humiliating fashion today flying less than 100 miles before break up and crashing into the sea. jim miklaszewski is nbc's chief pog correspondent. came across as a movie joke what happened with this missile but their reaction, what did we learn about all this? >> reporter: this was an unmitigated disaster for the north koreans this thing was barely in the air less than 90 seconds, it simply started to fly apart, dozens of huge chunks of it falling harmlessly into the yellow sea. it's not clear whether there was an explosion on board or whether it happened during the separation of the first and second stages. we may get more details on that today. but clearly, this is a huge setback for the north koreans who blamed all along that this

was a launch to put a weather satellite into orbit. the u.s. all along said this is nothing less than the test of a long-range missile that could ultimately reach the united states and perhaps carry a nuclear war head. the biggest part of this disaster is the north koreans were so proud of what they thought they were going to achieve here, they invited international media in and once they were there locked him down so they couldn't see this. >> mirk the other thing about this, maybe simply because there's so much international media in the country right now, the government actually admitted its failure. that's not something that used to happen in kim jong ill but what are we learning about kim jong-un that they are admitting this and does this mean we are going to see power struggle? >> that's stale little unclear. there is some uncertainty about

how much power kim jong-un has i doubt he took seat of power and said, hey, let's launch a missile test that mills, rocket, had to have been prepared well before his father died and he took power. whose decision ultimately it was do that is still unclear. one of the primary issues about this, in the three previous failures as you say, north koreans wouldn't say anything, yes, we achieved our goals, a huge success, hold parties, parade, matching bands would come out and celebrate this north korean victory, for this time, for them to admit it's a failure, maybe that's crack, but i can tell you this is a concern there are indications the north koreans are preparing to conduct another underground nuclear blast test and now if there were

any doubts they would do it if they were preparing it, they were going to do it to save face. >> jim miklaszewski at the pentagon. thank you, sir. up next, going took this gender gap, the key role the women's vote is going to play in 2012, won't be decided on manufactured issues or many scandals, so, what can do to bridge the divide and you what can the obama campaign do to make sure it doesn't happen? plus, taking a deep dive into the wayback machine to the last time a republican race went to the convention, the last time the republicans nominated such a moderate republican, in '76, reagan versus ford, the number of similarity to the today's republican race will surprise you. but first, a look ahead at the president's schedule. he is leaving in this hour for tampa, florida then off to carta line nah. is florida a swing state? i don't know. you are watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. look, every day we're using more and more energy.

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well, the debate over working women and stay at home moms may be interesting political theater, not ral debate on that front but barely does scratch the surface when it comes to the real pressures that face families and women whether they work or not outside the home. now, instead earthquake the conversation apparently sounds again a lot like it did 20 years ago. >> i could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, what i decided to do was fulfill my profession which i entered before my husband was in public life. >> betsy miers is founding director of bentley university center for women and business. she is also -- chaired women for obama during the '08 campaign and a senior adviser for women's issues for president clinton. nice to see you.

>> nice to see you, hi, chuck, good morning. >> good morning. i want to start with the part of this debate that we supposedly sparked a debate, of course, not debating this part, but it is the in between, the idea there was a debate between whether women should choose between working or staying at home and whether staying at home means you work or not, but there's this sort of in between aspect of this the pressures women face, the judgmental aspect of deciding to work outside the home or not work outside the home. i want you to start with that. >> i think what women really want is the choice to choose whether they want to stay home or act. the truth is what many women are struggling with is trying to do both, trying to work and have a family. that's why one of the big conversations that are going on, a lot of corporate america is actually tackling this issue of workplace flexibility, how do we

create an environment where women and men, because men today are really involved in their children's lives and how do we create an environment at work where they can have a career and raise a family. >> is there something on the federal level? should we be having a debate on this issue, new laws, new anything that needs to be done or is this more of a social/cultural conversation the business community should have? >> i do think that there is a -- always public/private relationship, how government and corporate america can work together on these issues but particularly on the issue of flexibility, workplace flexibility, because one of the things we are doing at the women's center for business in bentley looking that the issue why in 2012, we still only have 12 to 14% of the top jobs in

corporate america are held by women? why is that? what's fascinating and really exciting is corporate america is starting to say, wait a minute, we know we have to harness all of the incredible brain power around the business case that companies who have more women in higher positions make more money, they are more profitable, so companies like the accounting firms are leading the charge. price and water house, ernst & young, the insurance companies, farmers insurance, taking the issue and saying we cannot take our company to the year 2020 with a mostly white male work force, we won't be competitive. the same thing in politics, women will re-elect a president. bill clinton was re-elected by 17 points, obama won by women. obama won by 13 points by women a gender gap since 1980, so i think we have to change the conversation and i think why people have gotten so riled up, this is a stale conversation,

change the dialogue and create new conversations about where we are today not where we were 20, 30 years ago. >> i want to go to the politics of this a minute and one part of it was ate mazing distancing, how quickly the obama campaign and of course the president and vice president almost put as much distance as they could from hillary rosen. in fact, a surrogate for the romney campaign criticized the obama team for that i want to play what she said and get your reaction. >> you distance yourself from the words not the person. hymnry has been committed to this person and to have them spend a day trying to distance themself, she is not an adviser, she is not this, that is unacceptable to me. she has been too good for them for them to treat her this way. >> do you agree with bay? >> i actually heard that last night when i was looking at the clips.

i think she is the only one that stuck up for hillry. i hi hilary is trying to retract what she is saying. these issues and struggles women are fighting for for so long is a hot issue, we have to move away from this, manufacture it and go to the real issues what we are talking about. most oftentimes, state home mom is a luxury to be a stay at home mom. juggle two working parents there is not enough dollars for one to go around to stay at home. so these are the issues, workplace flexibility. equal pay for equal work, the issues we need to look at and move off this issue i think created a firestorm and really more about let try to look at

these issues and talk about what we can do about them instead of these crazy fights. these kind of fights actually, it keeps people away from the polls, which i think is -- we want to engage people. >> of course, now, for all we know, because of what happened, both parties will be afraid to actually talk about the middle part of this issue that nobody is talking about. betsy meyers, thank you for joining me from boss than friday. appreciate it. >> thank you, chuck. well, will friday the 13th spook wall street? what is the history of friday the 13th on wall street? always fun. the market run down next. plus, mayor or super hero? is there anything cory booker won't do for his constituents? first, today's trivia question. who is the only first lady to be the wife and grandmother of a u.s. president? managing my diabetes is part of my life,

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these are the headlines i'm watching this morning this afternoon, both mitt romney and newt gingrich will attend the national rifle association's annual con ven eggs. this year, in st. louis. the nra spores romney, but with some reservations are, despite opposition when he was massachusetts governor when he backed some stiffer gun laws. the nra warns if president obama wins, emuse his second term to impose a "massive anti-gun onslaught" even though the president's only move on guns in his first term was to actually expand the rights of gun owners, allowing concealed weapons, loaded guns, in national parks. newark mayor corey booker is being hailed as hero today for rescuing a neighbor from a fire. booker was treated for smoke inhalation and second degree burns on his hands. the neighbor is in stable condition. arizona's governor jan brewer has signed a bill barring most abortions in the state after 20 weeks except when the mother's health is at risk. now, seven states have similar

laws now. and democratic state senator linda lopez said the law was "a horrible thing to do to women." governor brewer said she was trying to protect both the mothers and the rights of the fetus. man who accused former syracuse assistant basketball coach bernie fine of sexual abuse now admits he has been lying about it for months. the accuser, zack thomas selly, himself convicted of sexual abuse, told a local media outlet, he has never met bernie fine and he made up the entire story. the opening bell about to ring on wall street. time for the market run down. cnbc's becky quick is here. friday the 13th? what's the history? i love these little nuggets you have? >> 55 to 60% of the time, the market closes higher on friday 193th. so far, not looking so great. we will open down 40 points on this friday the 13th.

part because of what we heard out of china, the growth there for the quarterly -- gdp quarterly growth weaker than expected. came in 8.1%, that sounds great, but compared to 8.9% for the quarter before, 8.4% people were expecting this time around so that raises the questions as to whether or not we are going to see a soft landing there. then we got inflation number there is, consumer inflation numbers from the month of march, turns out, up 0.3% the month of march in the united states, say that three times fast, that is a little higher than some people anticipated, a lot because of what happened with gasoline prices. they were up, i think it was 1.7% for gasoline prices. the question is whether that has been abating and whether those prices are going to come back down, what a lot of people think, we will see. other big things we heard were bank earns, jpmorgan and wells fargo, you can expect to see the financials trading higher today. chuck, i will send it back to you, happy 193th of friday. >> thank you much. up next, our deep dive into the showdown of '76.

could we have had a repeat? not quite now, but the climactic campaign that ended in a floor fight between reagan and ford still provides some lessons for romney from the last time the republican race went all wait to the convention and the last time, ably, conservatives were this unhappy with their nominee. plus the waiting game will rick santorum endorse romney or not? apparently, he is not ready to. you are watching "the daily rundown," only on msnbc. ♪ [ male announcer ] 1 in 6. that's how many struggle with hunger in america. ♪

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today's deep dive has lessons mitt romney as he tries to unite his party heading into tampa. looking into an historic battle got a lot of attention this year, it was '76 when ronald reagan challenged the unelected sitting president, gerald ford, in the gop grassroots and the establishment. went all the way to the convention in kansas city. a model newt gingrich and rick santorum wish they could have followed even if reagan ended up losing the nomination in a photo

finish. things were different back then. '76, the nation reeling from watergate and vietnam, reagan focused on shrinking the federal government and restoring american military power. he first gave president ford a scare by surging in new hampshire forcing ford to campaign hard there ford won by just 1300 votes. >> we are very happy and we expect to keep going and with the momentum we have, i'm confident we will end up in kansas city and -- with a good victory and we will end up on november 2nd with a bigger one. >> in fact, the president at the time did enjoy a winning streak for a while he beat reagan in the next four contests but reagan ramped up his rhett rib, he a accused ford of squandering america's military power around selling out to the soviet union. >> the policy of day at that time is pursued by the administration is one of making preemptive concessions by theself yet. all i can see is what other nations in the world can see earthquake the collapse of the

american will and the retreat of american power. >> we built that thing. we bought the place. we paid for it. and we intend to keep it from here on out. >> the tough talk worked. reagan won north carolina. then he won big in the south and west, including texas, a state ford's team thought was a lock. now, ford triumphed in the northeast and midwest. familiar to anybody? ford saved his toughest attack for the california primary in june, after reagan stumbled, saying woe consider sending troops into rhodesia.

>> the president of the united states can't play with words. when you vote tuesday, remember, governor reagan couldn't start a war. president reagan could. >> but reagan easily won his home state after the final primaries on june 8th and ford led reagan in the delegate count but neither candidate had, at the time, the magic number was 1130, the delegates they needed to win that left roughly 150 delegates uncommitted. reagan's delegate hunt was led by campaign manager george sears and ford, jim bakker. the presidency itself was offering perks to a select few delegates, meetings in the oval office to join the ford folks at the bicentennial celebration in new york, remember that was '76. as nbc's tom brokaw reported, the campaigns engaged in a little psychological warfare. >> in the war for republican delegate, the news conference is a battlefield. these are members of president ford's army. this is ronald reagan's general, john sears, who continues to

insist that reagan's delegate count is more than the number needed for nomination. >> now it is 1140 t is 1140. i'm saying that he is -- he does not have 1140 delegates. >> we are aware or think we are aware of at least 40 to 50 people that are listed presently for mr. ford we think will vote for mr. reagan. >> so the war goes on, each side promising victory before the first round of nominations in kansas city. >> now, hoping to poach four deg gatt, reagan threw a hail mary, picked senator richard schweiker of pennsylvania, a liberal republican, as his running mate. >> i'm convinced this is a ticket behind which all republicans can unite and which will lead our party to victory in november. >> but the pick backfired with some supporters, especially in mississippi, whose delegation was sill up for grabs. state party boss clark reed switched his support to ford, giving the president an edge

heading into kansas city. as the convention began, both ford and reagan were polling far behind the democratic nominee, jimmy carter. reagan supporters tried to force ford to name his running mate before the first vote but ford won that floor fight and the nomination on the first ballot, beating reagan by 117 goal delegates. the convention had gone on to second ballot, analysts believe reagan might have pued it out. it was the speech at ford's request that ended up stealing the show and setting the same for 1980. >> i believe the republican party has a platform that is a banner of bold, unmistakable colors with no pale, pastel shades. we must go forth from here united, determined, at what a great general said a few years ago is true. there is no substitute for victory. >> for more on the lessons of '76, i'm joined by craig

shirley, president of shirley and banister affairs and the author of "reagan's revolution" i have it here, all about the '76 campaign. craig, i would argue '76 may be the last time where the -- the convention is normally filled with delegates more conservative than the republican nominee. >> right. >> that we will have a bigger gulf, as big of a gulf as we have had between sort of where the delegates are and the party is versus where the nominee is. >> absolutely right. the delegates were far more conservative. it was the beginning of the tipping point of the party toward becoming more conservative. you had these issues going back to the '40s and '50s, goldwater versus rockefeller and romney and the others and '68, but '76 is really the beginning of the time when conservatives do take, at least at the delegate level, take control of the republican party and that holds true today. >> you are mitt romney, going to

go through a convention, going to have to give away a lot of stuff in the platform. >> right. sure. >> stuff that he doesn't -- his campaign isn't going to want to see advertised. i guess my point is how does he walk that line? basically no choice but to say, look, conservatives, just give them the platform, i will just not talk about it? >> i think probably a mistake, if i was giving advice, is that this is still a right of center country and most of those issues this would be embraced on the republican platform are held by a majority of american voters today in terms of balanced budgets, tax cuts, corruption and all the other things on their minds, jobs, whatever. most of the things the conservatives want to put on a platform would be popular keel to most of americans today. >> when santorum would talk about -- would try to make comparisons to reagan in '76, do it in the last three weeks of the campaign, more so than most. newt did it, he faded, newt gingrich, that is.

>> right. right. right r. >> where did you see the parallels and the things that weren't parallel? >> first of all, neither newt gingrich or rick santorum are ronald reagan. >> fair enough. caveat aside. >> mitt romney is not gerald ford in that he doesn't have ford's 30 years in office plus all the powers and perks of the presidency. but there was a -- they were right in that the ideological divide in the party and also a cultural divide in the party between what we now call the establishment and the populace side of the republican party n that regard, they were right r >> mitt romney, if he wins this nomination what does it mean -- wins the presidency is that going to hurt the conservative movement or helps him? >> depend what is he does and how conservatives react to what it does. what happened the last 24 hours, working momgate, i guess we should call it, was just the gift that some conservatives needed, just the excuse to -- >> to jump on. >> exactly.

>> we saw they were ready to rally probably quicker than the romney folks thought. >> it was like man nah from heaven for him if romney had is a say said something conservatives said you we heard it before, but now he has been attacked from the other side, gave conservatives the excuse to jump on board. >> craig shirley, thanks. always fun go down memory rape with you on republican politics. up next, the friday political panel. sunday on nbc's "meet the press," treasury secretary tim geithner i sits down with david gregory, check your local listings. first, white house soup of the day, it is spring why not give you roasted fall vegetables? you are watching the run down only on msnbc. which fall vegetables? import those from australia? the fall vegetables for the spring soup? anyway, i'm confused. be right back. hi, i'm phil mickelson.

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lost in the hubbub of this, rick santorum looking in the mirror of a campaign that was, he is trying to set the record straight and expressing some regret. >> the narrative that somehow i was this angry guy and somehow i have got this -- you know, angry, temperamental -- i encourage you to talk to anybody on my staff, anybody that works with me. even my kids are here. that is not who i am. i think i'm a pretty good guy to be around, have a beer with, go bowling w. >> there you go rick santorum not yet ready to endorse mitt romney. my friday panel, michelle bernard, the "washington post's" ann kornblut and former senator, blanche lincoln of arkansas. welcome all. givesing to start with santorum, but let's go to the topic, having this conversation -- i want to start, you all have unique insights on this. senator lincoln, let's start with u double standard for women

in poll six in. >> i think -- i was raised by a single mother -- not a single mother, a stay-at-home mom, but you know, and we talk about stay-at-home moms. why can't we talk about -- can't can he go it both? why can't we be both? be good mothers and be good pro federal governmentals in the workplace? >> hadn't that debate ended? that's what i didn't understand about the manufactured controversy, nobody was having that debate, were they? >> maybe we should though, i think it is important much maybe i come from pretty much an all-male category of work, but i think that's important, in politics, as a woman, people sometimes question whether or not. one of the first things that came to me in one of my town hall meetings as senate candidate was how in the world can you be a good mom and still be a good senator? >> and how many male father candidates, by the way? >> there were three. >> that were asked that same question, would you be a good dad and be a senator? >> none. >> they were not asked that

question? shocking. >> i had a wonderful husband teaching at the med school and said look at the residents i'm working with, over 50% are women. still great moms and great doctors. >> it is interesting, chuck. we seem to reverse as a society to all the questions dealing with women in the workplace and how we compare women -- >> like 30 year ago conversation. >> back in 2008, regardless of what you think about sarah palin and her politics, people started saying how can she be on the vice presidential ticket when she has so many children? how will she raise her children? and i remember thinking to myself when joe biden lost his wife and decided to run for senate, did anyone see -- and i haven't been able to find any public statements -- >> after the senate race. >> exactly. after wards, did anyone -- i don't remember seeing public statements how is joe biden gonna do this.and raise his son? >> joe and jill were our -- two of our best friends in the senate because they knew and understand what it was to have small children. >> you wrote a book on this issue, sort of -- and you have

dug into these double standards a little bit and you sort of how we deal with women's issues in political campaign. so, look at that for me. >> what's fascinating is you look at when senator lincoln was first elected to the senate, which was 20 years ago, the year of the woman, these were live issues and both sides of the debate whether women should be at home or working, you are right, we are not having a live debate what women should be. everybody agrees the polite thing to say is everybody has a choice. people seem to have opinions they harbor very strongly though. and i think that is where you are seeing public opinion now. women in all their races have had to deal with this. any woman that runs for senator or governor gets the questions she is talking about, how can you do all of it? le than some, but what i heard when i did the book was -- >> there are ultimately people that don'tright. >> so we're not -- like somehow that is -- well, we're not having the choice. so is workplace flexibility, is

that actually the live issue here? >> well, i think it is the issues that women see in the workplace, and there's no doubt, as i said -- how can you be -- it is possible to be both. i think these ladies feel like they're good moms and they do well in the workplace as well. and i worked hard to do that as well. so it's making sure that when you're talking about fair pay and you're talking about child care nobody talks about child care anymore for crying out loud. and yet it's an enormous issue for women in the workplace right now. >> and there's no conversation about it. >> there was a duths about what we should do about childcare. >> i want to say it was '92. >> i was on the senate finance committee, and i was the only member on the senate finance committee that had ever dealt with childcare. >> that says a lot. >> i mean, i was dealing with it, and they were hysterical to watch me. >> i want to talk a little bit about the politics of the gender gap right after the break. stick around. trivia time. we asked who was the only first lady to be both the wife and the grandmother of a u.s. president. the answer, a lot of you got this, anna harrison, wife of

william henry harrison and grandmother of president benjamin harrison. mrs. harrison never actually experienced life at the white house, though. her husband died before she made the journey to washington, d.c. speaking of harrisons, it's my son harrison's birthday on sunday. so that's kind of why we wanted to cheat with a harrison question. you're watching "the daily rundown," only on msnbc. americans are always ready to work hard for a better future.

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let's bring back the panel. michelle bernard, anne kornblut, and former senator blanche lincoln. it's the politics of this and the gender gap clearly a big issue for the romney campaign. did they have a good week fixing it? >> well, it was certainly better than the previous weeks, where they'd been completely on the defensive. i don't know if in the end this is going to be the most memorable episode of the campaign. i think it is remarkable that this is week one of the general election. >> this is week one. ladies and gentlemen, this is week one. >> instead of talking about a north korean missile launch as much as this. it's not just us, it's everybody

talking about this, and certainly the romney campaign. if this is a harbinger of things to come i think it's going to be the silly season. >> one thing, they've been looking for a way to get ann romney into the campaign in a more formidable way. >> i don't know if you've seen the coffee mugs that have come out overnight, "stay at home moms work." it's an issue that is going to resonate with women voters. and no matter what it does, it's given romney a little bit of something to talk about and try to reduce the gender gap. >> how important is the gender gap to democrats? >> it's critical, i think. i think president obama's going to need the women's vote to be able to win. i think that's going to -- >> absolutely. i'm going to go to shameless plugs. we've run out of time. it's been a long week. michelle, start with you. >> i am training for my first road race in ten years. so i'm going to plug running. so i'm going to plug a race on april 30th here in washington called stop the silence. it's a road race, 8k fund-raising to stop childhood sexual abuse. >> okay. anne. >> well, this is a story from

yesterday but it's so good i have to plug it. we had a reporter who did a big long takeout on john edwards' trial which is obviously starting, really fascinating story. so you should check it out. >> it is. >> "washington post." >> is he really going to go to prison? >> the testimony alone is going to be something else. >> the whole thing is going to be skissy stuff. >> plug. sensibleregs.org. i'm doing a wonderful effort here on sensible regulations. we're doing meetings all across the country. we just had one in pennsylvania. we're going to have one in ohio. encourage people to go look and see what's going on in their state for sensible regulations. >> all right. thank you all. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." welcome to week one of the presidential race. we'll see you right back here monday. senator jon cornyn and congressman jim clyburn will be her. coming up next on msnbc, chris jansing. have a great weekend.

r. i'm meteorologist bill carruth with a look at your forecast. aecht coast you're looking great this weekend. the middle of our country is where the trouble will be. tornadoes saturday afternoon and evening from areas of nebraska through omaha down through wichita to oklahoma city. it looks like by sunday those storms will weaken but there will still be a few strong ones here by texas and louisiana. what's with you? trouble with a car insurance claim. [ dennis ] switch to allstate. their claim service is so good, now it's guaranteed. [ foreman ] so i can trust 'em. unlike randy.

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