campaign. while mitt romney's team pushes the, are you better off attack. we know what november will be about. it's the economy. but who exactly will voters want to blame for it. primary day in the cornhusker state. which republican will come out on top to try to prevent bob kurrkur kerrey from coming back to the united states senate. we'll give you a crash course in our brand new app full of the latest news, analysis, even battleground maps for you to make and play with at home and on the go. good morning from washington. it's tuesday, may 15th, 2012. this is "the daily rundown." the president's trip to new york had a little something for everybody in his re-electn campaign. a nod to women in hopes of growing the gender gap. an embrace of enthusiastic donors happy with his new gay stance and an awkward attempt to

raise wall street money while bashing some of wall street's practices, at least when it come to you mitt romney practiced them. he had a commencement address at an all-female college. but the address was less your traditional pearls of wisdom. it sounded a lot more like a political speech. >> young folks who marched and mobilized and stood up and sat in from selma to stonewall didn't just do it for themselves. they did it for other people. that's how we achieve women's rights. that's how we achieved voting rights. that's how we achieved workers rights. that's how we achieved gay rights. >> now a new "new york times"/cbs poll out this morning claims romney leads the president among women, 46/44, which would reverse the numbers from a month ago.

obama gets 43% in a head-to-head matchup but his approval rating is at 50%. it was a call-back survey, not a traditional poll. the respondents first interviewed back in april. feels like one of those polls, no matter how method logically sound that says we need more date to make sense of what the last ten days have been about. we're going in the field soon. we'll be out next week. the white house has been doing everything it can to portray the president's gay marriage announcement as anything but political. but, boy, everything they do makes it look political. last night the president raised money at an lgbt fund-raiser with ricky martin and seemed to bask in the glow of his new public position. >> we have never gone wrong when we expanded rights and responsibilities to everybody. that doesn't weaken families. that strengthens families. >> by the way, in case this classic moment slipped your mind. this is ricky martin's first

political event. he danced theatpreinaugural for president bush in 2001. earlier in a taped appearance on "the view" he hinted he may use the gay marriage issue against romney because of romney's support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage but stopped short of saying he would advocate a full repeal of doma. >> my justice department has said to the courts, we don't think the defense of marriage act is constitutional. we think this is something that historically had been determined at the state level. >> will you personally fight to repeal that act? >> well, look, congress is clearly on notice that i think it's a bad idea. >> notice he didn't call on congress to pass the repeal and get it on his desk. on the same day that launched -- thatly launched an offensive on romney's record he raised money at a second fund-raiser hosted by the head of a hedge fund

twice as large as bain. he told them, quote, i believe that free market is the greatest wealth generator ever devised by man and it's at the heart and core of who we are. i think rink-takers should be rewarded. i think all of us benefit from the freedom of free enterprise. yes, that was president obama, not a mitt romney quote. now james is not the only wall street name helping obama bring in cash. one of the president's bundlers is jonathan levine. and he is the managing director of bain. he has raised somewhere between at least $100,000 and $200,000. again, all of this is coming at a time when the president has that big assault on bain. now speaking of that bain hit, according to nbc's ad trackers, the obama campaign attack ad, two-minute ad against mitt romney's record is more of what you'd call a press release ad. it's only airing in one tv station per market for one day. it's a two-minute ad on wednesday with a total price tag of less than $100,000.

that said, today, team obama is doubling down. the pro-obama superpack, priorities usa is going up in the same five states the president is targeting. but they've put real money behind this ad. $780,000. they are promising to spend upwards of $4 million this entire month. here's a taste of the ad. >> he promised us the same things he's promising the united states. he'll give you the same thing he gave us. nothing. he'll take it all. >> when the obama campaign's bain ad hit yesterday, the romney campaign responded almost immediately releasing an online video they called the american dream. it profiles what they believe is a bain success story, steel dynamics. >> mitt romney's private sector leadership team stepped in. building a dream with over 6,000 employees today. >> if it wasn't for a company like steel dynamic, this county wouldn't have a lot. >> a couple of things about the web video. bain is never said in the video.

number two, there's another back story about steel dynamics. it got a lot more money via government incentives, taxpayer incentives than it did from bain capital. now bain capital, by the way, did release a statement yesterday defending the company. "we understand that in a political campaign our exemplary 28-year record will be disported and complex business situations will be portrayed in a simplistic way." and this morning on "today," eric furnstrom defended romney's days at bain. >> these attempts by president obama to distract from his own poor record on the economy is the biggest smoke screen since mt. st. helen's erupted. we know from our own 401(k) investments that not every stock we buy, not every company we invest in turns out to be a winner. but over the long haul, mitt romney has had many more successes than failures. >> now the obama campaign is trying to walk a line here in how they criticize bain.

hay claim they're not attacking all hedge funds and they're not even attacking bain per se. they are simply asking whether the lessons romney learned in his business career at bain are really the ones americans want in a president that sits in the oval office. here's david axelrod responding to this. >> when i think of business, i think about people who create things, grow things, who make things. and, you know, i don't think about folks who leverage companies with debt and profit off of that to the tune of millions of dollars while the workers are left holding the bag. certainly not a policy that we want to make the national policy of the united states of america. >> today romney returns to iowa for the first time since the caucuses. he'll hold an event on debt and deficits at drake university in des moines. iowans talk about just how bad the economy has gotten in their state. >> i've been looking for a job for two years.

haven't found any. my unemployment benefits did run out. and we're just trying to get by. >> a lot of people around here when barack was running and all that, everyone believed. everyone had hope. they all thought, man, this guy is going to get something done. when he is in office, now it just seems like nothing is getting done. >> of course, a reminder about iowa's unemployment rate. it's far below the national average. sits at just 5.2%. the video is a window into the broader narrative of this election. mitt romney needs the electorate to feel the economic doom and gloom those voters made in the video they made. 58% of folks told "usa today"/gallup today about where the economy will be in 2013 heading in the right direction. it's a usual optimism versus pessimism but with a little twist. both campaigns are trying to sell the idea of better days ahead. finally if it's tuesday, somebody is voting somewhere.

today that somewhere is in nebraska where republicans will pick their senate nominee. it's the latest establishment versus insurgent contest. but insurgent is now plural here. control of the senate could hang in the balance. democrats hold a 51-47 majority. if romney wins the presidency, republicans need to net three seats. the president wins re-election, they need four. the retirement of ben nelson and the president's low approval rating in the state were supposed to make nebraska an easy gop pick-up opportunity. then democrats recruited probably the only guy with a chance to win statewide. bob kerrey. mao the hand-picked republican candidate, rising star, john bruining is fighting off not one but two serious challengers. john stenberg. he's the backing of club for growth and senator jim demint's conservative fund. but the person to watch right now is deb fisher. a rancher and state senator.

she's never held statewide office and suddenly she's got momentum. fisher getting attention for this ad featuring two angus bulls named after her competition. >> tired of the same old politician bull? deb fisher is a sand hills rancher, sharp as barbed wire, tougher than a cedar fence post. deb fischer puts nebraskans first. >> classic three-way contest vibe going on. candidate a attacks candidate b and candidate c rises? she's gotten the mama grizzly stamp of approval, by the way. >> hello, beautiful nebraska. this is governor sarah palin. in the u.s. senator race, i support deb fischer. >> palin who fischer has never met, also endorsed her in a statement along with her husband todd. we admire your conservative principles and know you will got to washington to amass great with or power.

a tv ad paid for by the founder of ameritrade, an omaha businessman whose family owns the chicago cubs and whose son lost a u.s. senate seat in nebraska. >> the world expects jon bruning is our republican candidate. as attorney he's made millions, bought a $600,000 vacation home with the owner of a company he officially oversees. >> rick had spent $200,000 on that attack ad. bruning's campaign is running 11th hour ads. they focus on investments bruning made while in office despite a salary of $95,000. if fischer wins she'll have crushed the establishment candidate and the candidate with the most tea party support, stenberg. the establishment versus insurgent narrative gets another test later this month when texas

lieutenant governor faces a slew of challenges, including ted cruz, a former state solicitor general. it's a busy day in american politics. president obama speaking out for the first time on the jpmorgan $2 billion blunder. in that interview with "the view." he took a surprise league easy time on the company's ceo. >> jpmorgan is one of the best managed banks there is. jamie dimon, the head of it is one of the smartest bankers we've got. and they still lost $2 billion and counting. this is why we passed wall street reform. the whole point was, even if you are smart, you can make mistakes. and since these banks are insured, backed up by taxpayers, we don't want you taking risks where eventually we might end up having to bail you out again. >> well, since we're just minutes away from the opening bell, a quick check in. jackie deangelis here for the market rundown.

what's going to impact the market more? this business in europe about basically net neutral, avoid a recession but barely in greece or the big jpmorgan shareholder meeting? >> good morning. i think it's going to be a little bit of everything. we saw the futures pointing to a higher open for much of the morning. but now we just turned into negative direction with the dow looking to be lower right now by 30 points. so it's a little bit of a combination. meantime, on the jpmorgan story, jamie dimon facing shareholders today as the bank is holding its annual meeting in tampa, florida. jpmorgan's board is backing dimon and the way he quickly apologized for the $2 billion trading loss and sought to fix the mistakes. this comes after the bank's chief investment officer resigned yesterday. and as you mentioned, president obama is saying the same type of error at a less stable bank may have prompted the government to have to step in. jp manageran's stock was down nearly 1% while financials paced the declines for the day. and also just want to touch quickly on facebook because it's

hiking the price range for its ipo on high demand from investors. the company selling shares now for $34 to $38 each. and that could value facebook at as much as $102 billion. it's expected to price the ipo thursday night. it's going to trade on the nasdaq on friday. and also we did a cnbc ap poll finding that half of americans, they believe that facebook is just a fad. the same number also saying the company's expected stock price way too high. some interesting stats there, chuck. >> well, cable tv and the internet are supposedly fads, too. we shall see. up next, president obama goes on offense on bain, gay marriage, wall street restorm. ste stephanie cutter joins me right here on set. plus, the recall rivalry. can they win against walker without it? first a look ahead at the president's schedule. as you can see, he welcomes the

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the obama campaign's attempt to frame mitt romney as a corporate raider pick ups steam tomorrow when the one-time ad on bain capital airs in five key states. steve rattner seemed to undercut the message in an appearance on

"morning joe." >> i think the ad is fair. mitt romney made a mistake ever talking about the fact he created 100,000 jobs. bain capital's responsibility was not to create 100,000 jobs to pick out an example of somebody who lost their job, unfortunately. this is part of capitalism. this is part of life. i don't think there's anything bain capital did that they need to be embarrassed about. >> joining me now, stephanie cutter, deputy campaign manager for the president's re-election campaign. you've heard those comments by steve rattner. the president himself last night raising money at a hedge fund. whose hedge fund is twice the size of bain. seemed to also praise the idea of risk taking and this or that. what are you attacking there? why are you attacking this one failure, essentially, of bain capital out of -- why are you singling this out? >> first of all, it's not an attack. it's pointing out some of the facts of what mitt romney's business experience really entails. and, you know, steve rattner made a very good point yesterday morning. that mitt romney's business

experience wasn't about job creation. we knew that. mitt romney finally admitted that. it was about wealth creation. we're pointing out an example of one of the many deals where romney did whatever it took to create that wealth for himself and for his investors. and it came at great cost. you know, romney walked away with 150% return on his investments. but the workers, as you saw in that video yesterday, really powerful video. let me make one last point. they were left without jobs. romney reaped so many profits out of that company that they underfunded their pension. so the federal government had to come in and bail out the pension fund. and they were left without benefits. >> so what is it you are trying to -- so what you are saying is he disqualified to be president because he worked for a -- >> this has nothing to do with private equity. this is mitt romney making the central premise of his campaign for presidency, the central qualification for him to be president is his business experience which he says gives him the experience to grow the

economy. so we're simply pointing out what that experience is. what are the values and lessons he took from that business experience because he's promised to take those same values and lessons into the oval office. what does that mean for the country? we're already kind of seeing what it would mean for the country. if you look at the policies, the economic policies that he's put on the table, they represent those same values and lessons. the people at the top do very well. the people in the middle are left holding the bag. that's not how we create a strong economy. that's not how we create an economy that lasts for the long time. >> is this story of -- steel. the man there, jonathan levine is -- >> who is not running for president. >> he works for bain. managing director. >> and is a donor to our campaign. >> is a big donor. >> we love jonathan levine. he is not running for president. once again, this is not about private equity. and whether or not he could run his business any way he sees fit. this is a question of whether the way he ran that business

qualifies him to be president as he says it does. yes it is fair to put gs steel on the table for romney. he cut that deal and reaped the benefits of that deal. the plant closed in 2001. in 2002, romney still listed himself as 100% of bain capital and didn't resign as president and ceo until a year later. so it's absolutely fair. they can say he left to run the olympics but he was still running that firm and still made a lot of money. >> is there any discomfort taking money from someone at bain if you believe bain's practices were so anti-middle class. >> this is about mitt romney. there's nobody else at bain capital who is running for president and putting their qualifications on the table as a unique example of their qualifications to be president. there is a big difference. mitt romney is the one that put this on the table for himself. the central premise of his campaign is that his business experience will make him a good president. so let's look at what kind of president it would make mitt

romney. that's a legitimate question. he says he's this financial wizard. well, let's look at what that financial wizardry was all about. he didn't break any laws or do anything wrong but is that the type of values and lessons we want in the oval office when we're trying to restore this economy? >> okay. i want to change subjects here on gay marriage. cbs/"new york times" law. i went through some of the flaws of how the poll, it was a callback, not a traditional survey they did. this was such a resounding number that it's within any margin of error you want to create which was the president's public support for same-sex marriage. did he do it because he thought it was right or for political reasons? 67% said political reasons. so again, put those caveats aside. that's a lot of people saying that he did this for politics. do you understand why last week it looked more political than maybe you ever wanted it to look? >> well, you know, we can't put the methodology of that poll aside because the methodology was significantly biased. >> now think it's so flawed

that -- >> it's a biased sample. >> this 3-1 marge sin is going shrink down? >> i don't want to go through methodology. i think your viewers would be pretty bored. >> although they are junkies. they like this stuff. >> you totally dismiss it? >> a biased sample. so they rebiased the same sample. the results of that poll are probably -- >> do you think last week looked too political? >> i think there's another poll out today, an abc/"washington post" poll that shows the gay marriage decision was basically a wash. i think that's probably accurate. i think in the end of the day, the president came out and said what he felt was right for this country. his personal belief for this country. the end of the day, though, this will not decide the election. the economy is still the central question in this election, who is going to lead the economy to make it an economy built to last. >> the last time you were on the show we talked about the wisconsin recall. i asked whether the president would be supportive, if the party was going to be supportive. youy is it's possible. you have a stake in the

election. so it's possible. we certainly want to see a good outcome there. the idea of the dnc helping out. wisconsin state party says the dnc has not ponied up any money. you guys control the dnc. the obama campaign and dnc are one in the same. your going to pony up money to the recall election in wisconsin? >> i don't know the answer to that question on the money. but i do know that we have committed to help with gotv efforts, activating ofa on the ground and doing basically everything we can to bring the democrat over the finish line. we are vested in this race. >> but you haven't made a commitment yet of a significant -- >> i don't know the stwor that question. >> stephanie cutter, deputy campaign manager. thank you for coming to a rainy washington this morning. primary problems. as ron paul packs it in, a new push for a third presidential option finds itself without a candidate. plus, california crisis. the nation's most populous state

is rung out of cash. which federal official appointed by the president is a five-time "jeopardy" champion? the answer and more is coming up on "the daily rundown." time for the "your business" entreep neurof the week. mariah findlay is the founder of citrus lane. customers sign up for a subscription n once a month get a surprise package of baby products. instead of hiring someone, she did her own market research. focus groups testing and surveys to fine tune her products and packaging. for more, watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc. i love cash back. with the bankamericard cash rewards credit card,

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wow. hurry in to the sleep number memorial day sale between now and june 3rd. only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699. a few other stories, rebekah brooks, the former head of "news of the world" is facing obstruction of justice charges related to the phone hacking scandal. brooks and her husband are accused of plotting to hide other evidence from investigators. the maximum sentence for the charges, life in prison. ron paul is effectively suspending his campaign. though they don't like that term. the longtime republican congressman announced he will no longer actively campaign in

upcoming primary states. that may be news to a lot of people he was still campaigning. he told supporters his campaign will lay out a delegate strategy in the coming days. paul's campaign has moved to work at the state party level where they've already made their mark in states like iowa, maine and nevada and just pretty much boo any romney person off stage. in california is facing a $16 billion budget deficit. nearly twice what they expected. jerry brown to call for increased sales and income taxes, cuts to state programs. brown proposed cuts in spending on welfare and indigent medical care along with a shortened workweek for government workers to cut payroll costs. he compared it to the financial crisis in europe. >> takeaways are never pleasant. i mean, take a look at what's going on in greece. take a look at the 100,000 people marching in spain. once you have it, it's much more painful to give it up than if you don't get what you desire. and that's why it becomes very

important to block new spending proposals. it is difficult and that's just life. the hope of a third party candidate may be soon over. even after spending $35 million collecting over 400,000 online delegates, americans elect a group dedicated to supporting any third party candidate announced that no one is qualified to enter their nominating convention. the group is focusing its efforts 2014 and 2016 and may still try to find a candidate. when you look at the polling, there seems to be interest. just no actual candidates to step to the plate. up next, drum roll. we're taking a deep dive into our brand new nbc politics app. you can mess around with the battleground map like i do. we finally got an app for that. how to get everything you ever wanted to know about the 2012 election any time, anywhere. plus, we'll play with the battleground map a million times. your favorite scenarios. my scenarios. that's all next. you're watching "the daily rundown." [ male announcer ] if you think tylenol

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well, it's finally here today after lots of hard work. great work by our technical and editorial folks. we're ready to take a deep dive and introduce you to the brand new tool designed to help you navigate the political landscape all the way through this presidential battleth in ypd. the new nbc politics app. i can't tell you how many times people have asked, when your going to get an app? we yell at each other. when are you going to get this app? >> here it is, chuck. >> it's an app. we wanted to make sure it was done so that it's all there. no beta test one, beta test two business. >> it's all there. you can keep up with all the news wherever you're at, whenever you want to. >> let's look now. latest news when you pop it up and just open it right away, you literally scroll through and get every headline all generated. could be first read, morning joe, could be this show.

whatever. >> you get stories from the great first read team. mark and dominico. >> pretty much dominates this. >> you can get your clips, your interviews. you had a great interview yesterday with congressman clyburn that made a lot of news. if people missed that, they can see it on the app. >> tap the corner in the left and you can go by first read posts only if you were trying to find a first read. capital post. or meet the press, mitchell reports, morning joe, nightly news, today. it's a way to see all those video packages you wanted to catch up on. >> that shows you the power of nbc news around politics. and this harnesses that in one place. you get everything you want. no need to go any place else. >> one reason we built the app. yes we get your news headlines, but we built it for one reason. i'm going to jump down to it. it's the battleground map. it's not just my battleground map, vaughn, you're battleground

map, joe's battleground map. it's your battleground map. the idea is everybody can play their game to 270 using nbc tools. >> this is something that we couldn't have even imagined all those years ago when we started calculating electoral college. it's a national election. but this is where the election is decided. it's a state by state contest. this allows anyone to go in to do their own map. they can send it to us. we'll take a look at it. may even use it -- >> if you don't like our lean this and lean that, all that business, you can still change those states, too. we're not telling you only our toss-up states right now. if you believe somehow iowa, get it out of the red column. put it in blue or toss-up, you can do that. yes if you want to mess around with the electoral splits in nebraska, there's an app for that, too. you can do it in maine. that second district. there's an app for that. you can do a lot of things. and one of the things we'll do is give you scenarios. little contests every week.

>> we'll give you scenarios and you can say whether you agree with them or not. share them with us. share them on facebook, with your friends on twitter. the idea is to make everybody be their own political consultant and find their own candidate's path. >> as we did this week, we messed around and i said, okay. let's give -- how does obama -- >> how does obam get to 270 if he loses both florida and ohio. this puts him -- we had iowa as lean romney for this round. so that made it 241-234. how would obama have to get there? can he do it with colorado and pennsylvania and virginia alone? i put that into romney. see you can quickly -- colorado, pennsylvania and virginia alone. he can and he can lose in addition to north carolina and nevada. these are the things that we're allowing you to mess around with. pretty powerful little map issue there for romney. but that's a separate story. >> the map changes throughout the course of a campaign.

we'll be updating this. you can look back at presidential elections going back to 1960 and see how the map shapes up in those past elections. but it will change. may be something that happens that puts colorado more in play or less in play and shifts the battleground some place else. as we go forward, we'll see a lot of iterations of this, i'm sure. >> well, i know one of the weeks i'll say tweet me your favorite 269-269 scenario. that has to include breaking nebraska's one electoral vote off. >> there are interesting ways to get there. >> it's shocking and scary. do we really want a 269-269 tie? vaughn ververs, thank you. our political panel will be here next to break down the bain battle and to tell you about some more potential senate surprises. first, the white house soup of the day -- hollande is now

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goodness gracious, that's kosher. with no fillers, by-products, artificial flavors or colors. hebrew national. the better-than-a-hot dog- hot dog. we have very bad news tonight. governor george wallace of alabama was shot and wounded today while campaigning in laurel, maryland. his press secretary says he is in critical condition. >> obviously, he survived that assassination attempt. the daily flashback to 1972 when the controversial alabama governor george wallace was shot in laurel, maryland, while cam fairng the democratic presidential nomination. it left him permanently paralyzed below the waist and ended what was then his third attempt at the presidency. mitt romney hopes his economic message will win over independent voters. he wants conservatives to know they're still a big priority.

his speech today highlights the candidate's push to show the base their positions are still crucial to his campaign. let's bring in robert costa, national review political reporter and contributor to cnbc's kudlow report. former obama administration deputy communications director jen sake and my partner, nbc's john yang, usually based out in chicago but we've been tapping him and his midwestern wisdom these days. robert, sir, let me start with you. it does seem we've all been waiting for the romney pivots. last week, there was a speech that has gotten completely lost and that was that speech in lansing going after clinton voters. but the one thing i've noticed about the romney campaign is they don't -- it's sort of -- i feel like they are testing themes. they aren't sure which works and they are testing a bunch out? >> i think the conventional wisdom is that immediately when you become the presumptive nominee you pivot to the center. i see him testing conservative themes. he learned a lot in this tumultuous primary and knows he

has to keep the base on his side. he can't quickly scramble to the center. he has to reassert himself as a conservative and then move there. >> you've watched politics and covered it in both print. are you surprised that this piv op hasn ot hasn't moved faster? >> he's going back to the right to the primary base. he's -- it's like he's still worried that the conservative base of the party is uneasy with him. that they will be united, i think, largely in their hatred for obama and desire to get obama out. but it's like he's saying, please like me. it's almost like what joe biden says to the -- to dead crowds when he speaks. just pretend you like me. just sit there and pretend you like me. >> jen, the -- it's funny watching both campaigns at times and watching the president yesterday at the commencement. was he doing swing voter outreach or base? is this a turn-out election more than it is a persuasion election? >> it's always a turn-out

election. in some ways it's always a persuasi persuasion. >> is this more turn out than persuasion? >> i wouldn't say it's one more than the other. both campaigns are figuring out how they're going to get over the margin and get to 270 electoral votes. the obama campaign is always about expanding the base, expanding the group of people that are going to turn out. yesterday he spoke to young people. talked about issues he's passionate about as it relates to women. sure. those are issues he's been talking about for four, six, eight years but they certainly do help remind people what he cares about and what's he's fighting for. >> it does feel as if there is a lot of -- a little bit of base politics going on here, fair? >> the president -- there was a contrast between what the candidates present. and i think it's clear that the president needs to present what he's -- how he's different on issues young people care about and issues women care about. >> i want to shift to bain. nbc universal and bain capital are 50/50 partners in the weather channel. so i think thits one oat's a ona

one off, but i feel like every once in a while we should say this. this pivot to bain, while the romney campaign seems to have done a pretty good job of trying to push back at some of the fundamentals on the ad saying the president is raising money with this. what voters see is a different story. and bain was an effective hit on romney in a primary. probably going to be an effective hit in the general. >> i was talking to bob shrum yesterday. he said that 94 when the democrats went after romney's bain record he took the attacks. what we saw from the romney campaign yesterday is they were prepared with their own ad about steel dynamics in indiana. they'll fight back on these attacks and not take it like romney previously did. >> they've only done it on web. do you think they need to step it up? >> i think you saw ed gleillesp had a conference call yesterday. >> awkward timing of the president with a hedge fund guy talking about the free market and going after bain in the same day. >> also the same day you're

still talking about jpmorgan chase. that has touched a nerve on a lot of people. there's this sense of capitalism untre unretrained. capitalism run amok. the banks are back at it. i think that may be the theme they are trying to tap into this. >> he brings up jpmorgan and the wall street things. it seems sometimes you -- the president found himself defending wall street reform, reminding people it hasn't been implemented but then others going, i thought it was implemented and the same stuff is still going on. that's something the president has to remind voters of. >> that's right. and passing wall street reform, signing it into law is one of his biggest accomplishments and he needs to continue to remind voters, which he will, that he did that. it hasn't been fully implemented. he also needs to remind voters what's at stake. if romney is in office, if he's elected president, some of these rules may be rolled back and that's not what the american people want. >> let's gatalk about what's gog on in nebraska and this idea that you don't want to be the --

which federal official appointed by president obama is a five-time jeopardy champion? the answer, richard cordray. he won more than $45,000 on the show in 1987. and it's power players week on "jeopardy." we can finally reveal something we knew off the record for months. last night, robert gibbs won. tomorrow we'll give you a sneak peek into how i fared facing off against some of more interesting names in washington. we'll be right back. today, we stand against the tyranny of single mile credit cards. battle speech right? may i? [ horse neighs ] for too long, people have settled for single miles. with the capital one venture card, you'll earn double miles on every purchase, every day! [ visigoths cheer ] hawaii, here we come. [ alec ] so sign up today for a venture card at capitalone.com. and start earning double. [ all ] double miles! [ brays ]

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let's bring back our panel. okay. we know being the establishment, you know, you don't ever want to be the establishment. it's always, hey, i'm anti-establishment. robert costa, this is a crazy three-way.

at this point are republicans better off without him? >> john bruni still has a good shot. it's so crowded i think anyone can win tonight. you see fisher coming on strong getting a lot of tea party support. i think it's very complicated. >> but it is this whole thing, whoever is labeled that figure, you don't even have to be an actual incumbent, if you have that tag -- you don't want the tag and that's what bruni has faced. a lot of people said -- how democrats believe bob kerrey is an underdog but bruni might be the easiest foe. >> you don't want to be the establishment guy or the one who's had a record in office and had accomplishments, quite frankly. i don't think it is a cake walk for kerrey. not only out of the state but in new york city. >> new york city? he's a new yorker? >> he doesn't eat pace picante sauce, right? new york city? this sort of -- this strain there, obviously you hope to run against that a little bit, believing that somehow the tea

party is moving the republican party to the right. do you think that you can do that and sort of -- and somehow paint romney as one of them even though he was painted as a straddler and moderate for so long. >> romney is wearing his "i love the tea party" t-shirt around the country. but you look at a state like indiana where you have -- my firm just put out a poll this week where the race is tied with donnelly. we know if lugar was in the race, it would probably be different. >> do democrats invest in indiana? two years ago colorado and there there were incumbents. do you think democrats have the resources? >> democrats are going to invest where it looks like they can win. we have seven months to go. there's a lot that can happen in these races. when they have already been painted, as romney was, as an establishment candidate, it hurts them and helps the democrats. >> if you're david dewhurst, when you going, uh-oh.

>> we tacked ted cruz at our magazine. the super pac for dewhurst is backing dewhurst very strongly so it's tough for cruz to establish himself as a conservative. >> these always happen a lot in smaller states. shameless plugs. >> tomorrow is the first anniversary of the -- rahm emanuel did a great review of his year. i have to plug robert gibbs taking away jeopardy last night. knowing things we never knew. >> my younger brother, tim, graduated from temple university over the weekend. go owls. congrats to him. my shameless plug will continue to be the nbc politics app. download it now at the itunes store and don't tweet me about android. we're working on it. tomorrow on the show, senator barbara boxer and former football star craig james. this time we'll have him on

camera. he's running for office trying to be an insurgent in texas. coming up. "chris jansing and company," bye-bye. i can almost guarantee some airport delays today and travel trouble on the roads throughout areas of new england and the mid-atlantic. thunderstorms are widespread with some downpours locally d.c. to philadelphia to new york city. detroit and chicago look just fine. chicago a slight chance of storms for you late this afternoon. have a great day. you know, we're a little early for this thing...

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this is big news. good morning. i'm chris jansing. we are watching a couple of economic signs that are important to what happens in november's election. first, a new poll shows 71% of people think the state of the economy is poor, but there is also optimism. more than half think things will be better a year from now. and in half an hour, jpmorgan chase ceo jamie dimon will face shareholders after the bank's $2 billion trading loss. today more lawmakers are asking if wall street is back to risky betting and if main street will end up paying for it again. the economy is the issue for the president and mitt romney. romney will give a major speech later today on debt in iowa. president obama speaks later this hour. joining me now is the columnist for the washington post, dana