plus for the second time in as many weeks the republican establishment sort of has been taken down by grass roots conservatives. this time a stunner in nebraska. will the volatility of this primary season continue to shake up races? and the john edwards defense team to close their care today or they could call a bunch of people to the stand. it's all on the table. we'll find out more today. good morning from washington. it's wednesday, may 16th, it's "the daily rundown," i'm chuck todd. >> republicans promise a new standoff over the debt ceiling. what's if you about the coming budget fight? it's happening in the middle of an election where the economy will make or break the president's chances for a second term. at a fiscal summit yesterday, speaker john boehner vowed to

block any increase in the debt ceiling unless it is offset by spending cuts. >> when the time comes i will again insist on my simple principle of cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase. yes, allowing america to default on its debt would be irresponsible but it would be more irresponsible to raise the debt ceiling without taking dramatic steps to reduce spending and reform the budget process. >> we've known this fight was coming if nothing was done on january 1st, nearly $1 trillion in tax es would take effect. at this hour romney speaks in st. petersburg, florida. look what's back. it's the debt clock is back where romney is taking this message on the federal debt.

>> subprime mortgages, they came close to bringing this economy to its knees. this debt is america's nightmare mortgage. it's adjustable, no money down and assigned to our children. >> treasury secretary tim geithner warned congress not to put the faith and credit of the united states on the line again at a time what is upheaval in europe. >> only congress can act to raise the dead limit. we hope they do it this time without the drama and the pain and the damage they caused the country last july. >> geithner actually said the government could hit its borrowing limit before the end of the year but that treasury still has the tools to keep the government operating in to early next year. but does it matter for perceptions of the economy if both sides harden these political conditions? last summer's debt season fightndfight

ended like a typical tarantino flick. s&p lowered its credit rating for the united states. it was a self-inflicted wound. even if republicans look intractable, will a renewed focus on debt help the president here? on congress's to-do list, first in d.c. then over lunch with mcconnell, boehner, pelosi and reid. one guy who used it to his advantage, former president bill clinton. last week when the country was focused on the gay marriage issue, romney tried to pick a fight with both clinton and obama sort of by setting up a contestable come spare on with the current president. romney doubled down on that yesterday. >> bill clinton announced that the era of big government was

over. president obama tucked away the clinton doctrine in his large drawer of discarded ideas. it's enough to make you wonder if it was a personal beef with the clinton but it went much deeper than that. >> well, romney went there. unlike ronald reagan, bill clinton is alive to respond. yesterday he did at length rebutting romney on the debt. >> the budget he put out on the primary according to a lot of independent sources would actually increase the debt over and above what's going to happen by $1 trillion or more. >> clinton pointedly praised the massachusetts health care plan. >> since it was signed, inflation and health care costs in massachusetts has been substantially lower than in the country as a whole because they took a lot of sand out of the gears. it would be a good thing if he can embrace that again but i don't know how he can. >> and clinton even had this jab

for romney, praising the etch a sketch gaffe. >> a moderate republican friend of mine in new york, who is going to vote for romney by the way said, gosh, you know, that etch a sketch guy, they ought to give him a promotion, he told the truth. >> don't be surprised if you hear this method on the trail on indiana candidate richard murdoch. >> the republican position that tends to prevail in these high primaries was expressed by the gentleman who beat senator lugar. he said i'm just against compromise, we need to stop it, it's weak, foolish, our views are reconcilable. we have to force the american people to choose which one of us is right. if that prevailed, we're toast. we'll look like a bush league country. >> finally the obama campaign is doing its best to make sure that

the bain story that they have started up this week chases romney across the country. today in youngstown, ohio, vice president biden will hail what the white house call as manufacturing comeback. this is what biden's going to say in ohio. romney made sure the guys on top got to play by a separate set of rules, he ran massive debts and the middle class lost. where i come from past is pro log so what do you think he'll do as president? this morning team obama raised $43.6 million in april. that's down slightly from the campaign's $45 million combined haul in february and $53 million haul in march. it does not count the clooney evened rai-- fund-raiser. that will be in next month's report.

and the karl rove gps is up with a massive buy. >> president obama's agenda promised so much. >> we must help the millions of homeowners who are facing foreclosure. >> promise broken. one in five mortgages are still underwater. >> today i'm pledging to cut the deficit we inherited by half by the end of my first term in office. >> broken. because he hasn't even come close. we need solutions, not just promises. >> by the way, this is one of those issue ads. what does that mean? it can be paid for by the anonymous donor group, the 5 501-c4 aspect of this. have we seen a subtle shift from jobs because of the facts on the ground in many of the battle ground states in more powerful arguments in places like florida

and nevada. but in places like ohio, iowa, virginia, we've seen the employment rate below average. you're seeing a little shift from making jobs the number one talking point to the debt and fiscal issues. jpmorgan ceo jamie dimon apologized to shareholders yesterday saying the bad bet that resulted in a $2 billion loss violated the company's own principles. jackie deanglelis is here. >> we did see the stock trading higher. the fbi opening an inquiry into jpmorgan's trading losses now. but still investors backed ceo jamie dimon at the bank's annual

shareholder meeting in florida. one issue of concern for the shareholders, though, reclaiming some of the millions of dollars that they paid to executives who oversaw the troubling trades. dimon did respond by saying they would pursue more disciplinary action against those responsible. and i just want to highlight, all eyes still on facebook, increasing the size of its ipo at 25%. combined with the higher price range we're looking at of $34 to $38 a share. it could be the third largest u.s. offering trailing behind visa and general motors. facebook is going to start trading on the nasdaq on friday. a very highly anticipated ipo, chuck. >> we are all watching it, that's for sure. next, is the budget process simply broken in congress in we're going to ask senator barbara boxer.

plus, searching for solutions to the $16 billion cash crisis in her home state of california. then there was the dynamic duo, chris christie and cory booker. they team up again. but is the new jersey governor breaking the first rule of being on the v.p. short list? and it's the first meeting with bipartisan congressional leaders since february. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. ♪ get ready, here i come [ female announcer ] want to spend less and retire with more?

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well, just when you think it couldn't get any more heated on capitol hill, looks like both sides are geared up for another fight on the debt limit with each side ready to point to the other with blame. >> rather than work with us on bipartisan solutions that reflect the care and input of our constituents and that therefore have a chance of actually passing, democrats blame the other side for obstruction, not only avoiding their own responsibilities as a majority party but handing the president a useful election year theme. >> joining me is democratic senator barbara boxer of california. i know these exchanges between harry reid and mitch mcconnell are becoming old hat, the two of them blame the other for the obstruction in the senate. i take it that you side with harry reid on this, that you believe it's the republicans

responsible, do the democrats have any blame in how the process has been working this year? >> i'd like to look at an objective source, i'm not an object source. i would like at norm ornstein and professor mann who did a very important study in which they said that they used to say everyone's to blame. but now after they studied it they said, guess what, it's the republicans. and these guys are nonpartisan scholars. i'm there every day. i've never seen so many filibusters, i've never seen a leader say his main objective is to defeat a president. i'm not going to say it's my opinion, i'm going to cite a expert who is nonpartisan that it's the republican. they create a crisis where there is no crisis, they've launched a

war on women, they take the side of the wealthiest among us and turn against the 99% and it's out there. it's out there. >> there was a quote from one of your democratic colleagues in the senate, mark pryor, sort of complaining about how the budget process has worked. i know there's been an argument about has the democratic senate passed a budget or not. the budget control act has certainly acted as a legislative issue here and i get that but on the larger issue of producing sort of a budget resolution, he says this this morning -- "the budget process is just not working around here. we've had three years with president obama where we're not able to get a budget resolution passed. we need to get back to the fundamentals of governing, which is to do a budget." he's saying he wishes the democratic senate would get and produce a budget. what do you say to that? >> i think that's a great idea

and the president put forward a grand plan that would reduce the deficit, get us on a path to a balanced budget, save social security and medicare, make the investments we need and ask the wealthiest 1% who earn over $1 million to pay their fair share and the republicans took a walk. the situation is this -- we have -- but most people don't know this but under the arcane rules of the senate, budgets are not laws. they're just guidelines. the budget control act is actually a law. for two years. and weep set budget caps for ten years. so my opinion is let's stop quibbling over process, let's get the job done. and, chuck, to get back to your first point who's to blame, i want to just cite history. the one party that balanced the budget in the last 40 years are the democrats in the congress and president clinton and we did it and nobody else has done it. and, you know, it's interesting that they're sething up a big

fight, mcconnell and bainor, making it a tries when it isn't a crisis and demanding more cuts when they didn't live up to the hits they agreed to. >> because they want to create a crisis so maybe say, oh, my goodness, maybe if we change everything, things will be better. maybe we need a different president. >> they're doing this to try to help mitt romney? >> i think they're doing it to hurt the democrats, to say that the democrats are in control of the senate and we're not doing the right thing when the facts show otherwise. and, you know, again i am so happy to say that finally, you know, the press always says everyone -- finally you have two scholars stepping out on everyone and saying that it's the republicans.

their desire to see the president lose meant we had to suffer a downgrade of our bonds. they're willing to take another downgrade. well, i'm not willing to do that. we should stop it now. i'm the head of a conference on a highway bill. it's 3d million jobs. i'm hopeful they'll let us get that done. if they don't, everyone is going to see it. >> i got to ask you about your home state. we know that there was a bigger -- bigger debt issue than the governor had expected and it's now a $16 billion hole. he's got some drastic tax increases and some cuts coming. are you concerned about the idea of furloughs and shortened weeks and stuff like that? should the government step in here? >> well, the state is going to have to figure this out. i give a lot of cuedios to jerry

brown. schwarzenegger left him with a $20 million deficit. he managed to get thatnd control and because of the -- he's facing a deeper hole. he's going to the people with a revenue request to look at the wealthiest among us and see if they could pay a little bit more. i hope we'll all support that. we can do this, you know, is the problems are so to the right that they won't agree to a balanced approach to deficits. we know how to cure it. you meet in the middle. you do cuts and you do revenues. that's what the governor wants to do and we'll be fine if we do that. but we've got the same, you know, polarization there that we see here. where revenues are off the table for people who are making millions and billions of dollars and it doesn't make any sense. >> never mind the referendum issue but that a whole other can

of worms. i won't open it up now. >> well, we're going to see how people feel. >> senator barbara boxer, thanks for coming on this morning. >> thank you. >> well, today could be a big day, a blockbuster witness day. who takes the stand? will it be his daughter, his mistress or john edwards himself? and what a new poll shows about chris christie's chances of getting the vp shot. but first, astronauts from which space shuttle presented "jeopardy" clues while docking with the international space station? the answer and more coming up on "the daily rundown." we'll be right back. ♪ i'm a space cowboy, bet you weren't ready for that ♪ blast of cold feels nice. why don't you use bengay zero degrees?

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a few other stories i'm watching this morning, john edwar edwards, his lawyers said they would make final decisions on the witness list before proceeding today. >> we do now have chen on the lien. >> blind as soon as dissident called in to another house hearing. this time he was telling new jersey congressman chris smith his family was being retaliated for his escape. he called the former murder charge against his nephew trumped up. >> it's the first rule of the vp race, don't talk about the vp race. but nobody says you can't have

fun with the idea. chris christie is out with his democratic buddy, who made headlines last month for rescuing a neighbor from a fire. here are highlights of the video, it's for a new jersey "gridiron" by the way. >> a little girl has last her cat in a tree. >> there's a two alarm fire. >> booker! >> yes, governor romney that was me running into the fire. yes, i do shovel snow as well. yes, you're very persuasive but i'm not a number two guy. i'm not a background singer. mitt, sir, with all due respect, i know you need a big -- >> excuse me. i got this. >> christie! >> 52% of new jersey voters said they don't think christie would

be satisfied playing second fiddle. nothing look wording a poll question by having the phrase "playing second fiddle." if it's wednesday, you know what that means? we've got election results. and could volatility swing control of the senate and shake up more primaries to come? and we'll schohow you one of th weirdest attacks in the senate. you're watching msnbc. [ male announcer ] when this hotel added aflac

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in it time in nebraska. a rancher who had never held office before being elected to the stage legislature eight years ago scored a stunning come-from-behind victory, sets up a show down with senator paul kerry. they're going to gain the four seats to flip control of of the senate. up until last week fisher was trailing the two established candidates. they went to work, released ads hammering bruning to endorse stenberg and it helped fischer. >> we were running a positive campaign and we kept our focus

on the issues and we kept our focus on the people and that's how you campaign in nebraska, that's how you get elected in nebraska and that's how you better represent nebraska. >> democrats have very good reason to be even more nervous than before. candidates like fischer that come out of nowhere tend to win general elections frankly rather -- and in the illinosarat over alaska governor frank murkowski. gray davis did it in california when he won the governorship in '98. why is all this important? can you see the same scenario potentially play out in another two weeks, this time in texas.

four candidates are locked in a tough battle, dave dewhurst, cruz, leppert and james. >> "the dallas morning news" sass dewhurst has served as a moderate republican. >> "the houston chronicle" says dewhurst is considered a moderate. >> vote against dewhurst on may 29th. >> by the way, we can have a debate about that's a negative primary ad. some of you are shaking your head. dewhurst is running ads with a little help from his boss, the governor, and former presidential candidate rick perry. >> you know the d.c. insiders

are scared when they spend millions attacking texas conservatives. despite their d.c. double talk, the facts are simple. david dewhurst is a fighter. >> the wild cards here are leppert and james. while the texas republican primary is two weeks ago, if no within gets 50%, the top two vote getters get g to a runoff in july. and the dewhurst folks in particular are very scared of something they've never been involved with before. joining me now as i promised when we had technical difficulties the first time, texas republican candidate greg

james. good morning. >> thank you for having me back. >> it's a soft ball here but do you take some lessons out of nebraska and think, okay, maybe my campaign's not dead yet? >> hey, let's me tell you, chuck, last night i couldn't go to sleep. i got in bed, i'm seeing all the notes of deb fischer does this in nebraska. i'm reading about her, she's a rancher i'm a rancher. the parallels are unbelievable. i think what's really happened is people in texas, people in nebraska, we're tired of all the regular stuff that happens, from the leading candidates, from the super packs. left a big gathering last night southeast of houston and everyone there was coming up to me and the people staying knowledgeable saying, man, you're surging, you're coming on, stay with the positive message. that's what i'm trying to do. >> this back and forth between the two of them, vying for who is the real conservative. design conservatism for me. what is your defness of who's a

conservative when it comes to texas republican politics? >> on real strat street where i come from and the business world where i come from, if you're not conservative with your checkbook, you're on the street. i have to make sure as a business owner that i balance my books, that i don't spend more than i'm bringing in, making sure i'm doing right thing before that. i've been married to my wife for 25 years, i've raised my four kids. people ask me, craig, are you too conservative? i'm not apologizing for the ten commandments in my faith. whatever people want to define me as, that's what i am. >> we talked about the last time you were on, whether the confrontation had you with --

wes that was hurting you with somers po believe you were pretty greasive going after leach. apparently you hired a public relations firm, space communications during this confrontation. were you two aggressive in those tactics? >> absolutely not. all of those this evenings were lies and they were done to distract from what they did. he took a human being, who happened to be my son, who had a concussion and ordered him locked in a dark solitary shed. we didn't hire a pr firm. mike leitch got mike leitch fired. because for the last self years i have not gone and gotten in the ditch with him, people think it true. hey, at the end of the day, i'll be wanted the rest of my children. people seldom ask me about that, chuck. they want to know hough can you

help us in the state of texas and in this country to get back on track. that's what the message has been and it's what's working and resonating. >> the last time you were here, you passed on you did have communications with space communications. >> absolutely. not until after he'd been fired. when we released information in a statement from us after careful consideration and prayer, blah, blah. we did not go out and slander and defan mark miles -- defamation. >> so you hired them after he was fired? >> we hired a firm after -- as soon as we figured out that these people -- that mike leach

was telling everyone to go play in the street and was not taking ownership in this thing and we knew that he was suspended and going to be gone, it was going to be a massive story, we needed someone who could issue statements and help represent us. we did not slander or defame might leach. >> kurt warner last week said he was not going to ever let his son play football. was taken aback. i got a 5-year-old. it crossed my mind. i played football as a kid. i thought i wanted my son to play football. everything we're hearing in the nfl, everything we're learning about the concussion issue, how concerned are you about the safety of kids playing pop warner football? >> we're finding out so many things about the brain and how when you have a concussion you have to take care of it and be careful. that's why when we hear leach locked him in a shed in the dark

punishing him, i was furious. i played in the national football league. i understand the seriousness of concussions. we continue to see a lot of tragedies. i just hope that parents and players will recognize when they have a head injury let the coach know, let the trainers know. this isn't something you suck up and keep playing anyways. >> thanks for your time. stay safe on the campaign trail. >> thanks, chuck. >> up next, we're talking about the return of the spending showdown on capitol hill. and the residency issue that just got plain weird. and we have an app for nbc politics. it was all because of this show, i know it. you got a map, you got news.

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week, leaving her looking like little more than a talking hat. >> president obama wants to take the fight to mitt romney to show americans he better than the alternative for the next four years but if he gets squeezed by republicans on the hill over the net before the next election, could the administration sour on an administration that hasn't made a big dent on a nearly $16 trillion debt. welcome all. >> thank you. so just because europe's crisis isn't enough, we want to have our own financial crisis here. is that -- what did you make of hearing speaker boehner talk about the debt ceiling again? >> my first reaction was acan't believe they're going to do this to us again. as if last summer wasn't bad enough, the idea of hitting into the same show down, with the

international policy so bad, it's politics. >> senator boxer all but said she's thinks boehner is doing this to grind washington to a standstill. >> of course she said that but speaker boehner is standing on principle. i think present said maybe the democrats should accept and compromise a little on some of the republican ideas. >> the president has this to do list, i guess it on one hand, they're little things, sometimes you have to play small ball out of the clinton handbook. why is he allowing boehner to be the one to say, no, no, let's have the bigger conversation, in seven months we've got some big issues to deal with temperature. >> i think it's awfully risky. this is reminiscent to last year. >> and nobody looked good here

but i would argue that the republicans came out worse. >> and also the tea party faction of of the republicans, it was a debacle. it was historic lows for them. i think it's very risky and i think it opens up questions on romney's record. as governor, when he was governor he raised the debt by 16%. when he left office in massachusetts, he left massachusetts with the highest per capita debt in the country. so i think it's a very risky move and i'm a little dubious about it. >> rob, you're involved in texas politics a lot. i know you're involved in an outside group that's helping david dewhurst. when i saw an attack ad that say "david dewhurst, he's a moderate," i thought was a snl parody. how bad does that damage somebody being tagged as a moderate? >> it's a silly, silly ad.

in texas, moderate -- is it a bad word? >> he's not a moderate. he identifies himself among those who identify themselves as a tea party candidate. >> you look at this and i'm not going to say -- you look back and you say no wonder we're at a standstill in washington. >> moderate has become such a dirty word. look at nebraska last night. that was really astounding, the surprised win for deb fischer. >> irony, she may be the most moderate of the three. i think she won for all the reasons that everybody's trying to put her in a tea party box. i think she's neither. >> sarah palin's endorsement. >> it came late and see didn't know her. i think it's one of those deals where two people bloody each other up. >> i have confidence dewhurst

will be the representative of texas. >> no fear that cruz sneaks up in a runoff. >> i think if there happened to be a runoff, it wouldn't be with cruz. it's likely that tom leppert surpasses cruise. >> boehner wants to have this, fine, come on, because ultimately it helped him in the long run getting someone to run against him. >> i think the president should focus on votered avoter s are really foe cutted on debt right now. while it's so going, the president has had 26 months of job growth. >> it's interesting to me that we're shifting from jobs to the debt on the republican message. anna, patty, rob, stick around.

trivia, we asked astronauts from which space station presented jeopardy clues while on the space shuttle atlantis. last night an nbc colleague, cnbc david favor won last night, beating david perino and kareem abdul-jabbar. we'll be right back. you're watching the daily rundown on msnbc.

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let's turn back to our panel. yes, i'm a floridian, so maybe i pay too much attention to the florida senate race. but the fights getting down right bizarre. the "orlando sentinel" did a

story on water records suggesting that mack comes home to florida sometimes. somebody has done something to use water at mack's florida townhouse, but the whole thing is a residency claim, does he really spend any time in florida. will the lemiex campaign use this? have you ever seen this? where somebody monitors water usage to see if somebody's a resident in florida. >> maybe he showers at the gym, or maybe he's trying for conservati conservation. >> the lemiex campaign is trying to so hard to do this, and you -- >> well, look, it's absurd, realally, it's absurd. i remember when hillary ran for senate the first time when she was the sitting first lady. we literally had to give her monthly tally of how much time

she spent at her new york house. >> this is a former u.s. senator, he was appointed and he's putting this up on connie mack, only washes his car with specialty water purchased from palm springs. living in the california desert has made him more water conscious. he doesn't drink water only tiger water. he prefers the bathroom facilities at hooters. only uses bottled water with his name on the label. it's nasty. it's weird. >> you talked about the ad being an "snl" parody. this is hilarious. >> and these are actual candidates for the united states senate. as vulnerable as bill nelson is on coat tails t winner of the primary had a 50/50 shot. >> i'm going to plug my friend who had her big progressive party last night. >> it was a big party, i didn't

get to make it. >> it was her at the helm. >> a different war on women, check out the ft special supplement this week on the women of eric springs. >> sounds like a good one. >> i'm going to plug the texas conservatives fund and also my son carter's last t-ball game is this saturday, they're undefeated. >> my son, nor the opponents never lose their t-ball games. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." coming up next on msnbc, chris jansing and company. bye-bye. still a chance of showers and thunderstorms, right along the immediate east coast, especially

up in new england this amp and areas of florida this afternoon. the rest of the nation looks great from d.c. to atlanta to detroit, chicago looks dry, all areas of the west expect a lot of sunshine. have a great day. [ female announcer ] lactaid milk is easy to digest. it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk. the original 100% lactose-free milk.

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