the vice president barn storms the state with tough talk for romney and the republicans. how hard will it be for the obama team to rally this time around. and florida, florida, florida. what's worse in republican politics down there, praise from president obama or years as charlie crist's right hand guy. take a dive on how he thinks he can get his job back. good morning from washington. it's thursday, may 17th, 2012. this is "the daily rundown." i'm chuck todd. in a political bombshell this morning, "the new york times" reports that a republican super pac is considering tv ads relitigating president obama's ties to controversial reverend jeremiah wright. the "times" got a leaked copy of a proposal called, quote, the defeat of barack hussein obama.

the rickets plan. fresh off his political victory in the home state of nebraska, he is thinking about taking his super pac success national. the $10 million plan was presented to the family in chicago last week, according to the "times." 54-page proposal carries the logo of strategic perception. ad maker fred davis' firm, he's the man behind the demon sheep video and christine o'donnell's famous "i'm not a witch" tv ad. most recently he worked on jon huntsman's presidential campaign. also involved is huntsman's former pollster, acordsing to the "times." we have reached out to both and we have had davis' firm directed us to the ricketts super pac for comment. now, apparently the idea is that the add davis apparently

produced for john mccain's presidential campaign but never used is among the kickers in this proposal. quote, if the nation had seen that ad, they'd never have elected barack obama. detailed story boards obtained by the "times" lay out the plan to use all things jeremiah write against the president, including that famous line youtubed after 9/11. quote, america's chickens are coming home to roost. now, the strategists have already apparently contacted conservative african-american radio host larry elder about serving as spokesman. apparently to try to stem charges of race baiting. let's be realistic. this is a very risky plan. if it aired, it would consume the obama-romney race. forget the economy, deficit, even gay marriage. this ad would bury everything else in the news cycle for days, perhaps weeks. it's not clear that that would be good for romney, whose campaign has tried to focus laser-like on the economy and has steered clear of any personal attacks on the president, believing it would backfire with swing voters. remember, if you live on the

right, though, reverend wright never really went away. for instance, on shaean hannity show wright's name has come up seven times in the last month, including last night. the big risk here is that they may only win over voters who think the worst of the president anyway, and they could alienate independent voters. oh, by the way, fire up the democratic base. all things romney doesn't need if he wants to win. it's not clear where the proof is in the conspiracy theory they're trying to create about the president's record in office, calling it radical. because when you look at the health care reform, the stimulus, even cap and trade, all of them stem from original compromised pieces of legislation that republicans had put up. so that's the risk here. this seems like more risky, what reward do they get? watch today. it will be interesting to see. does the -- how does mitt romney respond to this? he does some affiliate tv interviews today. he'll likely be asked about it. how ask the obama campaign in an effort -- do they try to fan the

flames on this story or not? it's gotten a little bit of twitter buzz. it will be interesting to watch. this morning vice president biden will wrap up a two-day swing at eastern ohio at a family chevy dealership where we'll talk about the auto bailout. in ohio biden is looking like the guy who first ran for president 25 years ago. he was all fire and brim stone yesterday. he channelled that populism at a stop in youngstown where the unemployment rate is more than two points higher than the national average. >> i resent when they talk about families like mine that i grew up in. i resent the fact that they think we're talking about we're envy, it's job envy, it's wealth envy. that we don't dream. my mother believed and my father believed that if i wanted to be president of the united states, i could be. i could be vice president. my mother and father dreamed as much as any rich guy dreams. >> biden laid into romney's record at bain capital asking if

it's the right experience for the oval office. >> romney made sure the guys on top got to play by a separate set of rules. he ran up massive debts in the middle class laws. folks, he thinks that experience is going to help our economy? >> biden's trip has been loaded up with the regular guy riz vals. he ate at a spaghetti dinner, trailed by romney staffers. biden defended government in a very personal way telling a story of the tragic accident that killed his first wife in 1972 at a fire station which used a $300,000 federal grant to rehire three laid-off firefighters. >> i'm alive because of my fire department. right after i got elected, a 29-year-old kid in the united states senate, my wife and daughter were christmas shopping, december 18th. gone through an intersection, broadsided by a tractor-trailer. my wife killed and my daughter

killed. and my two sons were saved by my fire company, my fire company with the jaws of life. >> as biden ends his ohio swing today, the rnc is launching a counter attack with a web video using his past statements on coal, like this one from as recently as 2008 against him. >> which would you honestly say is more likely to contribute to the death of your average american, a terrorist strike or high fructose corn syrup and air that has too much coal in it? >> finally, this could have been the biggest story of the day, at least the romney people homeland it would be. we always new the presidential race would tighten after romney became the presumptive nominee, but has quickly that has happened. it's good news for the gop. this morning the romney campaign announced a combined haul in april with the rnc of $40.1 million. the campaign has over $60 million in cash on hand.

it's more proof this election will not be decided by money and romney will not have to make decisions about where to compete based on cash as mccain did in 2008 when he essentially didn't compete in indiana and north carolina. last night romney told donors in south carolina that his haul wednesday alone was $2 million. earlier in the day it became enough of an issue that romney came back for an impromptu gag el on the plane and joked about what happens at those closed door events. >> got no event today, no public event. you should see all the things we're saying in private, though. >> i know. we're getting kicked off the rope line today. >> you were what? >> we were getting kicked off the rope line today. but that wasn't your doing, right? >> just watching. just watching. >> this has been an issue simmering with the traveling press corps for days, in fact weeks. and it bubbled up big yesterday. it prompted the romney campaign

to essentially back off this idea of keeping the press away from the rope line. the press secoretary said this was an error on the part of the campaign staff and volunteers. we have reminded them that the press is allowed on the rope line to record the governor's interactions with voters. romney responded on the bain attacks but he did so with a conservative blogger. here's what he said. >> they said, oh, gosh, governor romney at bain capital closed down a steel factory. but their problem, of course, is that the steel factory closed down two years after i left bain capital. we were able to help create over 100,000 jobs. and secondly, on the president's watch, about 100,000 jobs were lost in the auto industry and auto dealers and auto manufacturers, so, you know, he's hardly one to point a finger. >> by the way, i've been noticing this interesting switch on the auto bailout. whereas the bain attacks come, the romney people are going,

hey, the president did the same thing in creative destruction to save something with the auto bailout, their way of trying once again to get on the right side of what is a popular now bailout in some of those rust belt states. the other big story in washington, of course, has been the budget battles. will we avoid another debt ceiling stand-off like the mess last summer? unlikely. a contentious white house meeting with the president and speaker john boehner. it doesn't bode well. both sides insist when it comes to the budget, they are the only adults in the room. >> we're not going to recreate the debt ceiling debacle of last august. it is simply not acceptable to hold the american and global economy hostage to one party's political ideology. >> we've kicked this can down the road so many times it's -- it ought to make people throw up over it. we know what the problem is and we know what the menu of options are. what we need here are leaders with enough courage to deal with the problem that say we have.

>> luke russert is an nbc capitol hill correspondent, joins me now. hey, luke. >> good morning, chuck. >> let's start with a couple of things about the white house meeting. what i found fascinating, everybody had their own read-out of the meeting between boehner, mcconnell, pelosi, reid and the president. boehner and mcconnell's read-outs couldn't have been more different. >> what's fascinating is you saw boehner's read-out that in a sense was confrontational. they went there to the white house. there's this idea that president obama was going to talk about the small issues that he wanted to get done and boehner said, no, no, no, i'm the big guy in the room. we can't do any more of this small ball. we really need to get things moving on the debt. he pressed him on the debt. they had this confrontation about it, whether or not you had would have a clean debt extension. president obama said, yes, i want a clean debt extension, no cuts in return. boehner said that was not acceptable. then you see michigan mcconnell who's a little more cordial and

his read-out that it was a typical senate conversation, if you will. but look, chuck, long story short, what you're really seeing here is the gop putting this issue at the forefront of the debt. they believe it's something that they can win on, the reason being that it propelled them to victory in 2010. they feel that the debt under president obama, they will say it's gone up by $5 trillion. they neglect to say that a lot of the reason the debt has gone up is bush policies before. they say they have changed now. this is something they want to hit the president with continuously. will it work? we don't necessarily know, but for john boehner to start talking about it in may and some folks say threatening a default, although he denies it, it's certainly getting the issue at the forefront early on trying to make it a political issue as opposed to everyone being quiet and dumping it into november. >> let's talk about senate budget shenanigans yesterday. everybody's budget in some form went down yesterday. explain the 99-0 deal on the president's budget, because they

didn't really vote on the president's budget. it's the same sort of legislative shenanigans we saw before. walk me through them all, republican budgets alike. >> sure. first, the president's budget went down 99-0 and people are saying, oh, my god, how could that happen. what the president's budget was the way it was introduced by the gop would be the equivalent of me saying, chuck, give me the authority to get $1,000 from you and i don't have to tell you exactly how i'll spend knit any way. it was essentially just appropriating the number, no idea what agencies got what number. it was a showboat but you see the romney campaign saying 500 people have voted against the president's budget. the republican ones are fascinating. we have a graphic i want to put up. you have the paul ryan budget. it went down 41-58. 5 gop no votes. then you have the toomey budget. that went down 42-57.

then you had the mike lee budget, the guy from utah as we know, tea partier, he went with the heritage foundation, cut $7 trillion, only got 17 votes. and rand paul, eliminate four government departments went down 16-83. those budgets all balance within four or five years because the ryan budget takes too long was the argument. fascinating stuff, though, chuck. you get to see every branch of the gop in those budgets and we still don't have a budget out of the senate. that's the main story. >> luke russert, thanks very much. up next, maryland's democratic governor, martin o'malley, on his fight to legalize gay marriage in maryland. plus we'll talk a little wisconsin recall, because he's also the head of the democratic governors association. will national democrats pony up more money that the state party is looking for to go and oust governor scott walker. we'll talk to them about that next. first, a look ahead at the president's schedule. as you see, there's no public events today.

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maryland is the latest state on a path to join six others and the district of columbia in recognizing gay marriage. with president obama's newfound support for it, it's become a big hot button issue across the nation. joining me now is governor martin o'malley of maryland. it's your state in maryland, you have essentially a political

fight over the issue of gay marriage. it may end up on a ballot initiative. explain where we're at right now. >> our legislature passed marriage equality and we also had within our legislation some of the most specific articulations of the protection of religious freedom. so that -- that legislative act will now be likely petitioned to the voters and will be up on referendum in november. >> so explain it, so this doesn't go in until -- was that part of the deal in the legislative agt, that it would go to referendum first? >> that's right. so it will take effect in january. >> no matter -- unless -- >> unless the voters choose differently come fall. >> are you going to campaign heavily on this? >> absolutely. i mean i already am. the people of our state -- i mean our state, chuck, was founded on the basis of religious freedom and that's why maryland came into being. >> what is it specifically that's in there that you feel like protects -- you keep talking about this. give me the specific piece in

the legislation. >> look, government should never be dictating to faiths how to define sacraments. what we need to do is protect rights equally among individuals and that's what this legislation does. so we borrowed every bit of language from every state that's ever passed a marriage equality bill and incorporated those specific religious exemptions and religious freedoms into the bill. and now it will go to referendum of the and i do remember that when people are given the opportunity of fuller rights enjoyed by more people or a sort of restricted vision of what freedom means, that the people of our state will embrace the larger vision. >> what is the state of maryland, what are they going to issue, a certificate of marriage or a certificate of union, no matter whether it's same-sex or heterosexual? >> well, in the civil context, it is civil marriage. and that's the title of the bill. the overriding issue, i think, that november will be determined

by in our state and others will be jobs, jobs creation and jobs recovery. but there is a subtext developing between president obama's vision of expanding freedoms, of expanding opportunity and that of former governor romney, who is part of a movement to roll back workers' rights, roll back voters' rights, roll back women's rights. and i do think in that larger context that it will pass and the voters will affirm what their legislature did in maryland. >> you're head of the democratic governors association. you have a big race in wisconsin, the recall election. what i'm finding fascinating is that the ad campaign on both sides, we're not talking about the whole reason why we're here. we're not talking about the issues of the recall. it seems to me the issues being fought over are simply old-fashioned bread and butter issues you would see any governor's race be about. why is that? >> because i think the people have already come to a decision on whether or not they may

personally like or dislike the political ideology or the choices of governor walker. and i think now it is pivoting to whether or not those choices have been effective in moving wisconsin's economy forward. wisconsin ranks 50th out of 50 states in its rate of job creation. it's hard to skate away from that unless as governor walker is doing you make up alternative numbers when you don't like the official one that say come out. chuck, i know this is offensive to the mad hatter and the queen of hearts and other members of the tea party, but our economy can't work if you government doesn't work. what's happened in wisconsin is an example of that. when a governor spends all his time on ideology instead of making the economy grow, your state's the worst in job creation. >> there's a new poll out that matches internal polling i've heard about that shows scott walker with a little momentum now. he's at 50%. the democratic nominee in this race sitting at 44%. a little bit of a gap widening. obviously there's been a

financial advantage that walker has had over the last month and he seems to be taking advantage of that. do you guys have enough resources? has the dnc kicked in enough money? >> well, i think all of us need to be pulling and all of us need to put our oars in the water. wisconsin is really going to be a battle between whether or not voters are discerning enough to wade thrgh what will be likely a four or five to one spending advantage that walker has and the abysmal state of their job growth rate in wisconsin. and that's what people are going to have to decide. so for our sake as the democrats, as the democratic party, as the party of growth and job creation, we need to make sure we get in there and fight. >> you said everybody needs to be in, all the oars and all this stuff. that means not everybody is in yet, what you're saying. not everybody is pulling an oar inside the democratic party, is

that fair? >> no, i don't know. look, when you're sitting within the state and you're within the battle, and i saw this in my state. >> you never feel like you're getting enough help? >> you never feel like the national party or other entities are helping you more. >> should the president being doing more, obama/biden. >> i think all of us should see this as an opportunity to articulate the difference between ideological leadership and leadership that works to create jobs and expand opportunity. you won't have a clearer example than a state that ranks 50th as wisconsin does out of 50 states in job creation. >> i'll leave it there. martin o'malley, democratic governor for maryland. thanks for coming on this morning. >> thank you. next, john edwards' lawyers forego any fireworks and simply rest their case. it's closing argument time. first, today's trivia question. the category is movies and the clue is arch bald leech, bernard schwartz and lucille lesueor.

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well, mitt romney took a break from presidential politics this week to make a rare endorsement in a senate primary, believe it or not. it's not just any race. on wednesday romney endorsed connie mack in the florida state primary. a state critical into his bid of the hopes of gaining the senate overall. today we're taking a deep dive into that race and what it's going to take to knock off bill

nelson in the fall. in backing mack romney described him as a friend and this is essentially a political payback. mack campaigned for romney before the presidential primary in florida back in january. what's more, it went a step further. mack actually went to gingrich rallies and played the role of attack dog on romney's behalf. >> i'm hoping to hear from the speaker what his relationship was with freddie mac. i think he needs to come clean. the voters deserve to know what his relationship was and what he was suggesting to freddie mac to do. >> so mack did that stocking and this was payback. congressman mack has also recently picked up support from tea party favorites, senator rand paul and congresswoman michele bachmann. hope far it hasn't helped mack pull away from his main rival, former senator george lemieux. he has been putting out ads on everything from mack's past job at hooters to old run-ins with

police to questions about his opponent's residency. >> sources show mack as a resident of california, living with his wife in palm springs. they have been known to pop up on the red carpet. then there's their place in colorado. florida needs a full-time senator, instead of a half mack here half the time. >> mack has rejected the suggestion that he's not a florida resident and his campaign has tried to put it to bed, insisting the issue is long settled. they called the ad mostly false. for his part, mack has tried to stick to political criticism, putting an ad on youtube slamming george lemieux for working across the aisle. we're seeing this in other states too, like texas whereby partisanship has become a dirty word. >> two republican senators, senators george voinovich and senator george lemieux -- >> george lemieux, once a

liberal, always a liberal. >> could it be that last shot that may bow the most damning for lemieux, where he appears to be whispering into charlie crist's ear. that's toxic to a lot of republicans and the situation could be damaging for lemieux. it was then governor charlie crist who appointed lemieux to serve out the senate term. neither mack nor lemieux have made a real run at senator nelson and republicans are getting nervous. there's talk of always finding another candidate. the latest is former congressman dave welldon. if he does jump in he could try to run to the right of both candidates, portraying himself as the true conservative. you have to wonder if the three months between now and the august primary could do more harm than good to the candidates and the republican's chances of beating nelson in the fall. joining me now, senate candidate george lemieux. senator lemieux, good morning. >> good morning. good to see you, chuck. >> let me ask you about this --

about the charlie crist connection. how much of a political problem is that for you with base conservatives? >> it's not. and we're seeing as i go to these straw polls. i'll speak, congressman mack will speak, other candidates speak, whether it's statewide tea party leaders or federation of republican women, we're coming in first and mack is coming in last. so when i'm out there and i am almost every day talking to republican groups, tea party groups, business groups, civic groups, it's not an issue. every republican in florida at one time or another supported charlie crist. we're all disappointed in the decisions he made. >> are you still friends with governor crist? >> we have a cord nal relationship. i'm grateful for the opportunities he gave me for public service but we've taken different paths. >> how involved were you initially? >> not very much at all. >> but you did have some involvement? >> the make a phone call kind of thing and ask for advice. i was back in the private world after 2007, back running a law

firm in florida with some other folks so that's what i was doing. the decisions they made were the decisions they made. i urged the governor not to leave the republican party. the day after he left the republican party, i endorsed marco rubio for the u.s. senate. >> and you had endorsed charlie crist. >> i had endorsed charlie crist. and i worked for and around the state of florida campaigning for him. >> did you think some of the negative stuff on marco rubio had gone too far during that primary? >> primaries are always a contest of ideas. i have to think back about what those things were. >> there were some hits about marco rubio's personal finances, things like that. did you think governor crist went too far during the primary? >> i haven't thought about that, to be honest with you. i've been focusing on this race and making sure the people of florida know who i am and who my opponent is. >> a lot of your attacks on mack haven't been on issues, they have been personal character issues. >> it's character and it's competency. this is a guy who doesn't show up for work. he has the worst voting

attendance of any person in the u.s. congress. it's hard to be last out of 535. he's missed 40% of his votes. there's a big question as to whether he actually lives in florida. his wife lists him as a resident of california. we have asked him to clear it up. just release your travel records. he can go to the house administration office and say show how many days i was in florida. >> do you think this would be a big issue in florida? there's a lot of republican primary voters who are residents for six months and one day. >> well, let's not be that critical of them. there's a lot of folks in florida who are there the whole time. mack likes to say i was only in california for 11 days. if you can count how many days he was in california, tell us how many days you were in florida. i talked to the people in his congressional district and they say they never see him. so let's get this, put it to rest and release the records. >> when it comes to some of the support that you have given, you gave to president obama, you saw that one ad where you voted, frankly, against most of your party on a couple of those job bills. do you regret these votes? >> no.

it was one jobs bill. it was a small business jobs act. it was a bill the republicans and democrats worked together. it cut taxes on small business, didn't increase the debt or deficit and helped community banks make loans to small businesses. when i was traveling around the state of florida as a senator, small businesses were telling me they couldn't get loans. so i asked the republican leadership, what's wrong with this bill? basically at the end of the day, they didn't want to have a victory for the president right before the election. that's not how i made decisions in the u.s. senate. >> fund-raising, i know it's been a little tougher. connie mack has a long family history in the state. now with mitt romney's help, are you going to be able to financially compete? >> we are financially competing. we have raised about the same amount of money as connie mack iv. we have about the same amount of money cash on hand. we're getting a lot of support in recent weeks as people know that this connie mack is not the father, it's the son and with all the challenges he has about his character. >> a bloody primary, are you at all concerned that a bloody

primary, no matter which one of you comes out that you'll both be weakened with a very short general election? >> i believe if i'm the nominee, i can beat bill nelson. if connie mack is the nominee, i don't think he can beat bill nelson. connie mack can't win a character race against bill nelson. this needs to be about the issues. the fact we have too many people out of work, a staggering national debt. if i'm the nominee, that will be the issues bill nelson and i litigate. >> i have to go back to some of these attacks. this charlie sheen hit, trying to compare him to that, the stuff that has been -- are you at all uncomfortable with sort of the personal road that this campaign could go on? >> this is the least qualified person to run for a major office. >> you're comfortable with these attacks? >> it's the truth and the people of florida need to know it. he is trying to run a campaign where people will mistake him for his father and we can't make that mistake. this country is in too much trouble. we need to win this election in order to take back the senate on

the republican side. if he is the nominee, we will lose. >> senator george lemieux, thanks for coming on this morning. appreciate it. next, the reverend wright ramifications. vice president biden's fire in ohio. the political panel will be here to chew over this, appeared a rye mier reminder, you can download the new nbc political app store free. first, white house soup of the day, black bean chorizo. this sounds like what would be my favorite soup if they'd let me have it. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. we'll be right back. for three hours a week, i'm a coach. but when i was diagnosed with prostate cancer... i needed a coach. our doctor was great, but with so many tough decisions i felt lost. unitedhealthcare offered us a specially trained rn who helped us weigh and understand all our options. for me cancer was as scary as a fastball is to some of these kids. but my coach had hit that pitch before. turning data into useful answers.

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will reverend jeremiah write become the focus of this election year too? let's bring in the panel. look, it's the story -- i think the story of the morning would have been mitt romney's

fund-raising haul. you're a romney surrogate, governor urlich. reverend wright, was that a good strategy for the riepublicans? >> i don't think it's a great strategy. it's an old story is what it is. last time i was on your show, the time before i was on your show, the next time i'm on your show, it's going to be about the economy, jobs, deficit -- >> so any day spent on not talking about the economy is a bad day for the republicans and mitt romney? >> yep. >> karen finney? >> i read that story and i said bring it on. every poll that i've ever seen shows any time the republicans do stuff like that, it energizes african-americans, latinos, young voters, like you cannot -- i mean through the roof. so any mention that maybe the gay marriage announcement may have suppressed in any way, shape or form african-american turnout, totally erased. and it also frankly, i don't think the romney folks are thinking about this or the super pac folks, opens up all of romney's garbage for perfectly

fair game. >> does it become -- do we go down a low road here, that everybody has been sitting here trying to avoid. whether it's about religion or whatever the low road is that people qualify, that this all of a sudden do we think it's bad now, watch out, right? >> it probably ebb courages tit for tat. although i think the obama campaign would take a higher road. i think the romney campaign has already demonstrated an attitude that personal attacks are not the way to bring this guy down. they have what they need, which is the economy. they don't need this stuff. every time they're not talking about unemployment rate or jobs numbers or economic security -- >> should the romney campaign publicly renounce this? i would say it's been a nice little run. should the romney campaign publicly distance themselves from this today. the governor go out and say, you know what, we want nothing to do with this and we discourage supporters to do it. >> mitt has made statements along those lines already in the past in this campaign.

it's back to obama care, it's back to the disaster which has been the public policy of this administration. that's what the substance of this race. most particularly unemployment, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. >> governor, you kind of want -- what would you advise him to do that. >> governor, you're making my point. that's what you say but i can guarantee you even talk of those ads, your folks might forget about it, but my folks will not forget. they will remember in november. >> jeremiah wright was not a low road in a sense that his message was his message. it's not a very good message for our country. >> which was not president obama's message at all, which was the whole point. you know what, really you want to relitigate this? you really want to? because i see our numbers going up if we have this conversation. >> this political climate we're in, everything flying around, at some point i think romney will have to draw a line, what is permissible discourse when you're talking about the president. we just know the kinds of things that are being said. the birthers, the people with crazy conspiracy theories.

sooner or later some issue will land on romney's doorstep and he'll have to say these are the things you can say and can't say. >> he can't do it with the same mealy mouth i'm going to hide from the press responses that we've seen over and over again. come on. >> it's a divisiveness from the president and the class warfare and the attacks on wealth and success, that's perfect. you keep that message, believe me. >> you mean fairness at work. i like that. fairness is working. no, no, keep at it. >> i want to bring in -- actually i want to bring in joe biden on this, because you were fired up in one interesting -- >> i like him. >> and you were fired up about biden. and biden is one of these, you talk about the issue of is it class warfare, is it fairness. let's listen to a clip of biden from yesterday. he was pretty fired up. >> good to have you here. i've invited him back every other day from now until november. >> and i'll be here most of those days. >> michael, i haven't seen that joe biden when he did the fire

and brimstone, we had it earlier, that was not fully the clip i wanted. >> that was nice. >> that's -- come on. >> hey, that happens. but the fire and brimstone biden is -- does it work? conservatives don't think it works. >> you know, i think a running mate will have a pretty marginal effect at the end of the day regardless but i think there's some benefit in firing up the base. getting people excited, get them to turn out and want to volunteer. i think that the benefit of that, of putting some passion into the campaign probably outweighs anyone who might think that guy is a little too much for me. >> i was just going to say, karen, how much did biden -- almost felt like biden realized, boy, he really caused the president and the campaign a lot of problems last week, let's be realistic. in this respect. it knocked them off message. that's not what it was supposed to be. it looked like he was like, boy, i'm going to show that i can be good at this. >> sure. >> did you see a little bit of that? >> a little bit of that. but also, this was what biden is very good at.

i mean he has the american story, a blue collar story that resonates with people and he is able to talk about it in a way. the president has a different american story but i think he does it in a way that to your pointing, it energizes the base. that's what we have to do right now. >> governor, isn't it always us versus them? >> i'm going to give the vice president a break. it's what vice presidents do, it's the job description. he's the attack dog. >> isn't it an attempt to create us versus them? in the sense that you're trying to make the argument, no, i'm on your side. >> of course. >> they're against you. >> ofno, i'm on your side. >> of course. you're not going to vote for them. you're going to vote for us. >> when we come back, i thing i might let you guys go back at it a little more. >> the greatest jeopardy piece of trivia in history. afternoon bald leech, bernard swards and lucille lesuer. for this answer i go back to

alex trebek and cliv claven from "cheers." >> who's in my kitchen. >> the answer were -- >> be that as it may, alex, those people have never been in my kitchen. >> tonight as the power players week continues on "jeopardy," i get my turn at the buzzer. be sure to tune in. louis black, clarps page. it was a lot of fun. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msn fw c. ♪ surf's up everybody get your boards and your wetsuits ♪

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you know, the other story -- the new story in senate politics, michael, is this issue of republicans versus republicans in senate primaries. and jim demint got behind the candidate in nebraska who finished third and it seems a lot of senators are public lly

glo gloading about this. >> you know, a lot of them were very unhappy with the role he played. he might have caused hi party a chance -- played a role in causing the party to win back the senate. >> we haven't seen this where a single senator try os to be an alternative version of the party committee. leadership doesn't like that. is that healthy for the party? >> yes and no. it brings people to the party, gets this ideological debate going. you saw delaware, nevada. >> there's a time it doesn't help. >> it's a mix. it's a very outside time in american politics. >> basically senators feel like they have a chance holding a senate they didn't thing they had a chance at. >> absolutely. it also played into the narrative that the democrats could play a better part in the argument. it's not democrats.

it's republicans. you have even senate republicans don't agree with house republicans. that's the problem. >> harry reid is the problem. >> i would say republicans who don't agree is pretty much the problem. >> shameless plug. michael, go. shameless plug. >> shameless plug. "time" magazine's cover story this week is not netanyahu. >> with some sort of -- never mind. >> everybody's fully clothed. >> no children. >> a "time" cover it's a special interview. >> karen. >> jamie who wo dame yep and his wife, he used to work for me, just had a baby girl. >> my son did a grand slam. >> jamie moyer, 49 years and 180 days moyer became the 0e8dest

player in history that drove in a home run. it's a fun story to watch. i hope he comes back next year when he's 50. that's it for this edition of the daily rundown. tomorrow, indiana's governor will be here. coming up next on msnbc, chris jansing. bye-bye. i'm your meteorologist bill cairns. showers and thorjs are going to playing eastern salve narks charleston and through south florida. as far as the big cities go. a lot of areas in the northeast, no problemet. atlanta looks good. detroit and chicago, no issues. and on the west coast still very warm around phoenix. ♪ but, it turns out all i was missing was miracle-gro potting mix.

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♪ good morning. i'm chris jansing and it is battleground blitz. today a brand-new ad hits president obama in battleground states. >> promised so much. >> we must help the millions of homeowners facing foreclosure. >> promise broken. one in five mortgages are still under water. >> 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. >> that is part of a