republicans seize on those "meet the press" remarks by mayor cory booker to go after team obama. well, the mayor responds again. this time last night on msnbc. and notre dame and the new york archdiocese are among 43 religious organizations suing the obama administration over the mandate to cover contraception in their health plans. does this end up in the supreme court? good morning from washington. it's tuesday, maybe 22nd, 2012. this is t"the daily rundown," im chuck todd. and for the first time the president is personally engaging into the attacks the campaigns been leveling. felt like october. not may. >> this issue is not a "distraction ". this is part of the debate that we're going to be having in this election campaign. >> saying romney's career at bain capital is fair game in

this election. president obama backed up his campaign's effort to turn romney's business record into a liability. it was his harshest and most personal indichlt against romney to date. >> his main calming card for why he thinks he should be president is his business experience. you know, he's not going out there touting his experience in massachusetts, and when you're president, as opposed to the head of at private equity firm, then you, your job is not simply to maximize profits. your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot. >> these remarks followed the field day republicans were having over newark mayor cory booker who criticized team obama's bain tactics on "meet the press" sunday. now, as romney spent monday raising over $10 million at a series of new york city fund-raisers, his campaign quickly turned around and this went video. >> even obama's own supporters have had enough. >> it's nauseating to the american public. enough is enough.

>> romney tried to drive that wedge again in a statement saying, "president obama confirmed today he will continue his attacks on the free enterprise system, which mayor booker and other leading democrats have spoken out against." now, the republican national committee, they unveiled an online petition with the banner, "i stand with cory." a four-minute youtube may y-- ma culpa -- >> i love cory booker. a great mayor. if my house was on fire i hope he would be my neighbor. in this particular instance he was just wrong. >> booker still feeling the heat and possibly thinking about his own future in national politics tried one more time to fix things and this time went on rachel maddow's show last night. >> went across the gop line i said, forget it.

i can't stand anymore. they just want to exploit and manipulate mayor for my entire clear been standing for something different. i'll tell you this. i've been standing with barack obama before most were standing with barack obama as one of his earliest supporters in new jersey if not his first matsjor endorsement. >> cory booker feeling he's got to fix things with the democratic base. over the weekend we saw chris christie and marco rubio had remark against president obama. in over his head. yesterday you saw obama make a values argument. that's the argument here. president obama says mitt romney not qualified, and mitt romney arguing president obama doesn't have the skills to be president. that's going to be the fundamental debate for the next six months. now, wrapping up the nato summit in his home town, president obama said the u.s. and its allies are one step closer to winding down this war in afghanistan. >> afghan forces will take the

lead for combat operations next year. this will mark a major step toward the goal we agreed to in lisbon. completing the transition to afghan lead for security by the end of 2014. >> like the united states committed to, nato said they'll have a true presence in afghanistan after 2014. the big questions, though, how many of those troops will not be u.s. soldiers and how long most americans will support even a reduced commitment there is unclear. one indication of what the lighter american presence looks like, defense contractor norfolk grumman finalize add deal to splip nato with its first five drones. >> we agreed to acquire a fleet of remotely piloted aircraft, drones, to strengthen intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. >> again, this is not the united states and their drones. this is now nato going the route of drone aircraft. now, in another signal that our effort there is changing, it appears we're going to hear

later this morning that u.s. ambassador ryan crocker plans to step down this summer amp just one year in kabul instead of two, that originally was thought of. one unfinished piece. business from the summit, convincing pakistan to reopen a key supply line on the border of afghanistan for nato and u.s. troops. the president's irritation at the stalemate was clear when he opened the summit's morning session publicly thanking karzai, russia and central asian nations who he said, "continue to provide critical transit for supply" pointedly leaving pakistan the president sitting just a few feet from him off list. later that day he did meet with president zardari and acknowledged very cautious optimism about reopening that supply line. >> i don't want to paper over real challenges there. there's no doubt that there have been tensions. i think they are being worked through, both military and diplomatic channels. >> finally, the president ended a day dominated by politics with a speech that was anything but

political. president obama took on the role of consoler and chief at a commencement ceremony for joplin high school's class of 2012. it's been one year since the country's deadliest tornado in six decades. killed 126 people. told the graduating seniors it's their resilience the nation will never forget. >> by now i expect that most of you have probably relived those 32 minutes again and again. where you were, what you saw, when you knew for sure that are it was over. the first day that you woke up in a world that would never be the same. and yet the story of joplin isn't just what happened that d day. it's the story of what happened the next day. and the day after that. >> the president challenged students not to get dogged down

by petty differences saying they artistment to the ability of americans to sometimes come together in the face of adversity. >> yes, you will encounter obstacles along the way. i guarantee you, you will face setbacks and you will face disappointments. but you're from joplin. and you're from america. and no matter how tough times get, you'll always be tough. >> this is one of those cases folks should just take off their political hats. a very non-partisan, non-political speech, simply honoring those resilient folks in joplin, missouri. the catholic church is taking on the white house again. 43 catholic organizations filed 12 nationwide lawsuits monday saying the obama administration's mandate on insurance coverage for birth control violates religious freedom and the right to spree peach. well, do they have a case? joining me, nbc justice correspondent pete williams.

pete i was thinking about two basic questions on this lawsuit. a, does it have merit, and when does it end up in the supreme court? >> you know, i think many legal scholars say it has merit. a question whether it's filed too soon, because these rules haven't actually taken affect yet. in the lawsuits the catholic organizations claim they already have to think about what they're supposed to do. they're trying to call what the lawyers make it right, this argument. one question. when it would end up in the supreme court, if it does end up in the supreme court, at least a year or two to get there. >> what are they filing? >> they filed it in 127 different places around the country. >> everywhere, so that they can see where -- >> whether there's a circuit split, all that sort of thing. see how the various -- >> almost guaranteed they'll be a circuit split. hate to be that cynical about it. >> probably. and i think they have two objections. one is a practical one. there is an exemption here that said you don't have the to provide this health insurance, certainly don't have the to pay for it. you don't have to do any of this if you're a church. the catholic organizations argue

that that exemption i think isn't broad enough. secondly they make a principled argument. they say we don't want the government making decisions about whether we're religious enough to qualify for this exemption. also the question of pay. now, the white house has always said, we worked out this deal even if you're required to provide the insurance, you don't have to pay for it. in the lawsuit, they say, well, we're still going to have to facilitate access to it, still going to have to do pay for patient education and counseling. we have to deal with it. we don't want to deal with it al all. >> is this a negotiating tactic, since you pointed out, the rule hasn't actually been written yet? >> it's possible. because they say in several press statements that went out yepd from the presidents of notre dame, for example, president of kacatholic universy here in washington, d.c. saying so far the talks haven't worked out but we haven't given up on them yet. perhaps a dual strat jinchts pete williams. justers correspondent.

thank you, sir. >> you bet. up next, one of those unlikely alliances. senators from both sides of the aisle working together. dogs and cats. this is crazy. it's a jobs bill, not your daily flashback. we'll talk to two lauckmakers who haven't heard that compromise is dirty word. two senators, even. and a deep dive into where the campaigns are spending millions in their month of may. a may that is supposedly going to define both candidates as we move forward. first a look ahead at the president's schedule. getting home ap 1:00 a.m. not a lot of public events. right now no public events. see if it change. of course, hits the road tomorrow as he heads out west for bow campaigns and another commencement at the air force academy. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] this one goes out to all the allergy muddlers. you know who you are.

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jobs bill signedintolaw last month is one of the few bipartisan success stories in congress this year. now the same senators who introduced that bill, trying to make it two for two with what they're calling the start-up act 2.0. democratic virginia senator mark warn around republican kansas senator jerry moran join me now. well, let me give you both a chance to make your pitch for this bill. senator warner, you start. what's the basic -- why do we need to be hurrying up and passing this bill versus, say, focusing on the tax issue that's coming up in seven months? >> well, chuck, jerry and i are both new here and didn't get the memo you're supposed to take election years off and both understand that you've got to

grow jobs in this country and data has stheen hown that it cam start-up venture, 80%. the jobs act was how you get the start-up companies access to capital. ability to go public, raise money over the internet. the next bill we're working on, start-up act 2.0, how we get access to talent? how do we make sure that world-class talent we oftentimes train at our universities and get those ph.d.s in engineering don't go home but do it here. job starting here in america. >> you didn't use the word that are is part of the problem here. senator moran, doesn't the issue frankly have to do with our unsolved immigration issue and the politics of immigration? >> well it is. i mean, this is a difficult bill. anytime you deal with immigration it's a serious problem. here's my point. i would guess 80% of my colleagues in the senate and house agree with what we're trying to do, agree with the

provisions of this legislation and over and over you hear, we can't do anything with immigration unless we do everything with immigration. our point is let's do the things ke we we can agree upon and don't use that as an excuse we've got to do everything. let's do what we can do. the result, the reason this is important now is our country can't wait for economic growth or job creation. can't wait for us to become the next european country that's in financial problems. we need to create jobs, job security, good paying jobs in the united states, and in the process of doing that, we'll also, the added benefit is we'll have the deficit reduced because the growing economy puts revenues into the tax coffers. >> let me get this straight. is the basic prempremise, you g graduate degree, not a u.s. citizen, a graduate degree at a u.s. university, you get a visa to stay here and work? >> two pieces to it, chuck.

one is, we've heard this from technology companies for years. staple that green card or a visa, to those graduate degrees, ph.d.s in science, technology, engineering and math. we're not training enough american students. i'd love there to be more american-born students, but we're not. have microsoft set up institutes in china. keep the students here. second part, somebody who's been on one of these visas wants to start a business here, show they can raise capital, hire american woeshgs, do it here rather than spending them home. >> all right. both of you, wanted to come on together, show bipartisanship. senator moran, though, i want you to react to something that a potential colleague of yours said to me just ten days ago. take a listen. >> i certainly think that bipartisanship ought to consist of democrats coming to the republican point of view. we entered this campaign wanting to be a voice and hoping to get more of a national voice to the idea that republicans and more

specifically conservatives would be in the majority of the united states senate and the house and hopefully have a republican in the white house. if we do that bipartisanship means they have to come our way. >> senator moran, are you comfortable, richard mur douk. is that starting to become the growing view of more and more republican senators? >> chuck, half the people who call might office in washington, d.c. will say, why can't senator moran work with others and get something done? the other half call as say, why can't senator moran hold his feet to the fire and not budge one inch? both of right. there are things we ought not budge very far and things we ought to work on together. what senator warner and i, senator rubio, senator coonce, come up with broad support. don't let the issueses in which there are legitimate differences by people who have different philosophy, come from different

place ace cross the country, different constituents, don't let that permeate the whole conversation in washington, d.c. work together on what we can. >> senator moran, do you think he's a little naive on how the process works? >> depends on what he's talking about. there are certain things -- i would love to see more democrats support republican positions and i assume mark would like to see more republicans do the reverse, but the point here is that it all depends on what the issues are. fight for what you believe in but recognize not everybody is going to agree on everything. >> let me just weigh in on-- >> private equity. >> let me just weigh in on murdouck for a second. it's wacky. the genius of our founders, they set up a slightly dysfunctional government. independent house, independent senate, independent president. you've got to find common ground. it you're going to get anything done. >> he didn't write the rules on the filibuster until 100 years

later or so. senator warner, made a lot of money in the private sector. are you comfortable with president obama's, the campaign's attacks on bain capital? do you think it's an attack on private equity? >> i'm very proud of my business experience. i was more in the early stage venture capital. one of the things i found as i made the transition to public service, there is a different skill set. oftentimes if you're doing, got investors, you're looking for short-term profits. investing in preschool, much biff time. a different skill set and it's a valid topic of debate. >> do you think bain capital was, practiced good or bad ethics here, in the way they went about their business? >> bain capital was a very successful business. they got a good return for their investors. that is what they were supposed to do. i think when you're in public life, though, what you've got is a different time horizon and the notion everything in government

is exactly the same way it is in business, different time horizon investing for the long haul and actually do the kind of early stage invests, whether in preschool, k-12, whether infrastructure that don't pay back quarter to quarter. >> and senator moran, senator warner jumped on your political country. you want to jump in on his there? >> the start-up we're talking abo about, the question, entrepreneurship, successes and failures. government does not guarantee the success of a company and the private sector needs to work. it's where we're going to create the be job the this country and its citizens desperately need. >> thank you both. thanks for coming on together this morning. appreciate it. >> thanks, chuck. >> thanks, chuck. >> all right. despite the facebook fiasco -- all right. are we jumping the gun here a little bit? stocks snapped their losing streak on monday. first today's trivia question.

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renegotiate with greece, have to do it with portugal, spain, with any of the other countries, ireland, particularly, who have already taken these deals, too. this is a line in the sand that they have drawn. going to see what happens with it. there are concerns about the growth there in europe. the oecd saying it's looking for growth at just 3.4% around the globe, versus 3.6, bad news for them and the rest of the globe as well. also watching shares of facebook today. yesterday we were wondering how throw could go, and the stock was down about 11% just in that second day of trading. fell down to $34 and change. well, now we're looking at a trade below -- down in the $33 range. maybes 3ds 3.72. dropping this morning, continuing, a huge concern. keep an eye on that, chuck, and existing home seam sales at 10.

existing home sales expected to grow by 2.7%. >> okay. you set the bar. there it is. becky quick. thank you, as always. we'll see if people poke or like facebook today. and my latest stake on the play, the toss-up states. that's next. seems everything shifted. we'll tell you where. plus, primary pressure. the man who forced six-term senator warren hatch into a prima primary, now trying to force him into a debate. will it work? you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. power surge, let it blow your mind. [ male announcer ] for fruits, veggies and natural green tea energy... new v8 v-fusion plus energy. could've had a v8. where we switched their steaks for walmart's choice premium steak. let's see what people think. it's a steak-over. it's juicy. it's tender. it seems like it just melts in my mouth. that's a nice steak. only one in five steaks is good enough to be called walmart choice premium beef.

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battleground states, colorado, florida, north carolina, ohio and pennsylvania and virginia. who's spending the money and where? for instance in florida, the president's campaign is spending nearly $7 million. more than twice the amount of any other single group. if you combined the anti-obama super pacs crossroads gps, americans for prosperity and american energy alliance, told spending at $7.6 million just eclipsing the obama campaign. spendingses 1.4 million on ads it tilts things back in the president's favor. a slaimilar story in other key states. match him up against the super pacs the president outspends them nearly every time. look at the super pacs as group, four or five at a time, they can match the president's re-election campaign almost dollar for dollar. in ohio, anti-obama super pacs are spending more than $5 million. just short of the obama campaign's $6.3 million so far

this month. in virginia, crossroads gps outspending the obama campaign by itself. its bank rolling $2.7 million worth of that. throw in three of the other conservative groups and the total rises to $4.5 million. prodigy usa adding to the pro-obama side in virginia. and crossroads, american future fund and restore our future are at $2.3 million. a bit of a shift in pat pennsyla when the president is spending twice as much as crossroads gps. the president is leading the pack in terms of spending. nearly $25 million in seven narrowlytested battlegrounds. $1.6 million in april. folks, that story has gotten a little underreported. meanwhile, as romney super pac

allies spend millions to help him, the romney campaign is spending almost nothing. in fact, look at all seven battleground states, romney's total spending combined is less than $1 million. with me now, politico's jonathan martin. start wit ads, because in many ways it sort of tells us a little of the story of where's, where there's talk about the battleground and where they're actually putting, you know, walking the walk. the one state that seems to be the exception, wisconsin. everybody is ignoring wisconsin now. >> for now. the count ends in early june. you'll see both sides playing. people forget this. wisconsin, 2004, very, very close race between bush and less than 50,000 votes between the two of them. '08 it obviously got away from republicans but then feingold loses there in 2010. scott walker wins in 2010. walker looks like he's going to hang on. >> narrowly ahead. >> hang on now.

the romney folks will be very -- >> april. show the april battleground map and put it up. the ipad app, and we show seven pew toss-ups now, nevada, ohio, pennsylvania, virginia-others, we want to pace for the date-to-ta come out. you feel conventional wisdom shifting and i argue wisconsin out of the blue arguably and people want to put it in sort of a battleground negative, or even in middle of the gray. >> absolutely. >> and iowa, another one, while romney was ahead before, you could argue that -- back to even. >> sure. the economy in iowa is very strong too. >> looking at colorado, though, i've noticed there seems to be a lot of acknowledgement that romney's behind. >> oh, yeah. look, this is a state, sort of the socially moderate.

>> look at you. >> socially moderate upscale outdoor outdoorsy, pro-environment, culturally more liberal than moderate, put michael bennett back in office in a tough year. 2010. it's going to be hard for romney. >> and pa panchts yennsylvanpen. they don't seem to be walking the walk. >> interesting about pennsylvania, the last two obama ad cycles included ed pennsylv. >> yet romney folks are voiding it? >> their a bit kearconcerned bee of the deer hunter voters. so many older voters in the state. once you get outside the philly area, much more culture traditional. >> meanwhile, then north carolina. republicans very cocky about north carolina and democrats push back on, wait a minute. why do they think -- a shifting conventional wisdom maybe north carolina is tilting romney, but where did he spend money?

not pennsylvania but in north carolina. >> they know -- to the white house. chuck, starts with taking about north carolina, virginia -- >> is that what it should look like, florida, virginia, ohio, toss-ups, wisconsin, iowa, nevada? >> i think i might put wisconsin, lean obama just a tad, but that about right. >> if you look at those numbers -- that means the president's sitting at 2950 to romn -- 250 to romney's 206. obama would win it just with florida or needs two of everything else. >> yeah. look, they've got to take back the three red states that won in '08. virginia, north carolina and indiana. then they've got to get back one of the mega states, ohio or florida. and if they do those things it get easier, but doing those two things isn't a small thing by any means. >> and the bain capital hit.

>> ohio, about three states, frankly. iowa, wisconsin, ohio. >> absolutely. i think it hurts rormnmney. ohio one of the good news stories for obama. it's actually held stronger and i think a lot thought -- >> in the primary. that -- do you think that's why the romney folks have been trying to shift the conversation to budget and deficit? >> i do. i think it's also because of what happened in 2010 with the referendum on organized labor, i think turned off some of the sort of white blue collar voters who otherwise would have been drifting away from the democratic party. >> wisdom before its convention right here. maybe this is the new conventional wisdom battleground map. we'll see. >> it could be. >> you make it, chuck. >> we'll wait another ten days. >> new poll tonight? >> new nbc/"wall street journal" poll tonight. >> any previews? >> come on, man.

president obama in the bain battle, while a new poll shows a dead heat for the white house. deja vu for a few months. we'll break it down with our political panel. and soup of the day. not just minestrone. apparently chicken too. don't forget, follow the show on facebook. don't just poke us on twitter the way you do negatively and positively, but like us and post us on facebook. if you're watching "the daily rundown," we're only on msnbc. i love cash back. with the bankamericard cash rewards credit card, we earn more cash back for the things we buy most. 1% cash back everywhere, every time. 2% on groceries. 3% on gas. automatically. no hoops to jump through. no annual fee. that's 1% back on... wow! 2% on my homemade lasagna. 3% back on [ friends ] road trip!!!!!!!!!!!! [ male announcer ] get 1-2-3 percent cash back.

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>> 1973, nixon admitted to illegal events taking place in watergate and may have unknowingly contributed to a cover-up of the watergate statements. '73. a full year before he was forced out. a fight to define romney's time in bain capital rages on in the country, pretty split. romney is right on the president's heels and the nation split on which candidate will do the best job of boosting the economy over the next four years. bring in the panel, president of the bernard senator for women and public politics. and communication strategist jill zuckman, former spokeswoman, and got to say, i feel like, what we're seeing in multiples is, not seeing persuasion going on. it's coalescing. >> we are. the white house and expected a tight race. we have a tight race. most re-elections are especially

with the economy the way it is. national polls are interesting but not particularly relevant. there was eight states out there. that's where everything matter, and so the polls in those states also are tight. obama at the moment has a bit of an advantage. romney has a lot of work to do up there. i spoke recently with his campaign chairman matt rhodes who said they have a lot of voters who don't know them yet. they've got to get out. >> defining of bain capital, michelle, i feel like yelled we got the president making the argument of trying to explain why bain capital -- trying to -- apparently his campaign hasn't done a very good job so he did it and he's making it a values. mitt romney hasn't found the right values. and romney's criticism, the president is over his head and doesn't have the skills. >> exactly. what cory booker did for the obama campaign on sunday, hon

234e679 honestally, give the president a christmas gift. i do. >> i've heard this theory. >> in my opinion, only the president con explain why what happened at bain capital wa important. he's able to explain that, yes, there is a role for private equity in the economy, but the job of the president is not to cide who is going to get fired and who's going to keep their job. the job of the president is to make sure the entire country is employed. >> i want to play this video. we played earlier. mitt romney's campaign putting together ford, booker and others. a little ad. >> they sit there and wait until they see a stressed company, swoop in and kick the carcass clean and then fly away. >> companies leave behind broken family, broken towns. people on unemployment.

>> governor romney enjoys firing people. >> takes out all the cash and leaves behind the unemployment. i think that's not a model we want to advocate and i don't think any conservative wants to get caught defending that kind of model. >> you know, jill, the president you know, felt like october not may. that trumped the nato summit. so, you know, no more above it allness. do you think it's time to stape stape-of-stay above the fray? >> republican the dominated with primary and the president sort of on the sidelines. as michelle says, he's got to make the argument, just like kennedy in the incredible senate race, talked a lot about bain and what romney did at bain. it's not surprising at all. >> it's interesting you said that matt rhodes says they have

to define romney. only to a point. ultimately they think they simply will win. the economy's bad. they'll fire the president. >> it is a referendum on obama. to a certain degree they're right. whether they want the president to stay onboard. the risk they take if they are con placeant and just rely upon that a that is that the economy continues to improve and then they lose their argument. when you look at the eight swing states and you look at the economies in those states, many of them are much better off. >> uneven. interesting. they want to hit, michelle, on housing. nevada, florida, when you throw in the housing argument, that's where the anxiety comes back about the economy. >> yes. absolutely. >> they haven't figured out how to do that more often, it seems. >> sorry, jeanne. >> it's okay. but the romney campaign doesn't have a proposal yet to deal with housing. so -- they've got to do that first if they're going to make

housing a central art. >> one of the problems the romney campaign has, mr. romney always talks about what he did at bain capital, we've seen the good, bad and evil, not what he's done at governor of massachusetts. >> pointed that out. an interesting -- you know, i've had other republicans argue to me, jill, that, you know, they wouldn't mind actually if the president started saying the words, massachusetts governor, massachusetts governor. they think that's code to independents saying, he's not really at conservative -- >> right. you don't have to worry. it will be okay. >> maybe that's why the obama campaign won't dougo down that road? >> the obama campaign has a playbook talking about what romney did at bain. that's where they are right now. maybe later they will. for the republicans in the primary, their playbook, talking about him as governor. >> stick around. trivia time. how many vice-presidents served as a result of the 25th amendment and who were there? answer just two. 1973. gerald ford the first person to come into office under the

provisions of the 25th anticipatedment and in 1974, when ford became president, nelson rockefeller became vice president as result of the 25th amendment process. by the way, really good nelson rockefeller biographies worked on that will be fun when they come out. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. instead of hiring someone, she did her own market research. focus groups and surveys to find her products. for more, watch "your business" sunday morning the on msnbc. [ kate ] many women may not be properly absorbing the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption.

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debates play a critical role in utah elections. senator hatch used to believe this as well. in 19 # 6 he challenged his primary opponent to eight debates. i've issued the same challenge to senator hatch. but now he refuses to debate on television entirely. >> let's bring back our panel. this was not an easy thing to do. he had to do this convention process, hatch didn't get the 60 and hatch is just running out the clock.

pretty smart strategy, is it not? >> of all the republican senators who face a primary challenge this year, he was the most -- senator hatch was the most prepared for this, most prepared to be attacked from the right flank. and i think now he is. he's just trying to get out of it. i'm not sure his opponent looks all that senatorial. >> in 2010, you had michael bennett, mike castle, lisa murkowski, kate bailey hutchison, they all didn't get the tea party playbook issue and worry about it. and then you had a john mccain who said, i've figure this had out and i'm not messing around. and oren hatch seems to have figured it out. >> exactly. he's seen it coming for two years. so he was prepared. where the tea party has had a greater impact this cycle is in open primaries and they have knocked off establishment candidates, for instance, in nebraska. just recently --

>> although that's not a tea party victory. fisher wasn't the tea party candidate. they all threw their money behind stenberg. it was anti-establishment. that's going to be interesting to follow as we move forward. we have primaries coming up in texas and a couple of other place where is we'll see if it happens. >> i keep calling this the year that we'll see how influential the tea party is. see mr. lugar get knocked was interesting. >> it seems to be a small state phenomenon. texas is going to be an interesting case study. there's a weird attack that said the dallas morning news referred to him as a moderate. i think the ad shows you, wow, this is where the club for growth thinks the party is.

>> it's true that these smaller states, you can organize better, you can get in there and you can make change happen easier than in a state like texas. >> should we care about arkansas democratic primary tonight if barack obama can't break 60? >> no. >> what does that tell us, that skrch arkansas is a state that's not a big state for barack obama? >> no. he will lose arkansas. >> shameless plugs? >> my son, logan johns, and all the students at the lab school in washington who participated in extreme reading relay. they were phenomenal. >> jeanne. >> bloomberg news, we take a look at '04, the bush reelection playbook and how obama is changing the way it works. >> changing it, even though it's oddly borrowing from it, too? >> changing. >> i just finished reading "the rise of marco rubio," it is terrific. it's coming out in a few weeks.

and i recommend it. >> my shameless plug is for the nbc/"wall street journal" poll, think about everything that's happened in the last four weeks from afghanistan to gay marriage, uncertainty in the economy, what kind of impact hassed it on the presidential race, on president obama. it's as deep of a dive as we've done. and we've started an hispanic oversample that we're going to do all the way through the end of the week with our partners telemundo. coming up next, chris jansing and company. bye-bye. hi, i'm phil mickelson.

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three points. but that's within the margin of error. meanwhile, the president is defending his campaign to tax on mitt romney's business record. >> this is issue is not a, quote, distraction. this is part of the debate we're going to be having in this election campaign. >> the controversy all started when newark mayor cory booker openly criticized obama's comments on bain capital. the mayor called it nauseating. the republican seized on booker's remarks with a new campaign call. >> anybody who watched the entire "meet the press" saw not only was i defending obama's positions on numerous issues but i also talked super pac money and the negative campaigning. and my frustration was about the cynical negative campaigning, the manipulating of the truth. they're plucking sound bites out of t