either way, it's shaping up to be a squeaker. a lot of parallels to bush/kerry '04. and what has soured the nation's direction? ed prethe president needs hispa votes. and romney, what's it has for the country. and bain capital. it's all coming up. another election we're watching, this is historic. after what led to hosni mubarak's ouster, egyptians finally vote to replace the deposed dictator. with no new constitution, many worry about a future that plays such a key role in middle east stability. welcome. good morning. this is "the daily rundown." i'm chuck todd. fired up. nbc poll day. does it get better than this? increased economic uncertainty

here and abroad. president obama's gay marriage decision. the battling defining bain capital. how do voters digest it all jp president obama is even or down slimtly in every key election category but clings to a small lead over mitt romney. why? a tough economic cloud of ang site they hangs over this country now hurting the obama presidency. plenty of doubts remain about who mitt romney is beyond simply not being barack obama. and our new poll shows a very close race. president obama leads 47-43. down slightly from a 49-42 advantage in april. despite the narp oh advantage, plenty of tough news for the white house to digest if this election turns out to be a refer rendom on the president's handling of the economy rather than a choice election which the obama campaign wants to make and make romney and unqualified alternative. after three months of growing o

optimi optimism, seeing sign the country's pessimism is back when it comes to the country. 43% approve. 52% disagree. 33% believe it will improve in the next month. one thermd of respondents believe the country is headed in the right direction. number that's been flat. and the growing economic future, 63% say they do not feel confident their children's generation will have it better than they do. an anxiety they republicans are trying to capitalize. and that explains this new tv ad from karl rove, gps, running in ten battleground states beginning today. notice they're in michigan with this one as well. >> -- always loved watching the kids play basketball. >> now i can't afford to retire.

>> despite the economic anxiety, the president's numbers are hanging tough, when you think about it. boosted by a large lead among hispanics and women. a small lead among voters in battleground states. that's a lead in a critical place. romney is importantly linked with men. suburban voters and the folks paying, they call themselves highly interested in this campaign. now, the president's lead over romney almost mirrors his job approval rating. 48%. nearly identical to president bush's job rating of 47% at this same point in the 2004. and just like 250004, challenge saddled by doubts he's better than the man in office. the president, 41%, and romney is still upside-down. 34% positive. 38% negative. and though voters like romney's business background, they have negative views from the voters that know and have heard of bain capital, negative views of that. the place he got that experience. just 9% view that company positively.

19% negatively. that could be for months of attacks like these, highlighted, oh, say this pro-obama superpac out today. >> sit there and wait until they see a distressed company and swoop in and kick the carcass clean and fly away. >> these companies behind broken family, broken town. >> ultimately, comes downs to two arguments. president obama saying romney, his time at bain capital does not have the values to lead the economic depression we're in of sorts. and romney is saying that the president doesn't have the skills to get the economy back on the right track. now, the romney campaign is up with a new video this morning that makes that simple case. >> this is not a distraction. thas is what this campaign is going to be about. >> we've seen layoffs, cutbacks. >> bought their houses. they have zero credit. they can't find jobs. >> i have to work part time in order to make ends meet.

>> meanwhile, two new ads from the obama campaign including this one on medicare makes the values argument about why the president believes he deserves a second term. >> to you and your loved ones, medicare is personal, and to a president raised by his grandparents, it's personal, too, and starts with protecting your medicare from health care scam artists who prey on seniors. >> romney never named directly, the quote "romney-ryan" budget is implicit in there. the poll when it comes to the president's efforts to get reelected, gay marriage, a wash. 62%. neither his pro-gay marriage position or romney's against it make as difference. 70% pro-obama, 20% pro-romney. and finally egyptians voting in their first president's election since the fall of hosni

mubarak. it's really quite remarkable, if you think about it. i'm sorry, folks. with a potential runoff between the leading votes scheduled for later next month, the winner will succeed mubarak, whose regime was toppled more than a year ago during arab spring after 29 years in power. really longer if you think about his predecessors. 50 million people are eligible to vote in the election. candidates from the muslim brotherhood, former mubarak arab minister, military officials all vying for the top spot. egypt has been under tumult kmuous military rule. dozens of protesters killed during demonstrations and the economy taken major hits from the deteriorating tourism industry and foreign investments leaving the country. the country has been a longtime ally to the united states, an important player until recently provided stability in the region. this is why these elections are so critical for us. keep an eye on. who better to talk to on this than my friend nbc's chief

foreign correspondent richard engel joining me live from cairo and, richard, we'll get into the details of what's happening today. it's still a remarkable thing we're witnessing. >> reporter: it is. this is not just the first free democratic election since the fall of hosni mubarak early last year. egypt has about 5,000 years of recorded history. this is the land of the fair roes and later sultans and kings and not one day of those 5,000 years was democratic, and this is a fact that is not lost on egyptians. look at one of the main newspaper headlines today. this is the newspaper that means "the news" it's a daily paper here that says equals the futur egypt. clearly, this is an important day, but you have to look at what's going on. this is not just about a democratic process that allows people to express themselves. they are in a very real way

choosing the next leader of this country. the person that will be leading a very large, very powerful egyptian army, the person deciding relations with the united states, whether to keep a peace treaty with israel, and the five leading candidates all have very different ideas about this. egypt is at a crossroads, and the five candidates can really be broken up into two groups. there are islamists, mostly led by the muslim brotherhood and there are secular candidates allied with the former regime, and depending on who egyptians choose, either the muslim brotherhood and islamists or members of the foreign regime, it will set a very different tone for not only egypt but the entire region. >> richard, since there's no new constitution why are we so sure the president will have the power that -- it's the assumption that hoomp assumes office will just inherit a lot of this power because there's no constitution? >> reporter: yes. the way it's supposed to work is, voting takes place today and

tomorrow of these five leading candidates, no one is expected to win an outright majority. that is more than 50% of votes cast today. that means there will be a runoff election in the middle of next month. the winner of that runoff election between the top two candidates will shortly after that become the president of this country. the president will then oversee the process of writing a new constitution. and if the muslim brotherhood gains the presidency, the muslim brotherhood here already controls the parment. it will be in a very strong position to oversee how that constitution is written. if it is a secular candidate, someone associated with the former regime, then they'll be a lot more debate, potential in-fighting over how the constitution is written. once this election takes place, assuming it will go to the second round, the winner does become the president of egypt and this military council, struggling to maintain some semblance of stability here dissolves. >> all right. richard engel, in cairo,

witnessing this historic couple of day, and historic moments in the history, long history of egypt. as always, nice to talk with you. much more on a new poll ahead, plus, could education be the one place where president obama and governor in romney actually agree? bobby gentjindal joins us and t about the president's chatter that keeps getting louder with his nays associated with it. vice president biden says mitt romney the bain experience doesn't make him any more qualified to be president than, get this, a plumber. the president is in the air right now. his schedule. a busy couple of days on the road. colorado, air force academy commencement. campaign event. overnight in l.a. busy day. you're watching "the daily rundown." be right back. [ woman ] for the london olympic games, our town had a "brilliant" idea.

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well, mitt romney is accusing president obama of only paying lip service to education reform. previewing a major education speech he'll give to the chamber of commerce later today. >> with me now, louisiana republican be governor bobby jindal, asked to come on and speak on education on behalf of the romney campaign and he joins me now. gove good morning, govern every. >> good morning, chuck. thank you for having me. >> tell me exactly, the romney campaign, they pitched, they said you were helping to speak on this, on the issue of education. has the campaign reached -- are you part of making his education plan?

>> i am, and i think you'll hear more dames today. governor romney is speaking later today in washington. three key components of the plan when it comes to pre-k through 12. importance of giving parents clear information how their child's school is doing. here in louisiana we've done didn't through report cards literally giving letter grades to public schools so parents know exactly how they're saints are doing on standardized tests, graduation retention rates. secondly, governor romney making sure students aren't trapped in failing schools. gep, here in louisiana we've implemented the country's most kpree hanesive choice-based program where the dollars follow the student. traditional school, charter school, online school, proek yule, technical school, dual enrollme enrollment. the point is every child is different. no child should be trapped in a failing school. our children only grow up once. this is critical. governor romney believes we need

excellent teachers in every class roomg. change the way we compensate teachers, change the tenure laws, we have done that in louisiana. reserving tenure for the very best teachers, reversing policies for too long paid and hired teachers based on how long they'd been in the classroom rather than how well they're doing. the reason this is so important. this is critical to growing our country's economy. in america we're historically number one in the world in educational achievement and attainment as well as outcomes. >> now in the middle of the pack compared to other entry sized countries even though weez doubled per student spending since the 1970s even after adjusting for inflation. >> it's a political campaign. we're always supposed to find things that cause splits between president obama and mitt romney, but what you just described, the one, the only difference that i hear from what you hear from arne duncan, what he says he wants to do with the race to the top with charter schools, the only difference between these three with the three points you put out is basic lip an issue of

charter scolss parochial schools. ak i wrong? >> i think arne's a good guy. however, this president like other democratic presidents before him is completely held captive by the lobbyists from the teacher union. two very, very important examples of differences between president obama's approach and governor romney's approach to educational reform. first talk about school choice and making sure kids aren't trapped in failing schools. great rhetoric from president obama. look at this attempts to kill the d.c. sdolership program year after year, ourepublicans have fight to save a successful program that is helping children otherwise trapped in failing schools. >> against, this is about, the divide between charter and religious schools which really is sometimes a divide between the two parties on whether should religious private schools get taxpayer dollars.

>> well, not just religious schools. the d.c. scholarship program, you've seen, the obama administration hostility of this saying we want to limit choices for kids that can't afford to escape failing schools. okay for the president to send his children to private schools but doesn't want to allow familying who can't afford -- not just religious schools. parents should be able to decide that local school is not doing a good job. may be prock you'parochial or o. one of the stated rationales, help loelt districts avoid laying off teachers, wanted to help them hire and keep teachers. what a great opportunity to come in and say, we want to incentivize states to truly target dollars to effective teachers based on how kids are doing in the classroom. a couple comments from the teachers unions in my own state. a teacher union, louisiana association of educators basically say, we're for evaluating teachers as long as

you don't link it so closely to student achievement. that's ridiculous. the obama administration has a great opportunity spending tens of billions of dollars, federal dollars, unprecedented investment to say focus on teacher assessment. >> but the -- right, but the nuance has always been on, okay. what do you do when you grade a student here? do you grade -- have they moved up from -- from one reading level to another reading level or are they on a fourth grade reading level? see what i mean? sometimes teachers -- this is where i think the nuance of the argument gets lost, which is, are you grading a teacher's merit pay based on, is the student reading at a specific grade level that they're supposed to be reading on because the state says this is the level, or have they made advancements jns they may have been three years behind on reading level but now are only one year behind on reading level. that's an amazing advancement in one year, say you've jumped two reading levels but are still behind where the state says

you're supposed to be. isn't there isn't nuance behind this argument? >> the divide is bigger than that. we measure kids at the beginning of the year compared to progress at the end of the year and give teachers credit for moving kids up. they get credit moving them to or above grade level. the teacher -- because of their position, the obama administration as well too often puts priority on not how well the student is doing, value added or just objective outcomes, what they're putting an emphasis on, how long the teacher has been in the classroom. for example, going back to the job fund, last in, first out policies and instead of safing, all right, i've have a teacher moving children up a grade or two grade levels based where they started in math or reading. instead of keeping those effective teachers, paying they are mom, instead rewarding teachers who have been there the longest. we don't treat other professions that way. the fundamental issue, one teacher shows up early, does a great job, got the teacher next door that doesn't do that.

and unfortunately, this administration's policies doesn't reward the first teacher. doesn't compensate them better. doesn't encourage districts to prioritize keeping that teacher in the classroom. >> i think the seniority thing is definitely something that is up for a larger discussion. larger debate. quickly, grover norquist says you're the guy. you're going to be the running -- you should be the running mate for mitt romney. what say you, governor jindal? >> look, i've got the job i want. it is important to make president obama a one-term president. we can't afford another four years of unemployment above -- >> governor romney thinks you're the guy to help him do that you'll answer the phone? >> look, the reality is, i'm not going to speculate on hypotheticals, but do everything i can to support romney and whoever he selects as his vice president. we can't afford another four years but i've got the job i want. >> governor, not a denial. you know that, right? all right. governor jindal. >> are we going to -- >> better thank you there.

>> are we going see miami in '12? >> we'll see. wherever florida state goes, miami goes as well. up next, facebook stock sell-off continues. investigators are circling morgan stanley. facebook's underwriter. this is a mess, folk. first, today's trivia question what became known as the infamous saturday night massacre? nixon white house ordered elliott richardson to fire watergate prosecutor cox. richard son declined. quit. ordered deputy attorney general william ruckalhouse to do it. he quit. then eventually fired archibald cox. first correct answer get a follow wednesday from us. the answer coming up on "the daily rundown." we'll be right back.

time for your business entrepreneur of the week. founder of a silicon valley store, citrus lane. instead are hiring someone, she did her own market research. for more, watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc. today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers.

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the other important stories i'm watching this morning. big ones in baghdad. ready for this? talks over the nuclear weapons program in baghdad. a place where these negotiations are happening. anyway, five other world powers sat down with iranian diplomats, sanctions against iran crippled its economy. few experts believe the talkless actually provide results for now. also this morning, nancy reagan slowly recovering after a bad fall. the 90-year-old first lady suffered broken ribs after falling at her los angeles home. happened about six weeks ago. scheduled to attend a speech at the reagan library but unable to go because of her injury and we were informed of what happened. facebook stock dies again. now down 18% below the original offer price and regulators are focusing whether insiders were tipped off to negative

information about the economy. cnbc's becky quick. one of these thing, pull a string here and it's unwinding. >> unrivaling the entire sweater at this point. >> yes. >> watching it play out. it has been messy, messy, messy, chuck. now,error this morning it looked like facebook stock would open even lower. it was trading down as low as 30ds, but it's since rebounded with pre-market activity trading up 60 cents or 50 cents. maybe, maybe, maybe the bleeding has been staunched at this point. there is a lot of finger pointing going on. whose fault? plenty of blame to go around. nasdaq messed up with neck tickle problems on the opening day trades, compounded problems. morgan stainly, lead underwriter, should have known better than to push out an additional 25% of shares made public and push the price range to the higher end at $38. and saying facebook itself, the cfo was pushing for a lot of these changes. so everybody involved in pushing

at different people. the attorney general is looking into whether morgan stanley should have been more up front and told more people about its an legitimates dropping some of its earnings forecasts for the company, but there's a lot of complicated things here including rules spitzer put into place. a lot of rooms to go around. watching the stock. going to open slightly higher. the story of the morning, chuck. >> well, we're going to find out the real bottom of facebook, apparently. becky quick, thank you, as always. next, digging deeper. the brand new nbc/"wall street journal" poll. our pollsters are here. we're giving more time. that's what we're doing, folks. and plus, president obama's highs and lows in the gop's perception problem. all right here. unleashing the attack dogs. congressman paul ryan signeded like a man auditions for the vice president bid. and watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc.

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well, the more things change, the more they stay the same. perhaps. gay marriage, struggling economy, none moving the needle all that much in this race. is that good news for the president and romney? today, taking a deep dive into the latest nbc/"wall street journal" poll showing the country split right down the middle. joining me now, our pollsters. gentlemen, well we did have a lot going on. i want to dive into a lot of the top lines. dive in, we did a deep sort of test of president obama's made, worse or better or did his policies make things worse? a lot of stuff. where more voters thought he made things better. war in iraq, war in afghanistan. auto industry. watching out for the middle class. and here's where voters have judged, they picked worse, politics made things worse

rather than better. america's standing in the world. health care economic downturn, political partisanship, budget deficit. interesting thing to me on the bert are side, bill, the auto industry. he is getting credit for that. >> yes, i think he is. people see this as success, but this is a campaign that's about the jobs and the economy. and every number in this poll says that americans are not feeling better about the economy. feeling a little worse, and we're stuck, and we're stuck in a kind of economic pessimism that is bad news for an incumbent president. >> the thing that struck me, made things worse. a foreign policy story, but that struck me as sort of surprising and partisanship. two things that he ran on back in 250b in -- >> the big standing in the world, our economic prowess. >> judging that. >> yes. >> we talked about competition with china, india, other countries. >> i think that's part of it and you try -- partisanship.

>> right. >> a. he's getting blamed -- this partisanship thing, he gets -- voters aren't rewarding, we've seen this in polling. not seeing republicans are any good at this but punishing the president as well? >> i think everyone is to blame. people angered everybody here. when we asked those paralleled questions about, obama trying to reach out to republicans or republicans reach out to obama he scores a lot higher than republican, but again, part of a general anger and dissatisfaction after four years of economic downturn than threatens every incumbent in washington. >> peter, your partner calmed this the business halo effect. business background. not bain. how does it help? advantage, disadvantage? everything seen as an advantage,ism proving the economy, reducing the deficit, including making corporations pay their fair share in taxes. peter referred to it as a halo

effect in the biography of business -- >> as bill said, jobs and economy is the key issue. voters are feeling anxious and they're feeling nervous about the future. businessman, business, it's a very good brand. and, look, next six months, he's going -- he, governor romney, is going to try to maintain that halo for six months. >> that's what i want to get at here, bill, and put up our feeling thermometer on bain capital and wanted to do it early to establish a, where does it start, and we know there's going to be a campaign against bain for the next five months. positive, 9%. negative, 19%. not sure, 53%. it starts with a minus 10 and seems that when you look at the business halo effect, it explains the obama strategy here. doesn't it? >> sure. they're saying, the president said as directly as you can, he doesn't care about creating jobs. just trying to make money. that's okay. you can do that in america, but

it's not a qualification to be president. and that's what therapy trying to do. -- therapy trying to do. that number for bain, it will be a real interest in about three, four months. baseline data. my one prediction for the campaign is that partners of bain rename their firm after november. >> all right, fred. go to the other big thing we tested. we did a deep dive on the two parties. how are they in tune to various segments of the country? and we asked on a various level of questions, when it came to the democratic party, seen as more intuitive in working with women. all of 9 scores, republicans not on many. we want to focus on, who's looking ot for you and your family, democrats have the advantage. empathy gap they're calling it. >> that's the push/pull between the republican party and the democratic party. governor romney and president obama. the economy is struggling. so there's going to be, the president, democrats, will have tough ratings.

it's a tough world out there. were we want to try to poov debate a move debate, who's on your side? who's looking out for you? we're trying -- we feel -- >> this seems to be the values argument and that the obama campaign says, no, no. the economy's bad. want a fix-it guy, a skills guy. they're struggling with that. >> i think, two things. first, the romney campaign, what it's all about. sure, we can feel your pain or stop the pain and fix it. what do you want as a president? that's a pretty good engagement from what this campaign is about. number two, when you look at a number like, what's good for you and your family, african-americans, latinos support the democrats by wide margins. among white swing voters and others, a very close measure between two parties and final been on value, a direct question. to you think that president obama has a set of values you can don't fi with? >> looked like a ballot test. 48-46. looked like a valid test. did it not?

>> yes. what it does, we agree on numbers. guess what? every number says the president's job poll, 48. value, 48. he's stuck in the high -- >> a very close campaign. >> identical numbers to both, to where we are in 2004. not identical in '92, the romney campaign making the case. no, no, no, no, no. they're going to benefit from the '92 idea of where things were. not 2004. >> i think it this is one of those three yards and cloud of dust campaign. we know who the swing voters are. interesting, bill diddal a great chart comparing the vote bipartisanship. there's no movement on either side. that's going to be four swing states. >> talk quickly, same-sex marriage. we asked a very interesting question. i think it's unique. was unique to any of the questions asked. if your state approved same-sex marriage, and we gave you four choices, would you actively support, 24%. favor it, no the actively support it, 30%.

oppose not try to overturn, 23%. actively try to overturn, 17%. >> one thing, first, there's a lot of states that are voting 0en this issue and don't look like these polls. same-sex marriage has lost in the a number of states. >> we almost asked, would you want to take the right away, and i think there is a difference. >> what wleer we're seeing, same-sex marriage suddenly around low 50 support. eight on nir-point marne-point . ensuing states, republican, democratic states. literally 26, 30 points saying i'd vote for gay marriage. in republican states, by nine points, opposed. swing states are 10 or 15 points for it. it reminds you, again, this map. this electoral map and how incredibly different our red and blue states are. >> it's a passion here, though. 41%, add up the actively support or oppose.

53%, no passion. >> chuck, your point is very important. if your state approved same-sex marriage, we're not a country that likes to take rights away. >> right. >> that seems to be where this may be settling. a lot of this poll -- got the nbc "wall street journal" telemundo, hispanic poll, we'll study that later today. did a great job on that, to. thank you. up next, the boxes gloves are off. paul rhine unloads on the president. our hump day political panel breaks it down next. first, the white house soup of the day, president's not there. apparently a lot of people miss him, because they're just going to have chicken noodle. don't forget, you can always follow the show on facebook. don't worry about their stock. poke us, post us. you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. [ male announcer ] if you stash tissues

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forkes, making money for your investors, which romney did very well, is not the president's job. that doesn't mean the private equity guys are bad guys. they're not. but that no more qualifies you to be president than being a plumber. it doesn't -- by the way, a lot of smart plumbers. totally legitimate for the president to point this out. >> very expensive to hire a plumber sometimes. anyway, bring in the panel. "washington post," and editor david drucker. always snappily dressed and "usa today" washington bureau chief susan paige. values versus skill. values argument. joe biden doubling down on the values argument. seems we know know where they're going with bain. our poll showed why they wanted

to disqualify the businessman approach. >> some i talk to feel like romney established himself as a wealthy businessman but not yet as a job creator. they are trying to, democrats are trying to lock that into voters' minds, look at the polls so far. 9% have a negative impression of bain. 20% have a relatively positive one. >> other way around. 9%, 19% negative. >> they don't flow it yeknow it. were the democrats are. >> david, seems the response of republicans when it comes to bain now is simply look at all the democrats that want to praise bain. they're not -- they haven't answered this, frankly, what i would call the nuance charts that the president articulated monday in chicago and the vice president. they haven't answered that and they need to. >> have to answer it and do it well. i'd say that governor romney since the initial primary

dustoff of capital has done a good job dealing with this. all these great things i can do for you and my experience gives me the skill to accomplish this. i would sap this. the romney campaign is happy to take the bain attacks because right now it means that the focus on the election is on the economy and jobs. that's where he wants it. >> it does strike me, the competency argument. a lot of candidates who have made competency an arpgument an don't get elected president. dukakis, george h.w. bush get bill clinton. it didn't work. it's tough. >> this is 2004 all over again, because you have an election that actually increasingly looks like 2004 with a president in trouble, but is the alternative acceptable? republicans then, took john kerry's biggest asset, a war hero, made it a negative. >> the swift boast? >> romney's best thing, i'm a businessman who knows how to fix the economy.

they're trying to turn that around. >> the important thing, how do americans 2350 feel about the e? record on national security, made it easier for republicans to damage kerry. >> all right. i want to show republicans are making a, having, enjoying the headline out of arkansas, kentucky, where the president at 40% basically, over 40% go with somebody else. a fancy new little tchotchke today they're unloading. i would like to remind people how there is still a lot of registered democrats in kentucky, arkansas and west virginia who haven't voted democratic in presidential elections in a long time. >> that's right. and a lot of these folks voted for hillary clinton. >> and all voted for john mccain. >> exactly. these are states that are not going to be in play for president obama in this campaign. >> they're having fun with it. >> yeah. but -- >> doesn't matter in the least. >> north carolina.

21% voted uncommitted. that's a swing state. >> again, back to the southern thing. i think there is still a southern hangover, yes. >> where you have, local elections, conservatives. >> that's a state that they want to contest. they want it to be a swing state. they need some of those democrats to come home. >> all right. we're going to talk about vp stuff. bobby jindal, interesting answer, coming up. paul ryan stumping for the -- i mean the reagan library. and the saturday might massacre who eventually fired arch bauld cox? years later block the nomination in the supreme court. referring to political nominee not get ak job and sharing elliott richardson apparently asked bork to stay so there wouldn't be a constitutional crisis and that's why bork reluctantly stayed on and did the firing and testifying to that in a court hearing. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. lots to grow on.

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i'm not going to speculate on hypotheticals. but i'll do everything i can to support romney and whoever he selects as his running mate. >> governor, not a denial, you know that. i mean, it was amazing. let's bring back our panel. nia-malika henderson, david druker, susan page, he changed the subject of the big 12. it was like, okay. campaigning for the vice presidency, i feel like we have seen -- i think bobby jindal is interested. paul ryan was at the reagan library -- >> and talking about debating -- >> the biden experience. >> they're all interested. >> with the exception of mitch daniels. i believe him. everyone else, forget it. >> marco rubio going to south carolina. >> people used to jockey behind the scenes when they wanted to be vice president. this is really public this year.

>> probably because we harass them so much, they break down. >> a little bit of this. but i take it -- the romney people strike me as people that they don't want to have that, like maybe they won't like that. >> i disagree. they want to stay in the news. the only thing he's going to do is choose is vice president -- >> before the convention. >> before the convention. that's a big story. this keeps him in the news -- >> in a semi positive way. >> he's making his case. >> he's seen as somebody who's wanted -- >> most of the people we're talking about are very respected in republican activist circles, among the grassroots. they'd love to serve with romney. >> and i want to emphasize the romney campaign said, our representative today for television is bobby jindal. that was an active thing they said. they're doing it in more surrogates. maybe they're publicly allowing this audition to go on. >> encouraging it.

>> shameless plugs time. >> it's my wife's birthday this weekend. >> it's not one day. >> i have an infant son, i need to give my wife as much as she wants. >> today, our 30th anniversary. that's my shameless plug. >> wow! that's the story? i have a couple of shameless plugs. nbc/"wall street journal" poll, we debut it every month, we're going to have special extra editions. second, nbc/marist polls come

out tomorrow morning. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." we'll see you tomorrow with the polls coming out. next, chris jansing. bye-bye. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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good morning. i'm craig melvin in for chris jansing today. new warning signs for both president obama and mitt romney. with just over five months to go until election day. here's the broader picture. our nbc/"wall street journal" poll just out shows president obama with a four-point lead over romney. but that lead has gotten smaller. the president had a six-point lead last month. in the important battleground state of florida, better news for romney, who now has a six-point lead over the president. a new quinnipiac poll out, the president was leading romney by seven in the sunshine state. when it comes to key group, the president has a commanding lead

among hispanic, women and young voters. but when it comes to the economy, the approvallating has slipped to its lowest rate since december. joined by major garrett and mr. perry. what's your take away from these poll numbers, major? >> this race is close. and president obama's numbers are static or slightly declining. that's not a good posture for the president. a third of the country says the country is on the right track, only a third. that's better than it was five or six months ago by a significant amount. but it's not enough historically to give any president seeking reelection a sense of confidence going into that reelection campaign. i write in my column today the reason you're seeing these bain capital attacks on mitt romney, the presumptive republican nominee, is the president's campaign advisers know or can't really p