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republicans want a choice election now and team obama is all too eager to oblige. plus, with ryan's reputation built entirely a career in congress, what's it like to do business with him? we're going to talk to congressman chris van hollen. and a revealing sit down session with joe lieberman, the man who gave the democratic ticket a shot in the arm and came close to doing it in 2008 for the republicans. good morning. this is the second half of a special two-hour daily rundown. i'm chuck todd. convention has it that paul ryan will elevate the issues and there's the evidence of the last 48 hours. >> if any person in this entire debate has blood on their hands in regard to medicare, it's

barack obama. >> let me ask you something, david, how does mitt romney in the very week that he's running an ad, that he says, i'm mitt romney, i approve this ad, it's patently false and he's lecturing people on the quality of campaigns? he ought to be ashamed of himself. >> do you support $700 billion in cuts in medicare over the next ten years. >> i'm not running for president? >> do you? why can't you answer? >> paul ryan is running for vice president. >> david gregory is moderator of "meet the press." david, i was just struck when you just sat back and looked at the entire show yesterday -- >> yeah. >> -- and we were in many ways as policy junkies that want to see a cross section here, saying, this is going to elevate the debate. we saw a lot of evidence that wasn't going to be the case. >> well, correct. because of the rhetoric and demogogary. but if you can dial that back, you say, what are we doing about

a program that is going broke, that's medicare for seniors? we're still at the stage of who would do more harm to it? who has done more harm between the ryan budget and what the president has done as part of his health care plan? so this promise of an elevated debate may be a little bit elusive. there's no question that ryan will force the debate over what you do about entitlements, which are the biggest drivers of our national debt. it. >> it was revealing yesterday, we saw the battle lines get drawn. that is, the democrats are anxious to do medicare. i feel like we've got -- how long does the romney campaign have to sort of figure out how to deal with ryan and medicare? they've delayed their debut in florida with ryan, probably smart as they try to sort of figure this out. >> right. >> but already it feels like ryan and medicare are becoming synonymous. >> they have a lot of explaining to do. ryan was for a voucher program and then in later iterations he

was for keeping regular medicare and having a choice. now it's romney's plan which might be somewhat different even though romney has embraced romney's approach. so what is it? there's a lot of complication already and here's the danger which i think you know well. in this pick, unlike a cheney and biden, the democrats are talking about this this morning. it seems like ryan's ideology has overtaken the ticket and overtaken the top of the ticket. romney's got to work to peal that back for a lot of reasons. >> he tried a little bit last night in the interview on "60 minutes" where he said, i have a budget plan. >> what is it? paul ryan has been very specific. paul ryan is a budget warrior. he has expertise, he has specifics. you even heard him in that interview last night jump in and say, here's what we want to do on tax loopholes, here's how we'll approach it. there's so fluency in there it puts pressure on romney to clarify and distinguish and then sort of asway the concerassuage

concerns of voters. >> it seems like he's going to have a harder time of doing that without the monthly job reports. >> perhaps. this all becomes part of a piece. you're talking about the economy, you're talking about getting our fiscal house in order, you're talking about america's place in the worldful real world. but really what you're talking about is the economy and that's where they want the debate to be. >> going forward when you're watching president obama, he's been running against the ryan budget for 2 1/2 years. he's been dying to do this. i've spoken with democratic strategists who say, we've been laying the ground with this for six months and we didn't know we'd have an easy way to label it. >> they will label it radical and talk about tax cuts and say, how he is going to pay for them. i think one danger for the president's team is, do ryan and

romney get credit for trying to go big, trying to solve the hardest of the problems. david axelrod said, the -- >> i was asking robert gibbs that earlier. does the president owe us a plan? in an odd way, he's going to have to offer an alternative. >> i don't think anyone want to campaign on it. they are saying, we'll campaign on it. they have to. the dangerous campaigning on it is because the reality -- you mentioned this earlier on "morning joe." there is consensus about means testing medicare, about raising the age. there are things that both sides are prepared to do but both sides are so afraid it's like negative advertising. >> it's not going to happen. >> romney of all people. might as well, right. the governor asked. he's the nominee. >> i think you have a big enough table for them to sign. >> it looks like a bilateral

meeting between two heads of state. david gregory, a very frank discussion that we had this morning. earnest as well. >> earnest. it's the first big test for the vice presidential contender. he's facing off against president obama today of sort for the spotlight in the battleground state of iowa. both men campaigning in the hawkeye state as ryan flies solo as the other half flies with the ticket. here's msnbc ron mott joining us from des moines. you're at my favorite place in the world this time of year. ron mott, what do we expect from ryan this morning? >> reporter: good morning, chuck. if you're going to run for president or vice president of the united states, you've got to go to a state fair or three even. and iowa state fair is one of the more cherished state fairs in the country. we're on the main drag and obviously you can get a lot of food at state fairs. there's a lot of stuff set up here. congressman ryan is going to speak at about 2:00 down the

promenade. a lot of things that folks here are interested in hearing him talk about is this budget and the debt and deficit and how the republicans, mitt romney and paul ryan, would do something about that. i talked to one of the concession workers earlier this morning. she's excited. she's going to take her lunch break around the time that she is set to eat. she wants to eat up what he has to say. coming to iowa, the president is campaigning here today and tomorrow. maybe the romney team thought that let's see what paul ryan is able to do in terms of grabbing the media's attention in the next 24 hours in this state. a lot of people here are very engaged politically. they are very measured about their politics. that's iowa is always sort of a battleground state. both campaigns are going to work hard to get those few electoral votes here in iowa. paul ryan from wisconsin. a lot of people criticize governor romney for not being able to connect with people in the middle of the country, blue collar worker.

and paul ryan is able to do that. being from wisconsin, the turnout over the past 48 hours in virginia and north carolina in his home state of wisconsin were phenomenal. we expect a pretty good crowd here today as well, chuck. >> ron, be sure to try something unique that you dip in batter and fry. >> reporter: exactly. >> ron mott, thanks very much. a reminder about what paul ryan is up to, he's a catholic on this ticket, northeast iowa, normally big democratic territory. it borders wisconsin. lots of catholics there. all right. coming up, i'll talk about the congressman that has his own very special relationship with paul ryan. what he says about mitt romney's choice. and we're going to breakdown how this could affect the senior vote in my battleground maps.

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. congressman paul ryan is, of course, known for his best role as the congressional republican budget. not a single democrat voted for the ryan budget but ryan says he's committed to working across the aisle. joining me now is chris van hollen. he's charged with working sometimes with or against mr. ryan. congressman van hollen joins me now. good morning. >> chuck, good morning. good to be with you. >> let me talk to you about your personal and working relationships with paul ryan. >> well, sure. i have a very good personal

relationship with paul ryan. as you know, we have very spirited contentious debates in the budget committee on the floor of the house but always in a civil manner and i think that has actually crystallized the issues and i've told paul very clearly, the more the american people get to know his budget, his plan, the romney-ryan plan, the less people are going to like it. >> do you think that some of the language being used now already -- i'm sorry, in the last 48 hours -- what we thought was going to be sort of elevate the debate, we're seeing -- we're going to have a very contentious and maybe overly sound bited attack ads when it comes to medicare. are you concerned about that? >> well, i think there are very clear issues on medicare and what the president has proposed and what romney and ryan are now

proposing. beginning with the affordable care act, worked to reduce the overall costs in the medicare system by changing the incentive structure based on the volume of care to one based on the value of care. that's very different than what romney/ryan are proposing, which is to shift those costs on to seniors, seniors who have a median income of $23,000. at the same time they are providing these huge windfall tax breaks to the very wealthy, to people like mitt romney. so these are the facts and it's important to set up the debate for the american people. >> do you feel as if the democrats should provide an alternative on how to deal with medicare beyond 2024 as far as the finances are concerned? >> actually, if you look at the president's plan and if you look at the affordable care act and the actuary analysis, it's very clear that we've made important steps to extend the life of medicare. we need to continue to move in the direction of changing that incentive structure, modernizing it in a way that we move away

from fee for service and towards things like accountable care organizations. in fact, we've actually seen very recently that the per capita costs of medicare are rising more slowly than they were before. so that's the path that we would take as opposed to a path that doesn't reduce the costs of health care. it simply transfers the rising costs and the risks on to seniors on medicare. and, again, you have to do that because their budget calls for hees huge tax breaks for the wealthy. it's pretty simple math. if you say you're not going to ask for one more penny to reduce our deficit from folks at the top, like mitt romney, it means you're going to whack everybody else. it's deep cuts in education to our kids, deep cuts in infrastructure and roads and bridges and, in fact, the republican budget deeply cuts that investment even though we have 14% unemployment in the construction industry and we need to repair intrastructure.

>> did he ask for any aside meetings with you or democrats? was there a, i want your input on this? or was this him only working with the republican side? >> well, i have to say this was a totally republican effort. it's important not to mistake civility with the willing to compromise. the democrats offer lots of amendments to the republican budget. we didn't have one of our amendments accepted this year. >> do you think he would work across the aisle? do you think he would accept ideas across the aisle? or do you feel you have that evidence? >> well, chuck, all we know is the evidence before us and the republican document, the republican ryan/romney budget because he's fully tethered to this, it's a big salute to the grover nor kwis pledge that says

they are not going to ask for one more penny from folks from the very top. it's not a balanced approach. it's a totally lopsided approach and what we really need is an approach that makes tough cuts. as you know, the republican control act, we cut more than a trillion dollars over ten years. that was 100% cuts. but we need some balance. if we're going to responsibly address this issue, we've got to ask the folks at the very top to go back to contributing a little more to reduce the deficit because otherwise, as i said, the math is pretty clear. otherwise you're going to hit seniors on medicare. you're going to hit them hard. you're going to hit education. you're going to hit these other important investments essential to make our economy grow. >> congressman chris van hollen, ranking member in the house, from maryland, thank you for joining me this morning. >> thanks. breaking down the battle ground map, how two states could sway president obama's way because of romney's pick for vice president. we'll see the impact of all of

this. plus, he was a vp pick that shook it up, senator joe lieberman. hear his thoughts on an historic ride in national politics. first, our second trivia question. when senator joe lieberman visited washington, d.c., as a youngster, what famous politician did he have his picture taken with? you get to learn in the interview. the first correct answer gets from us. that's coming up on "the daily rundown." battleground map coming up. no clicking. no flipping. hey! did you know that honey nut cheerios has oats that can help lower cholesterol? and it tastes good? sure does! wow. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy.

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ryan has certainly energized the republican base. we're going to talk about the medicare proposal all morning because the congressman's proposal that could change medicare to more of a voucher system could drive seniors away from the republican ticket. in our latest wall street journal poll, romney had had a double-digit lead among voters 65 years and older. 54-43. remember, folks, this used to be a toss up category. democrats have seen an erosion among seniors in the last decade. in critical battleground states, losing any of those voters could mean the difference between winning and losing those states in november. here's our battleground map as it stands now. you see president obama, 237 to mitt romney, 191. here are the nine toss upstate, colorado, florida, florida, wisconsin, ohio, virginia and north carolina.

it will stick squarely in there. two of our states in the battleground have significant pop layings of people 65 and older. nearly 15% in iowa, more than 17% in florida. folks, that's two of the five oldest states in the union are in the battleground. will that make it hard for romney in those states? and 15.4% of the population in pennsylvania is over 65. with that in mind, let's see how the electoral votes breakdown. if you end up with a big senior problem in the state of florida. let's just go. let's play the game here. give the president florida and give him iowa and it's done. look at that. it is done. he doesn't need any more. if he is able to ride this senior issue. now, if you want to go ahead and say you give iowa to romney because iowa -- because of the

fact that it touch's ryan's home state, the president is at 266 and romney has to win everything else. he's got to win ryan's home state. he's got to win colorado. he's got to win nevada. he's got to win north carolina, virginia, and ohio. he can't afford -- and look at this. he's still not there. it comes down to tiny new hampshire. as you see the numbers here are very difficult for romney if he loses florida. you put new hampshire, as we told you, new hampshire sitting there, it would teeter back and forth. the bottom line here is this is the problem facing romney right now. florida and iowa right there. you're not putting pennsylvania in play. we're not talking about the hispanic issue. i didn't even bring up nevada. because nevada, its working white class vote has been going again the president. but this is also very medicare-sensitive voters as well. this becomes a very complicated

race now that florida is already kind of up for grabs. i know republicans were confident and democrats were nervous. now it's a total coin flip down there. from one vp contender to another, i sit down with senator joe lieberman. it's our first in a series of interviews that i did with retiring senators. by the way, a little programming note, "jansing & co." returns tomorrow. they will look at the future of big labor in the 2012 election. big union boss will be joining chris "jansing & co." at 10:00. of course, right now you're watching a special two-hour edition of "the daily rundown," the weekend after the big republican ticket completion. we'll be right back.

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needed a relaunch were none other than senator joe lieberman. he turned a race against al gore back into a coin flip and became the first jewish-american to run on the national ticket. he gave gore what he needed at the time, separation from clinton. he has served for four president since elected as a democrat in connecticut in 1988. 18 years after getting elected and six years after being on the democratic ticket, he famously broke with his party to run and win as an independent. i sat down with lieberman and asked him about an historic career in politics, including the vice presidential selection process n fact, that's where we began. >> a very close friend of mine who knew he was being vetted for vice president for the gore campaign in 2000 told me -- and he had been through this. he told me the only metaphor he could use was that it was like taking -- having a colonoscopy administered without an

anesthetic of any kind. really, it's an important test for a vice presidential nominee not to talk. i felt one of the ways i was being judged by the gore campaign was, would i spill the beans in any way. >> nobody realized how much of a front-runner you were for the post until the last few days? >> that's totally true. >> but you knew it from a long -- >> well, i knew that i was on the short list, so to speak. i never knew for sure who else was on that list. i still don't know to this day. at the end, fascinatingly, and i think accurately, the media was reporting that the final three in the running were senator john kerry, senator john edwards, and me. >> if mccain had asked, would you have said yes? >> i would have. when rick davis, john mccain's campaign manager, called me and said -- i think maybe it was july of 2008 -- john would like

to vet you for vice president, i said, are you kidding? he said, no, i'm not kidding. and i said i can't believe it's possible to have a bipartisan ticket. i was still a democrat, not an independent. so there's no question that though i didn't think it was possible, that if he had asked me, i would have done it. >> are you for obama? >> i'm going to stay out of the presidential election this year. >> are you going to vote? >> i will definitely vote. that is exactly what i'm going to do. i am so enjoying not being involved in a campaign this year and i've been involved in a lot of them. >> "the wall street journal" poll, if i get them to call you up, you're going to say undecided? >> you're exactly right. today i'll say i'm undecided. i'm going to vote on election day in the privacy of the voting booth like most other americans and enjoy that privilege for once. >> your two or three proudest moments are going to be what? >> the lasting effect that i've

been able to have in the time that i've been here is i've been at the center of a lot of the institutions that were created after 9/11 to protect us from another terrorist attack. they represent in total the most significant reforms of our national security apparatus since the end of the second world war. i'm also very proud of some of the environmental legislation. i worked on the clean air act amendments, the clean water programs. i suppose third is what i've tried to stand for in general, which is to be independent minded and to not feel that i have to follow the orthodoxy that the party leaders said i had to follow. >> that's not getting rewarded in american politics. it's harder to do this and yet everybody says it's what needs to be done. >> yeah. >> the idea that the radical center has got to show up. >> people are acting here in a way that has only made all of us

less popular and i wonder whether we're in an election year this year where the traditional difference between how do you feel about congress, oh, how could you feel about your own congressman, senator, oh, he's a pretty good person. there may be an anti incumbent way because of the profound dissatisfaction, anger at how i'd logically rigid and unproductive congress has become. >> with this fiscal cliff coming up, you may have a lot more work to do than you planned on in the last six-week stretch. for it to be productive, what's the result that's problem necessary to sort of force everybody to basically force jim demint and al franken to have to compromise? >> if i may repeat your words, to bring al franken and jim

demint together would require an act of god and i'm praying for it every day. >> you've served with four presidents, starting with bush 41. >> i remember a special moment after the authorization resolution passed. it was a great honor to talk to him and he thanked me. i said, this is an awesome grant of authority to you, mr. president, and i suppose some people would be president that i worry about whether they would handle it as i liked even though i think it's important to get suddam out of kuwait but i don't have any doubt you'll handle it just right. >> bill clinton and you -- i say this -- you were cut from the same ideological clock. >> right. >> you guys were arguably, potentially policy soul mates. fair? >> fair. there's a personal story here. the first time i ran for public office, 1970, i was 27 years old.

challenged the incumbent state senator democrat in a primary and bill clinton volunteers on my campaign. >> how is the relationship right now? >> the relationship is a good relationship. i'm very proud of what he did over the years. i don't have to -- you know, we contested at different times. obviously i made a speech about monica lewinsky which was probably the most difficult thing i've done in a personal sense in my political -- >> did you call him to tell him that you were going to do that? >> no. although we did let the white house know that i was going to do it. one of the more remarkable moments with bill clinton was about a week later, and it was actually a sunday morning after i made the speech and he called me up. i was at home, and we spoke for about an hour and he basically said, you know, i agree with just about everything you said in that speech. after all, i was on the ticket with al gore against george w. bush. he said, you know, you made it a

close election. i said is, i wish you well, mr. president. that's all over and if there's any -- and then he said to me, i bet we can find some ways to work together. little did i know how much we would end up working together. he's a good man. i think his presidency is already looking better than it looked to some while he was in office. >> president obama. have you gotten -- obviously -- have you gotten to know him? >> well, i got to know him when he came into the senate, new senators for the last decade or so, we were asked to choose mentors and meet with them periodically. and barack obama chose me as a democrat and george wiley, and it was clear that he did not need a lot of mentoring. he's very smart and he has a real vision, very articulate. i've always liked him. >> did you win in 2000? >> well, i think we won but --

in 2000. but, you know, i was raised to always believe that life is about tomorrow and not about -- and today, not about yesterday. >> do you and vice president gore still chat? >> every now and then we exchange e-mails. >> tomorrow in our series of senate send offs, texas republican senator kay bailey hutchison. up next, it was about social security. why paul ryan has made member of his own party a little squeamish. follow us on msnbc. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] its lightweight construction makes it nimble... ♪ its road gripping performance makes it a cadillac. introducing the all-new cadillac xts. available with advanced haldex all-wheel drive.

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pbs' jim layer will most the debate in colorado. candy crowley will host the second town hall debate. bob and abc's martha will host october 11th in danville, kentucky. all right. many hope paul ryan's plan will change the conversation. but before ryan budget there was ryan social security. back in 2005 ryan backed the social security personal savings guarantee and prosperity act. it was a plan to prioritize social security. it flopped. even george w. bush backed off. but his co-sponsor in this endeavor, john sununu.

also, robert traynham is here and liz sadoti. mr. sununu, i want to start with you -- >> i didn't see this in the notes, but -- >> i go back to the question that we talked about before in politics. you can have conversation about entitlements but when it gets switched to a political debate, it's a loser. how does paul ryan and mitt romney avoid this this time? >> well, first it doesn't have to be a loser and it hasn't always been a loser. historically it's been very sensitive. first person to talk about entitlements, i think in an aggressive way in a campaign and win was george bush in 2004. >> i thought the rap on why you guys failed in '05. at least paul ryan's diagnosis is, he didn't talk about it enough. >> he talked about it a lot during the campaign. i think the bigger problem was then in 2005, when it came time to work on the issue, the president went out to the

country admirably to try to build support. >> right. >> but this is a big issue and if you really want to tackle a big issue, once it comes down to doing things, you've got to get members of congress together. you have to work -- >> public opinion is secondary here? >> well, i think public opinion got to the point where you can talk about it and still succeed. he demonstrated that in the election. but getting it done, a big issue like this on capitol hill requires negotiation and it was actually a time to turn inwardly into congress to try to negotiate something rather than just continue talking about it across the country. that's my opinion. and i think, in short, it failed because you had, at that time, a speaker and a majority leader in the house and senate that did not want to bring the social security bill to the floor. >> and these are republicans? >> they were republicans at the time and they were probably more sensitive to the politics than some of their members and, of course, more sensitive to the president. >> liz, this -- you know, this

adds to paul ryan. he's been focused on trying to deal with entitlement but this credibility issue that he's going to, i think struggle with, is okay, he's focused on this but then the tax question comes in. why don't you want to talk about raising taxes on the wealthiest? >> i think the challenge is trying to explain what he wants to do. the bigger challenge for romney is trying to explain whether or not he embraces ryan's -- all of ryan's entitlement plans or whether or not he has a different vision. so i think the country -- there's an opportunity here, though, for the republican ticket because the country's really looking for big ideas. you know, we've watched this campaign. it's been all marginal stuff, you know, petty personal attacks and yet you look in the polling and people say, we want solutions to these big problems. >> right. >> and so offering those solutions, whether it's politically difficult to get it done or not --

>> but the irony is, you cannot like president obama and acknowledge the fact that he went and did a bunch of big things. health care was not a small thing. financial reform not a small thing. these were big things that got politicized and campaigned against. >> absolutely. that's the challenge that romney and ryan are going to have to go through. they are going to have to talk about what they want to do for this country, philosophically, the difference between them and the president. but to liz's point, i think the american people have the appetite now where they want specificity. this is what romney has been dinged upon. what ryan brings is specificity. >> was that an unfair ding, that he was lacking definition? >> no, i don't think that's a fair ding. he's got tax plans out there, plans on entitlements. i think paul ryan on the ticket makes it more of a ticket about the size, the scope of the federal role in the government. it's not about doing big things, especially when those big thing,

like $1 trillion expand the debt and deficit. that's the central issue that people have been ignoring and there are a lot of people in the middle, frankly, swing voters who are angry and frustrated at the failure of president obama to deal with the long-term fiscal health of the -- >> the problem is, and i guess, is that those folks don't think medicare and social security is broken. they don't think it's broken the way it is. they want it to keep working the way it is, even if they know that they have to change the model, right? isn't that the nut here? >> the leadership needs to patiently explain. i think ryan will do this. it's not fixed. medicare and social security needs to be fixed. >> don't you have to make a case that something is broken to fix it? >> well, i think people understand that medicare, the long-term solvency of medicare is in jeopardy, it's in crisis, and there are a lot of aspects of our health care system that -- >> i go back to the people on

medicare and social security believe that this is a program that works for them. >> nobody is talking about changing the program that works for them. >> people that are at or near retirement are fine. >> again, it's people in my generation that are waking up to this. you know, where do the new voters coming into the system? people are going to get it in the end. it's about the growth. >> i have a feeling that's not the conversation i want to have. i want to go over interesting polling data when we come back. when senator joe lieberman visited washington, d.c., as a youngster, what famous politician did he have his picture taken with? former senator prescott bush, grandfather of president george w. bush. why did he do that? because prescott bush was a young lieberman u.s. senator. do you have a question we should use on the show? e-mail them to dailyrundown@msnbc.com. we'll be right back. ♪

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let's bring back the panel. joining me is former senator john sununu, msnbc contributor robert traynham and liz sidoti. we have the politico battleground poll, president obama at 48 and romney at 47. all of this done pre-ryan. the economy that -- if you look at it, not a huge gap, a 9 point gap between number one and number two. they separated out jobs at 15%. more importantly, who will do a better job on a number of issues? romney is head of obama on who would best handle and deal with jobs on economy. 49 and 44. and 50 and 44. and then you have helping the middle class, obama by double

digits, 54-40. the president only 45-49 for social security. liz sidoti, i think the most important split here is the fact that romney wins on substantive and economy and jobs and the president leads big on the values portion on who looks out for the middle class. >> so, here's what has happened. the democrats have gone after romney. in the first is economic fairness in the question of rolling back tax cuts for the wealthy and the second component of it is the personal release of his personal tax returns. and so the democrats are looking at their polling and they are saying, we'll really got something. it's a value thing. it's the romneyhood as the obama team would say. and they are gaining ground on this point. republicans argue that they are not. but they do acknowledge that the personal tax return issue has become a liability for romney. >> senator, i'm a believe that every presidential election is won by the candidate who

basically represents a majority of the country's values in their head. it's basically a gut like, you know what, who am i comfortable with? who's looking out for me? >> i think there's an issue of comfort but i don't think it necessarily translates into one question about who represents the middle class better? what are the three most important issues in economy, jobs, deficit and spending? >> why are folks answering on middle class because if all of those are important and romney wins on them individually, he loses on sort of the overall with the middle class. >> no, let's go back. you've got three big issues, economy, jobs, spending and deficit. romney was leading on two. why they didn't ask about spending and deficit -- my guess is it's leading on those as well. you have a dead even poll in the battleground states before paul ryan is picked. and the election will still be about economy, jobs, debt, and deficit. and to your point, your

language, who do you feel most comfortable with? who do you believe is going to represent your values when it comes to restoring the economy and dealing with the deficit and spending? i think that's mitt romney. >> to me it's a battle of what issues become the defining issue. he left off medicare and social security, understandably. i have a feeling the president is going to want to push medicare on to that table and say, this is about the economy, taxes, and the safety net. >> what you saw robert gibbs do on this show a couple of minutes ago was basically define the issue basically saying, they want to steal your social security. what he did not say is that people that are on -- at or near retirement now, you're totally fine. it's about the future generation. what romney has to do and ryan has to do is explain to the seniors in ohio and michigan and florida, this is not about you. it's about your grandchildren. it's going to be a tough sell. >> liz? >> whaatch the a.p. >> the key is on friday nights,

don't be drinking. >> maria cordona and i will be hosting a show tonight on xm radio. >> robert? >> nobody can match it. >> that's it for this hefty edition of the daily rundown. tomorrow on the show, jack marquel joins me. thomas roberts talks with big ed schultz and ben labolt and sean spicer. that's coming up. chris jansing coming up tonight. ♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays]

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thig o ch, orc ttuce, odo yulrha c . oh! ohaun f gh ttuce, odo yulrha c . l. ! lksads ineireapny hatht rmar t etfimi good morning, everybody. i'm thomas roberts. topping the agenda today, the race of the white house entering its