learned? >> i've learned how to prepare my dog for mika. no breakfast. >> i love bebe. >> your dog's not on -- >> i cede my time to you, because i'm enjoyi inin ining b. you haven't had enough time to talk today. it's crazy. blah blah blah blah. >> i know. willie, we'll see you in tampa, my friend. >> we'll see you there. >> if it's way too early, what time is it? >> it's "morning joe." we'll be be back tomorrow. stick around right now for "the daily rundown." the akin effect. abortion politics takes center stage, despite team romney's efforts to refocus the campaign on jobs and the economy. while team obama turns to president clinton in a new ad. hurricane worries in the caribbean as isaac whips towards the united states coast. what's the impact on the gop convention. the tampa mayor says public safety takes priority.

and the congressional budget office has dire warnings about the u.s. economy. is congress listening? good morning from washington. it is thursday, august 23rd, 2012, and this is the daily rundown. i'm luke russert in for chuck todd this morning. let's get to the first reads of the a.m. with four days until the convention kicks off in tampa, the president is weighing into the todd akin controversy, doing his best to extend the conversation on abortion and reproductive rights. and the republican candidates, mitt romney, to the politically toxic republican. speaking at a fund-raiser in new york city last night, president obama quipped, "this is an individual who sits on the house committee on science and technology, but somehow missed science class. but it's representative of the desire to go backwards instead of forwards and to fight fights that we thought were settled 20 and 30 years ago. romney and paul ryan are trying their best to change the subject back to the economy. >> we've now had four years in a row with a president that's

built $1 trillion deficits. it's bad economics, it's the wrong course for america. >> romney rolls out his energy policy in new mexico today, but though they've tried to talk jobs and debt, they've been dogged by questions about abortion. ryan, who once signed on to a bill with akin who opponents say could ban all abortion, even in the case of rape, tried wednesday to minimize differences with romney. >> i'm proud of my record. mitt romney's going to be the president and the president sets policy. his policy's exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother, i'm comfortable with it, because it's a good step in the right direction. >> but already, democratic candidates are trying to make their own races a referendum on akin. >> have you heard this? a republican running for u.s. senate in missouri actually said a woman who is raped won't get pregnant. listen. >> if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. >> this can't be happening in

2012, right? >> meanwhile, president and romney have been hunting for votes in the nine battleground states that will likely decide the election. >> republicans in congress, let -- [ booing ] >> no, no, no. don't boo. vote. >> i want you to each find one person who voted for barack obama last time and convince them that we should take a different course. >> this morning, our new nbc news battleground map shows that after all the furry of the last two months, the race is still being fought on the same territory. the map remains unchanged with 237 electoral votes in the democratic column, 191 in the republican column, and 110 toss-up votes. amazing, two months in, still no change. let's bring in msnbc's senior political editor, mark murray. and mark, before we get to that map, this akin controversy. how much longer does it -- will it be around? how much more legs does it have?

>> luke, it's president obama at that fund-raiser last night was trying to keep it in the news one more day. it has been the story on monday, tuesday, and we're heading into thursday. republicans want that to be the issue. what are the two main stories we're talking about? abortion, rape, and oh, by the way that hurricane that's probably going to be -- might be headed to tampa, florida. >> the map remains unchanged, we saw that. wisconsin, romney, a little bit. ohio, obama still on top of romney. why after two months, these la two months, that were high-octane, especially after the paul ryan aspect, is there no change? this is trench warfare. >> well, one thing is that the romney people have probably pointed out they've got a little bit of a bump in states like wisconsin and florida after the paul ryan announcement in the battleground states, including that "new york times"/cbs

quinnipiac poll does show that. but overall, things have been locked in. actually, luke, you go back to april, the same situation has been pretty much the same. there's not going to be a whole lot of movement. not a lot of movement in april. not a lot of movement. may not be a lot of movement after the debates. we'll be locked in this trench warfare, in a race that president obama could win and also mitt romney could win. >> president obama touching on a democrat that remains quite popular throughout the country. bill clinton unleashed this new ad. let's take a listen. >> this election, to me, is about which candidate is more likely to return us to full unemployment. this is a clear choice. the republican plan is to cut more taxes on upper income people and go back to deregulation. that's what got us in trouble in the first place. president obama has a plan to rebuild america from the ground up. it only works if there is a strong middle class. that's what happened when i was president. >> so will you see bill clinton

and one of the most interesting things from our nbc news/"wall street journal" poll is that you guys would point out that romney wasn't running up the margins with the working class white vote. is this the obama campaign strategy to go after those folks? put bubba, himself, front and center? >> i think so. it's also a way to actually play a little defense. over the past few weeks, the romney campaign has been running a tv ad, hitting president obama on welfare reform, playing bill clinton's role in signing that welfare reform in a very prominent way. by this ad, the obama campaign is not only area to parry the romney attacks on the economy, saying, look, we have the bill clinton brand when it comes to the economy, but they're also able to parry these welfare attacks as well, luke. one other thing worth noting, the romney campaign has been the one that's elevated bill clinton the last few months, whether it's been on tv, on the campaign trail, trying to draw distinctions between bill clinton and barack obama. but by doing that, they allow

obama to have bill clinton in a tv ad or have him at the dnc convention. >> lastly, some convention speakers announced by the democrats in the last day. caroline kennedy, barbara mikulski. they're making a big push to put women front and center. >> luke, it's to maintain this story we were talking about earlier about, how democrats want to keep this akin piece in the news, to talk about abortion, to talk about rape, and the democrats will want to draw this distinction. and one reason why, the more that president obama is able to attract women and particularly white women, according to our nbc/"wall street journal" poll, keeps his margin up and prevents mitt romney from trying to run up the score with that demographic group. >> mark murray, thank you so much for joining us. hopefully we'll on our way to tampa in a few days if the hurricane doesn't blow us off course. paul ryan continues his tour after stops in pennsylvania and virginia. he's spending a second day in north carolina after fighting

for those 15 electoral votes. ron mott is live on the road in fayetteville, north carolina. hey, ron, how are you, sir? >> reporter: hey, luke. good day to you. you can see by the setting behind me what they want to talk about today is not about todd akin or rape or abortion. congressman ryan is here to talk about defense and defense spending in particular with these looming defense cuts. now, we can tell you that the akin issue, as you and mark murray just talked about, isn't going away anytime soon. we asked congressman ryan on the airplane coming down here yesterday about that. he had pretty much the same thing to say, what he said to a pittsburgh local reporter about rape being rape. he shied away from the language that was in that hr-3 bill that passed the house, where they were trying to term "forcible rape" as the only provision, if you will, for federal funding. so enough of that talk. today he's going to talk about defense cuts. this particular facility supports special ops in this area. and after this event today, he's going off to missouri, todd akin country, holding a fund-raiser

there before finishing the night in michigan, where he and governor romney tomorrow are going to campaign in governor romney's home state, and then they'll go to ohio on saturday. two states that they really need to compete. and they've got a little ground to make up in both of those, luke, because of governor romney's opposition to the bailout of detroit, if you will, the auto industry. a lot of jobs in michigan, obviously, but also a lot of jobs in the auto industry in ohio. so both of those states and that issue is going to be critical going forward for the romney/ryan ticket. back up to you. >> ron mott from north carolina, thank you so much. paul ryan, missouri, just can't shake akin. tropical storm isaac is gaining strength through the caribbean, today with its sights squarely on southern florida. it's a looming threat to next week's republican convention. florida governor rick scott gave an update just moments ago. >> isaac's a unique storm in this regard. it has the potential to threaten a major convention, designated a special national security event. that's why i have convened local, state, federal, and

convention officials for a twice daily briefing. >> joining me now with the storm track is meteorologist bill karins. and bill, it's been a popular sort of joke here in washington, d.c., okay, we might have to change our political coverage to hurricane coverage, but not really taken too seriously. how serious is this storm? >> monday and tuesday are definitely in jeopardy. i don't see any way possible that tampa's going to be completely missed at this point. let me break it down for you and get you more of the timing of the storm and its impacts to the united states and the florida area, including tampa. right now the storm is just south of the virginia islands in puerto rico. it still has a ways to go. almost five days to get to florida. and it still has to cross land areas, at haiti and cuba where there are mountains. so the intensity, don't pay too much attention to that. it's the flip of a coin what the storm will look like after it goes through the mountains. but what we do know, there's extremely warm waters just off the coast of florida in the eastern gulf of mexico.

we're talking water temperatures to 85 to 90 degrees. that's steroids for storms. don't look at the intensity too much. could be anywhere from a tropical storm to a category 2 hurricane, but the path hasn't changed much, and i don't think it's going to. it still looks like it's going to be somewhere near south florida, as we go throughout late sunday night. the weather in tampa looks to go downhill very quickly during the day on monday. that would be the worst, monday night into tuesday morning. it probably won't be until tuesday night that finally the rains and everything else will be exiting the tampa area. that's on this consistent ti timeline we're on right here. all of our extended computers, that's all those little squiggly lines, pretty much pinpoint florida there, from central florida, all the way to south florida, and possibly heading up towards north florida, heading into wednesday. luke, most likely, if this forecast holds true right now, monday would be -- monday morning would be the last day of preps. i bet the mayor and everyone else will probably tell people to stay at home, off the roads

on monday. they only want the emergency vehicles out there. then monday night and tuesday morning is the storm itself. then they would have to do the cleanup on wednesday. so monday and tuesday would definitely be in jeopardy. >> bill karins, that is fascinating stuff. we'll key an eye on it, and i speak for all political reporters going down to tampa, bring some rain gear. thanks so much, bill. up next, what really happens backstage and on the floor at the conventions. everyone loves the balloons, the funny hats and the dancing delegates, but there's still some serious business that happens at these things, and the year the republicans will have to tangle with the tea party. plus, cliff diving. a new warning that america will fall back into a recession unless washington acts fast. but first, a look ahead at the president's schedule and mitt romney's schedule today. you're watching"the daily rundow rundown", only on msnbc. pitching is 100% mental. you have to be locked in. you know i've been out there trying to focus with a headache

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i am somewhere, somewhere on the floor of this convention, surrounded by balloons and confetti. >> let me just say at the outset, however, brian and i feel very, very privileged to have reserved seats for andrea "boom boom" mitchell and the dance of the republican balloons. >> a bunch of balloon-wielding thugs down there. free andrea mitchell. >> tom brokaw, dropping some huge comments in 2008, when our own andrea mitchell was caught in a storm of balloons on the convention floor. that was one of our favorite moments from the '08 convention. but there's a lot more that happens on the floor than just a maroon drop. joining me now are two veteran reporters who have covered a bunch of these bashes. susan davis of "usa today" and

paul kaine of "the washington post." welcome, guys. >> good morning, luke. >> more than just a balloon drop, what can we tell people that's going on behind the scenes? folks see the confetti, see the dancing delegates, they hear there's going to be lynyrd skynyrd and journey and zack brown band, and all these lobbyists get to party, but what's going on inside the halls that we don't necessarily see on camera? >> i think one of the things to remember about conventions is that while they've become very scripted events and sort of very predictable events, for a lot of americans, this is their first introduction to really paying attention to who these candidates are. it's important to remember in 2008, almost 40 million people tuned in to hear both barack obama and john mccain speak. for a lot of voters, this is the first time they're going to have a long, prolonged clans to hear the candidates speak. behind the scenes, it's a little bit more controlled. i think one of the things that's notable at the republican convention, which is the first one to go, is the lengths to which mitt romney has done to make inclusion to the different parts of the party we've seen.

to the tea party folks, the libertarian folks, to his former rivals in the primary, to newt gingrich, to rick santorum, who has a speaking role. >> let's talk about that. because the platform was recently drafted. it's going to be voted on. and there's some stuff in the gop platform that we'll see this convention that is moving the tea party towards the right. you have a flat tax, you have a permanent audit of the fed, you have a study to return to the gold standard. you have some real concessions from the establishment wing of the party, paul, to the more, shall we say, fired up part. >> indeed. and i think that's a fallout from the 2010 elections, in which those activists played the biggest role in providing the energy for the -- for that midterm sweep, in which they took 63 seats to gain the house. and it's also a fallout of ron paul and his presidential campaign, in which he worked and worked and worked to get as many delegates as possible. you know, we kind of stopped paying attention to him, because he wasn't winning actual states,

but he was winning delegates. and those people are going to be down there, and they're voting for these things, like audit the fed. something paul has been pushing for 20 years, almost. >> and he's able -- he got 8% of the 2,286 delegates, so they'll surely make some sort of noise. we also talk about how important the speeches are for some folks to be introduced to the country. i want to play a clip from george h.w. be bush and sarah palin, some convention history. >> the voter verified paper audit. >> voter fraud. >> the u.s. government is authorized to patrol the border. >> protecting us against tyranny. >> enemy combatants. the born alive protection act. >> the far left wing of the democratic party. >> after firearms, you want to add, and ammunition. >> read my lips. no new taxes. >> i love those hockey moms. you know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull -- lipstick.

>> you saw the platform deliberations there, but then two very important speeches that helped launch those candidates to the public sphere. how important -- i want both of you guys to weigh in on this, is paul ryan's speech at the convention? >> go ahead. >> i think it's hugely important. i think this is the pigge ebigg arena that pall ryan's ever walked into. he's never run a campaign outside his congressional district. i think he's proven himself to be very comfortable talking about fiscal policy in the realm of think tanks and in washington speeches, but what convention speech is about, which sarah palin did so well in 2008, is you've got to give the crowd some red meat. this is the base. if you want to excite them, if you want to get them fired up and paul ryan has always sort of steered away from the raw politics of this. so i think a lot of people will be watching him to see if he can just come out and just nail it and just get the crowd fired up. >> can he do that, paul? he's said on the campaign trail now, i'm the catholic deer hunter. i like my religion and my guns. can paul ryan play that role?

>> i don't think we really know. for those of us who have covered congress, like all three of us, and those of us in washington, we know paul ryan really well. he's been in congress 14 years. but the reality is, he's not really well known outside of our circles. you look at your poll yesterday, the nbc/"wall street journal" poll, and something like 40% of americans don't really have a view at all. it's either neutral or they don't have enough information. so ryan has never taken this stage before. it's a lot like dan quayle, almost, in 1988. where quayle sort of came out of nowhere, and had to deliver this big speech, with a lot of different expectations going on. so, i don't think we know the answer. we'll find out wednesday night. >> god willing, there's no hurricane to derail it. sue davis, paul kane, the tune-in duo. paul kane still not on twitter. you are the last of the mohicans still not on twitter. >> now the president is. >> analog in a digital world.

up next, we'll get a preview of the day on wall street. plus, deadly outbreak. the west nile virus is now in nearly every state. what's being done to stop the spread. but first, today's trivia question. this is a funny one, which politician used to greet house speaker sam rayburne by kissing his bald head? the answer and more coming up on "the daily rundown." don't worry, i don't miss matt lauer's bald head. alan adler and aaron lago da are the driving force behind stripes, known for their matza. they say the key to their success is not changing how their product is made. they baked and pack them the say way it's been done for nearly a century. for more, watch "your business"

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r -e a m thr t soom anse weekly jobless claims are up, but the number of existing home sales rose 2.3% in july from the previous month. a sign of recovery. we're just minutes away from the opening bell. let's get to the market rundown. cnbc's becky quick is here. a little recovery in the housing market. how do we look today, becky?

>> reporter: we are looking like we're going to open a little low this morning, maybe 20% for the dow or so, because we get all these con fleflicting numbers. 8:30, just under an hour ago, we get numbers in terms of jobless claims. those jobless claims were expected to drop slightly from last week, but they rose ever so slightly. you're only talking about a gain of 4,000 after you revised last week's numbers. but it's still these ebbs and flows, these little moves. that's what has so many people concerned on wall street. they're looking at our economy, not entirely sure where we are. look at europe and see the mess there and get very worried about all of it. on top of all of this, we get the fed's report, the minutes it had earlier this month, yesterday afternoon, and that set off a little bit of chaos in the market. the sound, the tone from those minutes suggested that the fed could move sooner that a lot of people had expected, to come up with a new form of quantitative easing. now, we got the chance to talk with the fed president for the st. louis fed, jim bulllard this

morning, and he seemed to pull back a little bit from that, suggesting if the fed did act, it wouldn't be a massive qe3 program like a lot of people in the market had been expecting, that maybe there'd be small steps and also suggested if the economy continues to muddle along like this, maybe they won't act, at least not before the election. that is the big debate in the market, and right now looks like we'll open up about down 22 points. back to you. >> that jobless claims number, below the magic 375. becky quick, thanks so much for joining us. we appreciate it. up next, chuck todd's one-on-one interview with mitt romney. the soon-to-be republican nominee opens up about when he joined forces with ted kennedy on health care reform and how the mormon church shaped his life. and on the topic of faith, we're taking an inside look at mitt romney's religion. the controversies, the customs, and the mormon church's unique welfare program. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. stay with us! [ kate ] many women may not be properly absorbing

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only from starbucks. back now with theda daily rundown, luke russert in for chuck todd. a member of s.e.a.l. team 6 goes public. but first, the u.s. economy is likely to dip into a recession next year if congress can't craft a budget deal. that's according to the u.s. congressional budget office. they say with no new spending cuts, and with no more bush-era tax cuts, there would be a, quote, economic condition in 2013 that would probably be considered a recession. they also predict the unemployment rate would rise to 9.1% at the end of the year. officials are trying to control one of the largest west nile virus outbreaks ever to hit the u.s. so far, 41 people have died and more than 1,100 people across 38 states have been affected by the

disease. that's nearly four times the usual number of cases for this time of year. why? officials think the mild winter and very hot summer are to blame for the increase in mosquitos that spread the disease. a detailed first-person account of the raid that killed osama bin laden is expected to hit book shelves on september 11th. the book called "no easy day: the firsthand account of the mission that killed osama bin laden" is written by an anonymous navy s.e.a.l., using a pen name, who is part of the team that took down bin laden. u.s. military officials say they don't believe the book has been read or cleared by anyone in the department of defense. in just over a week, mitt romney will officially accept the republican nomination for president. chuck recently sat down with romney as part of an upcoming special about who he is and what a romney administration would look like. one pig question they've talked about, health care. on the trail, romney is

promising to repeal president obama's health care reform law. but as chuck has said many times here, when it comes to health care, there's not a lot of daylight between the president's plan, and the one that romney signed into law when he was governor of massachusetts. >> reporter: on april 12th, 2006, a jubilant governor romney signs the bill into law at a ceremony in boston's nathaniel hall. he wants the world to see what he's done, but he also credits his old adversary, ted kennedy, who worked with romney to get the bill passed. >> my son said that having senator kennedy and me together like this on this stage behind the same piece of landmark legislation will have slow global warming. that's because hell has frozen over. >> my son said something too, and that is, when kennedy and romney support a piece of legislation, usually one of them hasn't read it. but that's not true today, is it, governor? >> the health care bill becomes

romney's crowning achievement as governor. he even has it placed on his desk in his official portrait. >> would you call health care your best accomplishment in massachusetts or simply the most famous accomplishment? >> well, it certainly was an important accomplishment, to get republicans and democrats to find common ground and to solve a problem for our state in a way that was creative and, i think, is working, by and large, pretty well. i'm very proud of what we did there. >> another thing romney is proud of, though often reluctant to speak about, is his religion. after his freshman year in college, romney went to france on his mormon mission, an experience that would change him profoundly. >> reporter: in france, a young mitt romney has little success converting the french, but his mission leaves him with a lasting impression. one day as he's driving the mission's president and wife, their car is hit head-on by a reckless driver. >> the police officer that arrived at the scene found us in

a very serious accident, and i was unconscious, and he wrote in my passport, he is dead, in french. and that made the papers in michigan that george romney's son had been killed in an automobile accident. so my dad called sergeant shriver, who was the u.s. ambassador to france, and asked the ambassador, if he could look into it, and they sent a representative to this little hospital i was in, and sure enough, i was alive. >> but one of the passengers in the car, the wife of the leader of the mormon mission in france, she was killed. so this had a big impact on mitt romney. >> the mormon two-year missionariary work, it's one of the church's most recognized characteristics. and as we just saw, it can also be be one of the most defining moments in the young mormon's life. joining me now is harry reid -- harry smith, not harry reid, of "rock center." thank you so much, harry. you took a real in-depth look inside the mormon church for his

"rock center" special, which is airing tonight. harry, i want you to talk about the role and the power that has mission has in a young mormon's life. very significant. >> well, it's very interesting. because over the last couple of years, things have changed a bit in that women now, young women go, but not until they're 21. but young mormon men from devout families, this is what they do, by the tens of thousands over the generations. they go out and do this mormon mission. they're 19 years old, they drop everything they do, they devote their lives to this. they go to intensive language schools, they go to places that they may never have even heard of before. they spend two years there. we talked to the former ceo of jetblue airlines, and he told us, for instance, you go there, you may knock on 200 doors in one day, nobody says yes, but you know what, you get up the next morning and do it all over again. and after those two years, it's a very formative, formative experience. >> another very interesting note, harry, is that when you

look at the mormon faith, they are very self-reliant. they even have their own safety net. can you tell us about that. >> yeah, i'll tell you. we had an amazing experience. we had a very rare look inside a place called the bishop's warehouse, just outside of salt lake city. well, you should take a look. >> reporter: this is a rare look into the utah bishop's central warehouse in salt lake city. but there's sugar, there's salt, there's wheelchairs, there's toilet paper. a half-million square foot monument to the mormon commitment to helping others. this is crazy. rick foster is a director of the church's welfare operations. it looks to me like there's almost everything in here to sustain human life. is that an exaggeration? >> it is not at all. nothing extravagant, but basic commodities you'd find in any grocery store.

>> this would make the people from costco jealous, i would think. it almost seems endless. and almost everything in here was produced by the church for charity, not for profit. the mormon industrial complex was created to perpetuate self-reliance. >> we grow a lot of our products on farms, raise cattle on ranches, fruit in our orchids. >> there's enough food and supplies here to support the church's welfare efforts for an entire year, and to attend to natural disasters around the world. >> this is mind boggling. i'll tell you, it was an eye-opening look at this spectacular place. and one of the things that we delve into tonight, if you're a mormon and if you've fallen on hard times, you go to your local bishops. it's a lay ministry there, so for instance, a guy, not unlike mitt romney, and say, i'm having trouble making ends meet this month. can you help me? so the guy helps you fill out a list, you go to this -- it's

basically a grocery store, no money changes hands, and you can get a basket full of groceries to help you get by until the next month or the next month or whatever, until you get back on your feet. it's a rather extraordinary fringe benefit of belonging to the mormon church, and they say, quite frankly, if you can find one in your neighborhood, it doesn't matter if you're mormon or not, you're welcome to come and knock on the door as with well. luke? >> what a remarkable piece, harry. i'm just struck. that would make fema or the red cross jealous, that stockpile they have there. it's remarkable. >> really stunning. >> very stunning. >> and in closing, can i answer the trivia question? i tried to tweet in. >> please, go right ahead. >> well, it had to be lyndon johnson, right? >> you are correct, sir. you get the on-air acknowledgement, my friend. >> all my friends will get that immediately. >> the baldheaded brotherhood, i'll be there some day, hopefully many decades in the future. "rock center's" look at the mormon faith airs tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern on your local

nbc station. and chuck's hour-long special, "mitt romney: the making of a candidate" premieres friday at 10:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. we'll have another sneak peek of that for you tomorrow. our political panel will be here next. we're talking about ryan's roots, plus president obama talks hoops. i'm rhyming today. but first, the white house soup of the day, oh, this is great, chipotle beef. i hope it tastes like those chipotle burritos i like so much. you can always follow the show on facebook, you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. i love chipotle. get the burrito bowl, less calories than the all burrito. [ john ] no. were you just... no. are you supposed to be driving that in here? no! did mom say we could eat all that? [ john ] yes. [ male announcer ] it's nice to finally say "yes." new oscar mayer selects. it's yes food.

new oscar mayer selects. so i test... a lot. do you test with this? freestyle lite test strips? i don't see... beep! wow! that didn't take much blood. yeah, and the unique zipwik tab targets the blood and pulls it in. so easy. yep. freestyle lite needs just a third the blood of onetouch ultra. really? so testing is one less thing i have to worry about today. great. call or click today and get strips and a meter free. test easy. daily flashback, to one year ago today, when a 5.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the east coast of the united states. the surprise shake up was felt from georgia to new england.

tens of thousands of people evacuated office buildings in new york and d.c., giving all our friends on the west coast a good laugh at our expense. thankfully, no one was seriously hurt, but there was a lot of financial damage that people forget about. the washington monument sustained several large cracks from the quake and remains closed indefinitely and the national cathedral had millions of dollars of damage in their pinnacles up top, although a new grant is supposedly going to fix that problem soon, which is good for the nation's church, to be back in action. next wednesday night in tampa, paul ryan will follow his mentor, jack kemp, on to the largest stage of his life. >> today, the democratic party is not democratic. they are elitist. they don't have faith in people. they have faith in government. there's a wisdom, there's an intelligence in ordinary men and women, far superior to the greatest so-called experts that have ever lived! that's what our party must be

all about. >> there you have jack kemp, who is fired up like that when he was quarterback for the buffalo bills in the huddle, i'm sure let's bring in our panel, nathan gonzalez, political editor with the rothenberg political report and contributing writer for "roll call." robert costa is a political reporter for "national review" and a notre dame graduate. we don't hold that against him. and jackie kucinich covers politics for "usa today." welcome, all, to "the daily rundown". >> great to see you, luke. >> let's start right out on paul ryan, because robert, you've been studying him quite closely, and this akin story that is chasing him all the way until thursday. he's going to be in missouri tonight, albeit for fund-raising. he said this to kdak about abortion. >> you sponsored legislation that has the language "forcible rape." what is forcible rape as opposed to -- >> rape is rape, period. end of story. >> so that forcible rape language meant nothing to you at the time? >> rape is rape. and there's no splitting hairs

over rape. >> robert, you know that paul ryan is a very wonky guy. he's not into the red meat politics, he's not a flame thrower, usually. how much do you think that this is personally upsets him that he's being weighed down by this story and can't get to the nuts and bolts economic argument that he's pretty good at? >> i think every single republican is bothered by this story, it keeps festering, it's continuing to be a story. the one thing about paul ryan, everyone thinks he's a wonk, and he is a wonk, but he's more than that. i've talked to him about social issues many time. he's a roman catholic from jamesville, wisconsin, both his brothers went to notre dame. and what we see with paul ryan is a comfort with social conservatives as well as with budget hawks. that makes him a full politician in a lot of ways. i think you'll see a little bit about that in tampa. he'll talk a little bit about his values, his moral values in florida. >> is he bringing it out a little bit in tampa, jackie, getting more into morality aspect and not the numbers? >> i think you are going to hear that, but i think you'll also --

he's also working with dan senor on this speech, so i think you'll hear a little bit about foreign policy from paul ryan in his speech. but, yeah, it is interesting. because on capitol hill, you didn't hear him talk about much about these social issues. so i think you will hear a piece of that. i don't think it's going to focus on that, but i think introducing him will be a part of it. >> and i think one of the challenges for democrats, they're trying to paint this picture of paul ryan as being extremist and using various bits of evidence, but when paul ryan talks, he doesn't talk like a stereotypical conservative bomb thrower. he may be a more elusive target as paul ryan gets more and more attention. >> rob, you've been studying the sort of history about paul ryan, how he grew up. i found this fascinating about the jobs he took after his father passed. let's play a clip from the hugh hewitt radio show. >> i used to write speeches. aye done a lot of speech writing in the past. words matter a lot. and i'm putting a lot of effort

into it. >> well that was talking about how he used to write speeches. i want to talk about how his -- i'm going to read the quote. he says, "my dad died when i was pretty young in high school, when i was 16, so i grew up a little faster than most young people do. i had a lot of landscaping guys, a lot of lawn mowing jobs. i worked at mcdonald's. the manager said i didn't have the social skills to work the front, so he put me on the quarter pounder grill." paul ryan didn't have the social skills to talk to mccdonald's customers? >> the real thing about paul ryan's rise that i'm interested in, this guy goes to miami, ohio, has really no political connections, goes to washington in 1992. and most times in politics, someone picks you as your mentor. you go through a congressional office or a campaign and an older guy brings you along. what paul ryan did was different. he sought out his mentor, jack kemp. he went to empower america. he didn't know jack kemp, but he

sought him out and went to work for jack kemp and bill bennett. he entered the conservative movement right out of college and that's been his rise since. it only took him six years to run for congress at the age of 38. >> conservative intelligenceia. >> that's always been ryan's world and it still is ryan's base. >> i think it's interesting. i interviewed jack kemp about ryan a couple years ago. one of the thing he is predicted that he would be the chairman of ways and means, which is where he is now. which is really interesting, what he would say now. >> interesting stuff. we have a lot more to talk about with our panel. but first, trivia time! we asked, which politician used to greet former house speaker sam rayburn by kissing his bald head? you got a preview of the answer have harry smith. we always like when harry smith delivers the answer. he answered correctly. it was lyndon johnson. but he didn't have the art. as a fellow texas, rayburn

initially took johnson under his wing in the house of representatives, guiding johnson's career in congress. in the late '50s and early '60s, johnson served as senate majority leader while rayburn was in the it up here for you. we'll be right back. a lot more with our panel. don't go anywhere.

we are here back with our esteemed panel. president obama dropping some basketball analogies last night at a fund-raiser. he said this -- michael's competitiveness is legendary. nobody knows better than michael that if you've got a bit of a lead and there's about seven minutes to go, that's when you put it away. you don't leave it to a lucky shot, you might press them a

bit -- have horace grant come in, you don't let up. that's how the bulls won six, that's how we're going to win this election. as a trail blazers fan, you've had night mares about the bulls, but if you look at president obama, the fact he's still competitive says something considering his economic record. worst deck indicate for the middle class. 1983, 58,307, 2001, 72,956, 201069,000,487. amazingly there's still this thousand and still a bit of a late with the economy in shambles. >> that analogy does bring up painful memories. is the blazers were one of the finals victims. this is a very different strategy for the president than 208, then senator, casting a

wide net, and being above it all, this will continue to be a negative campaign, where the democrats have to discredit mitt romney and make him simply an unacceptable alternative, because voters are primed for a change. people sfrnt satisfied with the status quo,e. >> and jackie, real quick, what we have seen is the pivot for the president, talking about education, talking about women's rights, everything except the economy to try to close this game down. could he take it all the way to november 6th. >> as long as he wants. literally as long as he wants. the economy isn't a great issue, they're going to try to talk about other stuff. shameless plugs. >> weather permitting my colleague jessica taylor and i will be in tampa. rothen burg political report.com will be free, no passwords. >> opened to all. >> check out the convention on nationalrue.com. >> happy anniversary to my mom

and step father ed, 20 years next week. >> congratulations mom and ed. thanks for being on the program. that's it for this edition of the daily rundown. see you right back here tomorrow. um canning up next, chris jansen and company, she'll speak to former senator jim talent. and it's going to be a wild time. check it out. one more day of the wildcat offense. wake up, get excited. max. this is the plan that revolves around you. introducing share everything. unlimited talk. unlimited text. and a single pool of sharable data that powers up to 10 devices. the first plan of it's kind. share everything. only from verizon. add a smartphone for just $40 monthly access.

chances are, you're not made of money, so don't overpay for motorcycle insurance. geico, see how much you could save. good morning, a new poll shows the republican plan to remake medicare is widely unpopular in swing states like florida, ohio, wisconsin. "new york times"/quinnipiac/cbs poll shows that more people trust obama than mitt romney to handle