>> two things. first, we need that vision thing from people like more bill clinton. more people that can give us hope and inspiration and james bennett should write more. he's editor in chief. he's a good storyteller. >> damn good writer. where was t. boone pickens on the list? all of the way down. i hate to say this out loud. number 360. how does he do it? only $1.2 billion. you wonder how he puts food on the table. mr. moderate, mitt romney, softens up his talk on the trail even while his campaign keeps up harder hits. meanwhile, it's a tale of the tape. president obama's redistribution comments from the ''90s. get more context and find out what was left out and why it matters. the bowles-simpson plan

falls flat. today we'll hear from the bipartisan duo who still hope that they can get this passed. check this out. it has been 60 years since richard nixon's checker speech. 37th president probably had more of an effect on campaign tactics than any other modern politician in the 20th century. that speech in particular is still echoing in presidential politics today. good morning from washington. it's thursday, september 20th, 2012. this is "the daily rundown." i think we can say this is the last day of summer. let's get to my first reads of the morning. moderate mitt romney was back yesterday. at a univision in florida, he distanced himself from remarks recorded in may when he said he can't win 47% of americans who are "dependent on the

government." >> this is a campaign about the 100%. my campaign is about the 100% of america and i'm concerned about them. i have a record. i demonstrated my cast to help the 100%. >> if you didn't get that, he said 100%. romney softened his tone on a number of issues. for instance, promising an immigration solution. >> it's been a political football for years and years. on the part of both republicans and democrats. it's time to put politics aside and i will actually reform immigration system and make it work. >> and for the third time since he became the de facto nominee and now official nominee, romney appeared to soften his stance on health care reform who he said he would repeal and replace the law. he also had this line, which will be interesting to see how it plays with conservatives. >> i have experience in health care reform. now and then the president says i'm the grandfather of obama care. i don't think he meant that as a

compliment. i'll take it. >> the first two times romney attempted to soften his rhetoric on health care, adviser saying the health care mandate was penalty and not a tax and when romney opened up about the possibility on "meet the press" that he would keep parts of the president's health care bill intact, conservative outrage forced the campaign to quickly walk it back. will we see that again today? i have a sense conservatives might actually give him some slack considering the week he's had. now, after a 1962 clip surfaced showing romney's mother talking about his dad's time on welfare relief as a child, mitt romney brought it up himself. >> my dad had to get help, financial help, the government helped his family to get on their feet again. by the way, that's the way america works. we have big hearts. we care for people who have needs. we help get them back and lift them up but we don't make that a permanent lifestyle. >> so as you can see, trying to

pivot off of the 47%. now, one. criticisms of the romney campaign we heard from supporters is he strays from the economy constantly. the romney's campaign 48-hour full-court press on comments the president made 14 years ago is one more example of that. it's an attempt to change the subject. campaign seized on remarks that then state senator obama made in 1998. we heard the line of attack again last night from romney at that rally in florida. >> we've had a president who has been putting in place a political and economic program that a lot of us don't recognize. we haven't seen anything like this in america before. he said some years ago something which we're hearing about today on the internet. he said he believes in redistribution. >> romney, of course, was referring to comments that obama made at a 1988 conference.

republicans spent the last 48 hours hammering the president for this clip. the problem for them is this. it's the rest of what obama said. here's the full context. >> i think the trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate summary redistribution because i believe in redistribution at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody has got a shot. how do we pool resources at the same time as we decentralize delivery systems in ways that both foster competition, can work in the marketplace, and can foster innovation at a local level and tailored to particular communities. >> obama's words about competition, the marketplace, decentralization, innovation, omitted from the clip that's being circulated by republicans.

that second sentence could have been uttered by bill clinton or any former member of the dnc in the late '90s. is it steps on the gotcha presence. the white house continues to be peppered with questions on libya. but right now we want to go to france right now because among the reasons what happened in libya, the protests and white house version of what happened there has to do with protests over a u.s. film. well, folks in france are very nervous about a newspaper there that published cartoons mocking the prophet muhammad. some muslim leaders are calling for calm, the french newspaper is accusing them of adding fuel to fire and are shutting down french schools in the islamic world. michelle kosinski is live in paris. we know they're nervous. explain everything the french government is doing in reaction to what happened to american

embassies. >> reporter: right. you know, this morning we did see some protests outside of the french embassy in tehran which has been already closed ahead of more protests. they shut down some schools in the muslim world. tomorrow they plan to close down embassies and cultural centers in 20 countries. we haven't seen violence here but we did notice a very visible increased police presence in paris. yesterday someone threw a grenade into a grocery store causing injuries but unclear if it's related to this. the publisher of these cartoons chose timing of this for a reason coming just after protests and murders last week over that anti-islamic film and just after the legal backlash of photos printed here of the duchess of cambridge. they say this is about free speech, standing up to threats

against it, standing up to groups that they say want to govern by fear. they came out yesterday and said, you know, it seems like you can make fun of any fundamentalists group but there's an unwritten group you can't do that with muslims. they say they won't obey that. if you don't like cartoons, you should take us to court over it. they were making reference to what prince william and kate did here through their lawyers successfully this week against a french magazine that ran topless photos of kate. that's what some are doing. two muslim groups filed suit against this publication saying the cartoons incite hate. we did see appeals for calm and peaceful protests although here in paris there were two peaceful protests scheduled for saturday, but they've been denied permits. chuck? >> all right. michelle kosinski in paris for us. it was an american film mocking muhammad and islamists that potentially may have sparked the

riots in the libya thing. the white house is peppered with questions about the attack in benghazi. was it sparked by the protests or was it preplanned? >> the point is you can make assumptions. we do not yet have indication that it was preplanned or premeditated. >> and yet on the same day at a senate hearing, a member of the obama administration, the director of the national counterterrorism center gave the most detailed picture of this we've heard yet. seems to contradict what jay carney said. >> they were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy. what we don't have at this point is specific intelligence that there was a significant advanced

planning or coordination for this attack. >> senators including susan collins were not satisfied with that answer and that version of events. >> i have come to the opposite conclusion and agree with the president of libya that this was a premeditated, planned attack. i just don't think that people come to protest equipped with heavy weapons. >> what we may be seeing is an attempt between opportunistic aspirational attack that maybe that's what intelligence officials believed, al qaeda in north africa was taking advantage of a situation because they wanted to do an attack at some point and they say it's not

premeditated. that said, we know what the white house fears. they fear the story line of a premeditated attack on the anniversary of 9/11 that attacked and killed an american ambassador. up next, the bipartisan duo trying to keep us from careening off the fiscal cliff. a slew of brand new polls all over the battleground and all over them right now have folks in chicago doing more of a happy dance. holder off the hook. it's a blistering new report that lays out the blame for the fast and furious botched gun operation, there's a lot of people who get hit here but not the attorney general. we'll go live to capitol hill. first, a look ahead at the president's schedule and mitt romney's schedule today. the president heads to miami to do his day at the univision forum. mitt romney at the museum in the state of florida. you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. we'll be right back. remember when you said men are superior drivers?

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you heard of it before. simpson-bowles, bowles-simpson. the commission put together by president obama to find a solution to the country's fiscal problems containing a mix of spending cuts and tax increases designed to reduce the budget deficit to 2.2% of gdp. everyone praised it and then everyone ran away from it. two congressmen stepped up and introduced a plan in the house. >> this is the only bipartisan way to solve the nation's problems. this is the only budget that has

a chance of getting through both the house and the senate. >> we have been viciously attacked from the left and the right and when you know you have a good deal is when the left and the right are pounding the snot out of you. >> well, their efforts got them a total of 38 votes including themselves. joining me now are the two congressman who introduced the simpson-bowles based budget. j 38 votes. 38 votes. congressman cooper, how frustrating was that moment? i remember when you introduced it. i thought for sure there would be 80. i think we knew it wouldn't pass. what happened? >> everybody likes to talk brave. there are few people that want to be brave. we had almost 100 people indicate strong interest and 100 people had showed up at a previous press conference. but there's a big difference between that and voting. what happened on the afternoon of the vote, a lot of interest groups in america on the left and right totally hammered us. since a lot of folks thought it wasn't going to pass any way,

they cut and ran. >> congressman, that does seem everyone was thinking about re-election. if you're a republican you were worried about grover norquist and democrats were worried about arp or someone else bashing you over the social security provisions. it just -- i still -- all of this praise to bowles-simpson. paul ryan praised bowles-simpson but voted against it. >> just to correct you, we never call it bowles-simpson. that's bs. we call is simpson-bowles, if we could. we had a lot of people interested in this. a lot of people are interested. the president says he's open to it but never set up any simpson-bowles to capitol hill. you know, in that six hours between when they announced the schedule and we had the vote at 9:00 in the afternoon, people were pounded. >> who was doing it? was this eric cantor whipping on

one side and -- >> no. it was outside groups. outside groups. on the republican side you had the grover norquist. i talked to grover that evening. he said there's a huge tax increase. $2 trillion tax increase. i said i don't think so. groups like that, club for growth, heritage action, so on and then on the left you had labor and arp and variety of others. >> congressman cooper, isn't irony here that lame duck is the only time you can do it because it's the actual furthest away from an election you can get is that sort of 60-day period between the november elections and the new congress being sworn in? >> you're right. you know politics better than anybody. that's furthest from the next election but also illegitimate congress. 100 members will be unelected but have a voting card. they may be braver but they have been unelected.

there will be a push to kick it to the next congress. >> should be it or should lame duck deal with this? >> i'm for action now before the election. we have to face these problems. >> aren't you guys in recess? the house is gone. >> three more days of congress before we leave for the november 6th election. that's ridiculous. we're not even passing a farm bill after the worst drought in half a century, we're not even allowed to vote on a farm bill. this is the way the modern congress is acting. it's a parliament and very poor parliament. >> pick up on what congressman cooper said. are you an illegitimate voter? >> with all due respect to my friend, jim, i will not have been unelected, i would not be reelected because i chose not to run. going back to the supercommittee if it had been made up of retiring members, we would have a deal. i think people will find the courage. >> what's the election result that's needed?

to force this to happen before december 31st? >> you know, i hate to speculate on that. my opinion would be at odds with what i wish would happen to tell you the truth. >> i've heard this. it's an obama re-election. a tie in the senate and narrow house republican majority where everyone feels as if they don't have full-fledged power. >> that's right. i think that's scenario would emboldened our speaker boehner to go back to the president and get that big deal they were close to a year and a half ago. >> what do you expect to actually happen in this lame duck? i heard speculation of the rejigger, sequester for a year, everything punted six months to a year. that the reality here? >> i hope for bravery and wisdom. i just hope we'll avoid gridlock because that would be an accomplishment for this congress. they have to reach out to the other party and be sensible about the fiscal cliff that's rapidly approaching. >> you'll reintroduce your bill

when? >> the day after the election. >> all right. we'll be watching. we'll see. how will wall street react to a just released jobless number? market rundown is next. that weekly jobs number coming up and democrats say they can win back the house. we'll talk to the guy whose job it is to make it happen. still to come, a deep dive into richard nixon and how he changed the rules of campaigning and why mitt romney might be paying the price for that. first, today's trivia question. how many presidents had multiple vice presidents? it's a tough one for the thursday. tweet me the answer. the answer and more coming up on "the daily rundown." [ female announcer ] born from the naturally sweet monk fruit,

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democrats have to net 25 seats a day to take back the house and they hope they can do it with lines of attack like this one. a new ad that is out this morning. this one happens to target california congresswoman mary bono mack. >> some politicians are cut out for washington and the way she looks after special interests politician mary bono mack fits right in taking insurance industry money and voting their way. voting to end medicare. >> but to most, 25 seats looks like a very tall order. new york congressman steve israel is the man in charge of getting democrats elected in the house as chair of the democratic national campaign committee. congressman, why are you so bullish now at finding your 25 seats when it doesn't appear that thanks to redistricting and you go through these different

numbers, you talk to charlie and stu, our guys that follow this and have a hard time seeing it. what makes you bullish? >> i'm bullish because the environment has markedly improved. we won august big-time. you can see it in polling in districts coming in throughout the country. i think we win october. if we put a good october on top of a good september on top of a good august, we win 25 seats. there are 66 districts, chuck, as you know, that have republican or republican tea party incumbent, voted for president obama and/or senator kerry. we have 53 red to blue candidates. we reserve $63 million in air time for commercials like that. and finally, august was a turning point. mitt romney and paul ryan and the romney/ryan budget that ends medicare to fund tax cuts for millionaires have become an anchor around house republicans and that anchor is growing heavier and heavier every day. just today front page of a washington newspaper talked about governor romney in terms

of reverse coattails on house republicans. i'm not saying it's a slam dunk. i tell you what, the wind is blowing at our backs. >> i will look at charlie cook's breakdown here. he 21 republican held seats that are vulnerable. he has 15 democrats. for to you pull this off, i went through his numbers. i went through all of these numbers. it seems that you would have to hold every one of your vulnerable seats and if you win every vulnerable republican seat that charlie and stu see, you get to 29. that's quite the inside straight, is it not? >> i have always said that this is going to be a field goal. we won't win 50 seats. we won't win 40 seats. this is the metaphor i use. we had the ball on our own 20 yard line. no path to the goal post. couldn't figure out what plays to execute to get us to the goal post. no view of the goal post. we have driven the ball to the republicans 20 yard line. we have it in their red zone. any good football fan knows that

if you're going to kick a field goal, a lots of your success has to do with the wind. if you have wind at your back, you'll kick that field goal. wind in your face, hard. still wind, uncertain. in august we had a brisk breeze at our back. if it continues, i think we kick a field goal. >> is it a three seat majority worth it? >> i tell you what, a one seat majority is worth it for a congress that will protect medicare rather than protecting millionaires. a one-seat majority is worth it for a congress that will help small businesses rather than helping companies that offshore. i'll take any majority by one or more. >> let me ask you a question. in the lame duck, do you think more gets done if it's a status quo election than if there is some sort of change, change in the white house, change in the house of majority, change in the senate majority? >> i think quite a bit gets done if we take the majority. it will be clear to these tea party republicans that they lost the battle.

here's what's happened. these republicans in the house, they got swept in in 2010 on a tea party tsunami. the tide has receded. they're left high and dry and alone with their own voting records. whether we take the house back or not and i believe we can take the house back, the fact of the matter is we'll have beaten back the tea party tide. a lot of these extremists who refuse to compromise who are pushing the country's economy off a cliff, who would rather see $500 billion in defense cuts than a compromise, they will not be returning to the house. i think we'll have a more governable congress and a better country for it. >> even if it's republicans that are in charge by a few seats? >> well, i'm not going to concede a single district, a single seat, a single household. >> all right. steve israel, chairman of the democratic congressman campaign committee, democrat from new york. thanks for coming on this morning. >> thank you. >> all right. those weekly jobless numbers, they're out. what does that do for the markets? opening bell about to ring. let's get the market rundown. becky quick is here.

what are the numbers? >> chuck, they came in a number that was down. good news and bad news. in the end, i don't think it's a whole great set of numbers here. they were actually down those weekly jobless claims by 3,000. the bad news is economists expected a bigger drop and numbers above 350 that have people concerned. we're probably not seeing great activity in the jobs market just yet. maybe more concerning is something we heard from norfolk southern. the big train company came out and affirmed something we had been hearing from fedex earlier this week. we talked about how federal express lowered its numbers and that's a big deal because the transports are very important about where the economy is headed. these are forward looking numbers that tell us where we can expect the economy to be three, six, nine months down the road. norfolk southern came in and lowered earnings because they see coal shipments and merchandise shipments below what people have been anticipating. that's not great news for what it means for this holiday season, digging through economic

indicators trying to get a feel for it. it looks like the market will open down by 45 points. >> all right. looks like another continuation of what's been a mediocre week. up next, space shuttle "endeavour" takes to the sky for the last time and a look back at the first time a tv speech changed a presidential race. "the daily rundown" back in 30 seconds. welcome back. on radar this morning, a slew of new polls that may give the

president another spring in his step. a bill to help veterans gets blocked in the senate and of course space shuttle "endeavour" gets ready for a final landing. first, more than a dozen officials at the department of justice and the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms, atf, are facing punishment after a new report on the fast and furious operation. it exonerated eric holder but drew several others into the spotlight. the inspector general of the department of justice whose office published a report will testify today before a house oversight committee. senate republicans blocked a bill yesterday that would have provided a billion dollars over five years to help over 20,000 veterans find work in their communities. the measure was blocked 58-40 in a procedural vote. republicans argued the bill was unpaid for. and a parade of polls this week show president obama in the lead over mitt romney. in michigan, a new cnn poll puts the president up 52-44.

a state where romney grew up and where they are trying to put it in play. fox news polls give the president the edge in three key states. the president leading romney by seven points in ohio in this fox poll and virginia with a five-point lead in florida matching a lot of other polls this week including our own last week. big senate race numbers are also out. after a year long tie, "the washington post" poll has tim kaine leading george allen by eight points. that race was tied last week. in wisconsin, democrat tammy baldwin leads republican tommy thompson by nine points. a complete reversal from the poll a month ago which had thompson up nine. and with four other polls showing democrat elizabeth warren leading republican senator scott brown in massachusetts, a boston herald poll paints a different picture. they have scott brown with one of his largest leads over her in their polling at 49-45. have to love massachusetts. five polls in five days. finally, look at these pictures.

space shuttle "endeavour." it's on its way today to its final destination flying piggyback from houston to california. it will do a neat thing today. it will fly over tucson as a tip of the hat to mark kelly and gabrielle giffords. we're looking back at a speech that helped reshape modern politics and usher in the era of television as the vehicle for political messaging by a man that would one day change the face of presidential politics for good. richard nixon of course. it was this week in 1952, 60 years ago, nixon still a young senator and a new vice presidential candidate, gave what's become known as the checker speech. it was unique, ground breaking and essential to preserving nixon's political career, which was on shaky ground two after being tapped dwight eisenhower's conservative running mate because eisenhower had a conservative problem at the time. the threat came in the form of a

new york post article alleging that nixon was using a slush fund for personal expenses set up by wealthy supporters with the suggestion that those supporters might have got special favors in return. both republicans and democrats were urging ike to dump nixon immediately. in what turned out to be a stroke of political genius, nixon turned to a new medium called television and made his case directly to a national audience insisting the money was legit. the senator from california also transformed the way politicians used television and the way the public connected with its leaders. you took a closer look at this famous speech and the impact to this day. >> everybody remembers the speech as one that saved nixon's career the way he used television. what's less understood is how he in that speech invented new rules for financial disclosure, rules that are playing themselves out in this year's

election. seeking to save his place on gop ticket as dwight eisenhower's runningmate, richard nixon gave his famous checkers speech 60 years ago this weekend and laid finances bare. it's a speech with eerie relevance to the campaign in which mitt romney faces demands to disclose his finances. >> if you decide to do more and more and more, you give opposition to distort and twist and be dishonest. >> nixon's financial disclosure in 1952 set a new standard for future candidates for national office. >> even the nixon himself was not trying to set an ethical standard. nixon was trying to save his skin. it became a standard for candidates from then on. >> jeff frank, author of a book, "ike and dick" saying nixon was

gambling his political future and shaping political races for years to come. accused of benefiting from a slush fund set up by wealthy california backers, nixon opted to tell everything about his finances on national tv. even his wife's wardrobe. >> i should say this. pat doesn't have a mink coat. but she does have a respectable republican cloth coat. >> and the little dog checkers. a gift from a man in texas. >> you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog. i just want to say this right now that regardless of what they say about it, we're going to keep him. >> nixon also shrewdly turned the issue of financial disclosure on his democratic opponents. >> both should come before the american people as i have and make a complete financial statement as to their financial history and if they don't, it

will be an admission that they have something to hide. >> it's a challenge that reverberates in american politics to this day. it's mitt romney not living up to richard nixon standards and the obama campaign that is using that nixon challenge. if they don't disclose, the american people can conclude you're hiding something. and that's something that we're seeing playing itself out right now. >> absolutely. i'm glad we did this with checkers. i always want to remind people, there's nobody impacted sort of how campaigns are conducted, how campaign finance is done than richard nixon. the irony of course is he used television to save his career. television cost him the presidency and campaign finances saved him there in disclosure

brought him down. >> it was only after the scandals of richard nixon's presidency that we had the first rules that required financial disclosure for presidential candidates. mitt romney, while living up to the rules, is not living up to the standard that richard nixon -- mi >> well done way to use the anniversary of checkers. up next, mitt romney and paul ryan will roll into the heart of the battleground in a state they have to get back on track if they're going to stay in this game. plus, the new video had a has people wondering whether harko r marco rubio would have been a better running mate. white house soup of the day. one of my favorites. black bean chorizo.

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>> we're aware that this threatens our people wherever they are in the world because these terrorists groups in many instances or most instances are opposed to everything that we stand for. >> daily flashback, this day in 1984 when for the third time in 17 months american interests in beirut suffered a deadly terrorist attack. this one was at the american embassy annex. in what some may see as a response to criticism that mitt romney has done too much fund-raising and not enough campaigning, the romney campaign has just announced a three-day six-city bus tour in ohio to move the 18 electoral votes into the tossup column if not their side of the equation. let's bring in our panel.

welcome all. david, how relieved are you that you see the romney campaign spending time in ohio? >> the more the romney campaign spends in ohio, the better. we have not won the presidency without carrying ohio. it's the battleground. it's the ground zero and so every day romney can spend there talking about how he's going to create jobs, how he's going to protect medicare is a good day for republicans. >> i want to talk a little bit here. they've had to spend time fund-raising. obama too. it's amazing to me in september we're seeing so much fund-raising by the two presidential candidates. romney's schedule seems to be he plans rallies around fundraisers. florida event flying back across the country to nevada for tomorrow. he'll have a rally but you get the sense that it's vegas. he has to get more money. and yet we're finding out this money is not all earmarked. he's getting outspend by obama.

>> you see the pinch that they've been in unbeknownst to us. >> look at this money we have. >> it's so impressive all along. a lot of cash on hand. all of the talk has been republicans are going outrse democrats in general. now you see that some of that money is not available for them to spend on ads and over the summer they ran out of money and had to borrow against what they had going forward. you can see why they're feeling that pinch and they're trying to balance the fund-raising against the campaigning. to be fair, i think we've seen the president on occasion schedule some campaigning around fund-raising. >> absolutely. >> they both do this. all of the criticism that romney has taken for not campaigning, they are throwing up their hands saying what are we supposed to do? >> this is a small donor issue. if you look at the romney report carefully and the moves they've had to make, borrowing money, they ran out of maxed out donors for the primary so they don't have the small donor thing. obama had a hard time -- campaign didn't have small

donors kick in until last month. >> that can bump up as well. romney throughout the campaign has not found a way to inspire those donors. he was reliant on large donors in the primary and he's still having the same problem that's not really something they'll fix. >> david, you guys -- go pac was invented to create a grassroots movement in the '70s when it was started. are you nervous about the small donor issue? >> no. our base wants to elect mitt romney and defeat barack obama. and we can sit around the table and talk about all of this ad money. i'll say two things. one, there will be no shortage of ads in ohio and virginia and florida. voters won't say i need to see more ads. i'm not getting enough. let me also say in these final 40 some days, the interaction that people have with their friends and their colleagues will do more to influence votes than the ads people see on television. and so this money that now the

republican national committee has, the state parties have as a result of mitt romney's fund-raising and doing joint committees, that's what's going to carry us over the top. it is the grassroots effort that now really kicks in and makes a difference. >> what did you make of his moderating tone, if you will, at univision yesterday. >> the final days are about persuadables as much as about the partisans. that's who the 8% are that haven't made their decision yet. and so if he's going to win that final 8%, he has to be talking to two things they care about and in terms they care about. and that's what he's doing. >> do you think conservatives will cut him slack now after a lot of them, at least of the corridor conservatives just pounding him this week. >> this week every time he tried to take a turn, he's always run into trouble. i would suspect, yes, because

the corridor conservatives have been pounding him on other things primarily his performance, his campaign schedule as you point out, the 47% remark. i think at this point the piling on from his own party there will be a cease and desist order but why now? it's late to decide to attack to the center. are people going to listen to a shift in tone and will that take effect? debates is where that will happen. >> i'm sure that that conservatives want him to be more toward the middle than that comment. that's something he has to clean up and he's closer to cleaning it up. >> when we come back, i want to talk marco rubio. in trivia we asked, how many presidents had multiple vice presidents? it's nine. thomas jefferson, james madison, andrew jackson, of course abraham lingcoln, grant, richar

nixon and then you had franklin roosevelt who had three. nobody had more than him. e-mail us at daily rundown if you have a trivia question. we'll be right back. whoa, look at all those toys. insuring that stuff must be a pain. nah, he's probably got... [ dennis' voice ] allstate. they can bundle all your policies together. lot of paperwork. actually... [ dennis' voice ] an allstate agent can help do the switching and paperwork for you. well, it probably costs a lot.

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mitt romney and paul ryan get it. medicare is going broke. that's not politics. it's math. anyone for letting medicare continue like it is is going bankrupt. we can save medicare without changing -- >> that was florida senator marco rubio making a pitch for the romney campaign in a new ad the romney campaign just relaxed. let's bring back our panel. david, you look at that ad -- i haven't seen paul rye rooiian on camera, now we're seeing marco rubio who looked like a good campaign spokesman there, did he

not. >> marco rubio was the chairman of go pac in our florida chapter. i can tell you he is an outstanding spokesman. if you're the romney campaign, you use every tool at your disposal. you should use him just as he's using bobby jintal and suzanna martinez. >> none of those folks are in tv ads. >> yeah, today. >> ann, that's what's striking. i'm trying to think. it's like gerald ford when he did the add for reagan in 1980. you get this sense of there's your future. >> it really does sit in a more special state than a bobby jindal. there's an electoral reason to use him and not some of the others. the question we're asking is why is it him and not the guy on the ticket with him? rubio in a special place. he's very compelling. there are reasons why he wouldn't have been as good of a vice presidential pick. you use him for what you k. he's campaigned with him. >> the reason we he's talking

about that, is ryan has not added much so far except for wisconsin. >> do you get the sense that the campaign is not using ryan enough? he's traveling on the trail a little more, but you get the sense and i've talked to some conservatives who feel like they don't want to say he's been boxed in. they feel like why aren't we hearing from him more? >> well, this is inside d.c. stuff. people are electing either mitt romney or barack obama for president, not joe biden or paul ryan for vice president. paul ryan was an outstanding pick, particularly, which i believe is why mitt romney picked him, when he's the vice president, he brings a lot to the table to help mitt romney govern. it was a great choice for mitt romney for that reason. the campaign is a snapshot in time for a few months. paul ryan is going to be with him for eight years by his side helping him govern the country. >> optimistic vision, eight years. you're not even talking this november, you're talking 2016.

>> ann, it's interesting, some report on politico talking about we'll see more mitt romney, too, more of him in his tv ads talking to people. they realize for better or force, it doesn't matter whether you think romney is good at this stuff or not, he has to win it to david's point. it's on him. >> he has to define it now. i'll believe it when i see it. we've heard a lot of predictions about the romney campaign about things that would happen, staff changes that would happen, messages that change that didn't. so, yes, there would be a good reason to want to have him out there, at least defining himself a little more, letting people see him in his own words before the debate. >> my mom's birth difficult is wednesday, happy birthday, mom. >> nice. david? >> celebrating my one-year wedding anniversary, luckily married to claire holloway, great fund-raiser in town. >> the first one you can't miss,

after that you can go with fives and zeros. >> my colleague carol has a great piece in "the washington post" about the gender gap. >> if you watch northern virginia television, you see the obama campaign is pounding on this ed. tomorrow, co-corks iowa and wisconsin we're dipping into next. up next, chris jansing. bye-bye. [ male announcer ] from our nation's networks... ♪ ...to our city streets... ♪ ...to skies around the world... ♪ ...northrop grumman's security solutions are invisibly at work, protecting people's lives... [ soldier ] move out! [ male announcer ] ...without their even knowing it. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. i've been fortunate to win on golf's biggest stages. but when joint pain and stiffness from psoriatic arthritis hit,

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great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners. good morning. i'm chris jansing. mitt romney is changing his strategy again in light of a video that has more republicans distancing themselves from his campaign and pundits piling on. the new tactic, morallies, more emphasis on regular people and a more inclusive feel including softening his tone on the 47%. >> my campaign is about the 100% in america, and i'm concerned about them. i'm concerned about the fact