"wall street journal." i didn't read memos coming from the republican national convention. >> what did you learn? >> i'm happy that joe's here. >> nice. >> mika? >> thank you to the greenwich library. >> they were great. >> audience loved joe. it was fun. >> they were very nice. we love them. good people of again witgreenwi. it's time for chuck todd. we owe you. >> we like you more than donald does. >> thank you guys. changing roosevelt. president obama invoked franklin early in his term. now he's pointing to teddy to spark his re-election campaign. can populism keep him in the white house. the donald gets ducked. mitt romney says no thanks to trump's presidential debate. is romney rebooting just in time

for the calendar turning to 2012. we got two former republican governors, they've been campaigning for president. they can't seem to find any love in their own party. will one or both of them end up running as an independent or in a third party? good morning, it's wednesday, december 7th, 2011, pearl harbor day. let's get to my first reads of the morning. i'm looking forward to the conversation with the two governors. let's start with the presidential race. mitt romney, the chaser in the republican race. appears to be retooling the campaign a tad. ramping up media appearances. he's holding more frequent press availabilities. he's agreed to his first sunday show interview in more than a year. he's attempting to frame his battle with gingrich. saying the comparison will mean he'll come out on top. >> his role as a leader, the speaker of the house will be examined very carefully. people will measure our capacity to lead.

i don't know what that is going to show with regards to him. i know it will show with regards to me. >> what mitt romney is trying to channel there is quiet, silent frustration you hear from former republican colleagues of newt gingrich who are whispering this issue about his leadership experience. gingrich who has secured commanding leads in iowa and south carolina closed the gap in new hampshire. he's opened a large lead nationally. you know how i feel about the tracking poll. it gyrates a lot. in this first one, he's leading romney 37 to 22, 15 point lead nationally. gingrich is up 15 points from two weeks ago. newt is truly embracing being the front runner. he's passing up opportunities to go after his republican rival. >> romney says you don't understand the economy and you can't recover it and grow it because you spent your entire life in professional politics. what's your answer to mr. romney? >> you are the worst possible

questioner. you can make an argument that i helped mitt romney to get rich. i did the macro-economic things necessary to make his career possible. >> gingrich is managing digs. romney will not join the december 27th debate saying he declined trump's invitation but he did it personally by phone. >> i spoke with donald trump earlier today. i indicated that we just can't make this debate. he understood my perspective and wished me well. >> yeah, then he took a shot at him in a press release. gingrich said he expected the debate to be quote fun. he got in this shot at romney. >> i think if you're afraid to debate with donald trump, people are going to say so you want me to believe you can debate barack obama, but you're afraid to show up with donald trump. it strikes me as a very weak position. >> here's trump's dig. predictable response at romney.

"it would seem logical to me that if i was substantially behind in the polls, especially in iowa, south carolina and florida, i would be participating in the debate, but i can also understand why governor romney decided not to do it." this may end up nixing the debate. knowing the stubbornness of the man in washington, it might be just santorum versus gingrich. it wasn't an american jobs act speech, a payroll holiday speech. what it was was the first speech of his re-election campaign. the president made the speech for government. he was casting himself and the democratic party as protecters of the middle class which he claims is under middle class assault. he used the phrase middle class 20 times. >> this is a make or break

moment for the middle class, for all those fighting to get in the middle class. the middle class shrunk. a child born today will have a one in three chance of making it to the middle class. if we want a strong middle class, incomes lift the middle class. offers security. we simply cannot return to this brand of you're on your own economics if we're serious about rebuilding the middle class in this country. >> president laid out his own version of roosevelt's square deal, using the language of the occupy wall street movement. >> i believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot. when everyone does their fair share. when everyone plays by the same rules. these aren't democratic values or republican values. these aren't 1% values or 99% values. they're american values. we have to reclaim them.

>> aides contend we'll see elements of this speech all throughout the calendar year of 2012 making it a cornerstone of the re-election bid. one side of our question, what were those visuals. the obama white house has never been big on visuals. that could have been in a gymnasium or basement of any high school in the country. you had no idea where he was speaking from. it was very low key to put it mildly. rick perry's last stand. with less than four weeks until the iowa caucuses, our ad trackers say he has a $1 million buy. booked a $1.2 million broadcast buy in south carolina. perry has spent $5.1 million on ads this year. superpac has spent more. money has meant nothing in this race. the number two guy is ron paul.

that's helped him a little bit. newt gingrich has barely spent any money. mitt romney is starting to ramp up. keep an eye on romney's superpac. let's go to unique "the daily rundown." two of the hardest working republican candidates you haven't heard of. between them, they have nearly two decades of political experience. they have had a hard time getting in on the debate. we're going to give them a chance to have their voices heard right here, spend the next 30 minutes doing this. former louisiana congressman buddy romar and gary johnson. governors, thank you both for doing this. >> thanks for having us on. >> governor johnson, let me start with you, just a simple question, the roger mudd question, why do you want to be president? >> that i could actually do a better job, that i'm promising to submit, submit a balanced budget to congress in 2013. i'm promising devito legislation

where expenses exceed revenue. i'm advocating on the fair tax, replace it with the consumption tax which by all accounts will reboot the american economy for the next 100 years. >> governor romar, same question to you. >> i don't run for the reasons gary does. those are good points. but i run because we need reform in washington, d.c. it's become the capital of corruption. the biggest check gets first in line. the biggest special interest gets all that lobbyist's power and all the tax code writing. the biggest money has a special place and until we reform that, is nothing else will be done.

a tax code written by the lobbyists you cannot read. unfair trade with china is taking all our manufacturing jobs. we're addicted to foreign oil, particularly saudi arabia. we ought to be energy independent. it will not get done unless you separate the money from the special interest politicians. >> the two right now front runners if you will, to be president, president obama in his re-election, former speaker newt gingrich both talked and gave a definition of capitalism as it stands today. i wanted to play both clips and get you to respond to what you heard and give me a judge of who's closer to the truth and closer to where you are. here's what they said. >> there's a certain crowd in washington who, for the last few decades, have said let's respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. the market will take care of everything, they tell us.

if we just cut more regulations and cut more taxes, especially for the wealthy, our economy will grow stronger. here's the problem. it doesn't work. it has never worked. >> he is opposed to free enterprise. he's opposed to capitalism, he's opposed to virtually everything that makes america great. he uses wild rhetoric that is simply false. >> governor roemer, you heard both responses. which one were you more in line to agree with or what did you find wrong with their definitions? >> i'm a capitalist. i like living in america. i like liberty. i like what newt said there, however, there needs to be a speed limit on the highway. we are a country that's no longer philosophically free. we are captive to big government and it is captive to special interests. look at bank reform, too big to fail is still in the bank law. glassed eagle was not reimposed.

capital ratios did not go up. guess where our president went a week after he signed the bill? he went to wall street at $35,000 a ticket hosted by goldman sachs. our government is bought and sold by special interests. that's the issue. the rest of it is nonsense. >> governor johnson, what did you like or dislike in what you heard from both president obama and speaker gingrich? >> what i dislike about both, what i dislike about the status quo is this country really does doll it out unfairly. i share in the outrage of occupy wall street, which is this country's for sale. depending on the money that you want to pay to politicians, whether you're an individual, whether you're a group, whether you're a cooperation, you can buy your loopholes. that's exactly what's happened. i think enacting the fair tax, which is throwing out the entire federal tax system and replacing it with just as the name

implies, something that's fair, something that affects all of us equally really is the step that we're looking for. let's treat everyone in this country equally and that is not the case. >> all right. >> gary ought to join with me, chuck. gary ought to join with me and pledge to not take any special interest money. no superpacs. no pac money, $100 limit. full disclosure. let's take america back, gary. you and i can do it. >> governor johnson? >> talking about american competitiveness abroad, back to the fair tax, we implement the fair tax. arguably our goods and services become 23% more competitive. that's really the answer is a level playing field in this country that does not exist today. something that government can do and i did as governor of new mexico was create a level playing field where everybody was playing by the same rules as

opposed to whoever has the money and whoever is willing to pay for the special favors and get them does just that. >> all right. i need to take a little break here. we're going to come back and do other issues. we heard from all the other candidates in the big debates when it comes to this one big question about the current federal budget. >> say you had a deal, a real spending cuts deal. ten to one as byron says, spending cuts to tax increases. can you raise your hand if you feel so strongly about not raising taxes, you would walk away on the ten to one deal? >> both governors, you both had to balance budgets. don't answer yet. i'll be right back and talk about that question and hear what you would do. talk about issues like immigration, iran, tea party and occupy wall street. a look ahead to the president's schedule. he's got a meeting, bilateral with the president of canada,

america's closest ally literally and figuratively. you're watching "the daily rundown." ough pain, do you want fast relief? try bayer advanced aspirin. it's not the bayer aspirin you know. it's different. first, it's been re-engineered with micro-particles. second, it enters the bloodstream fast, and rushes relief to the site of your tough pain. the best part? it's proven to relieve pain twice as fast as before. bayer advanced aspirin. test how fast it works for you. love it, or get your money back. 12 hour hold challenge. apply fixodent once, and it holds all day. ♪ take the fixodent 12 hour hold challenge. guaranteed, or your money back. ♪ [ female announcer ] we never forget the nearly 12 million cancer survivors in america today...

and the countless lives lost. we owe it to them to protect funding for cancer research, prevention and access to care. congress, make cancer a priority and give millions of americans what they need most. to bring you a low-priced medicare prescription drug plan. ♪ with the lowest national plan premium... ♪ ...and copays as low as one dollar... ♪ ...saving on medicare prescriptions is easy. ♪ so you're free to focus on the things that really matter. call humana at 1-800-808-4003.

or go to walmart.com for details.

welcome back to "the daily rundown," in this special edition, our conversation with presidential hopefuls, gary johnson and buddy roemer. would you have taken a ten to one spending cut deal to tax increase. governor roemer let me start with you. >> absolutely. where do these guys live? i know i'm the only guy running for president who has been a congressman and a governor, and as governor, our unemployment rate when i took office was 12%. when i finished four years later, it was less than half

that. we grew jobs and we did it by stop spending money we didn't have and balanced our budget every year and raised our bond rating every year. gave our teachers a 30% pay raise and rebuilt the roads in our state. it can be done. you know what you have to do, work together. you have to say no to the special interests. i ran with no pac money and a limit on giving. no oil money, no chemical money. putting louisiana first. that's what i want my president to do now. put america first. not for re-election and not a billion dollars. >> governor roemer, one of the disappointments some fans of yours had in your one term as a governor, back during the days of edwards, every other year getting indicted for something, reforming the state was always a big issue, but by many measurements you weren't able to pull it off. what was that?

was that due to entrenched interests you couldn't get rid of? >> i thought we did a great job. we turned the unemployment rate around. we passed the strongest reform act in the country. edwards got one more term. by the way, he just got out of jail. we were the second republican in the history of louisiana. there have been two more elected since then, including bobby jindal. we have come a long way. it's not our state that sends governors to jail anymore. it's other states. the same thing can be done in washington. look, it's not easy. i know that. it can be tough, but unless the president stands up for reform, it won't happen. you bring a big broom in and sweep them out. teddy roosevelt said it 100 years ago this month. he said is the republican party going to be the party of privilege and wall street or

will it be the party of plain people who build a great nation? we turned louisiana around. we can do the same thing in washington. >> governor johnson, you're an advocate for the fair tax. by every measurement, the fair tax would cut the tax bill, but for some others, potentially raise their tax bill because of some deductions that are gotten rid of. i take it you would have taken a ten to one deal. is that fair to say? >> yes, i would have. i didn't raise one single tax as governor of new mexico over an eight year period, something that had never happened before in the history of the state of new mexico. you're asking a hypothetical here, balancing the federal budget by reducing spending by $10 if you can increase revenue by a dollar. the biggest threat to our national security is we continue to spend more money than we take

in. implementing the fair tax, i think that really does reboot the american economy. by all free market economists' recening, the fair tax is it's fair. the more money you make, the more fair tax you pay, the more savings people will engage in. this is something that really we need. it's not regressive, chuck, because it issues everyone in the country a $200 a month prebate check which allows everyone to the level of the poverty level to pay the fair tax in the country. it does away with the income tax, does away with corporate tax. if in a zero corporate tax rate environment this country can't create tens of millions of jobs from the private sector, i don't know under what conditions the private sector will create tens of millions of jobs. >> i want to move to immigration. i'm going to play a clip of the

republican front runner on immigration because he's gotten a lot of grief from it inside your party. here's what speaker gingrich said. >> i don't see how -- the party that says it's the party of the family is going to adopt an immigration policy which destroys families that have been here a quarter of a century. i'm prepared to take the heat by saying let's be humane in enforcing the law, without giving them citizenship but creating legality so they're not separated from their families. >> governor johnson, you were on the front lines of this. you governed a state borders mexico. you believe legalizing marijuana would be the best thing to secure the border. is that a correct way to interpret it? >> no. i would say the best way to interpret it is don't build the fence. that would be an incredible waste of money. make it as easy as possible for someone who wants to come into this country and get a work visa

to get a work visa. not citizenship, not a green card, but a work visa that would entail a background check so applicable taxes would get paid. enacting the fair tax, you're not going to be able to avoid the fair tax. with regard to the 11 million illegal immigrants here in this country right now, let's set up a grace period where we can document the workers that are here. when it comes to legalizing marijuana, every single candidate is talking about border violence and answering the border violence with more guns. legalize marijuana and arguably 75% of the border violence with mexico goes away. that being the estimate of the drug cartel's activities that are engaged in the trade of marijuana. if we can't connect the dots between 40,000 deaths south of the border over the last four years and prohibition, i don't know if we will ever able to. these are disputes played out with guns rather than the courts

let's get these issues in the courts. >> governor roemer, in state college tuition, would you have signed that bill that rick perry signed? >> no. i disagree completely with gary. legalizing drugs is not the answer. i guess we have just surrender on everything. seal the border. have comprehensive immigration reform. we are a nation of immigrants and they should be honored but it must be done by law. >> do you kick these folks out. >> we're a nation of laws. we're not a nation of personalities and go along and get along. seal the border. it can be done by america. it should be done by america. revise the green card and visa card system. tighten up immigration as a whole. we have become lax and illegal. we need creative minds. we need new minds. we need new startups in this country. we need all of that, but it must be done by law and it must be

done comprehensively. you know what the constitution says? this is the job of the congress and the president and they are not doing their job. we will have comprehensive immigration reform. you know who will help? it will help mexican americans who are now stopped in the streets because they look like they're mexicans and there's some suspect. it's wrong. it's unamerican. we must stop it. >> governor roemer and johnson. i have to take another break. i want to ask you about your own futures and which party you plan on running in maybe in the next six months. we'll be back with your closing thoughts as well. if it comes down to a choice between mitt romney and newt gingrich, will either one of them be happy? i'll have larry kudlow here fresh off his interview with newt gingrich. why he says mitt romney owes him

big time. which signer of the declaration of independence had the unfortunate nickname of old bacon face? tweet me the answer @chuckto answer @chucktodd @"the daily rundown." the answer and more is coming up on "the daily rundown," we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] dance cooking? bring it. [ mom ] my husband -- he thinks it's a 3-sheeter. i say 1-sheeter. [ female announcer ] in this lab demo, 1 sheet of bounty leaves this surface as clean as 2 sheets of the bargain brand. super absorbent. super clean. bounty.

i take leadership seriously, even though we don't take ourselves too seriously. these people want me to make the right choices. and to stop making the coffee. all i know is that i've made the decisions that i hope let them believe as much in me as i do in them. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. if you're a business owner, we have financial strategies to help.

>> we're back with buddy roemer and governor johnson. governor roemer, i asked this question with governor jindal, would he be comfortable supporting rick perry, would he be comfortable if it was newt gingrich or mitt romney. can you support romney or gingrich if that's who it is against president obama. >> we'll see if they stand up

with courage. so far they haven't. newt gingrich is on the payroll of every federal agency you can think of. he makes his living in washington really off the government. i don't think newt gingrich -- he's about as far from me as a candidate can get. superpacs, pacs, special interest money. what change will he bring? mitt romney has yet to address the question of his three superpacs or is it two, his four $1 million checks and who gives him his money. look, there is one issue in this campaign. it's jobs. the key thing about jobs is any action in washington like the fair tax that gary talks about, i would rather a flat tax at a low rate, but whatever you choose, it will not get done because the special interest own our capital and need newt gingrich or mitt romney have

answered the question of where they stand on campaign reform. until they do, they won't be president. >> governor johnson, could you support either newt gingrich or mitt romney for president over president obama? >> you know, i think the majority of americans would define themselves as classical liberals. the notion that less government is the best government, the notion that when it comes to government, the best thing government can do for you and i is to empower you and i to make choices only you and i should make. i don't hear that voice, and that voice, i think is the majority of americans. it's what i firmly believe. let's get out of iraq. let's get out of afghanistan. let's get a fair tax system implemented. let's have equality for gays. let's end the drug war. when it comes to immigration, look, building two fences and

putting a moat down the middle and running drones on top is not the solution. i'm looking seriously as running for the libertarian nomination. i'm looking seriously at that. i don't think any of the candidates are talking on behalf of what i consider the majority of americans, me being one of them. >> how quickly are you going to make that decision, governor johnson? >> that is something i'm contemplating. i'm just hoping that i'm included in the debates that are left. look, being excluded from 14 of the 16 debates has had a self-fulfilling provecy and chuck, it isn't being excluded from the debateds, it's being excluded from the polls to determine whether i'm in the debates or not. fox news during their last debate chose to interpret that as the last five national polls where my name was in the poll. i thought that was eminently fair. >> governor roemer, you're

seeking americans elect. you're basically done with seeking the republican nomination. >> no, i'm still a republican and proudly so, but i'm a proud american. we need to get on with our business here. this is a sucker deal we've got in this country. there have been 14 debates. i've not asked to be on a single one, not one. gary's made two. good for him. i'm zero for 14. i'm ahead of gary in the polls. i was ahead of jon huntsman in the last poll from florida. i can't get included in the debate. you know why. they don't want to talk about the money in politics. government is controlled by the special interests. insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and they did health reform. you got to be kidding me. they ought to put doctors, nurses and patients in the room, plain people ought to take our country back. >> governor roemer and governor johnson, thank you for agreeing

to do this together. i appreciate it. good luck in your future endeavors. >> thanks, man. >> we'll be right back with cnbc's larry kudlow and his big newt gingrich interview. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. diabetes testing? it's all the same. nothing changes. then try this. freestyle lite® blood glucose test strip. sure, but it's not gonna-- [beep] wow. yep, that's the patented freestyle zipwik™ design. did it just-- [both] target the blood? yeah, drew it right in. the test starts fast. you need just a third the blood of one touch.® that is different. so freestyle lite

test strips make testing... easy? easy. great. call or click-- we'll send you strips and a meter, free. free is good. freestyle lite test strips. call or click today.

♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution, comes together for a single purpose --

to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. >> now to the economy, with the first presidential contest in iowa less than a month away, each of the republican candidates is presenting a critique of president obama's handling of the economy. newt gingrich is taking aim at his closest rival, mitt romney. >> i was part of the supply siders who i think largely by helping convince reagan and working with reagan profoundly changed the trajectory of the economy. you can make an argument i helped mitt romney for being rich. i did the macro-economic things necessary to make his career possible. >> with me now, larry kudlow,

host of cnbc's "the kudlow report." a man who has become a must stop for all the republican candidates. mr. kudlow, nice to see you. >> thank you, chuck. i appreciate that. i thought gingrich's line with romney that he helped make him rich was priceless. i was surprised, but it was priceless. >> it was one of those interesting little i'm not going to attack him and subtle dig. let me ask you this, larry. you've interviewed both of them extensive extensively. i think you had one of the first interviews with romney after he announced. which one of them can manage this economy? which one of them can do this? there's idea guy, like newt, that's the romney case, he's an idea guy, not a manager. and newt is going to say of romney, he's only a manager. give me your take. >> i think gingrich is more of a supply sider. last night, he was talking about jack kemp who was my mentor, frankly. newt has a more aggressive

program for a flat tax at 15% and deregulation and large scale spending cuts. in that sense, he's more aggressive. on the other hand, mitt romney has a strong program too, not yet on tax reform, but romney has very good entitlement reform, very good budget cutting, very strong deregulation. i mean, i think in some sense, they're both free enterprisers, newt may be more creative so far in his policies. >> there's an interesting debate. we created a television debate of sorts with what president obama said in kansas yesterday trying to channel sort of the late part of the teddy roosevelt career and what speaker gingrich said on your program. their definitions of capitalism here. there are a lot of republican strategists worried where the republican debate has gone that they look like -- the republicans are protecting wall street's interests too much. what do you say to that? >> i don't know. i think probably romney is a little closer to that charge

than gingrich. gingrich doesn't really have any wall street ties. hasn't raised much money down there. mitt romney has raised a lot of wall street money. frankly by wall streeters who have been disenchanted with barack obama who many of them supported in 2008. i think the anti-wall street sentiment which is definitely around the country probably hurts romney right now. makes it difficult. i asked newt this question, could a banker or financier win? he didn't answer it clearly because he didn't want to attack romney. >> it is interesting, 100 years ago, that is political leaders, a lot of them did have -- they did get into politics from there. that does seem to be a problem this year. romney has been -- you mentioned the fact he hasn't done tax reform. you think that's part of this strategy that he had which was not to unveil too much right now and all of a sudden he's feeling the heat from not having a tax reform plan, for instance, to tout and defend? >> i do. i think it was a mistake.

i think romney was playing it very cautiously, feeling he was the guy, he was setting up his campaign to run more moderately against barack obama. now the tables have turned. gingrich has the poll numbers. gingrich is surging and gingrich has a 15% flat tax plan. he has a 12% corporate tax. much more aggressive than romney. i think the romney people have got to get a more aggressive plan on tax reform. a lot of conservatives including myself have asked romney to do that and put his best foot forward. he'll tell you he's for a flatter tax, more like simpson-bowles. he hasn't put it out yet. that tends to be popular in republican primaries. >> you're becoming one of the economic power brokers. larry kudlow, always a pleasure to talk with you. you can watch "the kudlow report," 7:00 eastern time on our sister station, cnbc. thanks, larry. we'll be back with our hump

day political panel next. the white house "soup of the day," cream of broccoli. obviously a soup that was not very active during the bush years. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. we'll be right back. ♪ i think i'm falling ♪ i think i'm falling ♪ i think i'm falling [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ for you [ male announcer ] this is zales,

the diamond store. shop our largest diamond store online anytime at zales.com. hey, two tickets just opened up on the 50. ...yup, about to go pick them up from will call. so 46 seconds ago. did you guys hear that chapman rolled his ankle? done.

get out there. so 12 seconds ago. you guys know how to post videos to facebook? you guys know how to post videos to facebook? you guys hear, someone stole... ...stole the other team's mascot? [ tiger growling ] so 27 seconds ago. [ male announcer ] stay a step ahead with 4g lte. with speeds up to 10x faster than 3g. at&t.

>> president roosevelt said in a statement today that the japanese have attacked the pearl harbor, hawaii from the air. i'll repeat that. president roosevelt says that the japanese have attacked pearl harbor in hawaii from the air. >> there's only one daily flashback you do on this day. 1941, a day that will live in infamy. it was 70 years ago, more than 2100 soldiers were killed. two battle ships were destroyed, the surprise attack that pulled the u.s. into world war ii. today is the final formal

gathering of survivors of pearl harbor day. there are survivors still living. 90-year-old george lewis, had a great story on the "today" show. find it online. take a look at this momentous final formal moment of the survivors. final deadline day in ohio. the gingrich campaign is scrambling to complete the paperwork. it's deadline day to get on the ballot in oklahoma which has a supertuesday. his pulitzer prize winning publicist, vaughn verber is the political editor at msnbc.com. we're tracking the gingrich organization to see if he can put all this together. clarence page, you covered

politics in 1976. in that '76 campaign, ronald reagan couldn't get a full slate of delegates on the ohio ballot. 20% of the delegates, that difference and other states. he struggled on the ballot, his organization was in a shambles. >> that's right. ronald reagan at that time was viewed by many, especially democrats as what washed up hollywood actor. >> he could have won the nomination had he gotten his organization together. >> he certainly could have. it's still the case getting organization is important. i wonder if things changed enough for a newt gingrich, for example is it enough to have the big name and to be able to rally people through the media? because he's relying heavily on that while he tries to get an organization together. >> you can do that, jack, but the problem is there's still rules to get on the ballot. the next big deadline, ohio, complicated and arcane, some of the things the campaigns have to

go through, two weeks we have the state of virginia which is probably as tough a ballot to get on as any in the presidential elections. the romney folks are eyeing to see if newt can pull this off. >> i think money is also a part of that, right? he was lightning in fundraising in most of this race. getting the organization costs money. that's going to be a problem for gingrich coming up. again, you have to be able to fund that organization. it can't all be grass roots. >> speaking of money, it's interesting that newt gingrich is the subject of the first attack tv ad in ohio, courtesy of ron paul. here's a taste. >> he's demonstrating himself to be the essence of washington insiders. >> it's about serial hypocrisy. >> he's got to make up lost ground. he's got to say something. >> that was gingrich's response to that. there's going to be more money behind, it appears the way our

tracking service tells us, behind a negative ad than gingrich has behind his positive. >> it's bizarre that ron paul is attacking him. this is a weird race in a lot of different ways. i didn't cover the '76 race, but i've done every one since 1992. it feels like it got off to a slow start. it feels like we're late to get into the ad season. i think a lot of it is because these candidates have been popping up. rick perry came into the race with a lot of money. spent lot of money. hasn't resulted in the polls. newt gingrich had the early collapse and is now on the radar screen. mitt romney is the only constant one here. >> he's been a constant, but he was trying to delay the start of the campaign. four years ago, the lesson learned was he started too early, overspent money, ran out of money, ran out of juice. he's been a late start. now you heard larry kudlow say, where tax reform plan? you heard others say when he is

going to go after -- obviously, he's in the middle of some sort of retool, is it he not? >> he's getting a big surge from the tea party folks -- >> gingrich. >> yes. since he is the quintessential washington insider. that's why ron paul is picking on him here. at the same time his strongest suit seems to be his ability to debate and people are hoping he will embarrass obama on national tv. that's something that has nothing to do with actual plans and programs but it has to do with desperation on the party's base. >> it is the 21st century and we all this i it all happens just on tv. stick around. we're going it talk about the president and his first re-election speech yesterday. trivia time. we ask which signer of the declaration of the independence had the unfortunate nickname of old bacon face. the answer is samuel chase. he's the guy that signed the declaration of independence right underneath john hancock.

its generally attributed to his reddish complexion but some say it was due to his temper or as one author put it because he was, quote, red, fat, and salty. glad to hear it's not because of booze. we'll be right back. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. broom dumped me here... oh, oh. oooh! will love ever come my way? oh my! ♪ i believe in miracles [ male announcer ] swiffer attracts dirt. swiffer sweeper's new, thicker cloths get deep into ridges picking up more dirt, dust and hair than a broom to help leave your floor up to three times cleaner. you sure are a pick-me-up! [ male announcer ] swiffer cleans better or your money back. on one of the most powerful mobile apps out there. i'm trading here every day. and i'm customizing everything. everything. from thought, to trade. i'm with scottrade. i'm with scottrade. i'm with scottrade. and seven dollar trades are just the start.

♪ [ rodger ] with innovations like our powerful mobile app and free scottrader streaming quotes, no wonder more investors are saying... i'm with scottrade! nyqui tylenol: me, too. and cougnasal congestion.ers? no wonder more investors are saying... nyquil:what? tissue box (whispering): he said nasal congestion... nyquil: i heard him. anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't. [ male announcer ] don't miss red lobster's surf & turf. 3 grilled combinations all under $20. like our maine lobster with peppercorn sirloin, or our new bacon-wrapped shrimp with blue cheese sirloin for $14.99. i'm john mazany and i sea food differently.

let's bring back the panel. jackie, president's first unofficial re-election campaign speech. i think the word is they've been searching for a message, about you we've all kind of figured what kind of the message would be, but it seemed to get more clarity yesterday. >> yeah. i mean, i think this payroll tax thing is something they're really latching onto. i think it's one of the things the republican leaders are freaking out about at this point because if republicans manage -- if some of their tea party members manage to block this, it's a gift for the white house saying, well, look, they're supporting tax breaks for the rich but not for the middle class.

>> people like john mccains had sa has said democrats are winning this little fight and there's a fear they're going to win the bigger fight over who is the party of the middle class. >> republicans can't let this keep going on. they can't be the ones who look like they're raising taxes on the middle class in the middle of a recession in the middle of the holidays. >> one thing you said in break, clarence, on the one hand you thought the speech in writing may have been more interesting than maybe in delivery? >> well, obama doesn't do populist that well. he comes across as professorial as we have said many times. whenever he has a real stem winder of a populist theme, he's not quite -- doesn't quite have the bombast of teddy roosevelt, but it's a kind of theme that works for him as much as he can make it work. >> shameless plug time. >> october 1995, "new yorker" has a story of newt gingrich,

the politics of perception. it's a great primer. >> good research. clarence? >> i want to give a plug to my fellow veterans on pearl harbor day as we observe what's been 70 years. >> 70 years. i think the youngest survivor is 90. . >> that's right. i got this flag from don king so it's a good republican flag. >> and hard to beat that plug. want to let everybody know, go visit nbcpolitics.com on msnbc. it's our new politics section with all the great content from the nbc inbeds who are out on the trail from the first read folks, shuck's show, and all the great interviews we have on the air. bookmark it, keep up with everything that's going on on the campaign trail. >> my shameless plug, too, nbcpolitics.com. it's already the most trafficked political site we believe on the web. that's it for this edition of

"the daily run down." coming up new england, chris "jansing & co." and then at 1:00 "andrea mitchell reports." oil or cream? cream. reddi-wip uses real dairy cream. nothing's more real than reddi-wip.