“President Barack Obama is employing the services of the first lady on the final leg of his three-day bus tour as they tout proposals in the president's jobs bill that the White House says would put more of the nation's unemployed veterans back to work,” the  AP writes. “During a joint appearance Wednesday before airmen and soldiers at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, the president and his wife, Michelle, also were to announce a deal with the private sector to hire 25,000 veterans and military spouses. The White House said the American Logistics Association, which includes major companies like Tyson Foods Inc. and Coca-Cola Co., is aiming to meet that goal by the end of 2013.”

The Richmond Times-Dispatch: “Winding into Virginia on the second day of his bus tour, President Barack Obama on Tuesday pitched his jobs plan — and the cash it could direct to teachers, police and firefighters — and criticized Republican efforts to block the package. He'll switch subjects this morning in Hampton to focus on hiring veterans, before motoring into the Richmond area, where he will visit a Chesterfield County fire station in House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's district. By 8:30 a.m., a crowd of several hundred members of the military had gathered at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton to see the president.”

“After the feds announced Tuesday they deported an all-time high number of people last fiscal year - 396,906 - a White House official went on the defensive at a local confab to court Latino voters,” the New York Daily News reports. "It's not fun to enforce immigration laws," Felicia Escobar, a senior policy adviser on President Obama's domestic policy council, said at New York's Hispanic Community Action Summit. She added, "We all think that the laws should be changed, and the system is broken.”

CALIFORNIA: The NRCC is going up on cable for two weeks with an ad against Rep. John Garamendi, which “ties Garamendi to President Barack Obama and his support for Solyndra,” Roll Call reports.

FLORIDA: The communications director for FL GOP told NBC News tonight he is pleased with RNC ruling that Florida will have 50 delegates, winner take all, NBC’s Andrew Rafferty reports. When Florida violated party rules by moving primary to Jan. 31, they thought they would be penalized with a delegate count in the 40s that would be split proportionally.

“The Justice Department is investigating whether Rep. Vern Buchanan broke campaign finance laws by directing his former business partner to reimburse car dealership employees for contributions made to the Florida Republican’s Congressional campaigns,” Roll Call reports.

“Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will be fundraising for Tea Party freshman Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) next week in Washington D.C.,” The Hill reports.

IDAHO: Former Redskins wide receiver Jimmy Farris is challenging Rep. Raul Labrador.

In the midst of America’s most devastated housing market, the real estate crisis was one obvious issue that wasn’t atop the agenda at the Republican presidential contenders’ debate in Las Vegas Tuesday night, leaving unclear the candidates’ opinions on whether the federal government ought to play a role in rescuing Americans who are stuck in homes that are worth less than their mortgage balance.

For the first hour of the debate Mitt Romney’s house in Belmont, Mass. loomed larger than the foreclosed houses which are only a short drive from the debate venue in Las Vegas. Texas Gov. Rick Perry sparred with Romney over whether he’d employed illegal aliens to do work at his Massachusetts home.

But Nevada voters were probably more concerned about their homes than Romney’s. In the third quarter of this year, Nevada had the nation's highest foreclosure rate.

Romney, businessman Herman Cain and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas all lauded free market principles during the debate but never really confronted one of those principles: prices can go down as well as go up. As many Americans have learned in recent years, a house is sometimes worth less than what you paid for it.

Should the government seek to regulate those price movements, and if so, when and why? The GOP contenders offered few answers Tuesday night.

Nevada’s housing bust followed an exhilarating boom: According to the Census Bureau, between 2000 and 2010 Nevada was the state with the highest percentage increase in the number of housing units, at 42 percent.

But Nevada has been also the state with the largest percentage-point increase in the housing vacancy rate, jumping from 9.2 percent in 2000 to 14.3 percent in 2010.

According to the financial data analysis firm CoreLogic, three out of five homeowners in Nevada are “upside down,” meaning that borrowers owe more on their homes than the houses are now worth and giving Nevada the dubious distinction of also leading the nation in that category.

Little was said about these facts during the debate – despite the efforts of a questioner in the audience who asked, “Those of us who own property here in Nevada have been devastated by the real estate bubble. What would you do as president to help fix the overall problem of real estate and foreclosures in America?”

The first contender to get a chance to answer that question was former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. He came up with a restatement of the obvious, “the market has been decimated. So now you’re looking at: how do you repair?”

He never did answer his own question, instead veering off into a scrap with Perry for allegedly having supported congressional passage of the Troubled Assets Relief Program in 2008. (Some of the money for the federal aid to distressed homeowners, the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, comes from TARP.)

“People who did things that were wrong, invested in things, took risks, were bailed out. And the folks who acted responsibly are now getting hurt because their houses have gone down in value. We need to let the markets work,” Santorum said.

A few minutes later Romney echoed that idea, “the right course is to let markets work.”

Getting the economy growing faster is the right way to help distressed homeowners, Romney contended. But neither he nor Santorum grappled with the problem of the homeowner in the Las Vegas suburbs who may want to move to a state where the unemployment rate is lower than Nevada’s 13.4 percent– but cannot because he cannot sell his house.
 
None of the candidates dealt with the effect that the housing slump has had on worker mobility in America and none offered any opinion on whether the Obama administration’s HAMP or the Bush administration’s foreclosure prevention efforts were effective or not.

Romney has offered a 160-page economic program which does not offer any specific solutions to the housing crisis and in fact barely mentions it.

Romney was much more forthcoming earlier Tuesday by saying in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “Don't try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom. Allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up. Let it turn around and come back up. The Obama administration has slow walked the foreclosure processes that have long existed, and as a result we still have a foreclosure overhang.”

Romney’s approach brought him instant criticism from Democrats and it may reappear as an issue in 2012 if Romney is the GOP nominee. But it didn’t really get any kind of debate Tuesday night.

Mr. Las Vegas himself, Wayne Newton, told NBC he came in hoping to support Rick Perry, but the impeccably tanned crooner said he thought the Texas governor's attacks on Mitt Romney were "mean-spirited" -- and that Romney was a "gentleman."

And now he'll back Romney.

Hopkinton NH--GOP presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman chose to skip the Republican debate in Las Vegas tonight, but the former Utah governor had plenty to say about his rivals from a standing-room only town hall meeting across the country in New Hampshire.

"I was offered an invitation to a game show tonight," Huntsman quipped. "There will be sound bites, there will be talking points and there will be buzzers."

Huntsman wasted no time in reminding New Hampshire voters about the current front runners.

"Romney will likely be staying in the Trump Tower because he's already won the apprenticeship for the presidency created by Don Trump," Huntsman said to a packed town hall of more than 150 voters.

"I know my good friend Herman Cain will likely play the roulette wheel," he joked to laughter. "And he'll be focused on getting that ball on 9, 9, 9."

The former ambassador to China opted out of tonight's debate after declaring earlier this week he will boycott the Nevada caucuses, citing support for New Hampshire's status as the first-in-the-nation primary.

"I heard what happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas," he said tonight. "What happens in New Hampshire impacts the world!"

Looking more comfortable with his stump speech than earlier appearances, Huntsman took a long series of voter questions and aggressively touted his position on keeping the Granite State first.

"Its the window through which the rest of the country views and gets to know the candidates for the presidency of the United States of America. There's a little bit of artificiality built into the other caucuses," said Huntsman, who remains polling in single digits nationally.

Last week, Huntsman's campaign alleged that Mitt Romney pressured Nevada to move its caucus date up to January 14. Today, the editorial board of the state's most prominent newspaper, the New Hampshire Union Leader, joined the chorus urging Romney to boycott Nevada.

Today, in a call to New Hampshire supporters, Romney sidestepped the issue.

“I respect the men and women of the state," Romney said. "I also respect and unequivocally support New Hampshire’s status as our country’s first primary.”

One of the downsides of live-tweeting a debate is that nuance, complexity, and precision sometimes get lost in 140 characters.

During the back-and-forth over health care in tonight's GOP debate, Mitt Romney said this about his Massachusetts health-care law, "This is something that was crafted for Massachusetts. It would be wrong to adopt this as a nation."

Since I've spent the past four years examining Romney's record, I knew he had said -- on "Meet the Press" back in Dec. 2007 -- that his health-care law could serve as a model for other states. And I fired off this tweet: "Fact check: Romney said on MTP in 2007 that he'd want the 50 states to use the MA health-care as a model."

That was close to what he said, but not exactly: "Now, I happen to like what we did. I think it's a good model for other states," Romney said. "Maybe not every state, but most." 

The Romney camp also wrote back to emphasize what he said at the top of that health-care answer in '07: "Given the kind of differences between states, I'm not somebody who's going to say what I did in Massachusetts I'm going to now tell every state they have to do it in the same way." 

Here is his full answer from that "Meet the Press" interview:

So, let's look, for instance. The plan we put together in Massachusetts I think is working in Massachusetts. I sure hope so. We're going to get more information about how well it's working, of course. But Massachusetts has roughly 7 percent of our population uninsured. Texas has 25 percent. Given the kind of differences between states, I'm not somebody who's going to say what I did in Massachusetts I'm going to now tell every state they have to do it in the same way. Now, I happen to like what we did. I think it's a good model for other states. Maybe not every state, but most. And so what I'd like to do at the federal level is give to every state the same kind of flexibility we got from the federal government, as well as some carrots and sticks to actually get all their citizens insured. And I think a lot of states will choose what we did. I wouldn't tell them they have to do our plan. (Meet the Press, 12/16/2007)

All eyes are on the GOP hopefuls who are taking the stage tonight in Nevada at a debate sponsored by CNN and the Western Republican Leadership Conference.

The NBC political team will be live-tweeting the debate, offering minute-by-minute updates and analysis.

Tweets from Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro – as well as other NBC producers and correspondents – will appear in this post as the debate begins at 8 p.m. EDT.

AP

Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain

The Tax Policy Center has released its analysis of Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan, and it finds that the only people who would benefit from it are those making more than $200,000 a year.

Everyone else, especially the poor, would pay more. And the middle class would now have the highest effective federal tax rate.

Those making $1 million a year or more would get a gaudy nearly $500,000 tax cut, a 15% change in their favor.

The poorest, those making between less than $10,000 a year up to $30,000 a year would see a between 15% and 20% tax increase. That means they would pay between $1,100 and $3,800 a year more in taxes.

Those making between $30,000 and $100,000 a year, would pay more than $4,000 a year more in taxes.

Here’s how the numbers break down by income level:

Less than $10,000: $1,122 more (19.5% increase, 22.1% tax rate)
$10,000-$20,000: $2,705 more (17.8% increase, 19.7% tax rate)
$20,000-$30,000: $3,833 more (15.0% increase, 22.1% tax rate)
$30,000-$40,000: $4,196 more (11.7% increase, 23.2% tax rate)
$40,000-$50,000: $4,399 more (9.5% increase, 23.8% tax rate)
$50,000-$75,000: $4,326 more (6.9% increase, 23.8% tax rate)
$75,000-$100,000: $4,368 more (4.9% increase, 23.8% tax rate)
$100,000-$200,000: $2,105 more (1.5% increase, 23.1% tax rate)
$200,000-$500,000: $11,155 less (3.8% decrease, 20.6% tax rate)
$500,000-$1 million: $59,489 less (8.6% decrease, 18.1% tax rate)
$1 million or more: $455,247 less (15% decrease, 17.9% tax rate)

NEW YORK -- During a town-hall discussion held over the telephone Monday night, Michele Bachmann had a special guest -- Donald Trump. The “tele-town hall” marked the first such event Trump has done with any of the GOP candidates for president. 

The idea for the call, the Bachmann campaign says, came during a meeting the two had over breakfast last week, at Trump’s home in New York.

Bachmann dialed in from a hotel room in Las Vegas – the site of tonight’s GOP debate – and Trump called from his office in New York.  Though both the Bachmann and Trump teams said yesterday the event did not mark an endorsement, the two met eye-to-eye in a wide-ranging discussion.

“We have a country with tremendous potential. Unbelievable potential. It's untapped,” Trump said during introductory remarks, before calling attention to competition with China. “We don't have the right leadership, and we're really falling badly. By 2016 China will overtake us economically. Hard to believe it would have been impossible to say that 10 years ago.”

Bachmann said later in the call that China’s rise has “profound implications,” and added, “One thing Ronald Reagan understood is you have to be the economic super power if you want to be the military super power.” 

It’s a message Bachmann often delivers during stump speeches – and though Monday’s call was billed as a discussion about the economy, national security and international affairs often crept in.

Trump attacked Democrats and Republicans for avoiding discussing OPEC’s hold on oil prices, and suggested that if the United States were to stop doing business with China, “they would go into a depression the likes of which you have never seen before.”

The Bachmann campaign says Tele-Town Hall events are a regular part of Bachmann’s strategy, helping the campaign to identify supporters and key issues to voters.  But the campaign acknowledges this event was unique.

“The reason we brought him on is that he’s a well respected person on issues of the economy, but he’s well versed on foreign policy issues and the politics of the day,” says Bachmann Campaign Spokeswoman Alice Stewart of Trump. 

On Friday, over Twitter, the campaign teased a coming announcement “sure to fire up this race.”  Stewart said tens of thousands of people were on the call, and that Bachmann and Trump spoke privately beforehand.

A poll taken during the call identified key initiatives voters thought should be undertaken to revive the economy.  Cutting spending ranked first, followed by repealing the federal health care law, opening domestic energy resources, cutting taxes, and clamping down on illegal immigration.

“This gave her an opportunity to engage the people,” Stewart said.  “And an opportunity, for sure, to get an idea on where the focus needs to be paid in terms of improving the economy.”

Senate Democrats renewed their efforts Tuesday to pass a portion of President Obama's jobs bill that would provide $35billion to states to retain and rehire teachers, firefighters, police and first responders.

A group of Democratic senators were joined at a press conference at the Capitol by American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten to press for Senate passage of the bill that they say would save or create 400,000 jobs.

Weingarten was passionate about the dire straits facing schools that have fallen on hard times.

"The bottom is falling out on budgets all across the country," she said.

She added: "I've been all across the country since September, since August. When we say that there are 300,000 fewer educators since 2008, you see this in school districts throughout the country ... I've seen it with my own eyes throughout the country"

New York Sen. Charles Schumer (D) rejected Republican leader Mitch McConnell's assertion that this was just another attempt by Democrats to bail out states with stimulus spending.

McConnell said on the Senate floor this morning: "Bailouts don't solve the problem. in fact They perpetuate it. Yet all we get from the President and Democrats in Congress is 'Do it again - or else!'"

"the number-one thing we want to do is get the teachers back in the classroom for the kids," Schumer responded. "And I think to say helping those kids is a bailout is just totally not taking into account what those kids need. It's awful to say that."

Schumer said Democrats are open to dropping the .5% percent surtax on millionaires to pay for the bill if Republicans have a better idea. He said he believes Republicans would be opposed to the bill even if Democrats stripped out the millionaire tax.

Aides to Senate Democratic leadership say the first votes on the $35 billion dollar bill wouldn't come before the end of the week at the earliest.

AP

Vice President Joe Biden (D)

Vice President Joe Biden lashed out at critics today who have claimed that his and the President's efforts to get a job's bill passed is mere "campaigning." 

"Are we campaigning?"  he said. "Yes! We are campaigning to change this environment." 

Biden was in York, Pa., visiting the Goode Elementary School to argue that the American Jobs Act would support 400,000 education jobs. 

Because of budget cuts, the York School District has been forced to lay off 100 teachers.

Waxing at times poetic, Biden stressed the importance of education in keeping the nation competitive.

"If our students suffer, our future suffers,” Biden said, adding, "They are the kite strings that lift our national ambitions aloft."

Republicans this year are on pace for the most GOP primary debates in history. Primary debates can’t necessarily make a campaign, but they can break it.

Video edited by Domenico Montanaro.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I omitted when talking with Chuck after the piece about when the first debates were in 2004. It turns out, there was one in May 2003, so the process was starting earlier then as well.

Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro discuss whether the Solyndra and Fast and Furious investigations will affect Obama’s chances of getting re-elected and if this is the beginning of a scandal for the administration.

Thanks to KingK for the question! Keep an eye out for the next edition of Inside the Boiler Room.

Edited and transcribed by NBC's Morgan Parmet.

TRANSCRIPT:

DOMENICO MONTANARO: I'm Domenico Montanaro again, back with Mark Murray here for another addition for Inside the Boiler Room. Mark, KingK asked the question "How will Solyndra and Fast and the Furious investigations impact Mr. Obama's chances at re-election and will Eric Holder, the Attorney General, be forced to resign? Is Solyndra just the beginning of a much bigger scandal slash boondoggle for the administration?

MARK MURRAY: Look, President Obama's chance for re-election really rest with the economy for than any of these stories. I mean he's going to be, win election or lose re-election, based on what the economic situation and also the quality opponent that he ends up having come 2012. These are certainly two stories that have dominated a lot of the headlines the past couple of weeks. Solyndra had to do with a loan, security loan, that went to an energy firm that went belly up. The administration actually given that loan.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: And that President Obama...

MARK MURRAY: Had actually gone there.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: And pushed for that.

MARK MURRAY: And Fast and Furious has basically been a bureau and alcohol and firearms gun running ring that actually went wrong. It turned out really badly and right now the evidence doesn't suggest that there was any law broken on either two situations. It doesn't go all the way up to the top as far as that there was some type of conspiring.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Water Gate type of scratch the surface.

MARK MURRAY: Absolutely. The way to look at this right now. You know, you and I are political reporters. Particularly even look at the Fast and the Furious. That's more of a justice story. Next time we should probably bring in Pete Williams for that. But when you look at these two particular stories that are going on right now. They have probably been at the very least for the administration a distraction. Worse, kind of like a black eye and the question is how does it go forward and do more revelations come out. Well, then it could turn into a problem.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Well I think that's always the biggest thing. Well what other things are happening? You know, what other facts? What more is there? Who knew what? Who knew what when? And those are some of the questions that Darrell Issa and the Oversight Committee, they're trying to get at and, of course, there's politics on that side of the thing too. And, of course, Democrats are saying, "Oh Darrell Issa, he pushed for his own kinds of loans for other companies." Whatever.

MARK MURRAY: And Republicans actually had energy loans for companies who had sponsored them that maybe had gone belly up as well.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Right, so we've seen this sort of fight on both sides. I'm not totally sure how many people who are independents are really paying attention to this as much as they paying attention to their wallets and paying attention to whether or not they can make there next paycheck or whether not they feel good about the country and where it's headed. All those are really bad and much worse for President Obama than any of these stories so far. If you think the country, as our poll shows, just 17% of the country thinks the country's headed in the right direction. If you think that, you know, that the country's going to be worse off for your kid then the one you inherited.

MARK MURRAY: Right.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Well that does not bode well for President Obama if they're blaming him what's happening now. So that's going to be, as you said, the overarching story line going into the next year. If any of these stories, you know, wind up being worse and worse. If somehow Eric Holder knew something that he wasn't supposed to know or, you know, Secretary of Energy Chu, those are stories potentially you could see some heads roll. 

MARK MURRAY: And we've already actually seen some heads right. 

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Yeah. Right, with people who've approved the loans or whatever. But depending on how much further up the food chain that goes, we'll see how it effects President Obama, but the overarching issue, like you said, the economy.

MARK MURRAY: The economy, the economy, the economy. Thanks for the question.

Republicans gather in Vegas at 8:00 pm ET for eighth debate of cycle… What we've learned from the debates so far… The importance of the West… Huntsman boycotts the debate (and four other GOPers are boycotting the NV caucuses)… The Road Warrior: Obama begins second day of his bus tour through NC and VA… He tells a NC affiliate: "My intention is to win North Carolina again”… Iowa officially sets its caucus date for Jan. 3… And we’re still waiting on Bill Gardner and NH.

*** Eight is Enough: At 8:00 pm ET, the GOP candidates -- sans Jon Huntsman -- gather at the Venetian (the most notable REPUBLICAN hotel on the Strip, by the way) in Las Vegas for their eighth debate so far. And it’s the fifth debate since Labor Day. So what have learned from all of these debates? Rick Perry, who now has participated in more debates as a presidential candidate than as a Texas politician, isn’t a good debater… The 2012 field, unlike the 2008 one, doesn’t gang up on Mitt Romney, which has allowed him to stay on message… The debates have provided the candidates an opportunity to gain traction (where would Cain be today without them?)… Experience matters (Romney is so much better than he was in ’08)… And, overall, these debates have had a huge impact on the race, because GOP primary voters are paying attention. Deep down, that has to concern Team Romney somewhat. Yes, his debate performances have impressed the GOP establishment and news media. But they haven’t moved the needle with GOP voters -- at least not yet.  (Visit First Read during tonight’s debate, airing on CNN, for a live Twitter feed of the NBC News political unit and campaign embeds). 

Republican presidential candidates at the NBC-Politico debate at the Reagan Library, Sept. 7, 2011.

*** Go west, young men (and women): Besides the NBC-Politico debate at the Reagan Library back in September, tonight’s debate is the only other one to take place west of the Mississippi River. And while the current presidential action has occurred in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, the West could end up being the most important region come Nov. 2012. After all, since 2004, there hasn’t been another region in the country where Republicans have struggled more (just see last year’s GOP Senate losses in CO and NV). There’s not another region in the country that is more essential and doable to Obama’s path to 270 electoral votes (see CO, NV, and NM). And there’s not another region in the country that’s chock-full of the Latino voters the GOP needs to win over.

*** Boycott! About the same time that the other GOP candidates are debating in Las Vegas, Huntsman holds a town hall in Hopkinton, NH. And he holds another town hall in Manchester, NH earlier in the afternoon. Huntsman is boycotting tonight’s debate because Nevada’s Jan. 14 caucus date is putting pressure on New Hampshire’s calendar decision. Four other GOP candidates (Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, an Santorum) say they are boycotting the Nevada caucuses, although they’re still participating in tonight’s debate. The conservative New Hampshire Union Leader editorial page is now urging Romney, the New Hampshire front-runner, to boycott the Nevada caucuses: “Romney could put New Hampshire voters’ minds at ease about his commitment to the primary and the value of selecting candidates the old-fashioned way. He could join the Nevada boycott. Or not. Either way, New Hampshire is watching.” Our question though: What evidence is there that the Nevada caucuses will be competitive or that impactful? Romney won them going away in 2008, and he wasn’t the front-runner after losing in Iowa and New Hampshire. One gets the sense the other Republicans running realize this and figure: Why not boycott and devalue an easy victory state for Romney?

AP

President Obama at West Wilkes High School in Millers Creek, N.C., Monday, Oct. 17, 2011.

*** The Road Warrior: On the second day of his “don’t call this a campaign” bus tour, President Obama holds a roundtable meeting at 9:50 am ET with educators at Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, NC. He then delivers remarks there at 11:20 pm. And after that, his bus tour heads to Virginia, where he gives a speech at Greensville County High School in Emporia, VA at 5:00 pm. One of the biggest differences between this bus tour and the one he took through Minnesota and Iowa is the subject matter. That August tour was all about the aftermath of the bruising debt-ceiling fight, which wasn’t a good story for him to tell. This time? It’s about jobs and jobs legislation, which is friendlier terrain for Democrats. And you can sense it in the president’s demeanor. In August, in the Midwest, he was on the defensive; this time, he feels more comfortable selling something.

*** Carolina in my mind: Per MSNBC's Dave Murphy, President Obama, Vice President Biden, and First Lady Michelle Obama have made -- combined -- at least 13 official visits to North Carolina during the Obama presidency. And don't miss what Obama told a North Carolina affiliate yesterday, per NBC's Sarah Blackwill: "My intention is to win North Carolina again. like we did last time. And it'll be close, because obviously folks are frustrated with the challenges we still face in the economy. But I think, ultimately, people in North Carolina, they know we're not going to just be able to go back to the old ways of doing things if we're going to meet the competitive needs of the 21st century. We need to shoot for the future." North Carolina is the ultimate organization state that plays into what may be the strength of the Obama campaign operation. It’s an early voting state, where Obama over-performed all over the country in 2008. In fact, in 2010, check out the states where Democrats over-performed, it was in states where there was early voting or easy absentee ballot rules (see Nevada and Colorado, specifically). And then there are the demographic advantages: North Carolina’s growth are among groups who have voted more Democratic than Republican over the last few years.

*** Iowa officially schedules caucuses for Jan. 3: Last night, Iowa Republicans made it official: Their caucuses will take place on Jan.3 at 8:00 pm ET, NBC’s Alex Moe reports. "A Jan. 3 date provides certainty to the voters, to our presidential candidates, and to the thousands of statewide volunteers who make the Caucus process a reflection of the very best of our representative democracy," said Iowa GOP Chairman Matt Strawn. Typically, Iowa waits to set the caucus date until the New Hampshire primary is set. But last night, the committee voted unanimously to select the first available date in January for the caucus. “We came to the conclusion that we definitely wanted to have a January start to the process,” State Central Committee member Wes Enos told NBC’s Moe. In 2008, Iowa was on Jan. 3 Jan. 5, and while that’s just a two-day difference, it’s a HUGE psychological shift given that Jan. 3 is the FIRST day after the government recognizes New Year’s Day.

In fact, realize, Jan. 1, 2012 is a Sunday, meaning the New Year’s Day bowl games are ALL being held on Jan. 2. So first business day of the year is Jan. 3, the day of the caucuses… that’s early folks.

*** Still waiting on Gardner: After Iowa made its news, NBC’s Jo Ling Kent got reaction from New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner. “That's not going to make me set the date any sooner. I'm not going to set the date this week." He also said he’s waiting for the results of a Nevada meeting the weekend of Oct. 22 to see if the state would move back from its Jan. 14 date. "Once Iowa has set its date, it doesn't really matter to them when we have our date."

*** Tuesday’s “Daily Rundown” line-up: Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) on the president's bus trip, jobs pitch, and 2012 outlook… Variety's Ted Johnson on how some conservative celebrities are still sitting on the sidelines with 2012 endorsements… Las Vegas Sun's Jon Ralston on all things Nevada 2012… One of us (!!!) on how primary debates can shape the race… Plus more 2012 news with NBC's Kelly O'Donnell, Democratic pollster Fred Yang and Michelle Bernard.

*** Tuesday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC's Andrea Mitchell interviews Jon Huntsman, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, and DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, as well as GOP strategist Ed Rollins and Dem strategist Tad Devine.

Countdown to Election Day 2011: 21 days

Click here to sign up for First Read emails.
Text FIRST to 622639, to sign up for First Read alerts to your mobile phone.
Check us out on Facebook and also on Twitter. Follow us @chucktodd, @mmurraypolitics, @DomenicoNBC, @brookebrower

“On the eve of today's GOP presidential debate, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry each expressed confidence conservatives would soon get behind them and drop flirtations with other candidates such as Herman Cain,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal writes. “In separate interviews with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, both men said they knew their White House hopes were tied to whether Republicans now backing a rising Cain, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and other lower-tier conservatives would come their way.”

“For months, Nevada Republicans have giddily anticipated how today’s nationally televised presidential debate and subsequent Western leadership conference would draw the eyes of the nation to the state and establish its first-in-the-West caucuses as a key contest for GOP contenders,” The Las Vegas Sun says. “Instead, most candidates spent the past week pledging to boycott Nevada’s Jan. 14 caucuses over a dispute the state is having with New Hampshire related to its primary date. It’s an awkward introduction for a week that was meant to feature Las Vegas at the center of the political moment. And, in fact, most of the candidates appear to be here more for the national lights, regional platform and deep party pockets than an opportunity to get to know or solidify their appeal with the everyday people of Las Vegas.”

Reinventing Reagan… “Republicans seeking their party’s 2012 presidential nomination are invoking Ronald Reagan when conveying their message of small government and low taxes. Reagan championed tax cuts. He also agreed to raise taxes 11 times during his presidency from January 1981 to January 1989, tax historians say. While it’s impossible to know how Reagan would have adapted to today’s strict no-new-tax Republican stance, the Reagan of the 1980s ‘would be run out of the party. He’d be to the left of the left-most candidate in the primary,’ tax historian Joseph Thorndike told Bloomberg Government.”

CAIN: National Review’s headline on 9-9-9: “Bold, Brash, and Wrong.”

Politico says the level of Cain’s seriousness will be the big question of tonight’s debate.

The New York Daily News has a similar take: “Herman Cain enters the Republican presidential debate Tuesday night with soaring poll numbers - and a bull's-eye on his back. Republican rivals will be hustling to knock Cain down a peg, likely by targeting his ‘9-9-9’ tax plan and probing his grasp of federal policy.”

(There has been a lot of focus on candidates who likely won’t be the nominee, and the person who might be laughing all the way to the nomination could very well be the person the debates and news media has barely focused on this cycle -- Mitt Romney.)

“Republican presidential contender Herman Cain used campaign funds to buy his own books from his motivational speaking company, Federal Election Commission records show,” Bloomberg reports. “Although his autobiography was published by a division of Simon & Schuster Inc., Cain paid Stockbridge, Georgia-based T.H.E New Voice Inc. $36,511 for books. His campaign spent $4 million through Sept. 30, including more than $64,000 paid to his motivational speaking company for airfare, lodging and supplies, as well as the books. ‘They are buying my books and my pamphlets,’ Cain said in an interview in between appearances in Arizona yesterday. ‘The campaign is buying them from T.H.E New Voice.’”

PAUL: “Ron Paul, hewing to his libertarian view of limited government, revealed a deficit-reduction blueprint yesterday that would eliminate five Cabinet-level departments, eviscerate other agencies, and shift responsibilities to states for many welfare programs,” the Boston Globe writes.

ROMNEY: “With a rush of new endorsements from party leaders, presidential candidate Mitt Romney is presenting himself as the sure-footed front-runner. He appears more polished in one appearance after another, reaping the benefits of his failed candidacy four years ago,” the Boston Globe notes. “The backing by Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi, former senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, and others coincide with strong debate performances, a trend Romney seeks to continue tonight in Las Vegas.”

The conservative New Hampshire Union Leader editorial page urges Romney to boycott the Nevada caucuses. “Romney could put New Hampshire voters’ minds at ease about his commitment to the primary and the value of selecting candidates the old-fashioned way. He could join the Nevada boycott. Or not. Either way, New Hampshire is watching.”

Let’s remember, however, in 1996 and 2000, New Hampshire and Delaware went just four days apart.

Bloomberg notes that he was for Bernanke before he was against him.

SANTORUM: “Rick Santorum's campaign announces that he's hired Tina Goff to manage his operations in central Iowa,” GOP 12 reports. “Previously, she served as Herman Cain's Iowa State Director and was one of Cain's staff members who resigned over summer, so this is a sweet little pick-up by Santorum.”

The AP: “Deep in the mountains of politically important North Carolina, Obama soaked up the region’s autumn beauty as he assailed foes of his jobs legislation, accusing them of failing to listen to the public.” More: “In North Carolina, the president directed his most pointed remarks at Senate Republicans, who last week blocked action on his full $447 billion proposal combining tax cuts and new spending… Republicans denounced the bus trip as nothing more than a taxpayer-funded campaign trip to try to bolster Obama’s standing for the 2012 election. As he traveled along on his imposing black bus, there was little denying the presidential politics at play at each stop.”

The coverage from the Asheville Citizen-Times: “Barack Obama made it clear Monday the gloves are off.

Speaking to more than 2,000 people at Asheville Regional Airport, the president vowed to take his jobs fight back to Congress, breaking a $447 billion plan that failed in the Senate into smaller, easier-to-digest pieces. His plan, the president said, would put teachers, construction workers, public safety employees and others back to work ‘right now’ — a phrase he touched on repeatedly.”

“That message hit home with Scott Anderson, a 34-year-old Asheville construction worker who’s been unemployed for nearly a year. ‘This is what the country needs,’ said Anderson, a father of three. ‘The people in Washington fight with each other all the time. They never think about what’s good for the people. What’s good for working people. They don’t know how tough it is for a lot of folks out here.’”

During his bus tour, Obama has said that the Senate GOP jobs plan has been panned by the same economist who said Obama’s job bill would create 1.9 million jobs. As Greg Sargent wrote last week, “Moody’s recently estimated that Obama’s jobs plan, if passed, would add two percentage points to economic growth next year, add 1.9 million jobs, and cut unemployment by a full percentage point. By contrast, the Senate GOP plan isn’t designed to help the economy in the short term, [Moody’s] Faucher said. ‘Should we look at regulations and make sure they make sense from a cost benefit standpoint? Certainly. Should we reduce the budget deficit over the long run? Certainly,’ Faucher said. ‘But in the short term, demand is weak, businesses aren’t hiring, and consumers aren’t spending. That’s the cause of the current weakness — and Republican Senate proposals aren’t going to address that in the short term.’”

“The White House sent mixed messages yesterday on the future of a financially troubled long-term care program in President Obama’s health overhaul law, as supporters and foes heaped criticism on the administration,” the AP says. “At stake is the CLASS Act, a major new program intended to provide affordable long-term care insurance. Last Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the administration would not proceed with the plan because she has been unable to find a way to make the program financially solvent. Yesterday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued a ruling that cleared the way for repealing the act, but the administration rejected that step - and created considerable confusion. Backers and opponents said the White House is trying to have it both ways.”

NBC Washington writes: “A van containing President Obama's teleprompter and podium were stolen from a Virginia hotel parking lot on Monday, NBC12 in Richmond reports. The truck was parked at the Virginia Center Commons Courtyard Marriott near Richmond before the president's scheduled Wednesday appearance in Chesterfield, the Richmond station reports.  In addition to the teleprompter, $200,000 worth of audio equipment and presidential seals mounted on Obama's podium were inside the stolen vehicle.”

SOUTH CAROLINA: Speaking to reporters after a town hall meeting, SC Gov. Nikki Haley said that Herman Cain is a "nice guy" and that "it is his time right now to have his strength" but wondered whether he will sustain it or "will somebody else come up," NBC’s Ali Weinberg reports.  But when asked whether she thought he was a flavor of the week, she added that she didn't think it was her place to "judge the flavor of the week." Haley also said she would endorse a Republican candidate "around a December time frame."

VIRGINIA: “A new Christopher Newport University/Richmond Times-Dispatch poll shows Mitt Romney winning both the Virginia GOP primary and general election,” per GOP 12. In the GOP horse race, Romney has a wide lead over Herman Cain, 44%-12%. And in hypothetical general-election match ups, Romney beats Obama 46%-42%. Rick Perry is in a dead heat with Obama, 43%-43%.

DES MOINES, Iowa—It’s finally official: The Iowa caucuses will be January 3rd at 8pm ET, the Iowa Republican Party announced tonight following a State Central Committee (SCC) conference call.

"On behalf of over 600,000 Iowa Republicans, I'm excited to announce the first step Iowans will have to replace Barack Obama and his failed presidency will be next January 3 at our First in the Nation Iowa Caucuses," IRP Chairman Matt Strawn said in a statement. "A January 3 date provides certainty to the voters, to our presidential candidates, and to the thousands of statewide volunteers who make the Caucus process a reflection of the very best of our representative democracy."

Typically Iowa waits to set the caucus date until the New Hampshire primary is set, but tonight, the committee voted unanimously to select the first available date in January for the caucus.

“We came to the conclusion that we definitely wanted to have a January start to the process,” State Central Committee member Wes Enos told NBC News. “Setting ourselves on the 3rd we feel protects the sanctity of our caucus and if NH is able to go in January will protect their primary as well because in order to jump the two early states, a state would have to move into December.”

Enos said the committee felt moving into the 2011 calendar year would “diminish the role” of Iowa in the election process and they wanted to stop “this game of leapfrog” by other states by setting the date as early in 2012 as possible.

Chairman Strawn blamed Florida and Nevada in his statement for causing this calendar chaos.

"I will do everything in my power on the RNC to hold Florida accountable for creating this mess, but the culpability for creating a compressed January calendar does not end there,” Strawn said. “The actions of early state newcomer Nevada have also exacerbated this problem and unnecessarily crowded the January calendar. Time remains for Nevada to respect the process, honor tradition and rectify the problem in a way that will restore order to the nomination calendar.”

Iowa's decision puts a kind of implicit pressure on New Hampshire to now act. The state has held out on declaring its primary date out of frustration toward the other states that usually follow New Hampshire for moving their contests up too early.

"That's not going to make me set the date any sooner," said New Hampshire Secretary of State Gardner. "I'm not going to set the date this week."

The game of primary musical chairs was prompted by Florida's decision to schedule its primary Jan. 31, by which they leapfrogged Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina, which traditionally hold the first four nominating contests—in that order.

In reaction to Florida's move, South Carolina set its primary for Jan. 21, and Nevada to set its caucuses for Jan. 14.

Nevada's decision, in turn, angered New Hampshire officials, which worried that holding their state's first-in-the-nation primary between Iowa's then-tentative Jan. 3 date and Nevada's caucuses would sandwich New Hampshire in between, and essentially minimize the contest.

Unless Nevada pushes back its caucus, Gardner has threatened to schedule the Granite State's primary as early as Dec. 6. He said he's awaiting the outcome of a meeting in Nevada this weekend.

Candidates who share that worry—and who are trying hard to compete in New Hampshire—last week threatened to boycott Nevada's caucuses unless a satisfactory conclusion were reached. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman led the charge, going so far as to sit out a debate tomorrow night in Las Vegas in favor of holding a town hall in New Hampshire.

But the leading candidate in New Hampshire, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, has signaled his intention to compete in both states. He opened his campaign headquarters Monday in Nevada, despite facing some minor pressure from New Hampshire supporters to join the Nevada boycott.

Updated at 10:05 p.m. NBC's Jo Ling Kent contributed from New Hampshire.

CONCORD, NH -- Jon Huntsman cemented his one-state New Hampshire campaign strategy by registering for the Granite State primary at the State House this afternoon. The former Utah governor handed Secretary of State Bill Gardner a $1,000 check and autographed a commemorative election form that removed any remaining doubt that he is focused here.

"In the Hunt -- and only in NH!" Huntsman wrote in black marker.

Earlier today -- the first day of a two-week filing period -- Ron Paul registered first via a proxy, campaign staffer Chris Younce. Fred Karger also registered this morning, presenting Secretary of State Bill Gardner with an oversized check and campaign frisbee.

Vice President Joe Biden will file on behalf of President Obama on Thursday, according to the Secretary of State's office.

Huntsman expressed confidence about his campaign in New Hampshire, despite dismal campaign finance numbers that show him in nearly $900,000 in debt and low national poll numbers.

"I'm not at all worried at all. I was the co-chairman of a candidate by the name of John McCain who was flat broke -- in fact more than that, he was a couple million bucks in debt when he was sitting right here in New Hampshire," Huntsman told reporters. "And he turned it around in this state, because he had a message the people felt strongly about."

Huntsman, who is boycotting Tuesday's GOP debate in protest of Nevada's early caucus, will hold a town hall meeting at approximately the same time as the televised debate. He will also host a separate town hall event tomorrow afternoon.

Earlier last week, Huntsman was the first GOP candidate to publicly boycott the Nevada caucuses, accusing Mitt Romney of pushing for an earlier date.

"To upend the calendar at this point really does smack of politics to some degree," Huntsman said today.

"I would call on those who haven't already expressed a boycott toward Nevada to do so," he told reporters.

Although her husband has served as Texas governor for the past 10 years, Anita Perry has largely stayed out of the political spotlight.

But that changed after Rick Perry announced his presidential bid back in August.

Indeed, her trip last week to South Carolina -- which took her to eight stops in two days -- showed the Texas first lady in several different lights. As a political spouse dealing with the slings and arrows of a national race. As an outspoken surrogate for her husband. And as a woman able to show the softer side of a candidate embroiled in a fierce nomination fight.

The trip was a chance for South Carolina voters to get face time with a member of the Perry family, given that her husband hasn’t been to the state in over a month. And -- probably not by mistake -- all of her public stops were in the Upstate region, home to a majority of the state’s large evangelical population.

Faith takes center stage
At her first stop, Anita Perry had breakfast with professors at North Greenville University, a Southern Baptist school tucked in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The university’s president, Jimmy Epting, encouraged her to address the small group, although Perry later said she had not planned on making remarks.

“I just want you to feel comfortable talking about the Lord here, as well as tell us all about your husband and tell us why we should be voting for him,” Epting said before offering the podium to Perry.

Her impromptu remarks had a heavy dose of religion –- an issue that received more attention in the campaign after a Perry supporter called Mormonism a cult.

“We are being brutalized by our opponents, and our own party. So much of that is, I think they look at him, because of his faith,” she continued.

She also was overcome with emotion when talking about her grandfather, the deacon in a church who, she said, made sure she went to Sunday school every week. Anita Perry had to pause for several seconds in the middle of her story.

“My grandfather still speaks to me today,” she said, smoothing her cardigan to signal her regained composure.

Talking about her emotional moment later in an interview with NBC News, Perry said, “I've not told that story out on the campaign trail before. But we were talking about faith, and Rick and I are very sincere about our faith and our belief in family.

“And I didn’t mean to say that this morning. It just came to me, and it’s a true story,” she continued.

Sticking to the script
Video of Anita Perry’s remarks at North Greenville quickly spread around the Internet -– something the Perry South Carolina team noted throughout the day with a combination of trepidation (over the reaction to her words) and satisfaction (that the trip was getting so much exposure).

She made few off-the-cuff remarks the rest of the trip, sticking largely to her prepared speech, which she carried in a large binder with her name embossed in silver lettering.

She also dialed back her statement that the campaign was being “brutalized.” In the NBC interview, Perry said that criticism from other candidates is “the nature of the beast.”

“I can certainly understand it, if I’d been in the race longer, it would be uncomfortable for someone to come in and take over that lead,” she said. (At the time of the interview, Perry had come in third in the national NBC/WSJ poll, behind Herman Cain and Mitt Romney).

Handlers were also never far from Mrs. Perry’s side, making sure she stayed on message.

During the interview, Perry discussed her husband’s position on illegal immigration, an issue over which he’s received conservative criticismtaken because he supports allowing the children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition to attend state colleges.

She began by expressing empathy for immigrants who are fleeing torture or abuse. “So many of them came for a better opportunity and that’s what America is about."

But the Perry campaign’s South Carolina chairman, Katon Dawson, was quick to interject. 

“In no means has Gov. Perry done anything but be one of the firmest, and most staunch supporters of securing our border and against illegal immigration,” he said, explaining that Mrs. Perry was referring to the tuition issue when she talked about giving illegal immigrants a better opportunity.

An outspoken surrogate
Anita Perry’s prepared remarks pulled no punches when it came to her husband’s opponents.

“He doesn't need a 9-9-9 plan. He doesn't need a 59-point plan!” she said, taking digs, at Herman Cain and Mitt Romney’s jobs proposals while speaking at Cribbs Kitchen in Spartanburg.

Perry also used some of the same one-liners favored by her husband. When asked, at a town hall meeting in Prosperity about his 2nd Amendment beliefs, she responded, “He believes in gun control. You should use both hands.”

At a stop Friday at Dyer’s diner in Pendleton, Perry came under more scrutiny when she blamed her son’s leaving his banking job on new Securities and Exchange Commission rules barring financial advisers from campaigning for candidates if the adviser’s firm has business interests with the candidate’s state.

But while she took flak for that remark, the man to whom she was speaking, David von Schmittou, said he appreciated her comments.

“I was like, whoa. It has touched a lot of people,” he said, referring to the high unemployment rate.

Nurse, dog lover, city girl
While her trip to South Carolina had overtly political stops, she was also there to introduce herself to voters. The holder of a masters’ degree in nursing, Anita Perry visited with nursing students at Clemson University, Bob Jones University, and Greenville Memorial Hospital.

At Bob Jones University, Perry’s eyes lit up as she told students that getting her degree in nursing was “one of the best decisions I ever made in my life -- other than marrying my husband.”

Perry also seemed to share her husband’s love of dogs. As she stopped at a well-known Republican family’s home between events, she became excited when she saw two dogs in the backyard, and played with them before going inside.

And while visiting Greenville Hospital, she stopped to ask a receptionist the name of her dog, whose picture was on her desk.

“What’s your puppy’s name?” she asked, to which the receptionist responded, “Dixie Belle.”

“Dixie Belle!” Anita exclaimed. “We’ve got a Belle,” she added, referring to her son Griffin’s dog Belle, who is the mother of Gov. Perry’s black Labrador, Rory, according to ABC News.

Throughout the trip, Perry wielded what is the strongest card for a political wife: the ability to shed a personal light on her husband, the candidate.

“He grew up in a part of a community, not a town. It had a Baptist church on one end, and a Methodist church on the other end,” she said at Dyer’s diner. “I grew up like 10 miles up the road; he said I was a city girl. I had 42-hundred in my town,” she said as patrons chuckled.

“What we learned growing up in rural Texas, we learned about family, we learned about faith, we learned about what we thought was important in life. That you took care of each other,” she added.

And she vouched for her husband.

“I take a deep breath and really hope that people will give him a fair listening; an opportunity to listen to what he has to say,” she said. “I’m married to the man. I’ve known him since I was eight years old. He’s a good man, he’s principled, he makes tough decisions, he’s a leader, so I just want everybody to give a fair look at him.” 

In a sit-down interview with NBC last Friday, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) said he believes the presidential race in his state is “wide open” and it’s all going to come down to “who runs the best campaign and catches fire at the end.” Branstad also said that he most likely will not endorse a candidate, and that he hopes Iowa holds its caucuses after Jan. 1.
 
Q: You’re impression of the race?
A: It’s wide open. It’s absolutely wide open. You know what’s happened here is first, well, Bachmann came on strong early. She did well in that New Hampshire debate, she wins the straw poll but then Perry goes to Waterloo, her hometown, she doesn’t play that very well. He goes around to every table there, gives a great speech, stays and listens to hers and makes a great impression. He comes to the Iowa State Fair, I had breakfast with him, and my advice to him was focus on your record on jobs and tort reform. He does a great jobs at the Iowa State Fair and gets off to a great start. I was on a trade mission when they had that debate where he really kind of got hurt on the immigration issue. And now of course, Herman Cain is coming on. And Herman Cain had made a good impression from the beginning here. Watch for Rick Santorum. He is kind of the turtle in this race that just keeps plotting along but he is making progress all the time and he is making a good impression. He is going to do a lot better than people expect – he came in 4th in the straw poll but I just think he is building.
 
I think Romney will benefit from the Christie endorsement. He needs to come here and campaign more actively. I think he got burned here 4 years ago and hasn’t spent much time here now. But there is still a lot of friends he made from four years ago, a lot of people respect what he did as rescuing the winter Olympics and his business plans. And Bachmann is trying to make a comeback here. You got Bachmann and Perry and Ron Paul has his following, he will get his 12 to 15%  - if you look at who his endorsements are, he has more people on the state central committee endorsing him than anybody else.
 
I think it is really a wide open situation at this point it all depends upon who runs the best campaign and catches fire at the end… and when is the end going to be? Is it going to be early January or is it going to be sooner than that? I hope it’s after the 1st of January like it was 4 years ago.
 
Both parties are committed to being first so we will move up and be first. But I think most people would prefer not to have the caucuses during the holidays. They would like to have it after the 1st of the year, if possible.
 
Q: Will it hurt Iowa if it was before the 1st of the year?
A: Well, I don’t know. I think what’s going to happen after this, you have states keep moving up and sooner than later people are going to say wait a minute, we have to change this system so maybe the penalties for what Florida did are not great enough to prevent that, I don’t know. We in Iowa take our responsibility seriously and want to maintain the first in the nation caucuses. And, the history experience is that anybody that decides they are just going to skip Iowa, Rudy Giuliani is a good example, it was not a smart strategy and I certainly would advise them against it. And Jon Huntsman, I’ve told him, he is making a fatal mistake here. He is less than 1% so he isn’t really a factor.
 
Q: Romney not coming here, could he still do well here?
A: Well, his support could erode if people feel he isn’t taking it seriously. I think a lot of people still, from what he did 4 years ago, and then the Christie endorsement, I think have caused some people to take another look. So I think he still has the potential to come in and do reasonably well here but if he continues to ignore the state…his wife was here and he is coming back but Iowans are spoiled by attention and a couple of appearances won’t do it.
 
I will give you an example. Ronald Reagan was loved here. Ronald Reagan got his start with WOC Radio in the Quad Cities and WHO in Des Moines and I was for Reagan in 1980. In 1976 when he ran against Ford, we had a really close battle, the state divided almost equally and I was elected lieutenant governor based a lot on the friends I had in the Reagan campaign that helped me get elected when I was 31. And John Sears was running the Reagan campaign in ’80 and he thought well, Reagan is a great communicator; we will just do one big rally per congressional district. George H. W. Bush he and his wife and his kids went to every county seat town and he squeaked out a victory over Reagan in Iowa. It should have never, never happened. But Sears went to New Hampshire and rented a bus and went all over the state and did exactly what we told him he should have done in Iowa and it put the campaign back on track. That’s how George H. W. Bush got to be president. And they fired John Sears, this is when I knew they haven’t lost it, they announced that John Sears was no longer the campaign manager 15minutes before the polls closed in New Hampshire. He was out after Iowa but they weren’t going to take a hit of firing the campaign manager so they waited until the votes were cast in New Hampshire.
 
I have been around a while.
 
Q; I know. You have a good record in elections.
A: 12 and 0.
 
Q: How does that feel?
A: I am pretty proud of that but what I tell candidates is, the harder you work the luckier you get. You have to work not only hard but smart. A lot of winning elections in this state is personal contacts and hard work. Message is important. People need to know that you are sincere, that you’re honest, that you’ll work hard, and that you care.
 
Q: Do you think everyone who is running for the Republican nomination demonstrate those traits?
A: Yea, I think there are a lot of good candidates. I am not one who denigrates the people that are out there. I think there are a lot of sincere people that are running and I think that a lot of people are looking for the perfect candidate and there is no such thing as the perfect candidate. We need to choose the one that we think is the best and the strongest and has the best vision and the best communications skills get the message across. I mean, the country cannot afford four more years of Obama. You see what’s happened to the national debt, and you see his approach to winning reelection is to savage the very people who you have to count on to create jobs, the successful businessmen and entrepreneurs – he wants to his them with higher taxes and more regulations. It’s just totally counterproductive. It may be a political strategy but it is a disaster for the nation. So, that’s why we need to restore fiscal responsibility, which I think a lot of governors are doing in their own states and focus on jobs. It has to be private sector jobs. The regulatory burden and tax burdens are two of the biggest impediments. There are a lot of people sitting on money that are just afraid to invest now. They see the new burdens coming from the Obama healthcare costs, they see EPA regulations, they see Dodd-Frank… I can tell you our community banks out here were not part of the problem, they didn’t do the risky loans and they are the ones paying the price with these regulations.
 
Q: Lets go back to the primary calendar. Nevada…
A: They should back off. Maybe they will, I don’t know. I guess my feeling is, I would like them to work out something where you would still maintain the Iowa caucuses no earlier than January 3rd. And there ought to be a way to do Nevada before Florida. They just moved up too much.
 
Q: Do you plan to endorse a candidate before the caucuses?
A: I have reserved judgment on that. I think it’s probably not likely but if we reach a point and I think one candidate has emerged as the candidate who is the strongest and the best for the country, I might. But mainly I have just tried to be a good host and give my candid, honest advice to each of the candidates and encourage them and certainly encourage them to actively participate in Iowa and most have followed my advice with the exception of Huntsman.
 
Q: You will be moderating The National Association of Manufacturers forum in November in Iowa. What’s your plan with that?
A: I am excited about that. I think jobs is the issue. I’m going to give them the opportunity to share their vision and their plan and let the people of Iowa decide which one they think has the best strategy or plan to revitalize the economy.
 
Q: Do you have any idea when the caucus date will be set?
A: No, Matt Strawn is doing a great job as our Republican state chairman and also the Democratic Party is working in conjunction with them, we want to keep them together, the same night, both parties. It has to be decided by the parties. So the state really isn’t the player in this, it’s the parties. But Matt and I have a great relationship and I think he is doing all he can. I am trying to support him all I can.
 
Q: Lets end with what is your favorite political moment?
A: (lists a few) I’m a big Reagan fan. Ronald Reagan came here caucus night in 1984. I’ve got a picture in McElroy Auditorium in Waterloo, the East High School band, and I’m sitting on the stage and Ronald Reagan is speaking. I also rode Air Force One, the one that’s in the Reagan Library now I think, it’s the only time I’ve ever been on AF1, we flew from Waterloo to Des Moines and we had this great event caucus night. Now the whole idea of this was the Democrats had this big contest and we wanted to steal it so we bring the President of the United States in and we got a lot of coverage. It was a strategic idea I had and Reagan came in. the highlight was, there was a woman who called my office and said when Reagan worked for WHO she was being robbed in the street in front of her apartment and he stuck the gun out the window and scared the robber away and then escorted her to her nursing class.

So I had her on the stage in the auditorium, I told the story, and introduced Reagan to her and the president got an opportunity to thank you. And he said, this was one of the unbelievable moments, he said you know I didn’t tell you at the time but the gun wasn’t loaded. So he just handled it just so well and it was just unbelievable. I’ve had a lot of highlights.

Senate Democrats introduced a $35 billion bill intended to help cash-strapped states prevent layoffs of teachers and first responders on Monday, the first bill put forth by Democrats in a new strategy to advance the president's $447 billion jobs bill piece-by-piece.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asserted the bill, dubbed the "Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act," would "create or save" 400,000 jobs of teachers, police, firefighters and first responders. The bill provides $30 billion for education jobs and $5 billion for first responders, Reid said. It would be paid for by imposing a 0.5 percent surtax on personal income of more than $1 million.

The announcement by Reid followed a fiery speech by President Obama this afternoon in Asheville, N.C., where he attacked Republicans for rejecting his "American Jobs Act" as a whole last week.

"What we're going to do is we're going to break up my jobs bill. Maybe they just couldn't understand the whole all at once. So we're going to break it up into bite-size pieces so they can take a thoughtful approach to this legislation," he told the crowd.

Senate Democrats expect the earliest the chamber could hold its first vote on the new bill is at the end of this week. And the millionaire tax is here to stay, aides say. Democrats will use a tax on millionaires to pay for each part of the President's jobs bill that comes before the Senate. It will be proportional to how much each bill costs.

On the Senate floor today, Reid tried to put Republicans in the politically difficult position of rejecting aid to teachers and first responders.

"Unless school districts get a helping hand, many more will be forced to make more difficult choices, between laying off educators, going without school books, paper and other supplies," he said.

He added: "We'll also commit...to retaining the police, firefighters and first responders who worked so hard to keep our communities safe and rehiring those who have already been laid off in these tough economic times."

In a statement this afternoon, Republican leader Mitch McConnell rejected what he said was more failed stimulus spending and he urged Democrats to work with Republicans on measures both sides can support.

"Democrats have a choice: they can try to divide the country along partisan fault lines for the sake of an election that is still 13 months away, or they can work with us on passing bipartisan legislation - such as tax reform, domestic energy production, regulatory reform -- that gets at the root of the jobs crisis now."

And how will Senate Democrats' bill fare in the House?

Last month, in a memo to House Republicans, Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor said this type of spending was a "band-aid approach" that "masked over the true fiscal problems facing state and local governments."

When times get tough for politicians, they're usually not shy about blaming the media for their sagging fortunes.

The press is an easy target since most such criticism rests on perceptions and feelings rather than concrete, or even academic studies. But on Monday, a report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism sought to quantify just how positive or negative the media's treatment of President Obama and the field of Republican presidential candidates has really been.

Obama has been the victim of "unrelentingly negative" coverage in the media, said the report, which looked at coverage of candidates between early May and early October.

Obama received tougher treatment in the media relative to the Republican candidates vying for his job, the study found, challenging the narrative that Obama is the beneficiary of easier treatment by the press.

Negative coverage for the president outweighed positive coverage in each of the 23 weeks included in the study. On average, 9 percent of the stories about Obama were positive, compared to the 34 percent of coverage over the same time period that researchers deemed as negative. That time period even included Osama bin Laden’s death.

The negative trend for Obama can be attributed in part to the poor economy and political developments.

"It's a combination of the economy worsening, falling approval polls that follow that, and then the anticipation of the political impact that might have leading into the campaign," said Tom Rosensteil, the director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. "The press and the political press in particular operate a little bit like Wall Street investors; they're not just reporting on what happened, but they're building expectations about what happens next."

The coverage of the Republican presidential candidates was more positive.

Pew said that Texas Gov. Rick Perry "had received the most coverage and the most positive coverage" of any of the candidates, though the treatment of his campaign in the press tilted negatively in recent weeks.

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who's one of Perry's biggest rivals for the nomination, received mixed, but consistent, coverage. On average, 26 percent of the stories about Romney were positive, and 27 percent were negative.

The Republican candidate with the most negative coverage was Newt Gingrich. Thirty-five percent of the stories about the former House Speaker were negative. That's a higher proportion of negative stories for Gingrich than even for the president, though at 15 percent, Gingrich received more positive press than Obama.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who's complained that the media has ignored his campaign, got ammunition for that claim. Of the stories examined by Pew, Paul was the subject of just 1.7 percent -- the worst share of stories for any of the Republican presidential hopefuls.

The study was conducted by the staff of the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in journalism, and used traditional content analysis as well as computer technology. More details about the methodology can be found here.

Herman Cain supporters may be surprised to find that the first step in his four-point immigration plan is actually a joke, according to comments the Republican presidential hopeful made yesterday on "Meet the Press."

Cain spent last week campaigning in Tennessee, and at multiple stops throughout the state, he talked about building a barbed wire electric fence that could kill those who tried to climb it to enter the country illegally. The line drew raucous applause from Tea Party crowds during at least two of his stops in the Volunteer State. 

In Cookeville, TN, on Saturday, Cain even went on to defend the idea of a deadly fence against those who feel it is inhuman. “I get criticized. ‘Mr. Cain, that’s insensitive.’ What do you mean insensitive?” he asked the crowd. “What’s insensitive is when they come to the United States across our border and kill our citizens, and kill our border patrol people.”

He repeated his support for the idea a few hours later at his next stop in Harriman.

But when pressed about the fence yesterday by NBC's David Gregory, the former Godfather's Pizza CEO said it was all in jest. “That's a joke,” Cain said. “I've also said America needs to get a sense of humor.”

What’s still unclear is whether Cain favors a non-electric barrier along the border.  The Cain campaign has not yet responded to a question by NBC News to clarify the candidate’s plan to secure the border.

On the campaign trail, Cain has frequently cited the fence as the first of four steps he would take to secure the border. Here are the four points of his immigration plan:

1) build a fence;
2) promote a path to citizenship for legal immigrants;
3) enforce the immigration laws that are already in place; and
4) empower the states to enforce the laws that the federal government does not.

Cain’s presidential website makes no mention of constructing a permanent barricade along the  country’s southern border. The section of the site that explains his stance on immigration reads “taking a stand on the issue does not mean one lacks compassion.”

FLETCHER, NC -- In the first remarks of his three-day bus tour through North Carolina and Virginia, President Obama asked for bipartisan passage of components of his jobs bill -- before blasting Republicans on their jobs plan.

“My plan says we're going to put teachers back in the classroom, construction workers back to work rebuilding America, rebuilding our schools, tax cuts for small businesses,” he said here. “And then you got their plan, which is let's have dirtier air, dirtier water, less people with health insurance.”

The president dismissed the Republican’s ideas as ineffective. “One of the same economists that took a look at our plan took a look at the Republican plan, and they said, ‘Well, this won't do much to help the economy in the short term.” Obama continued, “We could actually lose jobs with their plan.”

He also tried to turn a negative -- having to break his bill up into its component pieces to get it through Congress, after the Senate blocked the full measure last week -- into a positive. “We’re going to break up my jobs bill. Maybe they just couldn't understand the whole thing all at once,” Obama said with a touch of humor. “I'm going to ask members of Congress to vote on one component of the plan, which is whether we should put hundreds of thousands of teachers back in the classroom and cops back on the street and firefighters back to work.”

Last month, the White House estimated that this part of the plan would cost about $35 billion and go towards aiding the states in preventing more teacher and first-responder layoffs. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said he expects an announcement from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid soon on when and how this part of the bill will be voted on. (It is unclear how this component or any individual part of the jobs plan will be paid for.)

Obama's tone was not lost on congressional Republicans. Speaker John Boehner's press secretary fired off a note calling the president’s words “hyperbole,” adding that it was the speaker and Majority Leader Eric Cantor who “first proposed working together to break up the president’s bill to see parts of it passed.”

Obama's fired-up rhetoric -- coupled with the big black bus waiting to whisk the president to his next event in Miller’s Creek, NC and previously unannounced stops like at Countryside BBQ Chicken in Marion, NC -- was also not lost on an audience that chanted “four more years” in the middle of the speech.

Obama quickly tried to quiet them, “I appreciate the 'four more years,' but right now I'm thinking about the next 13 month. Because, yes, we've got an election coming up, but that election is a long ways away and a lot of folks can't wait.”