We are gearing up for our last installments of 'Inside the Boiler Room' for 2011! Please post your questions for Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro below. 

You can also tweet us, @NBCFirstRead, @mmurraypolitics or@DomenicoNBC, or post on our Facebook page.

Inside the Boiler Room NBC's Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro debate how serious the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is taking GOP hopeful and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's rise in the polls, and whether the Romney camp will now reconsider Iowa.

Thanks to phinephancy-4252115 for the question! Keep an eye out for the next editions of Inside the Boiler Room and don't forget to post your questions for Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro. You can also tweet us, @NBCFirstRead,@mmurraypolitics or @DomenicoNBC, or post on our Facebook page.

Video edited and transcribed by NBC's Morgan Parmet. 

TRANSCRIPT:

MARK MURRAY: Welcome to the latest edition of inside the boiler room. I'm Mark Murray joined by my colleague Domenico Montanaro. Domenico, we have a question from phinephancy. This is phinephancy's first question, I think, inside the boiler room. How serious is the Romney campaign taking Newt Gingrich's rise in the polls? Will they now reconsider Iowa?

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Well, we know they're reconsidering Iowa a little bit. They went up with their first TV ad. So they're actually going to play there a little bit. I think they're taking New Gingrich's rise a little bit more seriously than they were a week ago. You know we've started to see a back and forth over about two or three days. Newt Gingrich called Mitt Romney the former front runner.

MARK MURRAY: Right. 

DOMENICO MONTANARO: And Romney hit him back calling him a lifelong politician. Newt Gingrich hit him back. Romney hit him back. So, you know, I think it's going to be a really interesting next 30 days. 

MARK MURRAY: Right, the only question is is this two man race going to stay? I mean remember it wasn't too long ago we thought we had a two man race between Rick Perry and Mitt Romney in August and September. Look how that ended up turning out. One other thing about Mitt Romney. He's actually going to have Chris Christie campaigning for him. I mean yes, there is a play going on for Iowa. They might not be all in, but this is now a significant contest and the stakes are very high.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: They're like two legs in. 

MARK MURRAY: Right. 

DOMENICO MONTANARO: One other small thing, The Hill newspaper today had a blind item from a member of congress Republican saying Newt Gingrich's finger is always six inches away from the self-destruct button. 

MARK MURRAY: (laughs)

DOMENICO MONTANARO: So, you know, that's what a lot of people are talking about. If he's able to maintain the message discipline and he said himself he needs to be more disciplined. If he maintains that discipline, maybe he can be the guy over the next 30 days to compete with Romney head to head. 

MARK MURRAY: We have about 30 days to go until Iowa.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: We'll see.

MARK MURRAY: We'll see. Thanks.

We want to answer your questions in the next 'Inside the Boiler Room'! Please post your questions for Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro below.

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Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro discuss whether Newt Gingrich can continue his current lead in Republican polls. With Gingrich’s inconsistent positions and personal history, can he survive on top until the New Hampshire primary?

Thanks Amy B. Portland, ME for the question!

Keep an eye out for future editions of Inside the Boiler Room and don't forget to post your questions for Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro. You can also tweet us, @NBCFirstRead,  @mmurraypolitics or @DomenicoNBC, or post on our Facebook page.

Video edited and transcribed by NBC's Matt Loffman. 

TRANSCRIPT:

MARK MURRAY: Welcome to the latest edition of Inside the Boiler Room.  I'm Mark Murray joined by colleague Domenico Montanaro.  Domenico, we have a question from one of our commenters Amy B., Portland, Maine who asks 'Does Newt Gingrich really have a chance to beat Mitt Romney in the Republican primary?'

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Wow.  Newt Gingrich is really at the top of the polls.  It's really something to see considering where he was seven months ago.  Can he beat Mitt Romney?  Well, anybody who can coalesce that anti-Romney vote has a chance at beating Mitt Romney, but call me skeptical.  And I'll give you three reasons why, and hopefully I can remember all three.  1) his inconsistencies, okay?  I mean, there's a full range of flip flops that we've seen from Newt Gingrich which we've highlighted already.  2) His lack of discipline.  He even said it himself that he has to be more disciplined.  And 3) his personal problems.  Look, we know about his three marriages.  We know how polarizing he's been.  We know about Tiffany's.  Hello, like this is all stuff that's going to come back out for the scrutiny.  And I only remembered those three things, because I had notes.

MARK MURRAY: I'm glad you remembered.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: The other thing.  Debates.  Everyone was talking about how Newt Gingrich has rode these debates to the top of the polls, and he has because he's had limited money.  His campaign team quit on him completely, right? So he had nothing else to go off of except these debates, but let's not write off Mitt Romney's ability to debate here.  We saw at one of the most recent debates, he actually  took Newt Gingrich to task on the individual mandate.  Quite a moment. 

MARK MURRAY: Well right. I feel like that Newt Gingrich's lack of organization is really going to be able to hurt him and really this entire Bloomberg story that he took $1.6, at least $1.6 million from Freddie Mac is devastating to him because it makes him seem like he's part of Washington.  That's not what Tea Party conservative Republicans want.  So that's really tough for him, but Domenico, this has been such a fascinating cycle where one person has gone up, another person has gone down.  But what's really interesting as we've had these cycles is that they didn't just come out of the blue.  These Tea Party conservative voters are changing their opinion.  So as one person, they might not like Rick Perry anymore.  All of sudden Herman Cain is the new flavor of the month.  Herman Cain now has some baggage.  It becomes Newt Gingrich.  I'm just fascinated to see where they end up come January when we have Iowa and New Hampshire.  That's the big question.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Yeah and the likelihood we're moving toward it could be Mitt Romney, you know, sealing it quickly if he can win Iowa or South Carolina.  But that's still a huge question if he can peel off some of those more conservative voters.

MARK MURRAY: Or there could be just another flavor of the month.  We don't know.  Thanks, Amy.  

Ready for the next installment of Inside the Boiler Room? Please post your questions for Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro below.

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Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro weigh the possibility of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., or Gov. Bob McDonnell, R-Va. as a vice presidential candidate on the 2012 ticket.

NOTE: Since we taped this segment, Republicans won control of the state Senate in Virginia. Both Democrats and Republicans hold 20 seats in the Virginia Senate. Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling holds the tie-breaking vote, giving Republicans their one-vote advantage.

Thanks to Bob-1887910 for the question! Keep an eye out later in the week for our next Inside the Boiler Room segments!

TRANSCRIPT: 

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Welcome again to another edition of Inside the Boiler Room. Well, we have another question from Bob 1887910 we always love to be able to get comments from Bob and he says: “If my immensely popular Governor Bob McDonnell helps flips the State Senate to the GOP next week, giving Republicans unprecedented full control of Virginia government, will he then top Marco Rubio in the Veepstakes rankings?” A lot there.

MARK MURRAY: Well, right. Here’s how I kind of look at the GOP Veepstakes stakes right now. Marco Rubio had kind of a tough row with that Washington Post report about when his parents came to the United States. You can get into the particulars, but it came to the point that he hasn’t yet been vetted. You can almost look at him “1A,” Bob McDonnell “1B.” What McDonnell essentially ends up giving you is somebody who could, is a popular governor of a battleground state in Virginia, so automatically they might think, look you know we’re going to have a problem in Virginia. If you get Bob McDonnell. He could also end up helping if say, Mitt Romney is the nominee. Sure some of that evangelical, social conservative--

DOMENICO MONTANARO: -- Sure, a lot of people don’t know he takes a very moderate tone, he’s been a moderate governor, but he went to Liberty University and is a strong Evangelical.

MARK MURRAY: Yeah, absolutely. So, and one other thing to keep in mind about Bob McDonnell: his job runs out in 2013. And so when you’re looking at Marco Rubio’s world, he’s only been in the senate for one year, he has big ambitions. Chris Christie of course, he might end up running for re-election. Bob McDonnell is actually going to need a job, come pretty soon because he’s terminated, you only get one term as governor. And so, if you are the republican nominee, he ends up making a lot of sense.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Yeah, that’s definitely true. Rubio, you’re right, took a hit because of that story. You know there are also some other issues with Rubio as to whether or not you know, he’s experienced enough, but Barak Obama had that issue. And you know, whether or not he actually appeals to, what demographic he appeals to, you know, who knows. But, picking him would be all about Florida. If Republicans felt that they couldn’t win Florida. His popularity there--

MARK MURRAY: And you know the Latino vote too, potentially--

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Well, in Florida. But, and then when you look at somebody else, Chris Christie, you know could be another person, you know, John McCain picked Sarah Palin, that most of us had taken her of the veep list because of issues back in Alaska that we thought, she’s under investigation, he’s not going to pick her. But he did because she could fire up the base. Nobody fires up the base like Chris Christie does. So you know, maybe there’s somebody like him. And McDonnell also, aside from the state senate stuff, which you mention would be a nice feather in his cap, just what he’s done with jobs in the state. You know, he beat out Maryland for these defense contractor jobs. He understands federal workers, and he can speak that way because they are a large constituency group in Northern Virginia. So, I think that he, because of that, is an attractive candidate because he’s not going to make too many mistakes.

MARK MURRAY: He is. The one thing that, to note about Virginia though, is that all of their recent governors have been very popular. You  have Mark Warner with his job growth, Tim Cain was very popular and now you have Bob McDonnell. One of the reasons Virginia is doing so well is it’s so close to Washington, DC. There’ve been a ton of jobs, the defense contractors, etc. and it doesn’t look like the rest of the nation just yet. But, I mean, I think that he, right now Bob McDonnell certainly looks like a 1A or 1B to me on whoever is on the veepstakes next.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: They’re real popular until you give them a second term, right. We’ll see.

Transcribed by NBC's Annie Emberland and Laura Olson.

Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro give their analysis on why President Obama's poll numbers are rising, and whether or not taking his message to the American people is helping his cause.

Thanks Feisty Readhead for the question! Be sure to look out for new Inside the Boiler Room segments next week. And as always, post your questions for Mark and Domenico on the blog. You can also tweet us, @NBCFirstRead, @mmurraypolitics or@DomenicoNBC, or post on our Facebook page.

Transcribed by NBC's Annie Emberland and Laura Olson.

TRANSCRIPT:

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Hi there again, I’m Domenico Montanaro. Welcome to another edition of Inside the Boiler Room again with my colleague Mark Murray, and Mark, it looks like we wore the uniform, ready to play?

MARK MURRAY: Road uniforms in college football?

DOMENICO MONTARO: Well, football…basketball it’s, you know, these are the home uniforms. We’re here at NBC, so I’ll say we’re at home. Alright, Feisty, you know, she always gets the first answer, here’s her first question. She says--What is your analysis for President Obama’s recent rise in polling? Does taking his message to the people have anything to do with it? Do you think after assessing the current Republican field, moderates and independents are saying thanks, but no thanks? It’s early, we haven’t gotten through a Republican primary yet. But, Mark, what are your thoughts?

MARK MURRAY: Well, there are a couple of polls that are out there that have shown a bump for President Obama, but it’s important to note that these are just two polls. It does not make a trend. What we have seen in the Quinnipiac poll that Obama’s approval went from about 41, 42 percent to 47 percent, and then Gallup has actually shown a little bit of improvement for President Obama. I do think a couple of things are going on, and, it’s important to note, our own NBC/Wall Street Journal poll is going to be coming out on Monday, and so, if that also shows a rise, then we do seem to have enough elements for a trend.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: That’s when we know it’s real…because it’s the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

MARK MURRAY: Right, it’s our poll. But, a couple things, Obama’s had a pretty good last couple of weeks. I mean, you have the end of the Iraq war announcement, you had the killing of Khaddafy, you also had some pretty good economic news, and it’s potentially the jobs number report that might come out, might be pretty good on Friday as well. So, you’re seeing a little bit of this. I would say, that if anything is going to benefit Obama in the three or four months, it going to be so much of a focus on the Republicans. And, in their current fight, he gets to go in the shadows, gets to rehabilitate his image while all the focus is on the latest on Herman Cain, the latest on Rick Perry, etcetera.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Now, I was just going to say, the focus hasn’t been on him, so there is that advantage because the Republicans are duking it out, you’re seeing some of the dirt flying, so of course that’s going to benefit him in that—Khaddafy’s death, you know, Obama taking stuff on the road, kind of having something to run on and having something to run against with Congress, I think has probably been effective. All of the things that are in the jobs plan are poll tested, you know. He’s like—I know the American people like this—well, yeah, he sees the polls that they’re fairly popular items. So, and there isn’t anything that has to pass or not pass or whatever, so you have those two things—running with something and against someone—then you have the makings of a messaging campaign. He’s firing up the base. Whereas if, think a couple months ago, there was a little bit more wrangling among the base. You know, there was maybe tiny drop-offs, but not very much. But independents, I think, some of the stuff they’ve tailored to see if independents like this stuff, and you probably see slight ticks up with independents. You know, maybe with what’s happening in the Republican field, but the choice is not between Barack Obama and the field yet. The choice is between those Republican candidates, and I think people really aren’t that tuned in. You know, I’m glad Feisty, you know, you’re tuned in and all of our commenters are, thankfully, keep us employed, but I think most Americans, if you’re looking at a general election, they don’t tune it until much later.  

MARK MURRAY: Couple things to look at. One, in about the next six months or so, the President Obama’s approval is closer to fifty percent than it is now, that’s a very good sign for him. Also keep an eye, Feisty, on what the situation on the right track, wrong track. A lot of those numbers right now in around the 20 percent or so, closer to 40 percent, you know, in the high thirties. That’s where President Obama would be to end up getting reelected. Thank you.  

After a week off, we are gearing up for the next installment of Inside the Boiler Room! Please post your questions for Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro below.

You can also tweet us, @NBCFirstRead, @mmurraypolitics or@DomenicoNBC, or post on our Facebook page.

Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro take a look at the latest GOP debate, highlighting its similarities to the presidential debates of 2008.

Thanks to NBC's Annie Emberland and Laura Olson for their assistance editing this video.

TRANSCRIPT:

MARK MURRAY: Welcome to the latest edition of Inside the Boiler Room, I’m Mark Murray, joined by my partner in crime, Domenico Montanaro. Domenico, it was just  four years ago that we had about one of the most seminal, significant moments at a democratic debate. That was that debate in Philly when Hilary Clinton got tripped up on driver’s license for illegal immigrants. That created an opening for Barack Obama. Also, John Edwards at the time. Did we get that type of debate Tuesday night on the Republican side?

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Well, there must be something about October and something about immigration because—we’ve seen over and over again, immigration seems to be the topic that tends to trip candidates up. Mitt Romney took a lot of flak last night. You know, Hilary Clinton in 2006 or 2007 was a clear loser because of that debate. It wasn’t clear that Romney lost. Some people were split on whether or not he lost, but he made it through. It didn’t seem that really any of the punches that Rick Perry threw really landed very hard—really tried and came back at him, maybe even went too far. You know, even for Wayne Newton, that he’s going to vote for Mitt Romney now because he thought that Rick Perry was too mean.

MARK MURRAY: Well, you and I were talking about, one similarity that you could possibly draw is the pile-on effect. I mean, in that 2007 democratic debate, everyone piled on Hilary Clinton. What we saw on Tuesday night—almost everybody, from Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, all piled on Mitt Romney. But, you know, to me what was really important about that October 2007 debate was that it played out for two weeks. It was a story that lasted for days and days  and days, and you and I were talking about this, that the most important thing to look at in Tuesday night’s debate is—what are the story lines afterward? Is it a record on Mitt Romney and immigration? On Mitt Romney and health care? Is it about Rick Perry in desperation? And so, what that story becomes over—you know, give me three or four days and I’ll tell you the significance of Tuesday night’s debate.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Or is it Herman Cain faded? You know, I mean there are a lot of different kinds of story lines, which is interesting because the main story line coming out of the October 2007 debate was the driver’s license story. There are a lot of different avenues this could go, and we don’t have a debate for a while. So, you know, that’s one thing, people are going to have to fill time. They’re going to come up with new segments, and there are a lot of different things they could talk about. Now, obiviously, the one thing that they’re talking a lot about is, you know, Rick Perry touching Mitt Romney which is always awkward, I’m sure.

MARK MURRAY: Unless it’s like a friendly pat, like that. (pats Domenico)

DOMENICO MONTANARO: It was a little weird. But, you know, it’s superficial. Its one of those things that--but whose in the frame? You’ve got Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. You know, people are also split on how Mitt Romney did in comporting himself stylistically. He was this kind of angry guy. Was he channeling his Chris Christie? You know, its not the guy who it seems like they were remaking him into—this sort of presidential, calm, cool character, and it may not matter in a Republican primary, but it could matter in a general election, I think, with President Obama, who’s always seemingly very cool. The last time I remember Presidnet Obama getting kind of flustered and really upset at anything publicly was that debate with Hilary Clinton when they talked about RESCO and Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers and Bill Clinton and his role and who am I running against? That’s the last time that I remember Barack Obama really getting, you know, kind of heated or flustered in a debate. Remember, those debates in 2008 really changed things—I don’t want to say changed things, but cemented things. That contrast Democrats were looking forward to between Barack Obama and John McCain. It certainly made a big difference.

MARK MURRAY: A final quick point about the similarities, if there are any, between that 2007 debate and what we saw on Tuesday night, is that what really hurt Hilary Clinton wasn’t really the driver’s license per se. It was the narrative that, here’s a woman that’s willing to say or do anything to get elected and taking both sides of an issue and, of course, she’d been hit on the Iraq war by that many times. It would be interesting to see that  Mitt Romney’s responses, either on illegal immigration or on health care, really go to the central narrative that this guy, at least that Democrats want to make and also Rick Perry and other rival campaigns, that he’s not authentic. That he doesn’t—what does he end up believing? And so, the danger for Romney out of the debate, is that what ended up happening in those exchanges are a kick-off point for future stories on that front.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: He came across a little lawyerly. ‘I’d never hire an illegal immigrant in my life!’ – And it’s like, okay, technically he didn’t hire the guy directly but the firm did. So is that really the kind of person that people want to be the president of the United States? Is that going to be what conservatives are going to have to ask in these primaries- and Democrats picked up on the ‘pete’s sake’ line, ‘Well shoot I did it, I hired—I told them we had to stop because I am running for office for pete’s sake.’ Well, now ‘pete’s sake’ is about as close to cursing as Mitt Romney comes, so you could tell he was pretty upset over that moment. So, there are a lot of little things that maybe people are not paying a lot of attention to right now, that could wind up being bigger things later on.

MARK MURRAY: And on to the next debate, November 9^th, CNBC.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: For pete’s sake, it will be great.

Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro talk about whether Republican voters will rally around Mitt Romney if he is the nominee and about the importance of an energized electorate for both parties in presidential elections.

Thanks to Brutus, CA and Frank "Grimey" Grimes for their questions! Keep an eye out for a special edition of the Boiler Room coming soon...

Video edited by NBC's Matt Loffman.

TRANSCRIPT:

MARK MURRAY: Welcome back to Inside the Boiler Room, I am with my colleague Domenico Montanaro. Domenico, we actually have two questions on the same topic. The first is from Brutus, CA who asks, “What is the likelihood that if Mitt Romney wins the GOP nomination, the GOP base will support him in the general election?” and our great commenter Frank “Grimey” Grimes from Springfield, USA—

DOMENICO MONTANARO:  --you can always count on Grimey

MARK MURRAY: –you can always count on Grimey, who has a similar question, Grimey asks, “My question is how likely is it that Republican voters come home to the eventual nominee, particularly if it is Romney?” What’s your take?

DOMENICO MONTANARO:  Well, I think-yes, there are all these issues with the conservative base and whether or not they are fired up by Romney. You know what does fire up the conservative base? Barack Obama. And if they think there is a real chance that they can beat Barack Obama, they’ll be at the polls.

MARK MURRAY: I agree. Last time around there was a lot about John McCain and whether he actually could fire up conservatives enough. And remember, by putting Sarah Palin on his ticket, look- Republicans were fired up and enthusiasm wasn’t really an issue. It had more to do with the economy, more to do with Bush and that kind of hang over. So the election is actually going to be determined –you and I had this conversation a while back. In a presidential election sometimes enthusiasm doesn’t matter as much because almost everyone goes out to vote. Yes, in an individual state and if it a very close race it could come down to the 2-thousand or 5-thousand people who decide to show up or not for an election. But overwhelmingly, you are going to see so many people end up going to the polls, and one of the reasons is that there is  such a stark choice right now between the Democratic party and the Republican party—

DOMENICO MONTANARO: In a midterm certainly enthusiasm matters more than in a general election because there is about 30 percent fewer people that go out to vote in a midterm than in a presidential election. But, if everything is moving towards a really tight, close election, like we are kind of thinking it might be, if it is something more like a 2004 or more like 2000, enthusiasm may matter. If the margins in a place like Florida, in a place like Ohio, places that Democrats need to bring up their numbers or Republicans need to compete—Virginia, North Carolina, these kinds of things at the margins—it could make a difference if you have one group that is more enthusiastic than the other. But you are right that in a presidential election in matters less. With the stark choice, I think that you are going to see both sides getting it and working very hard to get out the vote.

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.