devastated crops in the nation's largest corn producing state. the iowa governor joins us to talk about the impact in his state. it is august 15, 2012. just when you thought last week's third grade insults were as low as the campaign could go, here we go again, the campaign has gotten even uglier. it's not faux outrage, it's real outrage. over the last 24 hours, the attacks from both sides have reached a new level of vitriol. it started yesterday with vice president joe biden who made these comments about romney's fiscal policies to an audience in danville, virginia which included several hundred african-americans. >> romney said in the first 100 days he's going to let the big banks write their own rules. unchain wall street. they're going to put y'all back in chains. >> biden's remarks were fodder for the romney cam -- calling the moment, a new low. last night in ohio romney lashed out at the president leveling his harshest attack against him to date. >> this is what an angry and desperate presidency looks like. his campaign strategy is to smash america apart and then try to cobble together 51% of the pieces. mr. president, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to chicago and let us get about rebuilding and reuniting america. >> the obama campaign wasn't going to lit that go unanswereds. ben labolt said that governor romney's comments seem unhinged coming at a time when he's pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into attack ads. this morning in an interview with cbs, romney fired right back. >> i think unhinged would have to characterize what we have seen from the president's campaign. the president's campaign is all about division and attack and hatred. my campaign is about getting america back to work. if you look at the ads that have been described and the divisiveness based on income, age, ethnicity and so forth, it's designed to bring a sense of emnitty and jealousy and anger. >> biden was not apologetic, he said he was just borrowing the republican's rhetoric. >> biden said we believe the -- i'm using their own words. i got a message for them. if you want to know what's outrageous, it's their policies. and the effects of their policies on middle class america. that's what's outrageous. >> well, romney responded to that biden attack on ryan this morning. >> can't speak for anybody else, but i can say that the comments of the vice president as i heard them i thought were one more example of a divisive effort to keep from talking about the real issues. look, no one is talking about deregulating wall street. >> let me strategically explain what's going on here and why the romney camp decided to go so harsh after biden. if they can't move romney's likability numbers up to the president's, bring the president down, the more he looks like a typical politician, in their view, the better off they are in october. the president finished off a nasty day of charges and counter charges with shamus dig. >> that's what he said about wind power, you can't drive a car with a windmill on it. now i don't know if he's actually tried that. i know he's had other things on his car. >> by the way, yesterday was supposed to be in exchange an issue exchange with the president talking about wind, romney in ohio talking about coal. was that the issue yesterday in i missed it. the romney came pain is up with this new tv ad in targeted markets and it's the first ad that shows romney and ryan together. >> you paid into medicare for years, every paycheck, now when you need it, obama has cut $716 billion from medicare, why? to pay for obama care. romney wants to strengthen the plan for the next generation. >> that ad is basically true except they leave out that they're -- romney is sending a message to the rest -- air cover in the medicare fight a battle where democrats have traditionally had the upper happened. the ad takes a winning play from -- when those candidates tied medicare to the president's health care law. >> i can't believe it, he has taken $716 billion out of the medicare trust fund to pay for obama care. i'll put it back. >> the big question, though, does that playbook work after republicans passed the ryan budget in 2011 and 2012 which sub substantially transforms the medicaid plan. ryan was challenged in a forks interview yesterday. >> doesn't your budget also contemplate very major savings from medicare for something similar to -- >> only president obama raised $716 billion from the medicare program to pay for obama care. >> right. >> we don't do that. >> you make saving how much? >> i joined the romney ticket. and what mitt romney is proposing to do is repeal all of obama care. >> one of ryan's strengths was supposed to be that he wasn't perceived as a typical politicians, he's known for standi ing up for his beliefs a his plans, when it comes to hard questions on tax reform, he sounded like a typical politician. >> will we soon see a plan that's specific about which loopholes to close? >> that is something we think we need to do in the light of day and the house and congress to pass a project for tax reform. we want to get feedback from americans about what priorities in the tax code we should keep and which ones we should get rid of. >> light of day, which means after election day. that's a split particularly on medicare. finally, if it's wednesday, we have election results. how does an establishment member who has a high -- get to the republican primary? when you have three challengers splitting the votes against him. tommy thompson won the senate primary in wisconsin with a meager 44% of the vote, but a win is a win. pretty good night for the establishment, john mica held on to his seat. in the third district in florida, it looks like redistricts may knock off 12-term incumbent, cliff staerns. and ted yoho branded him with the washington label with this memorable ad. >> career politicians got us into this mess, but all they do is sling mud at each other, let's get the pigs out of the mud. linda mcmahon will make another run after crushing chris sheas in that state's republican primary. and connie mack won his senate primary and will face off democratic senator bill nelson in the fall, that is a 50/50 race. republican megadonor sheldoned aal son has put more money into the -- tuesday he attended a las vegas event with congressman paul ryan. >> of all the places that needs jobs, that need home values to rebound is it's nevada. the unemployment rate, i had to read this number three times, 11.6% in nevada. you deserve better than that. we will get this economy growing, we will turn things around, we will get the economy back on track, and we will not duck the tough issues, we will lead. >> by the way, as john ralston, my man out in vegas pointed ou paul ryan dan did pronounce nev correctly. adelson is moving money everywhere. >> i was talking to one of his associates, close associates just yesterday, he's already spent about $42 million to try to defeat president obama, reports of up to 100 million, i have asked how much is he prepared to spend? the answer, whatever it takes. >> he's spreading it around. he had the one for newt. and obviously he put eight figures into there. but he's also doing house candidates. where else? >> $10 million he and his wife donated to the romney superpac. the coke brothers, americans for prosperity and others of the superpacs, we don't know about the final fours, that's the secret money routes, and what he might be putting in there remains one of the big questions. but look, there are two reasons why this deserves more scrutiny than it's gotten so far. first of all, adelson has very hard hawkish views on the middle east. he owns a newspaper in israel. he's a close friend of netanyahu. when romney goes, his only mention of the palestinians is one that inflames a lot of people and i think that, you know, one set of questions for romney is, what about a two-state solution, do you support it? do you not support it? not one that the obama campaign is likely to -- >> a report this week that talked about sheldon adel son's interest in macow. >> there's two federal investigations of the sands, which is adelson's corporation. it's been publicly reported by the sands. there's another one related to money laundering, not against adelson personally, but the casino which he runs looked the other way when one of the big associates of the mexican drug cartels was spending over $100 million as a whale at the casino. and another set of questio that ought to be asked is the romney justice department going to aggressively pursue these investigations? can romney pledge that the incident of his single biggest donor won't spread over into federal investigations. >> thank you, sir. up next, it's the worst drought this country has experienced in half a century. iowa governor terry branston will be with us. it's not just the farms and the fields, the drought will soon be felt across the country when prices rise on pretty much everything. but first, a look ahead at the schedules of president obama and milt romney. the president congress clouds his iowa bus tour, hitting the east part of the state. mitt romney has no public events, but does a slew of lom tv interviews all iowa. i take insulin, so i test... a lot. do you test with this? freestyle lite test strips? i don't see... beep! wow! that didn't take much blood. yeah, and the unique zipwik tab targets the blood and pulls it in. so easy. yep. freestyle lite needs just a third the blood of onetouch ultra. really? so testing is one less thing i have to worry about today. great. call or click today and get strips and a meter free. test easy. ♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays] the nation's worst drought in decades has turned corn fields to dust and left farmers scrambling to feed their herds. the u.s. drought monitor finds that more than half of the united states is now facing moderate to exceptional drought conditions. those conditions have spread across the heart of the midwest, the corn belt, hitting states the hardest. the real impact is yet to come. with supply calling, are expected to rise from cosmetics to breakfast cereal. nbc's janet shanlian is live for us in ft. worth, texas. and janet, you know, on the grocery bill front, it's always been my understanding that this is an impact we actually might not see for six months, explain. >> well, it depends who you talk to, the usda, chuck, has been very conservative in its estimates saying that the full run won't take place until next year. but -- you will start seeing impacts by the esnd of this yea. and it will be across the board because the corn crop is taken such a hit. and corn is used in the manufacture of so many products. just about everything including the packaging of many food products that we buy. there's also going to be a big impact on what we call the animal perishables, what you might call proteins, beef will go up an estimated 5%, dairy 4.5%. and pork 3.5%. what does that mean to your grocery bill and mine, a moderate grocery bill, that's an estimated $600 more than last year. that's a lot more in an economy that is still struggling and this could easily become a political issue in the next couple of months. >> as it happened, janet shanlian in ft. worth, texas. a lot of farmers, a lot of people who work with animals are finding it's impacting their businesses, whether it's producing food or not. let me point to iowa, as the nation's largest corn producer more than half the state's corn crops are in poor or very poor condition. the overall yield is expected to hit a 15-year low. half a billion bushels less than last year. iowa republican governor, governor branstead. explain why do you think that maybe this isn't going to be as bad as it looks right now? >> well, first of all, iowa farmers are very resilient, i was governor when we had the drought in '88%. the market has taken place, we have seen a significant increase in the market, we have seen a reduction of ethanol and other things, so the market is adjusting to it. we have opened for haying and zbr grazing and permitted a lot of bailing at road sides, and the usd has -- and the combination of all of these, and also, just frankly the varieties that we have today that the seed corn is so much better and so much more resistant to drought. we think the situation is difficult for many, but we have been through difficult times before. this is nothing like 1936 when we really had extremely bad situation. >> and let's talk about what you want from the federal government drought relief basically got stalled in congress before these guys left. what do you need immediately from the federal government in terms of drought relief? >> well, we would like to see an extension of the drought relief for the livestock producers. that would be helpful. the house passed that, the senate didn't take it up before they adjourned, hopefully they'll come back and take care of that situation. that is a part of the farm bill that expired at the end of, i think, september 30th of last year. we would like to see that extended. the crop insurance is going to help the grain producers significantly. iowa farmers are very resilient. i'm very encouraged that we're going to get through this and we don't need to make any bad move, we need to instead recognize, we still have the cheapest and the best quality of food in the world and we're very proud of it and we're resilient enough that we're going to come back. >> governor, we don't have a farm bill and the reason we don't have a farm bill is the house republican congress are not in support of it, they see it somehow as a give away. what's your message to them? senator grassley and amount of iowa senators support the grain bill, explain why you should -- >> the biggest problem a lot of people have is the massive expansion of the food stamp program. we have more feel on food stamps than ever before. they have liberalized the rules, and a lot of people think they need to tighten that up. president obama is trying to undo the work requirement. we think we need instead of putting more people on -- >> governor branstad, they haven't done that. they haven't undone the work requirements. i'm trying to understand the work requirements. you levelled a charge about the welfare work requirement, it turns out that's not true. where did you get your information? >> it absolutely is, i was one of the governors that helped get it and when we passed it, it was designed not to be waived and now the president of the united states by executive order in july weakened that. >> governor tommy thompson was a leader of this in wisconsin, he just won the primary yesterday. this president never supported work for welfare and now he's trying to weaken it. >> again, it was a waiver for governor, he's not doing anything, if governors weaken it to a certain point, the federal government yanks the labor. >> here's my concern, you've got some liberals that are going to try to use that, but what we think is the effective welfare reform that we passed on a bipartisan basis, like tommy thompson has worked effectively. liberals have always hated it, obama is playing to his liberal base. we think that's wrong, we think it's one of the most effective things that's been done in the last decade. and we need to do similar things with the food sample issue. >> every charge that has been leveled about this welfare reform order that the president signed, that every accusation that has been leveled by some republicans have been proven to be not true. >> the fact of the matter is the president did it. he didn't have to take this action to weaken the strong work requirement that was passed back -- >> it doesn't weaken it, it gives the states -- >> he did it because he's never supported the work requirement and the fact of the matter is- >> the work requirement is still there, governor. it's still there. >> but we don't want to see waivers of this, because once you start waivers, that's where we got to health care reform. we insisted on work requirements then we got a national law and we want to keep it in place, not have it weakened. >> governor branstad, we got a little bit focused on welfare when we were talking got the farm bill. we're following the drought of 2012 on all nbc platforms all day today. a tough new ooiid law. who held two u.s. senate seats at the same time. give me the answer #chuck todd. [ male announcer ] if you stash tissues like a squirrel stashes nuts, you may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec® liquid gels. nothing starts working faster than zyrtec® at relieving your allergy symptoms for 24 hours. zyrtec®. love the air. on our radar this morning, the president's deferred action starts today. but first just moments ago, a pennsylvania judge refused to grant an injunction that would stop a new voter id law from taking effect. democrats say the law will make it harder for the elderly, minorities and those just old enough to vote. today marks the start of president obama's new immigration initiative known as deferred action. it allows young undocumented immigrants to apply for a temporary work permit. a million young people could potentially come out of the shadows. i got to share this one with you because its just adds to the cynicism of all things washington. california democrat dennis cardoza has resigned from the congress. the congressman cited sensitive family needs saying he and his wife face increasing parentsing challenges. and shortly after the congressman announced his resignation, a top california-d.c. lobbying firm announce that cardoza would be managing director of their public affairs group. a slew of earnings reports are out today. let's get right to the market rundown. courtney reagan is here. what is the market going too do today? they were really happy about those retail sales yesterday. >> we actually did lose some steam yesterday today we are opening lower, the dow is down by about 25 points. we have seen fairly narrow trading ranges, but today investors have a handful of data to parse through. the consumer price index did come in flat for july for the second straight month. so with inflation unchanged, the fed has potentially more wiggle room to increase monetary stimulus and decrease unemployment. we did have some good retail numbers, target was very good, amb abercrombie -- they missed -- we're thinking that sales are going to be in trouble there for some time for those tractors. >> more impact, courtney reagan, cnbc, thank you very much. the senate interviews continue, that's what's next. we'll be right back. the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. and sounds vying for your attention. so we invented a warning you can feel. introducing the all-new cadillac xts. available with a patented safety alert seat. when there's danger you might not see, you're warned by a pulse in the seat. it's technology you won't find in a mercedes e-class. the all-new cadillac xts has arrived, and it's bringing the future forward. check out the latest collection of snacks from lean cuisine. creamy spinach artichoke dip, crispy garlic chicken spring rolls. they're this season's must-have accessory. lean cuisine. be culinary chic. like the elephant on my chest... he thought he was having a heart attack. she said, "take an aspirin, we need to go to the hospital." i'm on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. i'm very grateful to be alive. aspirin really made a difference. all week we're bringing -- the north dakota democratic has made trimming debts and deficits has made it a priority during -- hopes to take a by partisan crack one more time before heading home in december. >> i came here to do big things. debt is helpful to a point and at a point it becomes a dangerous murder. and we're not into doing things right now and i have been focused for five years, senator greg and i came one this idea of a commission that turned into the bowls simpson commission. i somewhere spent hundreds of hours negotiating and while the groups of us have reached an agreement, the broader body does not seem ready to act. i hope that changes before i leave here. but i think that's one reason. >> but she said you wanted to do big things. big things are going to be forced upon the next senate, isn't that fair to say? >> i very much hope that we do it before the next election. >> do you think it's possible december, post election? >> i do. >> what's the scenario that actually do you believe creates an opening? is it a republican house? obama re-election, 50/50 democratic senate? what do you think? >> i think the best chance to have this happen is the president is re-elected, the senate does not change hands, the house does not change hands and you have all of these things facing us, the expicture rations of the bush tax cuts, the end of the payroll tax holiday, the minimum tax coming back in force, that all of these constellation events, the debt ceiling extension being required early next year will bring this collective body to the realization they need to act. >> you don't think anything -- so your message to the country would be if you want something done, don't offer up a reward fo for delay, a political reward for delay. >> i just think if the presidency changes hands, there's almost certainly very little chance that the grand bargain can be struck. there's a greatest chance for the grand bargain to be truck is if this president is re-elected. this president, i was the second one to endorse him. >> he called me, i was in the senate gym and he said, hey, are you going to come out and help your pal or are you just going to sit on the sidelines. and you know, we were pals in the senate. not close, but, you know, shared a sense of humor more than anything. and so i said, no, i'll come and help you. why? because i thought i saw something special in him. he recognized that going to war in iraq was a huge mistake. which i believed deeply that it was. i thought it was a major mistake for this country. iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, had nothing to do with the attack on the united states and that all got confused in the public mind. and i really respected him for recognizing it to be a mistake and for speaking out. that's, i would say, the biggest reason i endorsed him. but he was also somebody who was like minded fiscallying and recognized the deficits and debt are a long-term challenge and some would say well, why has he allowed this to happen. i think you got to put that in historical perspective, he inherited a colossal mess, he inherited a circumstance which we were on the brink of a second depression and it took a tremendous effort to prevent us from going into a depression. >> what is your advice to whoever wins? i assume i know who you're for. >> north dakota expects you to have more than party loyal titl you know? north dakota expect -- that is the thing i have been focused on like a laser, getting results, not giving speeches, getting results, that's what people send you to get done here. >> is that why you think -- you're a red state democrat who's essentially survived over the years? >> and thrived? last time i was re-elected almost 70% of the vote. so, yeah, i think it's because i stayed very close to my constituency and i focused on getting results. >> i think that republicans think that if they stick together it's good politics. how do you think the democrats will -- when they -- >> that's what always happens here, i have been here 26 years. at some point, and i guess one of my frustrations about the place is, at some point, the country has got to come first. and we're there. in terms of the long-term challenges to america, this is a time both sides need to put aside more intense partisan feelings and get a result for this country. >> words of kent conrad there, our series is continuing all week. our political panel will be here next. but of course the white house soup of the day, chicken noodle. you can ulz follow the show on facebook, you can see the entire interview with senator kent conrad. we will be right back. you can't argue with nutrition you can see. great grains. great grains cereastarts whole and stays whole. see the seam? 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[ all ] i'm with scottrade. y wi t ou'lesi usptca llo tyoe e ce it's time to live... wider awake. only the beautyrest recharge sleep system combines the comfort of aircool memory foam layered on top of beautyrest pocketed coils to promote proper sleeping posture all night long. the revolutionary recharge sleep system from beautyrest... it's you, fully charged. receive up to a $300 beautyrest visa prepaid card when you buy select beautyrest mattress sets. that almost has racial overtones, rudy giuliani, what's your take on that? >> if it came from somebody serious we would get all excited about it. i think the vice president of the united states has become a laugh line on late-night television. i have never seen a vice president that has made as many mistakes, said as many stupid things, there's a real fear if he ever had, god forbid to take on the presidency, whether he would have the mental -- >> here's our political panel. welcome all. i do want to remind folks when you hear rudy, that maybe it's personal for him. >> i think. >> here is, we have this piece of sound, here's joe biden on rudy giuliani four years ago. >> i mean think about it, rudy giuliani, there's only three things he mentions in a sentence, he is genuinely not qualified to be president. >> this stuff does get personal. after that hit, i remember that. it really did do -- it was the one most effective things that biden did in his presidential campaign it just hurt giuliani in the primary. let's talk about the vitriol here. i was struck by biden saying something inartful and the "morning joe" folks are right, had a republican said it it would be a giant deal. the romney campaign went hard at it why zoo you think that is? >> what's mapping now, it's interesting the candidates ran to iowa, medicare is now a bigger issue than it was before. >> why do you think the romney folks just -- they decided that we're not going to do the gaff thing with biden. >> and they turned on a time, you know, it was last night -- >> they wanted to pounce. >> we got the remarks and couldn't believe the way the tone had changed from yesterday. if you look at the likability numbers, any opportunity to say they're full of hate, this is an angry campaign, even if it looks like they're doing it themselves, they're going do it. >> if you can't ride, burn it down. that's the thing that's keeping this obama campaign afloat right now, a 51%, 56% likability. that's the number i've been tracking for the last year. people still like this president, and when people get into that booth in november, if it's close, that's what will bring most. it's why reagan was able to win with the high unemployment rate. whether people feel like the economy is getting better or getting worse. we e did a purple poll recently and that was the number one predictor whether people felt it was getting better or worse. if there's another one, i think this race is going to be pretty well over. >> the economy always matters, but so does likability. >> can i just say, by the way, paul ryan, this is day five of the paul ryan pick. we haven't had a conversation about jobs and the economy. we have had conversations about medicare. paul ryan for a day. and today how the two campaigns. it's not faux outrage, it feels like true hatred. like they are going to have a war. >> that could be the big turn off at the end of the day, which gets back to the likability. even in that moment, people fall back into who they like in this mess. the the romney campaign is pulling the numbers down and we'll see if it's effective. >> when we come back, somebody used the phrase knuckle dragg s draggers. wait until you see who did it. we asked who held two u.s. senate seats at the same time? we give away the clues in the show. the answer is kent conrad. he announced he was retiring from the senate in 2002 because the deficit hadn't been cut. but that same year north dakota senator died in office. conrad got recruited to run in a special election for that seat and won. conrad was sworn in. so he technically held both north dakota senate seats for a few hours. if you have a political trivia question that should be on the show e-mail us. we'll be right back. 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[ male announcer ] for fruits, veggies and natural green tea energy... new v8 v-fusion plus energy. could've had a v8. politics is a sport except it happens to be a sport that affects your life. it's a sport that really matters. it's a sport that the outcome will decide whether you feel as if your life going to get better or worse. the game is a lot of fun to follow sometimes, but the outcome really matters. >> coverage of the 2012 election is brought to you by nissan. i think that he's a practical conservative. he's got a very conservative voting record but he's not a knuckle dragger e. he understands that tarp, while none of us wanted to do it, if we were going to save our economy and save the world economy, it had to happen. i wish we didn't have to do it either, but he understood that. >> steve mcmahon and michael steele. if you didn't vote for tarp, which by the way at least 100 members of the house gop conference did, i believe speaker boehner in trying to pay a compliment to paul ryan said that's knuckle drag. >> can you say sound byte? >> can you imagine if michael had said that? >> on another day, this would be a bigger thing. if you were a democrat running, would you use that? >> you might make an ad about it. i'm just saying. >> seemless plugs. >> ross hellorman has a piece on whether it's going to change. >> a piece on bet.com on romney's choice. and jurassic park. >> i think you know there's a purple poll. it should be out today or tomorrow. it's going to be interesting and fun. >> you promise it's fun? >> it will be interesting things. tid bits. like the focus group. >> fair enough. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." bb. bye-bye. the drought of 2012 has been the topic all summer long and should continue. the worst is the extreme and exceptional values through the heartland where the crops are grown and the damage has already been done. not much hope for rainfall today, but tomorrow there's a cold front with some rain in this area. have a great day, everyone. ♪ [ acoustic guitar: upbeat ] [ dog ] we found it together. on a walk, walk, walk. love to walk. yeah, we found that wonderful thing. and you smiled. and threw it. and i decided i would never, ever leave it anywhere. because that wonderful, bouncy, roll-around thing... had made you play. and that... had made you smile. 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