all this as america watches the dow plunge over 500 points again. and washington s popularity sinks to new lows. we ll tell you how markets are heading before the opening bell. it is thursday, august 11th, 2011. i m chuck todd. this is special edition of the daily rundown . i m excited. in my adopted home state of iowa, i m coming to you live from java joe s, the state is the center of the political universe as this weekend. we ll be here today and tomorrow and on saturday, we re bringing you the straw poll results live from ames. let s get right to my first read of the morning. we re in for a whirlwind 48 hours on the campaign trail. the republican candidates have been crisscrossing the state here, making their final pitches before saturday s straw poll. tonight is fight night. eight republicans meet in the third presidential debate of the cycle, ahead of that high stakes event on saturday, the 2012 hopefuls are trying to win over hawkeye state voters.
attention and energy on the democrat side, i think we have an opportunity to dramatically increase that by anywhere from 10% to 20%. democrats almost doubled. when all of this enthusiasm showed up, could you envision that or is that a little bit of a reach? i hope so. it depends. it is a fluid race. at the end of the day, one thing i hope we can take a lesson from the democrats in 08, they were able to use that to pivot immediately into a general election turnout campaign. i m hoping we ll be able to do the same thing here in iowa and put the six electoral votes in the republican nominee s back pocket. matt strong, chairman of the iowa republican party, we ll see you a lot over the next 48 hours. it will be an interesting can t wait to get to ames. up next, high anxiety, serious business on wall street and main street. another terrible day for the dow. is there any way to stop the slide? we ll get a check on the markets before the opening bell. first, today s trivia questi