Romney’s Republican influence

>> well, as we just heard, the firestorm over romney 's secretly recorded remarks is spreading down the ballot to other hotly contested races with some republicans distancing themselves from their party's presidential standard bearer. let's bring in the moderator of that virginia debate, and of course moderator of "meet the press," david gregory . first, you seemed to cause tim cain a little bit of a problem there. he found himself on a little bit of the defensive after the debate following that remark. give me your general impressions about george allen . was he trying to be a virginia republican, a national republican or a virginia moderate?

>> well, a virginia former chief executive who can sort of steer clear of some of these big partisan debates. i think you see that in massachusetts as well. he certainly did not double down on mitt romney . didn't mention mitt romney . and was very ginger about openly disagreeing with him but certainly didn't want to be cast as part of this 47% argument. so an emphasis on both sides which is interesting about virginia on getting past partisan politics , getting past some of the dysfunction in washington.

>> independents are more up for grabs it seems in this senate race than actually in the presidential where obama had opened up a lead on romney but those two were neck and neck. from that's why fiscal issues dominated. also defense cuts a big issue in virginia .

>> massachusetts was watching how she was trying to nationalize the race, elizabeth warren . scott brown trying to make it local. how much nationalizing/local did you experience in virginia ?

>> i think it was a lot more local. nationalizing was about getting past some of the name calling in washington, more practical results. but you did see allen trying to nationalize the sequestration issue on defense cuts saying this was governor cain who had supported that and it was kang russ f dangerous for the state.

>> we talked about ann romney 's comments and they really struck you. you just interviewed both mitt romney and ann romney . you had come away with the same impression that she's -- this is getting to her a little bit.

>> any spouse feels the pain of their own husband going through this. i think ann romney is showing some of the strains that we know are going on inside the campaign. she told me she felt that her husband was being demonized. here she's telling conservatives to stop it, that this is hard. why don't you get into the ring. it is hard. national human reactions but also i think illustrating the strains of how difficult it is for mitt romney to try to get better known and rehabilitate some of these negative image problems.

>> quickly on foreign policy . the romney campaign's trying to bring it back. we just saw dan senor this morning talking about syria. but the white house reaction on libya has been very slow. is this a potential problem?

>> well, it is. we've seen it in our polling, as you pointed out, that some decrease in that lead on handling of foreign policy for the president. there's no question whether it's syria, whether it's the arab spring, any kind of unrest, they'd like to bring up as a potential disadvantage for obama .

>> how got?

>> we're going to talk to duvall patrick and kelly ayotte .

>>> much more ahead on the d"the daily rundown." you can in-person vote in two states right now, folks. did you know? we'll tell you who is casting presidential ballots today and a bunch of states starting tomorrow.

>>> plus, obama senior advisor david axelrod joins me next on the polls, the fight over libya and what the president meant by changing his change message.

>>> but first a look ahead at the schedules of the president in virginia today, aarp remarks. and mitt romney , heads out west. going to do an event in las vegas and guess what he also has to do? raise more money. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. icans believe they should be in