Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., joins Chris Cillizza to discuss the student loan debate taking place on Capitol Hill. Check it out here

Here are some lingering thoughts from today's panelists.

From NBC's Deputy Political Editor Domenico Montanaro:

One other thing… Colorado congressman Coffman could be facing a tough fight for reelection. Democrats now have a candidate -- state Rep. Joe Miklosi and, more importantly, as Democrats point out the district moves from 46.8% for Obama to 54.4% for Obama. It will be one on the list if Democrats want to take over the House. One thing that insulates Coffman a bit is he has a solid amount of money in the bank. And he might need it.

From MSNBC and The Grio's Perry Bacon:

One additional note about Tim Pawlenty, who we all agree seems a very likely vice-presidential choice. I wonder: can he attack?  He struggled to deliver a blow against Romney last year in one of the debates. He doesn't seem a natural attack dog, one of the primary roles of a vp nominee.

Did you miss today's panel segment, or want to see it again? Check it out here!

All too often our panelists leave the set with one or two lingering thoughts they want to get out. Since they didn't have a chance to say them on air, we wanted to jot them down below.

USA Today's Susan Page says:

"So, talking about possible veeps for Mitt Romney, who would make for the most interesting fall debate with Joe Biden? Somebody like Biden who has a tendency to go off-message -- although perhaps reporters want an unscripted exchange more than either campaign does."

Roll Call's David Drucker says:

"The competence argument can be tough to win on, a la Romney and his business experience. UNLESS you're a challenger making the pitch against an incumbent who voters has fallen short on the key issue of the campaign. A problem for Obama if the economy and his poll numbers on the issue don't improve."

To hear more great thoughts from our panel check out the segments from today.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal will join us tomorrow to talk about education and the Romney campaign. Have questions for him? Go to our Facebook page and let us know – www.facebook.com/dailyrundown

In addition to Jindal, Chuck will talk to our NBC/WSJ pollsters Fred Yang and Bill McInturff. Here’s the early headline from the poll on President Obama’s gay marriage announcement, as reported by NBC’s Mark Murray.

And because our panelists always have something smart to say after we end the show, here’s one more thought emailed to us from strategist Jill Zuckman: “On the private equity flap: Mayor Booker is concerned about defending the entire private equity industry. But the Obama campaign is talking about Gov. Romney’s actions while at Bain Capital. When  you run for president, you have to be prepared to answer questions about everything you’ve ever done or said. Gov. Romney answered these questions when he ran against Sen. Kennedy – and lost – and it’s fair game to raise these questions again as he runs for president.”

Senator Mark Warner and Senator Jerry Moran are working together on a bipartisan jobs bill called the Startup Act 2.0. Both senators joined The Daily Rundown’s Chuck Todd today to discuss the importance of this bill. To hear more from them check out the video.

On today’s Daily Rundown Rev. Jesse Jackson said President Obama's decision on same-sex marriage should not be a state issue, but a federal issue.

“Ultimately one must not have fifty states stepping on equal systems and civil rights. You ultimately must have an even playing field and one set of rules,” Rev. Jackson said on the Daily Rundown.

The Reverend went on to say the President took a daring step in his stance on same-sex marriage, but that there was still another step to be taken.

“Given the culture, he took a bold step, but there’s another step to be taken,” Jackson said of the President.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson is founder and President of the Rainbow-PUSH Coalition, a multi-racial, multi-issue organization which fights for social change.

To see more from today’s Daily Rundown view the video.

All too often, your TDR panelists have another thought that we don’t get to hear on the show. Here are a few from this week:

NBC’s Mark Murray on North Carolina: To illustrate that North Carolina is definitely a battleground state – at least right now – consider that of the 10 media markets with the most presidential advertising this week, three of them are in North Carolina, including top-rated Greensboro. Per SMG Delta, here are the 10 hottest media markets in the presidential race (based on advertising points) for the Obama campaign, Romney campaign, anti-Obama American Future Fund, anti-Obama Americans Crossroads, anti-Obama/pro-Romney Restore Our Future, and anti-Romney/pro-Obama Priorities USA.

TIME’s Michael Crowley on the Rev. Wright redux: The possibility that a Rev. Wright Super PAC ad could backfire and hurt Romney is a reminder that the explosion of these outside groups is a mixed blessing. Campaigns always like more financial air cover--but  get very, very nervous about losing control of their message.

GOP strategist Rob Johnson on the power of perceptions on the economy: The recent USA TODAY/Gallup poll has some interesting numbers that show good news for Mitt Romney an bad news for the current resident of the White House. 71% of Americans rate economic conditions as poor and 55% say the economy would get better under a Romney presidency versus only 46% for Obama, who has had four years of disastrous failure with economic policies. President Obama's unfavorable rating as a sitting US President is at 46%; that is a recipe for defeat. 

Republicans spent Wednesday bringing forward five budget plans to vote that they knew would fail in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

Democrats contend that last year’s agreement to raise the debt limit should suffice as a budget. They also insist that any new agreement include some tax increases in conjunction with more limited cuts to social programs. The Republicans are rejecting any tax increases, and requesting tax cuts in some instances, along with more significant cuts to entitlement programs like Medicare.

Media largely panned the day-long exercise as a Republican attempt to “embarrass Democrats,” including Bloomberg News and the AP. They were able to bring forward such a vote due to a Senate rule that allows a vote on any budget if no fiscal blueprint has been produced by April 1.

In today's Deep Dive Chuck takes another look at  the Florida GOP Senate primary. The heated race between Connie Mack IV and Former Senator George LeMieux got even more fiery yesterday when  Mitt Romney took a break from presidential politics to give his support to Connie Mack.

Chuck explains the race and sits down with LeMieux to talk about how the candidate is fairing so far. To hear more about the race in Florida, check out our interview with LeMieux from today, and in case you missed it, take some time to look out our interview from April with Mack.

By MSNBC’s Xuan Thai

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) called out Republican leaders on the debt limit fight, saying that they’re trying to “create a crisis” over the debt limit to hurt Democrats, including President Obama.

“They want to create a crisis so people say ‘oh my goodness maybe we if we change everything, things will be better. Maybe we need a different president’,” Sen. Boxer told The Daily Rundown’s host Chuck Todd.

“It’s interesting that they’re setting up a debt fight, [Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell and [Republican House Speaker John]Boehner, over the future debt ceiling.  Making it a crisis when it isn’t a crisis and demanding more cuts when they’re not living up to the cuts the already agreed to,” Sen. Boxer continued.

Sen. Boxer was referring to Republican attempts to renegotiate the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts agreed to during last year’s debt ceiling negotiations.  Republicans are trying to avoid the deep cuts in defense spending and are proposing alternatives to the sequestration. 

Both sides are gearing up for a battle over the next debt ceiling increase.  Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has said that the federal government could run out of money again by the end of the year. 

Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter joins The Daily Rundown’s Chuck Todd to respond to their attacks on Mitt Romney’s time at Bain, and claims that the President’s same-sex marriage decision was purely for political reasons.

On today's show Rep. James Clyburn, D-SC., joined Chuck to discuss same-sex marriage. During his appearance Rep. Clyburn said he didn’t always support same-sex marriage at first, but now considers it to be a civil right and says that it shouldn’t be left up to a state-by-state approach.

To view Rep. Clyburn on our show today, and to see what else he had to say, check out the video to the right.

The Daily Rundown takes a deep dive  into the only other time Mitt Romney chose a running mate, his 2002 Massachusetts run for governor when he endorsed Kerry Healey as his lieutenant governor. Chuck Todd is joined by former Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey to discuss her time with Romney, how Romney may have picked her as running mate, and how he might chose his vice presidential running mate.

Chuck talked to both state Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R) and Rep. Joe Donnelly (D) just hours after they officially secured the nominations to face off for Indiana's U.S. Senate seat November. Mourdock's drubbing of Sen. Dick Lugar (R) by more than 20 points shocked Washington and his response to Chuck about bipartisanship turned a lot of heads today. Check it out.