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DES MOINES, Iowa – Like it or not, the 2016 presidential election is already underway.

For a presidential candidate to be successful in the Iowa caucuses, candidates must visit early and often. More so than either of the other two early nominating states -- New Hampshire and South Carolina -- contenders need a well-organized ground game and to make strong bonds across the Hawkeye State.

President Barack Obama began his launch to the White House after finishing first in the Democratic caucuses, beating frontrunner Hillary Clinton and ultimately launching him as a serious contender. The ground game he was able to develop delivered the decisive victory.

“Obama's campaign organization was the best I've ever seen,” longtime Des Moines Register reporter David Yepsen said. “Not only were they able to turn out people on caucus night, but at the site they were able to peel off enough supporters and send them to John Edwards to prevent Clinton from finishing second in the final tally. I hadn't seen that trick before.”

Through his coalition work and on-the-ground dedication, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum came from nowhere to win the Republican caucuses in 2012. He visited every one of Iowa’s 99 counties and essentially moved his family to the state in the final weeks of the campaign.

Similar strategies are essential moving into 2016.

“Iowa matters because you can't simply swoop in here and buy a victory with TV and radio ads. It takes visits, meeting personally with thousands of Iowans to be successful,” caucus veteran Tim Albrecht, who serves as Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad’s spokesman, said. “Early travels here are important, because a candidate can seal the deal with activists and rely on them to volunteer their hearts out for the next two years.

With Election Day 2016 still more than 1,000 days away, there has already been a flurry of visitors to the first-in-the-nation caucus state.

“The frequency of visits to Iowa shows once again the caucuses will matter and Iowans continue to take their role as first-in-that-nation very seriously,” Albrecht points out.

Texas Gov. and 2012 presidential candidate Rick Perry made his first appearance in Iowa Thursday since finishing fifth in the caucus nearly two years ago. Perry, who is not running for re-election as governor, tried to tamper speculation of his future ambitious but made it clear Iowa would be crucial in another bid.

“If I was making a plan for 2016, coming to Iowa early and often would be part of it,” Gov. Perry said. “But as I shared, that is a bit premature.”

“Rick Perry is in a unique position, because he's run before and has a base of support already located in Iowa,” Albrecht said.

But other potential Republican contenders have been trying to make a name for themselves throughout the state as well.

Ted Cruz, the first term Republican senator from Texas, also has been wooing Iowans often nearly three years before the next presidential election. Cruz has already visited the state three times in as many months and has been meeting with crucial donors along the way -- even though he’s served in the U.S. Senate for less than a year.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has already made two trips to Iowa, and he has the added benefit that his father, Ron Paul, ran for president in the last two cycles and built a strong base in Iowa.

“Rand has a head start given the level of organization his dad had here in '08 and '12,” David Kochel, who served as Mitt Romney’s senior Iowa adviser, said.

The Republican Party of Iowa’s current chairman, A.J. Spiker, also headed Ron Paul’s longshot presidential campaign in the state and many establishment Republicans think Spiker’s position could aid Rand Paul if he decides to run.

Even Santorum has kept up appearances in Iowa this year and reiterated the importance to be visible in the state.

During the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa at the start of August Santorum said: “I have a lot of faith still in the people of Iowa in 2016 and beyond to use their good judgment and do what no other state has the opportunity to do which is to know the candidates.”

Paul Ryan, the former Republican vice-presidential nominee, will appear next Saturday in Altoona where he will keynote Gov. Terry Branstad’s annual birthday bash.

The Democratic side has been slightly less busy with visits from potential candidates as the country waits to see if Hillary Clinton will once again vie for the nomination.

Vice President Joe Biden came to the Hawkeye State in recent weeks, fueling speculation for a possible candidacy. In mid-September, Biden spoke at the annual Harkin Steak Fry -- an event that has become an essential box to check for Democrats considering a presidential run.

“It’s amazing, when you come to speak at the steak fry, a whole lot of people seem to take notice. I don't know why the hell that is. You’ve attracted the entire national press corps. I’ve never quite understood it but I am learning,” Biden joked.

And while Hillary Clinton has not visited the state personally, there is no shortage of her supporters making their voices heard. Just last week, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer addressed the Iowa Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner with one key message: Hillary should run for president.

“Run, Hillary, Run,” Schumer proclaimed. “If you run, you’ll win, and we’ll all win.

In late August at an event hosted by EMILY’s List -- an influential Democratic group that works to elect women who support abortion rights -- panelist Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., looked ahead to "that moment in 2017 when we can say 'Madam President' to Hillary Rodham Clinton."

Yepsen says its normal to see so many candidates rushing to the state this far out, because 2016 will be an open-seat election. He cautions, though, coming this early has its benefits but it won’t necessarily guarantee a win three years from now.

“It sends a signal to the activists, donors, media that you are serious and so you get taken seriously.  It's hard to raise money without an early start and it sends a signal to donors if you are seen in the early states,” he added.

“But....a candidate also has to have a message - something to sell - to succeed.”

Before the Veterans Day holiday, the gun-control group Americans for Responsible Solutions -- co-founded by former Rep. Gabby Giffords and her husband Capt. Mark Kelly -- announced the startup of a sister organization, Veterans for Responsible Solutions.

“The perspective of our nation’s service members and veterans is critical to the debate on how we reduce gun violence,” Kelly said in a conference call on Friday. “Veterans are considered some of our nation’s most foremost experts on the responsible use of firearms.”

Kelly said more than 100 former members of the military will advocate on behalf of the organization in various ways, from walking the halls of Congress to penning op-eds.

Americans for Responsible Solutions formed in January following the Newtown shooting in Connecticut, and it aired its first TV ad in February. But in April, a Senate filibuster blocked an effort to strengthen criminal background checks for gun purchases -- backed by the super PAC.

Following the vote, Kelly vowed to try and replace members of the Senate who failed to back the measures. Through the end of June, the group had raised $6.5 million.

Obama’s mea culpa on health care -- and the purpose was to stop the bleeding… Obama on the website: “I’m confident that it will be even better by Nov. 30, and that the majority of people are going to be able to get on there”… Obama also fired up on changing procurement rules when it comes to IT… Obama defends Biden, saying selecting him as VP is one the best decisions he’s ever made… Obama also talks Iran… October job numbers post-shutdown: Economy adds 204,000 jobs and unemployment rate increases to 7.3%... First Read’s 2016 week in review… And Christie to appear on “Meet the Press” and the other Sunday shows.

*** Obama’s mea culpa: President Obama has had more than a website to fix when it comes to the implementation of his health-care law -- he also has had to fix his previous vow that “If you like your insurance, you’ll be able to keep it.” The reason: We’ve learned that vow isn’t true for all Americans (those who purchase their health insurance in the private marketplace), and his credibility was on the line. So in an interview with one of us yesterday, Obama tried to fix that problem. While he argued that his vow is still true for the vast majority of Americans and said many in the private-insurance will ultimately be better off under the law, the president acknowledged that there “a small percentage of folks who may be disadvantaged… It means a lot to them. And it's scary to them. And I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation, based on assurances they got from me.” But remember: A “small percentage” still equals millions of Americans.

*** Trying to stop the bleeding: Obama went on to say in the interview, “We've got to work hard to make sure that we hear them and that we're going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this.” (The White House later told us that they are working on administrative, not legislative, fix.) Perhaps the best way to look at Obama’s mea culpa was to stop the bleeding on questions surrounding his previous “you can keep it” vow -- so the White House can return to the other problem they need to fix: the website.

*** Obama on the website: Speaking of the website and its troubled rollout, Obama said he’s “confident” that a “majority” of Americans will be able to successfully use the Obamacare site by the end of the month. “I'm confident that it will be even better by Nov. 30, and that the majority of people are going to be able to get on there. They're going to be able to enroll. They're going to be able to apply. And they're going to get a good deal.” So the race is on -- Nov. 30 is three weeks away. And do note that Obama said a “majority” -- not a vast majority or overwhelming majority. The president also admitted that he himself has become slightly more skeptical about guarantees when it comes to the website, noting he had been “burned before.” So perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that the president didn’t 100% shut the door to an enrollment delay, but his words suggested that his team is trying to do everything they can to avoid such a delay.

*** On changing procurement rules and acknowledging the problems that come with big reforms: Two other things struck us in the interview when it came to the health-care law. One, the president was fired out about changing federal procurement rules when it comes to IT issues; in fact, it was an interesting “tell” from the president -- meaning if there is one place he’s truly laying blame for the website problems, it’s on this issue. “One of the lessons learned from this whole process on the website is that probably the biggest gap between the private sector and the federal government is when it comes to IT... So part of what I'm going to be looking at is how do we across the board, across the federal government, leap into the 21st century.” And two, Obama said that all the problems, glitches, and other issues are the norm when you try to do big things. “I think what most people I hope also recognize is that when you try to do something big like make our health care system better that there're going to be problems along the way, even if ultimately what you're doing is going to make a whole lot of people better off. And I hope that people will look at the end product.”

*** Obama on Biden: “One of the best decisions that I’ve ever made was selecting him as VP”: Also in the interview, Obama rejected the thought -- and some of the polling -- of replacing Joe Biden with Hillary Clinton in 2012. “If they had asked me, I would have said there is no way that I'm not running again with Joe Biden, because I genuinely believe that he has been one of the best vice presidents in our history,” the president said. “He also happens to be a friend. He also happens to be one of my most important advisors on domestic foreign policy. I like him. When my back's up against the wall, he has my back.” Obama went on to say, “He is a personal friend and adviser. It's one of the best decisions that I've ever made was selecting him as vice president. I couldn't be prouder of the job that he's done.”

*** And Obama on Iran: Finally, Obama touched on the issue of Iran -- just as there’s talk about a possible deal on the country’s nuclear program. But the message Obama gave is that the burden is on Iran to show to everyone that they’re not building nuclear weapons. “We don't have to trust them. What we have to do is to make sure that there is a good deal in place from the perspective of us verifying what they're doing.”

*** October jobs numbers: 204,000 jobs added, unemployment rate rises to 7.3%: Turning away from yesterday’s Obama interview to today’s economic news, here are the first post-shutdown jobs numbers, and they’re a lot better than expected: “U.S. employers added 204,000 jobs in October, an unexpected burst of hiring during a month in which the federal government was partially shut down for 16 days. The Labor Department says the unemployment rate rose to 7.3 percent from 7.2 percent in September, likely because furloughed federal workers were counted as unemployed.”  And the jobs numbers were revised up for August and September, meaning we added some 300,000 jobs overall.

*** The 2016 week in review: On Tuesday, Chris Christie cruised to re-election in New Jersey, 60%-38%...  The day after, potential 2016 rivals took some not-so-subtle digs at the New Jersey governor… The Democratic group American Bridge released a memo highlighting the “Hillary Effect” in Terry McAuliffe’s gubernatorial win in Virginia…. Texas Gov. Rick Perry hit Iowa on Thursday… And Perry will be on “Daily Rundown” this morning.

*** Christie to appear on “Meet”: Oh, and there’s one more 2016 note: This weekend, Christie is appearing on all the Sunday shows, including NBC’s “Meet the Press.” As we said yesterday, Christie certainly isn’t shying away from grabbing the GOP establishment front-runner status.

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*** Friday’s “The Daily Rundown” line-up: Much more of the exclusive interview with President Obama… Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) live from Iowa… Plus the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza and Charlie Cook of the Cook Political Report.

*** Friday’s “Jansing & Co.” line-up: Guests include White House economic adviser Jason Furman, Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT), CNBC contributor Greg Ip, PBS’s Christina Bellantoni, Politico’s Manu Raju, Dem strategist Chris Kofinis, and GOP strategist Robert Traynham.

*** Friday’s “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up: Guest Host Richard Lui interviews MSNBC Daily Rundown Host Chuck Todd on his interview with President Obama.  Former RNC chair Michael Steele and Democratic strategist Kiki Mclean will discuss the President’s apology and defense of Obamacare.  Fmr. VP Biden economic advisor Jared Bernstein will break down the latest jobs numbers.  The parents of Kendrick Johnson will discuss their son’s mysterious gym mat death.  Fmr. NFL Player Cam Cleeland joins to talk about the Incognito bullying investigation.  And Today’s Agenda Panel includes:  The Root’s Keli Goff, The Huffington Post’s Ryan Grimm and The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn.

*** Friday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include Daily Beast columnist Sally Kohn, Talking Points Memo’s Sahil Kapur, MSNBC’s Karen Finney, and director John Sayles.

*** Friday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Peter Alexander, filling in for Andrea Mitchell, interviews NBCSports.com’s Pro Football Talk Editor Mike Florio, the New York Times’ Jackie Calmes, the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza and NBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin.  The program also will carry President Obama’s economic speech today from New Orleans.

*** Friday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: MSNBC’s Craig Melvin, filling for in Tamron Hall, interviews Reuters and Atlantic columnist Zachary Karabell on the new jobs report released today, Politico’s Jennifer Haberkorn on health care, and Dr. David Stukus on his new report busting allergy myths.

*** Saturday’s “UP w/ Steve Kornacki” line-up: MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki and panel will look at Medicaid expansion in the states and how the choice is dividing republicans: is free money really being left on the table at the expense of people who are really hurting? Chris Christie’s decisive win Tuesday: is he going to follow the 2000 George W. Bush model to the White House? There was no tea party back then… Plus, controlling the message over social security. It’s always been about cutting or preserving it as is. But what about expanding social security? Can democrats succeed in changing the debate? All of that and a special msnbc contestant edition of Up Against the Clock! Saturday’s panel includes Jeremy Peters with The New York Times, Rachael Bade at POLITICO, National Journal’s Alex Seitz-Wald and NBC’s Mara Schiavocampo.

*** Saturday’s “MSNBC Live Weekends” line-up at 2:00 pm ET: Craig Melvin’s guests include Fmr. Texas Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson; Reuters columnist David Rohde; The Washington Post’s Reid Wilson; Golf Digest’s Gabriel Thompson; Fmr. Rep. Patrick Murphy; Dr. David Cifu; Dr. Donald Gajewski of Brooke Army Medical Center, msnbc.com’s Adam Serwer; playwright Esther Armah, columnist Bob Franken

*** Sunday’s “UP w/ Steve Kornacki” line-up: MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki and panel on the next steps for ENDA. 40 years since a workplace discrimination bill was first introduced, what are the chances of it happening this time? And Texas voting restrictions – how is it that even 90-year old former House Speaker Jim Wright was denied? Plus, the panel will look at the politics of the secession movement – what it’s like to be really red living in a blue state or very blue in a red state. Sunday’s panel includes journalist Eleanor Clift, former Congresswoman Mary Bono,  Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart, Amanda Terkel with HuffingtonPost.com, The Nation’s Ari Berman, Abby Rapoport at The American Prospect and Shannyn Moore, columnist with the Anchorage Daily News.

*** Sunday’s “MSNBC Live Weekends” line-up at 3:00 pmET:  Craig Melvin’s guests include Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA); Mark Halperin, author of “Double Down”; TheGrio’s Goldie Taylor; The Atlantic Columnist Zachary Karabell; Reason Magazine’s Peter Suderman; and Gerard Nadeau (Vietnam veteran) and John Banvard (WWII veteran) who were recently married.

AP: “Seeking to calm a growing furor, President Barack Obama said Thursday he’s sorry Americans are losing health insurance plans he repeatedly said they could keep under his signature health care law. But the president stopped short of apologizing for making those promises in the first place. ‘I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me,’ he said in an interview with NBC News.”

Politico: “Barack Obama: ‘I am sorry’.”

National Journal: Obama Apologizes for Cancelled Health Plans

Gallup: “In the midst of widespread news coverage of problems with the federal health exchange website, relatively few uninsured Americans (18%) -- the primary target population for the exchanges -- have so far attempted to visit an exchange website. The percentage is slightly higher, 22%, among uninsured Americans who say they plan to get insurance through the exchanges.”

USA Today: “Enrollment for health insurance on state-run exchanges has been low in the first month, as officials in various states cite website glitches, a months-away deadline and even the government shutdown as reasons for the low numbers. Officials from 13 of the 15 states with their own exchanges, said 757,000 have registered for the exchanges, but only 139,170 people have bought or enrolled in health insurance plans.”

Obama also said, “There is the possibility of a phased agreement” with Iran. But USA Today notes, “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that he ‘utterly rejects’ the emerging nuclear deal between western powers and Iran, calling it a ‘bad deal’ and promising that Israel will do everything it needs to do to defend itself.” More: “He spoke before meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who returned to Tel Aviv for a briefing before he travels to Switzerland to participate in nuclear talks with Iran. Kerry's decision to fly to Geneva comes after signs that global powers and Iran were close to a deal that would cap some of Iran's suspected nuclear program in exchange for limited relief from economic sanctions.”

NBC’s Ali Weinberg looks at how President Obama has been boxed in – low approval ratings hampering a domestic agenda, Snowden leaks damaging his foreign-policy agenda: The botched rollout of Obama’s health-care law, his handling of Syria, and NSA revelations have led to Obama finding himself at the lowest point in his presidency, with his lowest approval ratings since taking office. That has hampered his ability to gain any traction for a second-term domestic agenda on things like the budget and immigration reform. But the methodical Snowden leaks have put on raw display not only Washington’s eavesdropping on leaders from Berlin to Ankara, but also exposed how the U.S. collects information on friends and foes, including secretly tracking the Israeli military, and that the U.S. and Israel created the virus to attack an Iranian nuclear facility. As a result, Obama’s ability to push forward with a robust foreign-policy agenda -- whether it’s building a broad coalition for intervention in Syria, Middle East peace talks, and even trade in Asia -- has been crippled.”

NBC’s Carrie Dann: “President Barack Obama would have refused to take Vice President Joe Biden off the Democratic ticket in 2012, he told NBC’s Chuck Todd Thursday, calling Biden ‘one of the best vice presidents in our history” and saying his selection of the Delaware senator as his running mate was “one of the best decisions that I’ve ever made.’”

About Benghazi… USA Today: “The television show 60 Minutes has announced it has learned of new information that undercuts information it received from contractor Morgan Jones on his actions the night of the 2012 attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi. ‘We are currently looking into this serious matter to determine if he misled us, and if so, we will make a correction,’ the news program wrote in a statement e-mailed shortly before 8 p.m. ET Thursday.”

Politico: “The Senate made history Thursday, voting 64-32 to pass landmark legislation extending workplace protections to the LGBT community. The legislation now heads to the House, where Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) opposes the measure.”

And check out this quote from Eric Cantor’s spokesman, per NBC’s Frank Thorp: "The bill is currently not scheduled in the House," said spokesman Rory Cooper. "I hope Majority Leader Reid soon addresses the dozens of House-passed bills that have been ignored in the Senate that create jobs, improve education and create opportunity while Americans struggle to find a good-paying job."

Jake Sherman goes to Kansas: “Reality has sunk in for one of Congress’s staunchest Obamacare opponents. Just weeks ago, Rep. Tim Huelskamp was one of the most prominent faces of the government shutdown, privately plotting with conservatives to push House Republicans into a strategy they later came to regret. But this week, as he wheeled through county after county, lambasting his congressional leadership and the Obama administration with equal fervor, Huelskamp is publicly admitting that a government shutdown to choke off funding for Obamacare likely isn’t in the cards when government funding runs out again in January. The shift may signal a broader move away from the slash-and-burn tactics favored by some of Congress’s most conservative lawmakers — and a broader recognition on the far right that the GOP is in dire need of a tactical makeover.”

Roll Call: “Sen. Joe Manchin III has followed through on introducing legislation to delay the individual mandate penalty under Obamacare for a year. The West Virginia Democrat teamed up with his friend Mark S. Kirk, R-Ill., on the measure, which they announced late Thursday.”

Charlie Cook notes that GOP brand damage and Cuccinelli’s socially conservative views hurt him more in Virginia than Obamacare helped him: “In the end, these social issues hurt Cuccinelli in the rapidly growing suburbs of Northern Virginia. Conversely, McAuliffe was very strong among the Democratic Party establishment but less popular among the more ideological Left in the party. The 2008 split between supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama is an apt comparison for describing the internal division that McAuliffe faced early on. But liberals’ antipathy toward Cuccinelli repaired that rift. Neither Cuccinelli nor McAuliffe had a natural claim on voters in the ideological middle.”

More: “McAuliffe ran up slightly higher margins among Democrats and liberals than Cuccinelli did among Republicans and conservatives, the fact that Cuccinelli could win the independent vote by 9 percentage points yet lose the election by 3 points is a reminder that the gap between self-identified Democrats and self-identified Republicans is getting so wide that, in many races, winning the independent vote isn’t enough for a Republican candidate to bridge the gap. Remember that Mitt Romney won the independent vote last year by 5 points but still lost the election by almost 4 points. Brand damage has hurt the GOP in party identification, and that, in turn, is hurting Republicans on Election Day.”

National Journal: "If you think Tuesday's elections convinced Republicans that abortion is a losing issue, think again. Sure, anti-abortion crusader Ken Cuccinelli fell short in the Virginia governor's race while the pragmatic governor of New Jersey, Republican Chris Christie, won re-election in a landslide. But just two days later, anti-abortion leaders rallied around Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina as he introduced a bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. By tapping into widespread discomfort with late abortions, the bill aims to flip the political script and frame Democrats as outside the mainstream."

NBC’s Alex Moe: “For the first time since finishing fifth in the 2012 Iowa caucuses, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) returned to the state that was the beginning of the end of his initial presidential endeavor, reintroducing himself to Iowans and vowing to do things differently if he were to run again. ‘If I was making a plan for 2016, coming to Iowa early and often would be part of it.’”

AP: “As he weighs whether to run for president again, Texas Gov. Rick Perry returned Thursday to this leadoff presidential caucus state for the first time since his flameout during his first White House bid last year. His arrival was much more muted than before. ‘I would do a number of things differently,’ Perry told a group of mostly local reporters at the start of a two-day trip. He planned to meet privately with political leaders and business groups, the quiet work typical of more successful presidential campaigns. Reminded he was in Iowa far earlier than he was the first time he ran, Perry quipped: ‘That would certainly be one of the things I would do differently.’”

Politico notices that while Perry praised several governors in his speech in Iowa, he left out one – Chris Christie.

FLORIDA: The Hill: "The widow of the late Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.) says her husband asked on his deathbed for David Jolly to run for his seat."

KENTUCKY: Sen. Mitch McConnell sits down with Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan to discuss his re-election and the growing war within the GOP. "But [McConnell] says he isn't worried about his own race: 'I don't wanna be overly cocky, but I'm gonna be the Republican nominee next year.' Are members of the tea party on the ground being fooled by operators, profit makers and cynics? "Yes," he said, followed by a brief silence. He declined to say more, but emphasized again that "I make a distinction between the leaders and the followers. I mean, I think a lot of well-meaning people are sending money to organizations having no idea they're gonna spend all that money against Republicans. Because they're being misled.'"

MONTANA: Washington Post; "Former Montana lieutenant governor John Bohlinger (D) officially announced his bid for the Senate Wednesday, comparing the tea party's recent actions to the Taliban and the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese."

NEBRASKA: Omaha World Herald: "Another big endorsement for Republican Ben Sasse. Club for Growth, a conservative anti-tax organization, has endorsed Sasse’s bid for U.S. Senate in Nebraska."

NORTH CAROLINA: NBC's Jessica Taylor: "Longtime Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.) will retire in 2014 after 15 terms in the House, he announced at a press conference Thursday in his Greensboro district. Coble, 82, had been plagued by health problems in recent years, and his decision not to run hardly comes as a surprise....Once a swing area, the 5th District is now reliably Republican after redistricting. A crowded GOP primary will likely pick the next congressman"

VIRGINIA: Washington Post: "The Fairfax County Electoral Board is investigating a possible irregularity in the number of absentee ballots cast in Virginia’s largest jurisdiction that Democrats say could shift votes in the still-unresolved race for Virginia attorney general."

VERMONT: Vermont’s been having their own problems with its health-care marketplace website. And it hired the same contractor as the federal government – CGI. Vermont Gov. Peter “Shumlin (D) said he has wanted to `strangle’ CGI executives for their failures, and has been on the phone frequently with the company’s top executives,” the Boston Globe writes.

DES MOINES, Iowa -- For the first time since finishing fifth in the 2012 Iowa caucuses, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) returned to the state that was the beginning of the end of his initial presidential endeavor, reintroducing himself to Iowans and vowing to do things differently if he were to run again. 

“If I was making a plan for 2016, coming to Iowa early and often would be part of it. But as I shared, that is a bit premature,” Perry told reporters following a luncheon with Americans for Prosperity members. 

Perry added, “I am the governor of Texas through January of 2015, so there are 14 more months of governing.” 

Last time round, Perry failed to visit the first-in-the-nation caucus state early. He announced his bid for the White House in South Carolina -- on the exact same day as the Iowa GOP Straw Poll after all other candidates had been in the state for weeks.  

Thursday’s appearance in the Hawkeye State was the start of a new beginning for Perry. “While other candidates may be getting their sea legs with these initial visits, Gov. Perry is a known commodity and -- most importantly -- has a strong record of job creation that will attract Iowans to a potential Perry presidential campaign,” said caucus veteran Tim Albrecht, who serves as Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad’s spokesman. 

Later keynoting the Polk County GOP Robb Kelley Fall Dinner Thursday night, Perry focused on his gubernatorial and business roots.  His biggest suggestion to help get American back on track: ““Get out of the health-care business, get out of the education business, stop hammering our industry –- let the sleeping giant of American industry create prosperity again. That is the code that we have to put into place.” 

More than 400 Iowans turned out to hear the retiring Republican governor speak. He attacked President Barack Obama’s health-care law and website. “It is amazing to me that the Obama administration is capable of barricading a war memorial despite government being shut down, but they can't operate a website when it gets up and running,” Perry said referencing the government shutdown earlier this fall. 

At one point, Perry drew laughs from the crowd when he compared his famous “oops” moment during the 2012 campaign to the failure in government today. “Our leaders have forgotten how to govern. Believe me, I know a few things about forgettin,’” the governor joked. 

Thursday night’s appearance is another in a slew of visits by potential 2016 Republican presidential candidates to the first-in-the-nation caucus state -- such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. Former vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan will visit the state next Saturday as well.  

Perry, who avoided any talk of his future during his nearly 15-minute speech, understands 2016 speculation is all par for the course. “I don’t think its too early; I think its part of the process. They are going to ask their questions, and we are going to give our answers. Its too early for me to be making any decisions about 2016. I still have 14 months of governing in Texas,” he said.

President Barack Obama would have refused to take Vice President Joe Biden off the Democratic ticket in 2012, he told NBC’s Chuck Todd Thursday, calling Biden “one of the best vice presidents in our history” and saying his selection of the Delaware senator as his running mate was “one of the best decisions that I’ve ever made.”

In an exclusive interview, Obama dismissed a report that his campaign poll-tested dumping Biden in favor of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as would-be leakers trying to “seem important.” But he said he would have flatly rejected the suggestion of removing Biden from his team.

“If they had asked me, I would have said there is no way that I am not running again with Joe Biden,” he said.

The reported consideration of a ticket swap was revealed by authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann in a new book, Double Down: Game Change 2012.

Calling his second-in-command “a personal friend” and “one of my most important advisors on domestic and foreign policy,” Obama said that he and Biden have since spoken since the book's release and that the vice president knows “I would not be here if it weren’t for the support that I have had from Joe Biden.”

“I like him,” Obama added. “When my back’s up against the wall, he has my back.”

Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Nov. 7, 2013.

The Senate approved historic legislation Thursday to expand workplace protections for gay, lesbian and transgender Americans. But the bill faces a bleak future in the GOP-led House.

The final vote was 64-32. Ten Republicans voted with all Democrats in favor of passage. 

The Senate’s approval of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) comes after a failed attempt in 1996, when the bill -- championed by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts -- failed by a single vote.

Despite the bipartisan vote in the upper chamber, the legislation appears unlikely to get a vote in the House. Republican House Speaker John Boehner opposes the bill, saying through a spokesman this week that it would “increase frivolous litigation and cost American jobs.”

A spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said there are no plans for the House to take up the legislation.

"The bill is currently not scheduled in the House," said spokesman Rory Cooper. "I hope Majority Leader Reid soon addresses the dozens of House-passed bills that have been ignored in the Senate that create jobs, improve education and create opportunity while Americans struggle to find a good-paying job."

In a statement, President Barack Obama praised the Senate's action, calling it a step towards "realizing the rights and freedoms that are our birthright as Americans."

Before the final vote, Democratic supporters likened the bill to the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act and called on Boehner to bring it to a vote.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters that the GOP will be “sending their party straight to oblivion” if they refuse to bring the legislation up for a vote in the House.

Alluding to past political figures that stood in the way of discrimination-ending laws, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois warned Boehner to “think about their place in history today.”

Obama issued a similar criticism of the House, saying "One party in one house of Congress should not stand in the way of millions of Americans who want to go to work each day and simply be judged by the job they do.  Now is the time to end this kind of discrimination in the workplace, not enable it."

The Senate bill attracted some additional GOP support after Reid allowed amendments to further ensure that religious organizations -- along with the United States military -- would be exempted.

One amendment from Republican Rob Portman, R-Ohio, was adopted Wednesday by voice vote. That measure would prevent federal, state and local governments from retaliation against groups exempted from the new law.  

An amendment authored by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Penn., which would have exempted groups that don’t primarily engage in religious work but have an affiliation with a particular faith, failed. 

NBC's Frank Thorp contributed.

This story was originally published on Thu Nov 7, 2013 2:21 PM EST

The latest stream of revelations from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden – that the United States has been spying on at least 35 foreign leaders – sparked a firestorm abroad and at home and have boxed in President Barack Obama, who finds himself struggling a year into his second term. They have damaged America’s relationship with some of its closest allies more so than any foreign-policy decision Obama has made, analysts say.

“We simply can’t return to business as usual,” German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere was quoted by ARD television as saying late last month. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on CBS’ Face the Nation that tapping leaders’ phones has “more political liability than probably intelligence viability.”

The botched rollout of Obama’s health-care law, his handling of Syria, and NSA revelations have led to Obama finding himself at the lowest point in his presidency, with his lowest approval ratings since taking office. That has hampered his ability to gain any traction for a second-term domestic agenda on things like the budget and immigration reform.

But the methodical Snowden leaks have put on raw display not only Washington’s eavesdropping on leaders from Berlin to Ankara, but also exposed how the U.S. collects information on friends and foes, including secretly tracking the Israeli military, and that the U.S. and Israel created the virus to attack an Iranian nuclear facility. As a result, Obama’s ability to push forward with a robust foreign-policy agenda -- whether it’s building a broad coalition for intervention in Syria, Middle East peace talks, and even trade in Asia -- has been crippled.

Others argue that, in the long term, the Snowden episode will not significantly damage the United States’ reputation and relationship with its allies, though it could take promises from a new administration before the relationships are fully repaired.

“When the dust settles and these disclosures stop, I think that historians will not look back at this moment as a turning point,” said Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and director for European Affairs for the first Clinton administration’s National Security Council.

The U.S. will likely scale back its surveillance activities on major European allies like Germany, France and Spain, Kupchan said, but probably not much. “The National Security Agency is still going to suck in vast quantities of information,” he said, but “there will be at least a greater effort to aim the intelligence apparatus at things that are necessary and not just available.”

It is in the mutual interest of the United States and its allies for most of the surveillance to continue, he added. “The French and Spanish citizens whose calls and text messages have been stored might not like it, but they benefit from it.” 

Especially post 9/11, the United States has an interest in domestic activities in places like Spain, because of things like the 2004 Madrid train bombing, planned and executed by al Qaeda.

Some allies have floated putting a hold on negotiations of a trans-Atlantic free trade agreement as a concrete show of disapproval over the spying program.  The German magazine Der Spiegel quoted Bavarian Economy Minister Ilse Aigner as saying the talks should be put “on ice” for now. 

But former U.S. ambassador to Germany Philip Murphy, who served in that role from 2009 to mid-2013, said that deferring negotiations would harm both the United States and its partners in the talks. “It can’t be rational,” he said, “that in your thirst to find a tangible reaction to this crisis, you do something against your interests.”

He added that given German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s commitment, since 2007, in forging an agreement, he believed “her instinct is going to want to be to push forward.”

‘That wasn’t a lot of fun’

At least three heads of government used a public diplomatic maneuver to express their disapproval of the U.S.’ spying program: summoning their countries’ U.S. ambassador to meet with them.

Ambassadors James Costos (Spain), John Emerson (Germany), and Charles Rivkin (France) were all brought in to hear grievances from officials in their host countries in late October.

But for all the pageantry around such encounters -- photos show Costos being swarmed by media as he left the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs -- Murphy said they are meant more as diplomatic bark than bite.

“It’s not shocking that one of the things the host country has to do is say, ‘Look, we have to call the ambassador in to make sure he or she knows our displeasure,’” Murphy said, adding that he had never been officially summoned but had “had a few crises as well” in his tenure. His cables, for example, were among those revealed as part of the Wikileaks affair in 2010.

Kupchan added that it made no difference whether the ambassador being called in was a political appointee, having been an Obama “bundler” in the 2008 or 2012 campaigns, as all three current ambassadors to those countries are.

“The ambassador goes back to his or her office and with the help of staff, writes a cable,” he said. “And the cable goes to Washington, and it says, I just got called into the foreign ministry and they took my head off.”

A State Department official seconded that, saying that each ambassador is required to fulfill leadership and technical training to ensure “each is fully qualified to fulfill the requisite duties of their office.”

And mostly in these situations, the diplomatic qualifications of an ambassador do not matter. They are simply there to take an earful and for those foreign leaders to send a very public message back to Washington.

“It’s possible that not only did John Doe send a cable back to the State Department," Kupchan said, "but he picked up the phone and called the White House and said, ‘That wasn’t a lot of fun.’”

NBC's Domenico Montanaro contributed to this report.

Longtime Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.) will retire in 2014 after 15 terms in the House, he announced at a press conference Thursday in his Greensboro district. 

Coble, 82, had been plagued by health problems in recent years, and his decision not to run hardly comes as a surprise. First elected to the House in 1984, Coble is the Tar Heel State's longest-serving Republican in the House. Before beginning his nearly three decade-long career in Congress, he served in the Coast Guard, was an assistant U.S. attorney, a state representative and the state revenue commissioner. 

Once a swing area, the 5th District is now reliably Republican after redistricting. In 1986, Coble narrowly won a second term by just 79 votes, but has been re-elected easily ever since.

A crowded GOP primary will likely pick the next congressman. The district voted 58 percent for Mitt Romney in 2012 and 56 percent for John McCain in 2008. Likely candidates include Phil Berger, Jr., the son of state Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, who told the Raleigh News & Observer he would run if Coble didn't, along with former Forsyth County GOP Chair Nathan Tabor and Greensboro minister Mark Walker. According to GOP sources, other names mentioned include 6th District GOP Chairman Al Daoud, and former NASCAR driver Terry Labonte.

Democrats still face an uphill climb, but two candidates have already announced -- Laura Fjeld, a former University of North Carolina system vice president and general counsel, and Durham County Soil & Water District Supervisor Danielle Adams.

Coble is the sixth House member to announce he won't seek another term in 2014, all Republicans.