>> i'm john heilemann. >> i'm mark halperin. it looks like we made it, with "all due respect," to barry manilow. ♪ >> tonight on the show, chris christie isn't backing down hillary clinton is backing down. and we hold election day right now. but first, the news on ebola has been fast and furious and more than a little confusing. here's what we do know now. a nurse quarantined by new jersey governor chris christie has left her tent for maine.

the white house is claiming it does have a plan to give in to the states for going their own way on the ebola quarantine. right now federal and state ebola policy is all over the place. one person who is being his usual decisive self, however, is new jersey governor chris christie, this is what he said in melbourne, florida today about the nurse he had isolated and about the obama administration's ebola policy. >> it's a common-sense approach >> it's a common-sense approach that the federal government wasn't taking. it has now been adopted by chicago and now by maryland. as i said yesterday on the news, this should become the national policy, it is a smart, common-sense policy. >> their policy is not exactly as stringent as new jersey's, but they do have a good policy there. is this fight between the states and washington about ebola ending, or is it just beginning? >> i think it is just beginning. one of the things we've learned over the last few days is that

as long as there is an ebola crisis in west africa, there will be american medical people going there. there's obviously military personnel going there, and some of them are going to come back with ebola or ebola-like symptoms, and that will present these challenges. they are going to want to design their own policies, and no matter what the obama administration says, they're going to have to deal with that. >> they did not give in on the flight ban. the president wants to be guided by science. he is a man of science. i think we will continue to see, as long as there are a few number of cases, the white house will try to hold the line. although this army thing is a little weird because it looks like the pentagon is out of step with the white house. >> i think there is no doubt that the white house is going to try to hold the line and i think there are people like

chris christie and in other states that are going to be pushing back. there's going to be a lot more push and pull between the federal and state government. >> as we all know, when the doctor came back he went out and went bowling and that freaked out a lot of people, and that could lead other states to move against washington. as we said, chris christie was in florida today when he was speaking about ebola. he was campaigning for sunshine state governor rick scott. yesterday he made his first appearance on a sunday show since the bridgegate scandal in his role as head of the republican governors association. >> we have a pretty daunting task on our hands, and i think everybody expected to be a little bit on our heels. to the contrary, we have 12 races right now, so within the margin of error from just nine days ago until the election. >> if the guy keeps losing weight, george bush is going to need a new nickname for him than

"big boy." that is a slimmed-down chris christie. ohio, georgia, and florida those are all key presidential battleground states with the possible exception of michigan. if christie defends republican incumbents there, big deal. the pickups, though, is what he has enthused. illinois, massachusetts connecticut, maryland, all blue states. how big a deal is it if chris christie not only offends his republican incumbents but encroaches on some of those blue states and wins victories there? >> i think it is a pretty big deal, mark. after bridgegate, chris christie was knocked off his horse. he comes back and says i'm going to put my head down and try to rack up some wins. if he pulls that off, he can make a credible and convincing case that he is fully back. if he doesn't, they're still going to be doubts about him. >> donors are going to love him. in that state that's the kind of endorsement that matters. maryland is in play.

illinois still looks tough for republicans, what possible. if he pulls it off in the blue states, i think it puts him right there with jeb bush. we had the jeb bush news over the weekend, i think if christie pulls off a big run on election day, he is back as potentially the strongest republican. >> right, but a couple of big caveats, are wisconsin and florida. if you lose in those two states, it can take away from your democratic pickups. those are huge marquee states because of scott walker. the democrats, if they claim those two states it will take a lot of the vim and vigor out of any pickups he has in blue states. >> but the other thing about christie, he's flying around the country campaigning side-by-side with these guys. unlike jeb bush, who is a little bit diffident towards his fellow -- christie is more of a back flapper. some republican governors are

complaining that maybe they're not getting enough money from the rga, but plenty of them are happy of out how they have helped in their state. >> moving on, for once, hillary clinton agrees with her conservative critics, she made a mistake on friday. today she cleaned up her grammy version of her 2012 barack obama cover of "you didn't build that." her mistake bookended a weekend of activity in iowa and new hampshire in which some other ambitious players took the stage. >> i had no idea he would pack up his truck and moved to his vacation home in new hampshire. >> this is truly a historic dinner. >> i look back and i have some sense of who has spoken here before. you know, barack obama, joe biden, john kerry, or as i like to call them, my warm-up act. chris christie is actually here to film a movie sequel -- "the

closed bridges of madison county." >> if hillary clinton does run in 2016, i think all of them will probably run through the question is, is hillary clinton feeling the heat? she made an air about corporations and businesses not creating jobs. john, is she feeling the heat or altering her message because she's feeling the pressure from others out there? >> i don't think she is feeling much pressure from the people out there. she is getting encouraged to run. i don't think it's the people she's feeling the heat from. i think it's from the base itself. the polls suggest her closeness with wall street is a problem

for some of the democratic electorate and she's trying to make moves to inoculate yourself against that criticism. >> it shows the pressure she is under. people who say she benefits from not having an opponent, to get so much scrutiny, you look at marco rubio and rand paul. there are out there making mistakes all the time. the problem for her is she is out there getting criticized the performance of those four, biden, klobuchar, and warren and martin o'malley, they are not great, they are all pretty decent. it gives them an excuse to go there. it's helping them even if it is not hurting her. >> she's a smart woman you're a smart man. you don't think any of them will try to beat her. >> nbc news has a new poll out they say that key races are tighter than my grip on the new barry manilow duets album. many are all within the margin of error.

it does not really matter who is up or who is down. on bloomberg politics.com, we have something that is more interesting than another set of polls. we call it "the persuadables." we show you exactly what it's going to take vote wise for both parties to win in these contested races. talk about what the methodology was. >> sasha has gone through a lot of detailed reporting, working with a lot of our other reporters at bloomberg politics, and tried to sort of unpack, and talking into granular way that what it would take for democrats to be able to hold on to election night. sasha goes very deep on that and it shows the huge advantage republicans had in terms of the size of their base vote, how well-positioned a wire and how hard it would be for democrats to win, and what they need to do

to actually pull it off on election night. it is really fascinating. >> i venture to say -- you will see a statistical breakdown in the piece that you cannot find anywhere else that shows between the two parties what kind of vote totals they will need to get a majority or a plurality in order to win. sasha is going to be here tomorrow to break it down. >> geography and demography both erie coming up, we go deeper on ebola and asked the question, is president obama going to change his policy on quarantines? also we will talk to former new york governor george pataki he about the conflict between the states and the fed. ♪

>> the obama administration is busy this evening navigating a confusing tangle of ebola policies. does the white house plan to stay the course in terms of its

policies, or is it interacting and adjusting based on was the states are doing? >> i don't think they're in where near moving toward what governor christie thinks is going to be a national policy. basically they will be judging everybody that comes in from west africa on four different risk tiers, for example anyone , who had a needle prick would be an involuntary quarantine. it gives some kind of flexibility to state health workers and health workers coming back. >> is their frustration on the part of the white house so the -- that people at governor christie and governor cuomo or going further than the white house like them to go? >> no question about it. it was jarring what happened

this past weekend. the cdc director said over and over in a pronounced fashion we're going by the science and the experience. the unsaid implication there is that the politics are not playing into what they are doing and surly what the white house is trying to convey is that politics are not playing into their broader policy. they are determined to stay the course, not to try and impose some wide-ranging quarantine that could turn health care workers into pariahs. >> thank you very much, tracking that today. a little bit earlier, i spoke with george pataki, he was governor of new york for three terms and is a savvy observer of the kind of conflicts were seeing now between the states and the federal government. we talked about the policy disputes over ebola between the administration and the governors of new york and new jersey.

now with new york and governor cuomo and governor christie in new jersey. is this a shared responsibility between the states and federal government, or is one side encroaching on the other? >> the responsibility in the first case lies with the federal government. we're talking about people coming from overseas on international flights specifically from west africa. that's something where the federal government should put in place policies and protocols that people feel safe with. obviously that's not the case and you have bipartisan governor saying the federal government is not doing enough. in my opinion, they have the authority when the federal government is failing to protect the people of a state to take whatever steps they believe appropriate and legally they are empowered to protect the people. >> the two big dispute so far are one, the federal government held on no-fly ban. the second is whether people should be quarantined, the

example of this doctor who came back to new york and rode the subway. it seems to have unsettled the governors. ourare the governors more aggressive about rt because they are closer to their constituents and hearing from them? reading public opinion polls? what accounts for the policy difference? they're basically saying as governors they are going to mandate that people be quarantines. doesn't that raise questions about individual rights, and also the fact it might deter people from wanting to go to west africa. >> certainly it raises legal questions about civil liberties, and i understand that. i've been thinking about this. i don't know that governors have the authority on their own to simply say that someone has to be quarantined for 21 days. but i believe that you have the authority to declare a health emergency, a limited health emergency, because of the outbreak of ebola and the risk to the people. and under those circumstances say yes, we are going to confine

people for 21 days. i think it is appropriate. i think the legal authority exists in the case of a health emergency. i don't know that the governors have declared that, and i think it's unfortunate that we have to go through this whole exercise. it would be simple if the federal government mandated that there are no flights from west africa, or that their corn kind there before they take off. that makes so much more sense. build a facility there in liberia, when one days if you want to come to one of the countries where the outbreak of ebola currently exists. >> here's what i don't get. they talked enough to announce a policy they are in lockstep on. why did they not call the white house -- why would they do it in secret? >> i don't know if they did talk to the white house or the key mayors. >> apparently they didn't.

>> it makes sense to at least make the case to the white house that you're concerned about the safety of your people. i understand you get off the plane at kennedy and ride the subway, you're going to potentially come in contact indirectly with thousands and thousands of people. and it makes perfectly good sense that you just can't rely on someone saying i'm perfectly healthy, that you should have this process. it makes far greater sense not to let that person come in unless we know they are healthy in the first instance. >> governor christie said his prediction is that this would eventually be the federal policy. >> it should be the federal policy. >> just think about it from the point of view from the politics of it and the president's position, can he cave on this? >> don't see how the president can defend having our military quarantines when they come back, but american citizens when we have no idea what they were doing, to not be quarantined. i would hope the president is not going to look at this as he looks at too many things politically and say i cannot afford to back off.

i wish he would take a step back and say what is the right policy to protect the health of the american people? if he did, he would ban the flights temporarily are put in place quarantined is still a tease in those countries before people came here. >> you're saying it would discourage people from going over there and volunteering. there is some indication that is true. you look at the way this nurse was treated when she came back. if that is true what is a way to mitigate that? >> first of all, we should applaud the people who have the kurds to put their health on the line to go deal with this terrible disease. we should not just applaud them but we should encourage them with the appropriate safeguards and protocols. they should also understand that while they're doing a tremendously important and humane act, they cannot put aside the concerns on the health of the american people when they come back. let them know ahead of time what the policies are. going to make sure we take every step to protect the health of

our people. >> last question, you dealt with anthrax when you were the governor are we overstating the , crisis in these extraordinary measures having to be taken, or is it up the deal in terms of the public? >> the whole point is we don't know the answer to that. when you don't know the answer, you err on the side of protecting people. >> you are cheering governors cuomo and christie right now aren't you? >> i think they're doing the right thing. >> governor george pataki, former governor of new york, thanks very much. ♪

>> john was in san francisco this week and for the world series. that he did manage to mix in a little bit of politics with the baseball. he had a sit-down with legendary former san francisco mayor willie brown.

how was that? >> it was utterly delightful. for a long time he was the most powerful democratic politician in california and still as a lobbyist in san francisco, is still on the path. he is also one of the most prominent and most vivid african-american politicians in the country. we had a lot to talk about president obama and his role in the midterms, and a bunch of other stuff. >> there is no question barack obama is singularly the most inspirational and driven person of color in this nation. he is that inspirational for young people and for women. with that in mind, that should be his role. he should be going to every place where there is a woman or somebody young or african-american. >> do you think it is a mistake for so many endangered democrats in close senate races to not want any part of him? >> they are totally and completely wrong. is there you are a democrat or

you are not a democrat. that woman in kentucky has got to be out of her mind. why wouldn't she say i voted for obama with pride? i voted for health care. i voted for minimum wage i voted for immigration policy. shying away is a major mistake. >> even if you don't want that soundbite, you've got to figure out a way to say i disagree with president obama on x, y, and z. >> all she had to do was compare obama to the guys running against him and the result would be a no-brainer. >> who is a better politician barack obama or bill clinton and why? >> bill clinton is the best politician of our time. first of all, he really likes people. he pays attention to people, not intellectually, but emotionally. obama doesn't have that kind of skill. obama really is rather standoffish.

he is shy. when i say he doesn't like people, i may be doing him somewhat of a disservice. he may be so shy and so hesitant to interfere, so to speak, where bill clinton feels that his obligation to interfere. >> do you feel there's any chance democrats are not headed for a pretty significant repudiation at the polls right now? >> no, the u.s. senate, on november 5, will be in the hands of democrats. >> you are the most bullish on the democrats chance of any single person in the united states. if they end up retaking the house, you will be seen as nostradamus on election day. >> mark, willie brown went on to say there was a chance that democrats could even retake the house. he may be living in the bubble of the san francisco delusion. the most rocking thing with his comments about barack obama.

we talked about that and a lot of other points. he said that he really is expressing something we have heard from a lot of people. love barack obama, but he is frustrated with his lack of political skill and efficacy as a governor. >> john, great interview with willie brown. how is the city by the bay dealing with this, one game away from the world series? >> ecstatic, and they are building a statue of martin bumgarner right now. they are pretty happy. >> john, thanks. we will be right back. ♪

>> >> this program is on for 30 effervescent minutes a day, but we are always on bloomberg politics.com.

john, what is on the site that is catching your fancy? >> we talked about the persuadables earlier. we talked about which are the reddest and bl

>> hello, i am pimm fox. feeling sociable this week? earnings from facebook tomorrow, twitter tonight. twitter stock dramatic falling tonight, slowing growth, will it turn out all right? and the ebola virus. new situations and new complications, a five year boy in new york city is being tested for a possible case of the virus. a former new york health commissioner says ebola needs to be sto