>> with all due respect to our colleague, josé canseco, tonight we will keep the safety firmly in place. tonight, it is our game show edition. the demoractic surrogate play the weakest link and mark against plays weakest link and jeb bush tries his hand at "what's my line." less likely to do the democrats chances of keeping control of the senate are better than the conventional wisdom currently has it. we're not predicting it but we

noticed of late that some voices on the right seem to be grabbing their rifles in preparation for an all-too-familiar circling firing squad if republicans and that blowing it next week. >> if the gop can win back the senate in a climate like this, maybe party ought to look for another country. >> i'm really upset with republicans because i don't think they are piñata vision that is inspiring other people. >> is not a slam dunk for the republicans next tuesday. many american citizens are simply dumb. they don't know anything. when you don't know anything, you will buy anything. propaganda rules. >> if republicans do not take back the senate on tuesday, who gets the blame? >> first of all, all those guys are great. it's a rare moment when i find myself agreeing with sean hannity. the core of my answer is the blame goes to absolutely

everybody in the republican party who decided to nationalize this election around barack obama, if they don't get there. sean hannity says the party has not put forward a vision and i think that's where a lot of the blame comes back to. they all decided this was going to be about barack obama and nothing about what republicans will do. >> people say no message at mitch mcconnell has to take some blame. the rnc will take some of the blame, but also the tea party because the image of the party started to go down after the shutdown. people like mitch mcconnell, people at the senate committee are going to take a lot of blame. >> again, they tried to make it all about barack obama and it was about other stuff. >> the race to watch tonight is in the last frontier, alaska. once upon a time mark begich was seen as holding a modest lead over his opponent, dan sullivan. then sullivan pulled ahead and

grab what seemed to be a solid four or five point lead. but now begich on the strength of his performance as a candidate managed a comeback and has taken the lead in two recent polls. is that lead for real and if it is, can he hold on and win? >> there are a lot of resources in this state. democrats are competitive on television and the ground game republicans say they've got the best round game they have ever had. this map, our colleagues at the washington post, you see it up in the arctic circle where you can see russia -- republicans say they've got enough offices and what they have our volunteers working out of their homes and offices. the reality is if democrats keep this he because they figured out early on they needed a ground strategy.

in all likelihood, it's a republican state in a republican year-end begich will probably lose. he kept himself in it without a doubt. >> if you could see this in our persuadable piece -- the republican party had a huge advantage going in and it is a republican state. but begich got elected 110 could get a like again. the native population is a huge story here and that's the democrats are focused on. some of that is urban but most of it is rural and hard to organize. >> if democrats lose this race there will be no blame game. they did everything they could for mark begich in a tough state. there's a new superhero movie doing boffo box office -- it's the "super surrogates." they have teamed up to stop the horde of jokey senatorial candidates. you have joe, michelle, hillary and barack. look what they can do with their combined superpowers. >> it's time to unleash the

potential of kentucky and give u a chance to have someone who cares about you, who will live breathe and work for you. >> these midterm races will be even harder and closer than those presidential elections but they are just as important. they are just as important. >> i think you should vote for the future, future shared opportunities and shared responsibilities. but hope is the belief there are better days, that we can build up the middle class and give back something to our communities and hand down something better for our kids. hope is what builds america, not cynicism. >> this is not your father's republican party. this is a different breed of cat. i'm not making a moral judgment, i'm not saying they are good bad or indifferent, they are just different, man. just different.

>> literally, with all due respect to ted cruz, those are five super surrogates. bill clinton is the class of the field, but of the other four who's the strongest surrogate? >> on the what do i like to watch most, it's got to be joe biden because he's the best. the person who is most effective is michelle obama. the guerrilla democrats have to do -- they have to get out african-americans and minority voters and get a lot of women out. she is still super popular. she has the last name obama but she does not have her husband's

baggage. when she gets out there, she does good. >> i could make the case for any of the other four. in the point is there are five and there are all out there. no respect to dr. jill biden but those five are extraordinary surrogates. president obama is not going anywhere but that doesn't matter as much as it would. >> you weaseled out of answering the question. [buzz] >> i am for president obama. >> shifting from the democratic super friends to a potential public and paladin, jeb bush speculated on whether he would run for president, defended himself on immigration, the common core, and launched an incredibly harsh attack on president obama saying his foreign policy has been an unmitigated disaster and he's now paying the price. he sounded like a candidate to me. i'm curious to think whether you think he has the proverbial fire in the belly. >> i wish i had seen it, but from what i have read, that was the kind of performance in a public forum, not in a public meeting, where he was strong. i don't think he's got the full fire in the belly and you look at his musings on whether to run, clearly he is torn about it. talking about the country and

president obama, he looks as strong as i have seen him. >> he's talking about how more and more likely he is going to run and then gives a stridently partisan speech. >> he did it last night for sure. >> some of the nations most famous journalist paid their respects at ben bradley's funeral in washington. bob woodward and carl bernstein were among those who shared there were stories about the late, great editor at the "washington post." >> he was a journalistic warrior, unequaled and probably never to be matched. he had the courage of an army, a

lien in all seasons. he wanted his newspaper to be like the navy destroyer he served on in world war ii. >> then lived and worked in an un-gerrymandered world. he lived off the main road. there was no safe line except the troops, no groupthink, what was said, what happened, why what is the context? no sensationalism, keep digging. >> an amazing man. >> coming up, member of president obama plus inner circle who knows how to travel in style, dan pfeiffer joins us from casablanca, coming up next. ♪

>> dan pfeiffer is expected to leave the white house relatively soon, perhaps for a plum job as a tv analyst. do we expect him to be filled to the brim with humor and candor this evening?

the more honesty is, the more money will be waiting for him when he leaves the white house. >> i will try to be very honest and as funny as i can be. you guys set a high standard here. >> let's talk about the midterms before we move on to other things. president obama, a lot of talk about how he's not campaigning a lot of senate races. the polling suggests he would do more harm than good and the candidate you want him to come. one of the laces his iowa, where you guys got your start together and where he got launched down the road to be a democratic nominee. how does president obama feel about how he is so politically toxic that he cannot go back to iowa. >> the president can go back on the trail and make an argument like he did last night in the race against scott walker. he's thinking about this the same way we done with the

campaign in 2008 which is data oriented and results driven. if the best way to win is to be involved in more targeted races, he's happy to do that. >> iowa is a really special place to him and meant a lot to him. the most important place politically in the country. it must be a bittersweet notion that in this campaign he's not allowed back in the state. >> there's a tremendous connection the president has with the people of iowa. we love to go back and it means so much to us. i'm sure we will get back there soon because the president did his last rally in 2012 there. if it made them happy to go, we would be happy to go. we think he's doing a great job. >> a lot of political speculation says the ebola crisis is hurting democratic

candidates. you are a pretty good student of truth from fiction. as the ebola crisis hurting democrats in the midterm? >> i don't think so. it's important to separate it ebola from politics. we are trying to do what's best for the country. the data i've seen shows that pratts are strengthening their position and we feel good about where we are going. a lot of work will come down to turnout. >> what races have you seen democrats strengthening in delay? >> i think you have seen polls in iowa, michelle nunn has shown a good lead in purdue, so the same thing in colorado. we are getting better. it's going to be very close but we try to assign the latest thing in news to be the cause of things in politics but it's going to come down to turnout. >> let's assume for the purposes of the next question that republicans take control of the senate. for the purpose of argument,

let's say that happens. how does the president view the prospect of spending the last two years with a totally republican-controlled senate? >> no matter who is in charge of the senate, the resident will look for opportunities to work and get things through. there's a fundamental difference between a democratic senate and a republican senate. if we had a republican senate, think we'll have more ted cruz type shutdowns and brinksmanship. that's not good for the country not to mention what it means -- >> you and the president like a lot of reporters and pundits. how do you explain the fact that you like a lot of reporters and pundits and yet on a regular basis you sit around and saying we have no idea what we are talking about? >> sometimes, though in all seriousness, there are a handful of reporters who have been around and understand the dynamic of these campaigns. you'd like and balls, people like that, obviously our hosts.

and who we really value reading. you see a lot of campaign discussion which seems like bizarro land to us. we don't see what they are seeing in the data. if we listened to it all the reporters said, mitt romney would be president today. >> has been speculation about whether or not you're going to leave. what the president has had, a very small, tight circle of inner advisers for a long time and as always happens, they peel away. so several are gone and all that is really left is you and valerie jarrett. how does the president yell about the fact about how he is

to operate with so little of what used to be his inner circle around him now? >> we've thought about this as a journey and as we have gone along from people like myself and peter who were there since the beginning, people like nancy -- we have picked people up along the way and we are all part of a big family. i was alone with gibson and axelrod today -- you can leave the building but you can't leave the family. he has old the group of people who he really trusts. when anyone leaves, there's always someone to step in and fill in the role. that will be true for the last two years. >> when your colleagues leave, they start to come back and tell

you we hear stuff from hollywood liberals and new york, financial people, from our longtime supporters about negative things about the white house. you all are insulated inside. are you in the president aware of the most negative things some of your longtime supporters say or are you cocooned and isolated from that? >> we have the benefit of having friends and former staff here who are honest with us. the best way to serve the president is to be rudely honest. any criticism that is out there -- we can certainly read it anonymously in various newspapers in the morning. >> do you ever adjust your behavior based on what you hear? >> absolutely.

>> what's an example? >> the fastest way to being very humble is to work in the white house. there's nothing we do that is criticized and we get good advice, public and drive it in terms of how we address issues whether the president tone is right, i factor that in all a time. i think we would be doing the president a disservice if we did not do that. >> if this was a tryout for a cable tv gig, that's significantly better than current tv. when we come back, the mayor of kansas city will try his hardest to convince john to switch allegiances for the final seven games this evening. ♪

>> i will envision what it's like to welcome the world championship kansas the royals to the white house.

>> as far as baseball goes, it doesn't get any better than game seven. the royals will try to win the world series at home tonight hampered much everyone outside san francisco and this chair is rooting for them. here to cheer on his team is the mayor of kansas city, sly james. great to see all that blew up there. this is a big night for you and your team. what does game seven, with a lot of america rooting for you, what does it mean for kansas city? >> it means a lot of things. it means people who have not been in kansas city in the past are in down and saying the same things -- i had no idea. they came in with one impression and they have totally change that impression because they found out how great the city this is.

from the internal perspective, it's absolutely astounding to have everyone in the city feeling of pride and love for the royals and recognizing we are on the world stage with an opportunity to show people who we are. from a monetary standpoint, it's always great to have people coming in to the city thomas spending their money and enjoying our cultural asset. it has been an absolutely fabulous time to be the mayor of the city i absolutely love. >> you wrote a great open letter to america week or so ago talking about the team and what this has meant. you talked about the team being a team of charm. what do you mean by that? i want you to understand that was a team effort. it was done with my chief of staff and communications director, but what we mean is we work together. we collaborate and we understand

if you're going to accomplish great day, you have to work together and recognize your role in the process and become fumble with it. that is who kansas city is and who the royals are. if you notice the way those guys play the game, they will give up their body to protect their picture and do it's necessary to win. that's who we are as a city about to the royals are as a team. >> you said the city is a charming city. what are some of the great charms of kansas city? >> the first thing is we know who we are. we don't pretend to be someone else. we love new york and we are not new york and the want to be, frankly. we love san francisco but we don't want to be san francisco. where the creative crossroads of this country.

we are surprisingly sophisticated, our best assets are our people. you don't see is going around ragging on other cities and being mean to them. we don't do those types of things. we welcome visitors into our home like we would hope to be welcomed into theirs. it's a midwestern approach to things. we try to be friendly, we try to be open and we try to be welcoming to people. >> with going to happen in your city if the royals when? >> you need to rephrase the question. what's going to happen in the city when the royals when? >> what's going to happen? >> the city is going to go nuts. there is absolutely no way to say it, but i'm going to make another prediction. everybody in the city is going to behave themselves. there will be a minimum amount of nonsense from people who have had too much to drink perhaps,

but you are not going to see any violence as a result, at least that's what i predict. we are going to have a great time hugging each other and celebrating our city celebrating the royals and puffing our chests on little bit to say how proud we are of what has been accomplished and how proud we are to be kansas city. >> what's the best barbecue in kansas city? >> oh, boy. it depends on what you want to be. if your sandwiches, go to brian's. for sausage and chicken, good to gates. for ribs, this is oklahoma joe's. all of them have something special to offer. if you come and want to have barbecue, we will get you to everyone you want until you are ready to not eat arba q again for a year. >> i'm glad you mentioned oklahoma joe's. that mark halperin's favor barbecue. sly james, living up to his name. we will be right back. >> we are live at 24/7 on bloomberg.

>> hello, i am pimm fox. this is what i am taking stock of. putting an end to qe. janet yellen confirmed the central bank will and its asset purchase program, so the next logical question -- when will the fed and interest rates? dr. could -- dr. doom gave his prediction. >> it means it is going to come in july. >> lisa put a charge into its stock. the shares are rising in after-hours