>> look at this. so you are like jon meacham when he wins the pulitzer prize. you have a photographer around at all times. >> that's right. got to document it. >> congratulations, man. >> louis gave out the final rose, it was accepted. congratulations to our man. and the jerry bruckheimer book. >> a thousand pounds. >> what did you learn? >> louis is so lucky. how did he get claire? >> i don't know. if it's way too early, it's "morning joe." stick around, we have chuck and "the daily rundown." you don't want to miss it. deadline day. sort of. for a little while this morning, the finish line looked a lot like the starting line for an apparently overloaded healthcare.gov. we're going to talk to the president's point man about the signup situation, with just hours to go. also, paris is the scene for another tete-a-tete for

secretary kerry and his russian counterpart. is russia ready to ratchet things back, or is this just the bow ginning? two steps forwarding, three steps back. plus, empire building. the tdr 50 starts in albany today, and the old albany-manhattan power spectrum that's shaped new york politics and spawned presidential prospects for generations. and might actually see its first nominee in more than half a century. good morning from washington, it's monday, march 31st, 2014. this is "the daily rundown." it's day three of opening day, by the way, in baseball, since all they do is have opening days, but still exciting. open enrollment closes at midnight. in order, it's the beginning of the end of the enrollment period. the last official day americans have to sign up for the health care coverage, unless they're in line. the administration has been touting a surge of activity at call centers, 2.5 million calls in the last week. democrat leaders like harry reid

have been tweeting out photos of long signup lines, but the final rush has not been smooth. healthcare.gov went down this morning and was offline for hours. by 8:00 this morning, it went back online. you can see here the countdown clock on the white house website has a bit of a glitch with numbers in the wrong boxes. it says we have 15 plus days, not hours to go. then again, maybe that's not a glitch. maybe this is the extension there that gets you to april 15. we'll ask phil about that in a minute. what about more general measures of success? if september, health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius set this goal for the administration. >> i think success looks like at least 7 million people having signed up by the end of march 2014. >> well, the congressional budget office adjusted that goal in february after the law's troubled rollout, because of the website issue. and last week, the administration announced that 6 million people had signed up for the health care exchanges,

meeting the lowered congressional budget office bar. 1.8 million signed up this month alone, through march 27. that figure is likely to be quite a bit higher by midnight. they actually might get close to 7 million. even if you include the 4.5 million americans that have signed up for medicaid and the more than 3 million young adults now covered by their parents' plans, it is a dent in the 48 million uninsured in 2012. and a new study found 27% of new enroles were previously uninsured, though other studies have put that number higher. over the last several month, the white house has pitched health care nonstop. according to the white house, members of the administration have done 300 interviews pitching the exchanges, including 20 by the president, vice president, and first lady. cabinet secretaries have done 60 interviews in targeted states. they've had 45 enrollment events around the country, and just since mid-february. celebrities supportive have given 400 radio interviews.

the white house says they've reached 349 million twitter followers, presumably some of those are abroad. this morning, vice president biden makes an 11th-hour pitch on the "rachel ray show," the latest in what has been a constant pop culture sales pitch. >> i wouldn't be with you here today if i didn't have something to plug. have you heard of the affordable care act? moms out there, e-mail your kids if they don't have health insurance and tell them to check it out. nobody wants to spend money on health insurance until they get sick. >> you never know when you might take a hit. spread the word and get covered today. >> find out how you can get lower monthly payments as part of the health care law. >> be a winner and get covered today. >> seriously, do you want your mothers to have a nervous breakdown? you need health insurance. >> we nag you because we love you. so go to healthcare.gov and enroll today. >> so now that the white house has met the revised target, crucial questions remain. though the overall enrollment

number is important, it's the makeup that will make or break the exchanges. how many are healthy? how many are sick? last fall, the administration projected young people, the crucial 18 to 34-year-old invincibles, that the insurers needed to subs dice the older, sicker enrollees, they wanted them to be 40% of the pool in the exchanges. so far, they have made up 27% of enrollees, in february, and 25% overall. the expectation is the number will inch up again when the final numbers are in. then the number hhs has not provided, the number of those who have signed up for health care previously uninsured, and questions for consumers, what will the premiums be next year? will insurance companies raise prices to increase profits or compensate for getting a higher percentage of enrollees? the idea that many folks signing up aren't paying for insurance, the ten states that have released the enrollment data, a full 83% have paid for their plans. of course, today's deadline is

squishy. in the latest delay, the white house announced on march 25th, anyone in line at midnight tonight will be able to finish signing up. some states like california are also allowing extra time. oregon, which had one of the most troubled rollouts in the country, has given folks until april 30th to apply for health insurance. republican critics have been attacking the law, its cost, and the shifting deadlines. one of the big of political problems democrats have, instead of the americans turning their anger on insurance companies when premiums go up, or complaints about quality of care, they will blame the government and specifically the president. maybe that was inevitable the minute government got involved, but that's why politically it's hard to see how democrats dig out of this hole in time for november. the reality, though, is that even if the law remains unpopular, it also is entrenched. the more people that sign up, the more clear it becomes that this health care law is here to stay, at least republicans in a bowlsy box, as well, with up to 15 million people on the books, the law becomes basically

unrepealable. now, republicans are faced with having to come up with a credible alternative, and it's more difficult to run in a choice election than in a referendum environment on an unpopular law. my guess is, we won't see much of an alternative before november. joining me now, white house advisor, bill shilirro. good morning, sir. >> good morning. how are you? >> good, let's talk about, what is the real deadline today? is it midnight tonight, or will you allow these folks up to april 15th to sign up? >> well, it is midnight tonight, chuck, but we're approaching it the same way we would an election. you've seen long lines on election day. we let everybody vote who tries to vote. if we take a step back and think about what we're trying to do here, we're trying to have home do the responsible thing and get health insurance. people are trying to do that. we had a record number of calls

and visit to the websites. people are trying to do the responsible thing, in their interests and the country's interests. so people who are trying, we'll allow them to finish the process. i can't imagine how fierce the criticism would be if we had an arbitrary cutoff tonight and people halfway through the process couldn't get health insurance. >> what's your estimate of the people that signed up through the federal exchanges that are newly insured? do you buy the 25% figure that those are new? it seems if 5 million -- it seems like there were 4 to 5 million on the individual market that are part of the enrollees here. >> right. >> the 25% figure feels right to me. does it feel right to you? >> i think it's higher of people who are uninsured coming in. the thing with the affordable care act, that i've learned, is don't guess. we'll have those numbers. we'll have hard numbers. we'll have hard numbers on the mix soon enough. but we don't have definitive numbers yet. i'm not going to guess on that. what we can see, through

medicaid, through young adults signing up, you mentioned 3 million young adults on their parent's plan, the over 6 million people already enrolled, those are a lot of uninsured people. >> speaking of uninsured, we still have 35 million uninsured after today. >> right. >> approximately. what is the plan -- who are those folks? and when do you expect to get insurance -- when do you expect them to get on the rolls in some form or another? >> this is not a one-year project. the congressional budget office, when they did the original projections, estimated it would take several years to really make a dent in the overall number. a lot of that is education. what we feel very good about right now is when the part d program started, the first year only reached 70% of the congressional budget office's projections. we're clearly doing much better than that. we're off to a terrific start. if i could say one other thing, chuck. you did a great job in your setup about putting out different facts about the law. we now have a law that's helping to reduce health the -- the rate

of increase in health care to its lowest point in 50 years. it's helping to reduce the increase in medicaid. quality is increasing while cost is coming down. seniors have now saved $10 billion for prescription drugs because of the law. and on top of that the congressional budget office says it's going to reduce the deficit by $1.7 trillion over the next 20 years. you combine all those things, plus ending discrimination against women when it comes to premiums, the law is hitting a lot of its marks, all in the first year. enrollment is one piece of that. so this is going to be a multiyear effort to get insurance to as many people who can afford it as possible. >> let's talk about the premium issue. it's hard to imagine premiums aren't going to go up. the question is, how much do they go up? there's been some speculation that, frankly, insurance companies actually kept premiums down, almost as a, hey, come on into the system, we want your business now, sign up today. >> right. >> and then, guess what, 20% increase coming next november.

you know, i know you have safeguards in here about putting at least a cap on how much premiums can go up. but they're going to go up. by the way, they're not yelling at the insurance companies anymore. they're yelling at you, phil. >> that's right. chuck, a couple of things on that. if you went back three months ago when people were saying enrollment would only be 4, 5 million people, they were making the point, well, that's going to have an impact on premiums. the reality is, this year, premiums are 15% lower than what the congressional budget office projected. most of the insurance companies, if not every insurance company, priced for a two-year period, because they knew there was a transition coming into the law. in addition to that, what we're seeing at the end is the mix getting better. all the time. so i think there may be some places where there could be aberrational increases, but they anticipated that, and that's why there are provisions in the law to smooth it out, the same way they exist in part d. >> how many people will pay the penalty? >> that's impossible to know,

chuck. >> will somebody pay it? >> oh, absolute -- >> you do believe people will pay the penalty? >> absolutely. >> you have a lot of caveats. >> he's the simplest way to think about it, chuck. anyone who can afford insurance who doesn't buy insurance will pay the penalty. >> and what's your estimate? >> it's hard -- we will have to see when we get to the end of the day today and the next couple of days when we have cleanup, what the final numbers are. this is a moving target. one thing, chuck, a lot of people who watch your show already have insurance. >> yeah. >> the thing i would just ask is this is the last day for them to tell family and friends who don't have insurance to go to healthcare.gov or to call 1-800-318-2596. it's really important that everybody try to get health insurance. it's something that used to not be controversial. somehow getting health insurance is controversial. but it's the right thing to do for people. >> all right. on that note, i'll let you do your plug there. personal responsibility, a great reminder there.

phil, top health care advisor at the white house. brought back in to help fix what was a chaotic start to the enrollment process. thank you. >> thanks, chuck. developing now, another change of plans for secretary of state john kerry. we just learned that kerry's now headed to tel aviv for israeli-palestinian peace talks, after wrapping up an urgent meeting in paris with his counterpart on ukraine. today, if someone is talking about the show, it might not be tdr. baseball is back, my friends. you know what that means. there's a lot of disruptive forces that take place right after lunch today. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. ♪ [ cellphone rings ] hello? [ male announcer ] over 12,000 financial advisors. good, good. good. over $700 billion dollars in assets under care. let me just put this away. [ male announcer ] how did edward jones get so big?

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hoping for the best, preparing for the worst. that's the position of the united states on russia. john kerry met with his russian counterpart. the fact they met at all, good news. the bad news, no deal to ease the global escalating crisis. the issue, russia's insistence of keeping troops on the border. kerry says it directly contradicts moscow's claims it wants to ease tensions. >> we believe that these forces are creating a climate of fear and intimidation in ukraine. >> the kremlin say it is has no intention of invading ukraine. instead, it wants the country broken up into a federation, made up of largely autonomous regions. ukraine's foreign ministry insists that would be the first step to a full takeover. a statement released late sunday said, quote, under the barrels of its machine guns, this

aggressor demands only one thing, the complete capitulation of ukraine, its dismembership and destruction of ukrainian statehood. inside the united states, there are concerns putin may move into other disputed areas, including a pro-russian portion of moldova along the ukraine western border. >> there's no question that there are 40,000-plus troops that they are staged in various areas, that to people who watch this it looks like an invasion force. putin has said it's an exercise. so that leaves a big question mark. >> now, i asked former u.s. ambassador to russia, mike mcfaul, whether he believed the annexation of crimea was a prelude to an invasion of moldova. >> things we thought were settled 20 years ago, or at least, you know, in ice in these conflicts, he's now trying to say, we have to open up the

pandora's box. i find it very dangerous. >> so he's going? >> he's going to make it an issue. he's going to make it an issue we'll have to now negotiate, and we're going to negotiate, i think, in a weak position given where he is right now. >> nbc's foreign correspondent amman has more from eastern ukraine. >> reporter: good morning, chuck. the international community still doesn't recognize russia's annexation of crimea, russia is pushing ahead with its own plans to shore up control of that territory. today, medvedev arrived with a high-ranking delegation to announce new economic plans for the territory, including introducing the russian currency into local markets and trying to bring crimea's local laws and salaries and wages of government in line with russia. it's also moving in some of its military assets to shore up its territorial control of crimea. and while the facts on the ground may be a done deal for crimea, the question now centers around what will happen to the future of ukraine.

russia wants to see ukraine become more of a federated territory so that eastern parts of the country, the russian-speaking parts, have more autonomy, independence in their own affairs. but that will be a tough sell for kiev and the international community. chuck? >> thank you, sir. turning to the latest here at home. the number of missing is down. but the death toll is higher in washington state. the massive mudslide swallowed an entire neighborhood. 21 people are now confirmed dead. conditions are still miserable. and progress is still painfully slow. one of the 160 search volunteers shot this video after another round of heavy rain soaked the site this weekend. i've got miguel almaguer with an update on the missing. miguel? >> reporter: chuck, good morning. the number of missing has dropped dramatically from 90 all the way down to 30. the new death toll is 21. this will be day ten of the search. the governor calls this a rescue mission, not yet a recovery. search teams will be back on -- out on the one-square-mile

scouring the debris field for any signs of life, looking for any possible survivors, though there have been none discovered. this town, this community continues to heal and push forward together as day ten of this search is set to begin. chuck? >> thank you, sir. now to yet another search, which, of course, has become a race against time in the southern indian ocean. ten aircraft and ten ships scoured this second of -- of the southern indian ocean today, and in search of any sign of malaysian airlines flight 370 and the 239 people on board. a chinese ship picked up these objects over the weekend, but none of them could be connected to the flight. meantime, the batteries on the flight's black box pinger could die in the next week or so. ian williams has more from what's become the international staging area for this search, perth, australia. >> reporter: good morning to you, chuck. the international search effort continues to expand to where ten aircraft in the search area

today, and no less than 11 ships. but any wreckage from flight mh-370 remains frustratingly elusive. there have been plenty of sightings from aircraft of objects down there in the ocean. and some of those have now been collected by ships. but they've turned out to be trash from shipping or other ocean flotsam. now, the u.s. pinger locator should be out in the search area later this week. but it's unlikely to begin operations until a massively narrowed area, which means finding some wreckage. in spite of this, the australian prime minister was putting a brave face on things today, saying that efforts would continue, that they owed it to the families. chuck? >> thank you, ian. we'll be right back. we have the much anticipated results from the first round of tdr's march presidential madness. by the way, let's do some can't-miss opening-day data bank. look at that, comerica park,

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well, as you know, today is supposed to be baseball's opening day. the good news is, we have a bunch of day baseball which is what we really like. this number tells a different story. the number is 3. there have actually been three opening days for this season. my beloved dodgers played the diamondbacks on march 22 nd at cricket field in australia. last night, the dodgers played another opening day -- opening night in san diego. by the way, they lost, thank you, brian wilson. somehow i'll blame the giants for that one, 3-1. today is the big day, because there are 26 other teams that are going to be taking the fi d field. and it's when you see the daytime baseball, that's when you know it's truly opening day. speaking of baseball, in sports, we're going to go from baseball to the brackets.

college basketball's final four is set, and our tdr march madness is rolling on, too. this is your chance to pick the white house top contender who never made it to 1600 pennsylvania. we had a few upsets, cheney falling to lieberman. feinstein beat out romney, and barry goldwater lost to cabot lodge, most famous for being a write-in winner. you can see who's moving on on our website. who will advance to the sweet 16? voting starts tomorrow morning. in the meantime, i'll be right back. [ ambient street noise ]

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well, it may not be our official capital, but at times it certainly feels as if the rest of the country is being forced to take its queues from new york. you know i like to have a little fun with that. this week, the tdr 50 will take

a closer look at the politics inside the empire state. of course, new york was the capital for a short time during the american revolution, and george washington was sworn in at federal hall. it was a fitting start for a state that has become a powerful political force as well as the financial and cultural capital of not just the nation, arguably the rest of the world. in its early days, it was home to new york city's tammany hall, the powerful and corrupt organization that ran the city throughout much of the 1800s. further north, new york native martin van buren developed the albany regency, the first state political machine in the country. he ultimately became the first of six presidents to come out of new york state. millard philmore rose from comptroller to president in the space of 17 months. arthur went from customs collector of the port authority in new york in 1871 to presid t president, ten years later. presidents grover cleveland and teddy roosevelt each served a term as new york governor before heading to the white house.

at the same time as it was sending leaders to washington, manhattan was exploding in size. the first american city to top 500,000 people by 1850 and more than 1 million by 1880. after being expanded all five boroughs, it was nearly 3.5 million by the turn of the 20th century. bigger than number-two chicago and number-three philadelphia, combined. with the construction of the statue of liberty and the opening of ellis island, new york became the gateway for american immigration, with as many as 10,000 immigrants arriving daily. the flood of immigrants provided a perfect political base for new york's growing democratic party, which included governor al smith and his successor, franklin roosevelt. there was a time when the national media seemed more intent on keeping tabs on new york than washington. and the empire state made it worth their while, by churning out a stream of fascinating political characters, from la guardia and wilkey and rockefeller and dewey. but the state's political half

existed long before the media age. the census found new york state to be the most populous in the country, a distinction it held for more than 50 years until it was surpassed by our friends out west in california. in 1972, the two states swapped places in terms of electoral votes for the first time, with california taking the lead to 45 and new york dropping to 41, dropping ever since. inside new york state, the city itself remains its most important democratic stronghold, along with the cities like buffalo and albany. 54% of all the state's 5.4 million democrats live in new york city. think about that. meanwhile, 83% of the state's 2.6 million republicans are outside the city, concentrated in upstate new york and along the hudson valley. despite the democrats'' parent advantage, state politics has been a mixed bag for the party. for example, new york-backed eisenhower, nixon, reagan twice. the last three governors have been democrats, but before that, republican george pataki served for 11 years. and while the current mayor of new york city, bill de blasio is

a democrat, he actually had to go back 20 years before the last time there was another one, giuliani and bloomberg kept democrats out of city hall for 20 years. over the years, it's been a constant power struggle between the governor's mansion and city hall. who was in charge? giuliani, pataki? cuomo, bloomberg? and now a new rivalry. in the wake of 9/11, giuliani became the face of new york, and bloomberg continued the trend by wading into national issues like the recent gun debate. and new york likely isn't finished as a springboard for politics with national aspirations, though it's been a while since one got to the white house, particularly if a former new york city out of chappaqua has anything to say to that. nick is the political reporter for "the new york times" based in manhattan, and suzanne craig is "the times" albany bureau chief. welcome. >> hey, chuck. >> i want to start in albany. we know there's a power struggle between albany and new york

city. suzanne, do you think it's back, bill de blasio, andrew cuomo? is this a true rivalry the way we saw ed koch and cuomo go at each other? is this a power split between the two biggest players in the state? >> well, i think it's definitely back, and one of the reasons it is, bill de blasio just got in. this is his first round up in albany trying to come up with various funding issue, the money for pre-k being the main one. this is the first round. and the two men have gone back and known each other for years. they say they're very good friends, but it certainly has been praying of recent. >> and, nick, the two of them, ideologically, they're not really in sync. i think it's fair to say -- >> right. >> -- if you were to look at this in the '90s, in the context of what the democratic party was in the '90s, andrew cuomo, more of a dlc'er, but more of the

center-left of the party, and bill de blasio, part of the progressive wing, or more liberal wing. >> de blasio is a movement liberal, a progressive. and they come at this from very different places. what you're seeing with the two of the guys, chuck, is what you're seeing in a number of deep red, deep blue states. you're seeing the emergence of a three-party system. on the one hand, the republican party, kind of a minority party in new york now. you have centrist democrats like cuomo and left liberals like de blasio, and they kind of clark in this weird, intermingled way in the course of budget politics in albany. >> susanne, is it fair to say de blasio is more of a democrat than cuomo is? >> i think de blasio is left of everybody, yeah. >> i want to talk about sort of the republican party and its ability -- it's always had an

ability to keep a foothold in albany. assess their foothold right now, susanne. >> well, the republican foothold is very interesting. they control the senate, and a lot of the key -- the key areas upstate. and this is going to come into play in the election. because you've got people very unhappy outside of new york city with some of the initiatives, the social initiatives, that the governor's undertaken. i think what's going to be at play in the upcoming election is a lot of those areas and just how it's going to play out specifically for the governor, and will he lose even more support upstate. he's looking for a fairly large plurality this time. he'd like to increase his numbers from the last election, but you have all these issues sort of outside new york that are going to weigh on his ability to do that. >> and, nick, you know, it's interesting to watch while the republicans still have this foothold in albany, they have thrown in the towel, it seems to me, on statewide offices. i mean, there just isn't the sense they're looking for a quality challenger in andrew

cuomo. there isn't a sense they have future candidates that they're searching for to sort of become the person that sort of rallies the party, rebuilds the republican party in new york state. is there anybody i'm missing here? >> well, i think rob esterino is stronger than you give him credit for. he's a republican in westchester. >> a big win in november. >> really big win. >> yeah, pro-gun, anti-gay marriage, pro-life republican, right, who won a sweeping election victory, and he won it on taxes, right? that's often how you see republicans come in in these states. he can win on taxes if the ruling party, the democrats can't get it together on keeping taxes in line, property taxes, especially, are very high in westchester. what we saw here is him focusing like a laser on the message of taxes. his democratic opponent kind of flailing, calling him a tea party guy. it didn't work. i think that is actually a roadmap for the party in a state like this, although i think it would be easier if you have a

republican more in the bataki mode, who is pro-environment, has one single issue where he's more left than right. >> susanne, andrew cuomo, how serious are his presidential ambitions? >> that's a good question. i mean, i think right now a lot of it is dependent on will hillary run. >> of course. >> and 2016 is coming up. he's going for a second term now. and i think right now, his line is he's very focused on the job at hand. but i think should the opportunity present itself, you would undoubtedly see him giving it a very serious look -- >> do you get the sense -- >> -- i think he's trying to set the -- i think, potentially, he is. his option is probably -- is to go for a third term as a governor. if he doesn't. so i think he's setting the stage in new york, and he feels he has by the various things he's doing for a national run, and his line is, you know, "i'm doing the job i've been given now," and, you know,

potentially, the implication of that is it sets him up for something down the road, whatever it would be. >> it will be interesting, i'm sure it's uncomfortable having to be clashing with the more progressive wing of his party in the form of bill de blasio, only complicates that picture a little more. anyway, susanne, nick, thank you for being tablesetters for our focus all week long on the new york state politics. >> thank you. more opening-day baseball numbers from the data bank. first, 7.13. the rule number for the league's new halt ban on home plate collisions. this is the protect buster posy rule. they hope to cut down on concussions and protect players. and baseball is also adding a version of instant replay. coming up, i'll tell you about a new number that also puts new york state from first to second and it's baseball-related. up next, a billionaire and former presidential hopeful, walks into a casino. no, it's not the start of a joke. we have the lowdown on adelson's

biggest cattle call. first, the tdr 50 soup. a spicy hot chicken soup. mr. russert, that one's for you, luke. we'll be right back. which is funny, because i still do it better than her. [ afi ] i do not like sweeping. it's a little frustrating. [ zach ] i can't help out as much as i used to. do you need help? let's open it up. [ afi ] it's a swiffer sweeper. [ zach ] it's a swiffer dusters. it can extend so i don't have to get on the step stool. ♪ it's like a dirt magnet -- just like my kids. [ afi ] this is a danger zone. voila! i am the queen of clean! [ zach ] yeah, this definitely beats hanging out on a step ladder. voila! i am the queen of clean!

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use caution when driving or operating machinery. common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. i had to quit smoking to keep up with this guy. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. well, new jersey governor chris christie is a man in a hurry to get back into the 2016 presidential sweepstakes, and trouble at home and with his personal ratings dropping nationally, christie decided he wanted out of his political purgatory and launched quite the comeback tour. after the release of his own investigation that concluded he didn't know anything about the bridge plot, and a network tv interview on thursday. there was the press conference on friday. christie then showed up on a plane to vegas on saturday for a cattle call to court donors -- eh, actually donor -- at the republican jewish coalition's annual spring gathering. but even there, he couldn't escape questions about the bridge mess, and he was forced

to issue yet another mea culpa. >> for me, i think, it's about me being a lot more questioning about things that are going on. not to just trust based upon long-term relationships or past performance. and it's about sending very clear signals -- certain conduct and actions are acceptable and certain are completely unacceptable. >> the problem, of course, for christie is the bridge mess isn't going away anytime soon. over the weekend, "saturday night live" had fun at his expense. >> a report on the bridgegate scandal, which was compiled by a team picked by new jersey governor chris christie, was released thursday and clears the governor of any wrongdoing. and you can totally trust it, because it was fact-checked by independent investigator trish christie. >> also over the weekend, christie had some competition for the national spotlight. two more prominent republican governors, wisconsin's scott walker and ohio's john kasich,

and former one, jeb bush, competed for the attention of billionaire magnate adelson, so joining me now, the "washington post" chief correspondent, dan balls, author of "the take" and dan ralston, host of "ralston reports" on some of the fine nbc affiliates out in nevada. welcome to both of you. . i want to start with you and start with chris christie. to me, the more remarkable thing was not him trying to get the scandal behind him, not having a press conference, but the fact that he decided, you know what, i'm jumping right back into 2016. this man, he wants to run for president. and if you didn't know it, then he wanted to make sure you knew it. >> well, he did. and i think the other thing that's happened is, he knows he's lost some time. i mean, all of the rumbles about wealthy republicans looking to jeb bush -- >> right. >> -- lots of other activity going on, other candidates saying and doing interesting things on policy issues. he's had several months in which he's really been on the sideline. and i think what we saw was just

this pent-up energy on his part to try to get moving as quickly as he could. >> but he wasn't very prepared. the occupied territory's remark about israel, shows you he was almost -- he just wanted to be there. he didn't think about a speech. >> i think that's right. but i think that in many ways he is less prepared than he probably ought to be at this point. a, because he has spent a lot of time with this bridge scandal. and, two, because i think he's still riding on the effect of the re-election and thinking about things in that way. he's not begun to talk in any fresh way about things that he'll need to do in 2016. >> oddly, you're right. he is behind. hey, john ralston, i think it's -- sometimes the story is staring you in the face, and we're not paying attention to it. so a billionaire decided to hold a cattle call. it's actually unprecedented in previous american politics that one billionaire could say, "i'm going to be here, i'm going to host this event, come on and pay homage." i mean, john kasich alone, i don't think he delivered a speech to a group. he delivered a speech to his

name sheldon, who he name-dropped 75 times -- i'm exaggerating a little bit. it is amazing adelson's power, is it not? >> you mentioned the kasich speech. it was the most embarrassing genuflecting of all, because he pretended the rest of the crowd wasn't there. he kept addressing him in an awkward way. anybody who knows adelson knows it will have absolutely no effect on him. the others, when they gave their speeches on saturday, chuck, they made an effort to mention israel, which, of course, is sheldon adelson's biggest issue. christie, i thought, gave the best speech. none of them had much substance. he seemed relaxed until he made the so-called occupy territory slip. but it's a measure of how important they think adelson is, when the reports later, when he met with adelson, he essentially apologized for making that kind of plea. sheldon, give me your money. i want to be in your good graces, right? >> tell me quickly what did you learn about the jeb bush meeting?

his speech wasn't on camera. he had private meeting with adelson. what did you learn? >> well, bush was really highlighted at this -- the night before the saturday speeches, bush did not give a speech. sheldon adelson held a private dinner with major republican jewish coalition donors at his hangar, and then bush met privately with sheldon adelson. i actually think that christie is more of an adelson guy than bush. but this is, to some extent, chuck, a chuck todd, john ralston, follow this stuff in a granular way. adelson doesn't care that much about it now. he could change his mind six or eight times before he actually commits all of the millions again. i think he will spend some money. you know what i think he wants to do this time, chuck? actually back a winner. >> he wants to back a winner. dan, i can't help -- i'm sorry. you know, i know that -- maybe i'm being naive about the rules of american politics now in the second decade of the 21st century, but the billionaires are running this process now in a way that seemed like was impossible to envision even ten

years ago. >> well, they are. and people know that. and people hate it. >> but they're doing it! i mean, look at these guys. kasich, walker, christie, jeb. these are substantial political billionaire. >> chuck, it's what -- >> they are all doing it. this is on both sides of the aisle. on the democratic side, they'd all show up. >> i think that's probably right. but that's what they are being told by all the smart people who give them advice about what to do on politics. >> you need a super donor. >> you have to have a super pac, you have to have these wealthy people that can give $10 million, $20 million, or $30 million or in the case of adelson, he and his wife gave $90 million to several different causes in terms of the campaign, but it is a warping of the system beyond which we have not seen before. >> it is unbelievable. quickly, john ralston, anybody that wasn't there that folks at the republican jewish coalition

wanted to be there, anybody else in this cattle call? >> they invited rand paul, but paul, from the story put out, had a family commitment, but i don't think rand paul is a sheldon adelson kind of guy. he's much too isolationist for him. as i said, i don't think adelson is going to make up his mind. i do think, though, chuck, he wants somebody out of washington. one of those governors is much more likely to win his favor. >> all right. i will end there. john ralston, always good to have you down, sir, good to have you. see if your cubs can do anything this year. one more baseball number in our monday data bank, number is $235,295,219. that's right. any job is to have a projected payroll of that ridiculously high and more importantly, that has done something we thought would never happen, displaced the yankees as the highest payroll in major league baseball. they are just at a more $203 million. it's the first time in 15 years the yankees haven't had the

largest payroll. once again, new york losing out to california, like the electoral votes. at the bottom, houston astros, one-fifth of what the dodgers will hand out this year. that's good for competitiveness in baseball, but figure that one out, will you? we'll be right back. way to get your fiber. try phillips fiber good gummies. they're delicious, and a good source of fiber to help support regularity. wife: mmmm husband: these are good! marge: the tasty side of fiber. from phillips. add vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance and get $100 off for every year of safe driving. we put members first. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side but when we put something in the ground, feed it, and care for it, don't we grow something more? we grow big celebrations, and personal victories. we grow new beginnings,

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take away time. today's take away, a look at where things stand in the united states senate and an explanation, frankly, why everyone assumes republicans have a better than money chance to win. democrats hold 53 seats, plus two independents, republicans have 45 seats. gop needs six seats to win control. joe biden would be a tie breaker at 50/50. let's look at the states. in yellow, 36 races in 34 states, oklahoma and south carolina each have two seats up

this year, but here's why republicans seem the favorite. they can just win the romney states, democrat-held seats that romney carried seven of them. they win all seven, they could lose mitch mcconnell and still have the majority, but here's where things get worse for the democrats, republicans put all these seats in play, colorado in particular, iowa possibly, minnesota possibly, michigan definitely, new hampshire maybe, virginia maybe just in resources, and i didn't even tell you about oregon, which i think is going to be competitive by the fall. meanwhile, democrats sitting here with three targets, only two seem truly viable, georgia and kentucky, and that's what makes things rough for the democrats. they could win all three of those and realize there is still a path for the majority for the republicans without them. that's what's so scary for the democratic majority these days. that's it for this edition of tdr. coming up, chris jansing will have more on the health care debate. it's a critical deadline day, but we'll be talking about it.

see you tomorrow. i'm meteorologist bill karins, a lot of people in the northern half of the country, it's a see you later march type day. we could care less if you leave or not, it's blizzard conditions in the northern plains, rainy, cloudy conditions trying to exit new england and a new storm in the northwest. southern half is seeing a portion day, but careful traveling, especially in the northern plains this evening. those little things still get you.

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deadline day, and already a website hiccup at healthcare.gov, but is the president's health care overhaul ready to deliver? >> dressed jeb, if governor chris christie can't do it, maybe it's time for another bush to make a white house run. what happened in vegas and who may have hit the sheldon adelson jackpot. by air and by sea, as the black box detector has toured the search zone, more frustration and false hope for the families of the missing. good morning, i'm chris jansing. it's down to just 14 hours now and there's never been more urgency for the president's signature piece of legislation. take this live look, hunts center, tampa, florida, one place that folks are getting help to sign up before the deadline of open