put cameras on your cops. >> i learned if it's way too early, what time is it, joe? >> "morning joe." but stick around for "the daily rundown" with the great chuck todd. fear and loathing in the voting booth. 68 days until the midterms and we still don't see one thing that will make or break it for both sides. right now democrats want to make it about shouts of a gop shutdown and republicans want to make it about outrage over executive actions on immigration. it's all about fear, folks. this morning we'll hear from white house communications director jennifer palmeri. plus mitch mcconnell needs to flip six seats to change two letters in his title. we'll have the latest on which states harry reid hopes stand in his way. good morning from washington. it's thursday, august 28th, 2014. this is "the daily rundown." it's my next to last day hosting tdr before heading over to "meet

the press." yes, there will be a surprise today. i'm told it might be a guest and it might not. whatever. come on, producers, the point is stick around. there's nothing like a little live tv fun, right? let's get right to my first read of the morning. is the midterm election amounting to nothing more than dueling banjos strumming the theme songs from your favorite disaster movies? with a little over two months to go until e-day, that's just 68 days, folks, it's still not clear what the selection is going to be about issue wise. in an election lacking a pivotal issue, the parties are turning to a unifying emotion, good old-fashioned fear. in the last week you can feel both parties trying to take one issue in particular and use it to instill substantial fear in voters. remember, there haven't been very many voters at all in this primary season, so let's hope against all odds it doesn't add to that sad trend. for democrats, the fear factor they want to put out there means reviving anything and everything having to do with a government

shutdown. check out one of the latest ads by mark udall's senate campaign spotlighting a town whose flood relief got tied up in the federal government shutdown of 2013. >> flash flooding in colorado has turned deadly. >> it is completely gone. >> many times we heard why even bother rebuilding jamestown because we are so small. but for us it's our home. it's our -- it's our community. mark udall came up as if he were a emember of our community. made sure we didn't get forgotten, that we had the support in order to rebuild our community and bring our community members home. >> on the republican side it's a push to pounce on the president for any kind of exec ucutive acn on immigration. check out one of scott brown's latest ads in new hampshire, tying senator jeanne shaheen to the president as tightly as possible. >> want to know why there's lawlessness on our border? ask senator shaheen. she voted against border

security twice and for amnesty. it's time for us to secure the boarder and enforce the law. >> the fear factor is ready to latch on to the latest news, things like the ebola scare. check out mark pryor's new ad this week in arkansas. >> i'm mark pryor and approve this mess annual. >> the ebola outbreak is worse. >> the ebola is vastly underestimated. >> tom cotton voted against preparing america against pandemics. >> congressman cotton voted to cut billions from our emergency disaster programs. >> he was the only arkansas congressman to vote this way. >> are you scared yet? back to the democrats big fear factor. right now shutdown talk. remember that was arguably the only good few weeks president obama had in 2013 politically so it's no surprise that democrats are practically republicans to talk about it. none other than senate minority leader mitch mcconnell is giving them what they want. last week he told politico, quote, we're going to pass spending bills and they are

going to have a lot of restrictions on the activities of the bureaucracy. that's something he, meaning the president, won't like but that will be done, i guarantee it. according to the nation magazine, mcconnell laid out a similar combative agenda to a confab sponsored by the koch brothers this summer. if there's any doubt that koch brothers have lost ground as the democrat fear factors check out the ad running in iowa. >> follow the money. it's the oldest rule in politics. out of state oil billionaires, the koch brothers, are spending millions supporting joni ernst campaign. a scheme privatizing secret service and a plan cutting america's guaranteed benefit all to pay for more tax breaks for oil billionaires. >> and while koch brother bashing could intersect with shutdown talk, we're seeing a convergence of these two fear issues we're talking about.

in particular, immigration and a shutdown. marco rubio is warning the white house against taking executive action on immigration, hinting it could trigger a government shutdown. he sent a letter to the white house saying, quote, i have grown increasingly alarmed by news that your administration is considering sweeping executive action to give work permits to millions of people here illegally. he also warned it will close the door to any chance of making progress on immigration reform for the foreseeable future. remember, marco rubio, one of the gang of eight in the senate that got immigration reform passed in the senate. the white house is not commenting on the letter. but "the new york times" quotes an official saying the president, quote, remains deeply committed to the passage of comprehensive immigration reform and repeatedly called on members of congress to address the issue but they have continuously failed to do so. white house press secretary josh earnest said it would be a shame if the government shuts down over immigration. >> we would hope that republicans wouldn't do the same

thing again, shut down the government over a common sense, bipartisan effort to try to mitigate at least some of the worst problems that are caused by our own immigration system. >> again, the shutdown gave democrats two of their best weeks of 2013, until people discovered healthcare.gov. so the attempts to try to revive shutdown talk, ones that are pretty happy for them at every opportunity. adds dan balz wrote at a time of political polarization one thing still unites left, right and center. the disdain people have for washington, their elected leaders and the political system. everywhere they look there are reasons to feel shut out, and deprived of the whole truth. the debate is about to make it back into the spotlight and the white house is preparing its legal case to take action on its own. it was back in june that president obama spoke from the rose garden promising to use executive action to fix the

immigration system if congress could not manage to do so. >> i take executive action only when we have a serious problem, a serious issue, and congress chooses to do nothing. and in this situation, the failure of house republicans to pass a darn bill is bad for our security, is bad for our economy and is bad for our future. that's why today i'm beginning a new effort to fix as much of our immigration system as i can on my own. without congress. >> the president's own self-imposed deadline for reform is just days away and he's expected to make an announcement on his plan of action in the coming weeks. i'm joined by white house director of communications, jennifer palmeri. good morning to you. >> good morning, chuck. >> i want to start and there's been this back and forth this morning in "the new york times" on the marco rubio letter, some

quotes from dan pfeifer. marco rubio, who was a supporter of immigration reform, you guys are basically on the same side of the issue, just not on the tactics, do you have an official response to senator rubio's concerns? >> you know, when the president -- you had a clip for the president speaking about the executive action from june and that statement in june followed a process that he clearly laid out to speaker boehner, members of congress, members of the gang of eight of which senator rubio is a member, to say that we were going to give the congress the good part of the summer to act on immigration reform and hold off on making executive xds to give them tie to go through that process. speaker boehner made it clear they were not able to move immigration reform. so we, as we said many months were going to do, moved forward with this effort to take

administrative action. you know, i know that senator rubio's statement talks about illegal action. obviously that's not what the president is going to do. what the justice department and department of homeland security is doing is looking for options obviously within our legal authority that we could do to do two things. one is to deal with the overall problem that's left unaddressed by the failure to pass immigration reform, but also to look at what else we might be needing to do at the border, at the rio grande border to deal with the influx of immigrants that have been coming through that area as well. and that's more pronounced now. the need to do that is more pronounced since congress wasn't able to pass a simple appropriations bill. we're looking at what more we need to do to compensate for the lack of resources we got there, so it's both the border and what can you do to deal with immigration over the long term. >> now, a couple years ago the president seemed to have concerns about trying to take too much unilateral action.

he told telemundo if we start broadening that, i would be ignoring the law that would be difficult to defend legally so that's not an option. i know you just said that whatever you do, you believe you will have the justice department have a legal way to defend it. >> that's what the president has directed the justice department to do. what within his authority more could he do that would deal with the problems that are left unanswered when they haven't done immigration reform. >> we can't pretend that politics doesn't have some role in all of this. we are 68 days from the election. and you heard -- you've seen some democrats, senator mark pryor in particular, democrat from arkansas, who seems concerned about the white house taking this action before the election, almost saying you take the action now -- he seems to be implying it sort of throws gas on a fire that's unnecessary. what do you say to that? >> we're -- you know there

are -- obviously some senators have made public statements but largely we're not going to get into -- private discussions that we have with senators. we want to respect their ability to have those conversations with us in private. we're hearing a lot from both sides, people who are interested in us -- the president taking action as soon as possible in a very robust manner, people who are concerned about it, so these are all -- and, you know, everyone has their -- obviously if this were an easy issue it would have been resolved a while ago so it's complicated. we understand that and are taking it all into consideration and hearing everyone out. we're also still developing what the recommendations to the president will be. >> is there a plausible way that you do this. you say these are the executive actions the president is proposing to do. he gives congress one last shot at dealing with it before the end of the year. is that an option at all? or if he finds actions he's going to do, he's just going to

do it? >> well, that's -- that's a couple steps ahead of where we are because we're still looking to see what the best -- what's legally available, what's going to work to deal with the problem at the rio grande border so i can't speculate on the manner in which it would come out. >> but something is going to happen before the election? >> we will be -- the president said in june that we are going to get these recommendations by the end of the summer and he would address it at that point, so we'll be doing that. >> all right, jennifer, thanks for coming on. my second to last show here. >> i know. as you know, it's a show i'm a big fan of and all the work that your team does too. you guys are pretty smart, pretty professional, a lot of good research. it's good stuff. >> the staff deserves a lot more credit than i do, so jennifer, thanks very much. up next, mind the gender

gap. a new report warns the gop they're, quote, stuck in the past. rnc chairman reince priebus will be here to respond to that. first a look ahead to today's planner. the nih director will talk about the new ebola vaccine this hour as the world health organization warns that the ebola outbreak in west africa eventually could exceed 20,000 cases. much more on tdr in three minutes. looking for a convenient way to fill your viagra prescription online? go to viagra.com to find out about viagra home delivery. millions of men have some degree of erectile dysfunction. talk to your doctor, if viagra is right for you, you can fill your prescription at your pharmacy, or check out viagra home delivery and get started at viagra.com ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain,

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two months to the midterms and the republican party most notably the rnc is dumping millions more into its efforts to take back the senate. the rnc will spend a total of $100 million on this year's election, specifically targeting certain senate races.

on the flip side, this morning's headline in politico is about a gop report from another entity detailing how the republican party is, quote, stuck in the past and that women are barely receptive to the party. this begs the question isn't this new report an echo of the autopsy from march of 2013. the party's relationship with women was just one of the things that that report recommended republicans get straight before the midterms and certainly before 2016. another was the immigration issue. consider these three sentences from the autopsy as pointed out by chris last month. we are not a policy committee but among the steps republicans take in the hispanic community and beyond, we must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform. if we do not, our party's appeal will continue to shrink to its core constituencies only. we also believe that comprehensive immigration reform is consistent with republican economic policies that promote job growth and opportunity for all. so what happened? how did we get from that to headlines like these today and can we expect the immigration issue to come back to the center

before the midterm election? here to talk about all of this, reince priebus, chairman of the republican national committee. good morning to you. >> good morning, chuck. before we get into all of this -- >> you're trying to soften me up. i know this trick. >> this is for your background and your set at "meet the press." we're going to have a big year. both in the senate and for the green bay packers. and the brewers are killing it too. >> thursday night, opening night of football. this time a referee isn't going to steal the game. >> that's the only way to start too. >> let's start, though, with the issue of this midterm report. this is crossroads republican supporting super pac. in some cases it's not news. the republican party has problems with women voters but it does seem more pronounced. we've looked at it from four years ago. the republican party is in worse shape with women now than it was in 2010. why do you think that is? >> you know, i'm not sure. there's one poll and we've done a number of polls too.

one of the things we see consistently is that tone matters. but i think the point of that poll wasn't reported by politico. the point was if you looked at it, women were rejecting the democratic party by 40%, they were rejecting the republican party by 50%. i don't think either party can do a victory lap here. but the point of the poll was, i believe, to the members of the house and the senate is that if you present your plans and you present the solutions to problems that relate to the economy, which is the number one issue and you push back on what the democrats are selling out there in the field, you can actually win women over. i mean that was the entire point of the poll. in spite of all this chatter, we're going to have a great year. >> it's interesting when you talk about that, because i've heard the same argument about hispanic voters. >> but i think it's true. you have to fight for the votes. >> there's no doubt. but the problem you seem to have is when it comes to women voters, do the -- do the arguments about contraception end up blind -- basically

putting the party on mute with those same women voters who may like your economic proposals but say, you know what, there's just too many crazy white guys who have crazy theories about my reproductive system and not listening -- and hispanics same thing. hispanics who maybe on some social issues would be with you but the immigration talk says, you know what, i can't trust because they have a whole bunch of crazy guys that talk crazy on immigration. >> that's two different issues. >> but same problem. >> well, let me -- i think it's a different kind of problem but let me just explain. on the first piece in regard to women voters, the polling that we find and the polling that you're citing right there, i didn't see all the cross tabs, no one did, but the general gist of it was that the economy is the number one issue. in fact women actually don't really -- don't really -- aren't really moved on these issues as much as i think the pundits and everyone thinks they are moved. in fact if republicans talk about things like the economy, the debt and make the case for

jobs and schools and education and push back -- >> democrats are winning by 30 and 40 points on economic issues. >> as far as the hispanic issue is concerned, my position has been the entire time and you and i have talked about it, you have 37% of hispanics that self identify as conservatives but you don't have republicans in hispanic communities making the case to hispanic voters. so you can get the policy right all day long. okay, you adopt a particular immigration reform package so you adopt this package in washington, d.c. but if i don't have a conduit in the hispanic community at the church festival, at the community event saying here's what the republican party stands for, you're not going to move those numbers. so i understand people want to get caught up in policy and legislation, but the fundamental problem that we're trying to address is actually having people in the community to make the case to hispanics and to women and that is what the gist of the poll is. the poll's gist wasn't the republicans are stuck in the past. the gist of the poll was 50% of

the women are saying they have a negative view of the republican party and 40% of the women are saying they have a negative view of the democratic party and we're still on pace to win a majority in the united states senate. sorry. >> no, no, no. is it healthy for the rnc having basically more republican candidates getting more help from an outside group like americans for prosperity? you're putting in a lot of money, $100 million. they're putting in more. >> i'm not sure that's true. >> is that helpful to the party -- >> there was not an entity in america last year in 2013 that raised and spent more money than the rnc as far as republican -- outside group, inside group, any group. >> but outside groups, aren't they bad for the national parties? >> no, i don't think they're bad at all. i think they supplement -- they can be very helpful and can supplement very nicely what's done on the ground. >> should they be?

shouldn't that power belong to the two parties? >> as long as the national parties on both side are restricted by how much money that we can raise from individuals, you're never going to have a situation where outside groups can't be helpful. i think they can be. i don't believe outside money is as effective as hard money. i think hard money, meaning for the viewers, money that's regulated by the ftc, is money that any candidate and any person can use. it's like o type blood. everybody wants it, everybody can use it but there's a limited supply. that money, party money, both sides, candidate money, is gold. the outside money can be valuable, but it has very -- it has a very much more limited use. >> do you wish your candidates weren't all showing up in one place like with the koch brothers at one of these events? do you think that feeds the democrats an issue, like they're being bought and paid for? >> top stier and their big money and their opposition to things like keystone pipeline and

getting the debt under control and doing basically nothing and stopping 300 bills in the senate, they have the same issue as far as outside groups is concerned. but i think where it's at is the supreme court has said very clearly that it's legal. i think it's here to stay. the only thing i would advocate is that the committees on both sides, dnc and rnc should be at the same level playful field as these outside groups. >> that is what's creating a real problem for transparency and so many things. reince priebus, thank you. america should agree on this. >> america's team. >> actually owned by the citizens of green bay. up ahead, a soup surprise i'm told, plus governor bob mcdonnell's corruption trial enters its final phase. first, who is the only republican elected to the u.s. house in 1974 who is still serving in congress? a republican watergate baby. we'll give you the answer and my answer with two of the democrats first elected in '74 who are

retiring this year. one of them gave me that trivia question. the first person to tweet the correct answer will get an on-air shoutout. the answer and more is coming up on tdr. my motheit's delicious. toffee in the world. so now we've turned her toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company through legalzoom. i never really thought i would make money doing what i love. we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom.com today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side.

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(phone ringing) ...hello? oh, man. that never gets old. no it does not. not all credit report sites are equal. experian.com members get personalized help and an experian credit report. join now at experian.com with enrollment in experian credit tracker sm. well, it's been a feature of this show since the very beginning, the brain child of one savannah guthrie. it's been talked about, tweeted about. some of you love it, some of you not so much, some of you love to use it to beat us up, some of you love to use it to just have a little fun with us. i'm talking about the soup of the day, of course. unbeknownst to me, my producers have put together a little taste of some of our soup of the day highlights over the years. >> split pea. a lot of us would like to be splitting this week but i have a

feeling nobody is splitting this week. >> navy bean. so a little passover leftovers combined with a little bit of a mexican feel. obviously a soup that was not very active during the bush years. so happy with this one, don't you think of the soup nazi on seinfeld? all we're missing is the beer to go with the beer and swiss charred -- that's a lot of cheese in that soup. it's got cheese in it so why not. you know my philosophy on feta. if you can put feta on, something you make it better. greek lentil stew. guys, minestrone already implies that you're throwing in the kitchen sink, you don't need to add the chicken and the sausage. we all know it's whatever is left over. italian wedding, it's sort of like minestrone, you put anything in it. it's the age-old debate. is chili a soup. it might be, it could be, it is.

it's clam chowder, everybody. that's what they're serving at harry caray's tavern at navy pier. they're serving up carrot dill. okay. i bet you there's going to be a lot of leftovers of this one. it's a spicy hot chicken wing soup from the anchor bar in buffalo, home of the original buffalo wings. mr. russert, that one is for you. well, okay then. my pronunciations have been mocked, all of my, as savannah likes to call them my dad jokes. but deep broth's identity remains a secret. we don't actually know who gives us the soups of the day, we just have a special way of getting it. today's white house soup of the day, they're serving up caldillo of brisket. it's a little spanish, a little jewish. you've got to love it. time for the first number in today's data bank. 24. that's how many days the

corruption trial of governor bob mcdonnell and his wife maureen's has lasted. the governor's team attempted to highlight the couple's marital problems. this time one of the children took the stand and testified that maureen mcdonnell, her mother, had a, quote, mild obsession with businessman jonnie williams. the mcdonnells are accused of accepting over $170,000 in gifts from mr. williams. the prosecution is expected to call one final witness today. closing arguments are set to begin tomorrow. still to come, 40 years after an historic election, what retiring watergate babies are saying now about making a difference on the hill and across the country. more of our exit interviews are up next. plus, more on the midterm mindset with two former senators who both lost re-elections in wave years on both sides. speaking of waves, here's a live look here at cape may, new jersey. both coasts are supposedly going to be facing strong storms.

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it's one more part of our commitment to america. we're approaching the end of an era in congress. when this term is over there will no longer be any house members who are watergate babies. that term was coined in 1974 when a huge number of young democrats were elected to congress just a few months after president nixon's resignation of the of the 92 new members of the house, 75 were democrats. 8 of the 10 freshmen senators were democrats. just five of those democrats first elected in '74 are serving today. vermont's patrick leahy, the senate's longest serving member. tom harkin is retiring this year. so are congressman henry waxman and george miller, both of california. minnesota congressman rick nolan was first elected in '74. he retired in '80 but he returned to the house in 2012. part of our series of exit

interviews with retiring senators and key members of congress, i talked to two of these watergate babies. here's an excerpt. >> what does that mean to you to be a watergate baby? >> i think that it really was that we came out of an election where the country was in turmoil over vietnam, over watergate. a change was in the air. >> you guys felt like you had a mission in many ways. >> yeah. we were brassy. >> so looking back, what did you get done that you're like, boy, i'm glad we had that small window of opportunity because if you hadn't done it then, you wouldn't have gotten it done. >> i think clearly ending the war in vietnam. cutting off the funding for the war in vietnam and saying this is now over, you can ramp it down but it's over was really important to us. i think also the idea of congressional reforms. obviously very frontal attack on seniority system, there should be some merit considered in what's happened here. because you get a post doesn't mean you have it for life. >> so the significance of coming

into that watergate class, it's always -- do you feel like you did reform the system for better? >> i do. sure, i do. we did some things. actually, as you know, we dumped a couple of committee chairmen at that time and we sort of reformed that system. we made some more changes in how the speaker and -- the speaker at that time was carl albert. >> right. >> and he actually opened the system up more for us. you know the other thing that we did, chuck, is all conference committees were always held behind closed doors. we said no more. we've got to open up the conference committees and we opened up the conference committees. >> really some basic reform that say we all take for granted now all came in '74. >> that '74 election was a turning point in our country's politics and with 33% of

americans hope more incumbents of both parties lose this november so congress has new people could we see a repeat 40 years later. with me now to discuss this, blanch lincoln and former republican senator, john sonunu. senator, one of the things i'm surprised we haven't seen more of is talk of reform. we know the economy is the number one issue. this campaign is about nothing. it's fear. and that happens. but there is some talk of reform. i mean the system is broken for numerous reasons. it isn't just sort of reka recalcitran recalcitrants. i haven't seen a legitimate candidate running on reform. >> and the reforms have to happen obviously in the processes but they also have to happen in what needs to go on, the economy, for instance. i mean if we don't do regulatory reform, if we don't do tax reform, we're going to continue

to see what we saw come out of cbo yesterday, which was more debt and the economy taking the tank. but i think you're right. and yet 50% of the senate right now is in their freshman term. >> no, it is. it's all new people. >> it's new people. it's not like you've got a whole lot of old folks there. >> senator, i think the surprising thing to me, that is the one unifying factor of the country. they think, boy, that system is a mess. go fix the system. >> well, there has been reform in the past so why not now. a couple of thoughts. one, reform is really hard. in general, it's much easier just to add a program, spend a little more money than to undertake significant reform. >> watergate reforms were legitimate. they really did fix a lot of bad things taking place in washington. >> some, some. but the point is it's tough, it takes a lot of work.

second, we have gone through some efforts that have been cut short very recently. there was an effort to undertake tax reform. dave camp did a bill, max baucus did hearings and it died and went nowhere. immigration reform, whether you're for it or against it sort of moved and then died under its own weight. so it's tough as a candidate right now to go out and talk about reform when your constituents have seen it fail and come up short so many times in the past two years. >> and that issue i think is totally tied and it's a question i threw to every one of these retiring members, is there too much power in the hands of leadership. basically four people control things. hear reid and speaker boehner together killed tax reform. basically boehner told dave camp, no, you're out there on your own and harry reid with max baucus, that's all right, cutting you off at the knees. >> the leadership is tied to politics and it's all those politics out there and the extremes in the politics that keep people from being able to

do what your dad did and you and i did and others did and that was to build friendships among each other so that you can go to the consensus and get things done. >> but leaders and committee members can't of those relationships anymore. >> but the leaders could allow them. >> i think it's very hard and wouldn't necessarily be good for congress. but go back to tax reform in 1986. >> r and a d. >> but you had leaders on both sides. i believe it was dole and o'neill who empowered those chairmen and said, yes, i will back you up in this effort. and today if harry reid truly empowered max baucus a year and a half ago and john boehner empowered dave camp a year and a half ago, you could get tax reform done. >> but the leaders chose not to. >> and i think you could have it and are most likely to see it in

the next term if republicans have control, they know they're going to need to deal with immigration and i think the pressure will still be there to do tax reform. >> i think status quo -- >> bipartisan momentum for tax reform -- >> i think a status quo result might force more than if one party wins and one loses. let me ask you this. you both were victims of waves, you in '10 and you in '08. when you're in the midst of it, how do you know when the wave is coming? did you know? how did you know? when did you like -- or do you never believe it when you're in it? >> you can't. i mean everybody said why did you ever run to begin with. young, single woman, what were you thinking. and i said all i knew is that i could win. i didn't assume that i would and i never assumed that i would. my races were always difficult. as a young woman in the south, a democrat in a very conservative state, they were always difficult.

you just had to get tunnel vision, buput blinders on -- >> what about you. >> if you don't enjoy campaigning, you shouldn't be running for office. september 17th, 18th, 19th, when the bottom dropped out of the stock market, lehman brothers goes up, you know it's going to be tough. but you also believe i can do this, it can be done, because so many times in history people rose up against the odds. if you don't believe in yourself and at least wrap yourself around the job in front of you and take it on -- >> i like that, motivational words. >> we are problem solvers. >> if you're a good politician, hey, i can sleep after the election and i can do all the analysis i want after the election. >> or you'll sleep when you're dead. thank you both. up next, we're getting a little nostalgic here bringing back the gaggle.

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rl. the landscape shifted a bit this summer in some of the more

intense senate races of 2014, republicans of course only needed six seats. right now most panelists believe they have got a good shot at getting there. what's the middle ground? six. the political report is forecasting six seats with will republican. the question is, how high do they go? "the washington post," reed wilson, the cook reports. nathan gonzalez. okay, so there's your landscape, it feels as if we're really in the same place on that respect nationally as we have been in the last, say, six months. but i asked you guys to all come up with candidates who have had good summers and candidates who have had bad summers. nathan we'll start with you. >> a good summer, republican congressman steve gains in montana. >> i would say he had a pretty good summer. >> he went from a favorite in the race to having your opponent

completely drop out. i think that's a pretty good signing. >> i went with kansas senator pat roberts, even after the primary his manager said well, we can go back home to virginia. there's an interesting dynamic there. a third party independent canning dat. >> you hate to use the cliche, what's the matter with kansas, but there is a whole, trust me, i have now expanded my polling polling -- >> it helps to have a late primary, but every republican at the beginning of the cycle said mark begich, number one target, now way down on the list. even republicans thinking that he -- >> absolutely. but he was considered a gonner. he has had a bad summer. and it's not just because of bruce breeley and his own

antics. jody ernst, the media has fallen in love with her. >> and a good trance tigs to you. >> she came out with one of the great through ads of the summer, that sort of brought her to the fore. she's running in a dead heat. usa today poll just came out, they polled 500 people, 201 picked bruce breley. >> but it is, here's the thing. the bad summer is tom tillis, the house speaker in north carolina, tachbd republicans i talked to are now more confident in ernst's chances. they have spent tens of millions of dollars against kay haygan, the democratic senator in north carolina, she is not pulling away. just by a few points. but he hasn't had the summer that he wants. >> did you all agree with the premise that republicans can win

control of the senate? does anybody disagree with that pr premise. >> a little more than half of the most competitive races. >> that is a good year. >> 55%. >> you don't need a wave to do that. that's a good point. >> you got a wave or no wave. republicans are going to have a good -- >> that's a win. >> the majority about that. >> all right, i want to go to me the marquee race, i'll tell you, it's something that i'm surprised, the person that i think has had a bad summer is mitch mcconnell. i think he is -- i think a lot of us thought he would be a little more ahead by this point in time. he's not. and now he's basically stuck having to run this campaign that's not about him, that's about barack obama. >> it is. and this campaign was never going to be about mitch mcconnell. he doesn't want it to be about himself. people in kentucky just don't like the guy. the saving grace may be the war on coal, which the republicans

have used to win back pretty much everything. >> it's a numbers game. basically if it's just mcconnell grimes and it was in isolation. there is a national climate. there is those things exist. kentucky is a red state. but i just feel -- >> also, didn't you think by this point that grimes would have made the mistake by now. this is a new candidate, they're going to trip up. they're catching her on this bus. that's kind of stretching it. >> i think through all of this, he has established a narrow, maybe two points, three points, but a consistent lead in the polls and he has a low ceiling, he's not going to blow this race out. but i think he has minor advantage that he didn't have. >> to me, it's the only senate race in the country that's going to turn on a debate. >> you guys believe that? >> because they have set expectations, one of the things mcconnell's people have done is they have planned on these flubs

by -- our applications are very low. if she shows up and doesn't trip on the stage. >> she hasn't shown that she will trip on the stage. >> this -- did he make a mistake e nathan, in being so confrontational in what he said he was going to do as senate majority leader? >> he's walking a fine line, we all know that. i think kentucky has given him some insulation that he didn't have. and he didn't have it for a more competitive state. >> walter reed, wilson, good old-fashioned, almost a hollywood reunion. >> another life. >> that's right. you should have been there. >> that's it for this edition of the daily run down. coming up jose diaz-balart. will be speaking to two americans held 4hostage oversea. something he does a lot. but this time they added to the schedule to let us all know,

jose will be right back.

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danger zone, there's a debate over how to fight isis wraps up. two americans being held 4hostae overseas and a friend whose killing shocked the world. the king makers, the president says he's no king, but what he may do on immigration already has some lawmakers, including senator marco rubio. we touch on the policy as the clock ticks on the -- the california coastline may be a -- it remains a potentially deadly place. it's a live report from the west, on this thursday, the 28th of august. >> good morning, i'm jose diaz balart, and our first focus is