in out-of-pocket expenses. call now for this free information kit... and medicare guide. if you're turning 65 or you're already on medicare, you should know about this card; it's the only one of its kind... that carries the aarp name -- see if it's right for you. you choose your doctor. you choose your hospital. there are no networks and no referrals needed. help protect yourself from some of what medicare doesn't cover. save up to thousands of dollars... on potential out-of-pocket expenses... with an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan... insured by united healthcare insurance company. call now for your free information kit... and medicare guide and find out... how you could start saving. breaking right now here on msnbc it is decision time in copenhagen. olympic officials holding their first vote for the host city of

the 2016 summer games and there are a lot of cities in the competition right now. of course, from our perspective, chicago is the one we're rooting for here but a lot of others around the world. madrid, tokyo and rio. >> live pictures of rio. >> that has been a big deal for rio. there is the beach there where about 100,000 people have been expected to gather. it is a day of jub lance in rio. they have had people take off work they said it's kind of a holiday. kids have been let out of school. everyone gathering here, of course, in the hopes they will make this cut and as we go to from rio on the beaches and all of that, ka bikinis and not what you're seeing there in chicago, chilly there. people in leather jackets playing the rock 'n' roll. chicago celebrating as well. daley plaza. lots of anticipation building. is the windy city going to claim the gold? we're waiting to see. >> party is going on in daley

plaza right there. in manhattan breaking developments in the letterman extortion case. the d.a. expected to announce charges against the producer trying to blackmail letterman with sexual affairs with female staff members. first lady and the president made a strong push to land the 2016 summer olympics in chicago. in a few moments the ioc will be voting on their choice for host city. jim is live from chicago bus. what are you placing odds on right now, jim? >> oh, boy. i'm not a betting man so i couldn't say. seriously, alex, it still looks like -- there is a buzz out there and we can only go by the buzz. the vote is secret and it hasn't happened yet but the buzz is telling us chicago keeps building and building momentum. the bookies are giving it to chicago. even before the obamas came

here, chicago was the betting favorite. but, you know, betting favors have lost. remember paris for the 2012 games and we already called he them the london games but at one time they were supposed to be the paris games and that didn't happen. anything can happen here. it's crunch time now. as you said, all four finalists, chicago, rio, tokyo and madrid, on paper, this is important, on paper, their pluses and minuses cancel out and pretty much the same technically and ioc delegates has said such. what's different is the two potential game-changers. one of them of course, is the obama factor. that would help chicago. the question is did the world's most powerful man appeal today and it was a persuasive one, did it close the deal? we'll find that out at 1:00 p.m. your time. here's a little bit of the taste or sampling of what obama had to say today to the ioc delegates.

>> it's a bustling metropolis with the warmth of a small town. where the world already comes together every day to live and work and reach for a dream. that's not just the american dream. that is the olympic spirit. it's the essence of the olympic spirit. and that is why we see so much of ourselves in these games. that's why we want them in chicago. >> there's an equally persuasive argument, though, and coming from the rio team. you may have touched on it earlier. rio is saying, they are very passionate, president silva saying these are our games because it's our time. they live to hold up that map, alex, with the previous historic spots where the olympic games have taken place little red pins in all of the locations. you see nothing. it's blank over south america and that has been effective and

that argument has resonated a lot with ioc delegates so it's probably a two-horse race and too close to call and we will know a winner around 1:00 p.m. your time and after that, the party is going to begin for some people in earnest. >> that argument is legitimate. when you look at it, we had atlanta in 1996 and los angeles 1984 and lake placid winter games and squaw valley winter games in the '60s and something to be taken into consideration. we are focusing so much on chicago. can you just give me an ecdotaly how many korns are there from madrid and rio and tokyo where they are blasting their story and their support to them for their home countries? >> i can tell you the media community, if you will, is probably about 1,500. of those i'd say maybe a couple hundred americans. you can see that these games are

important for all of these four city states or four bidding cities, i should say. for pretty much the same reasons, the prestige, the money, the billions of dollars in investment, at least potentially speaking. yeah, there are crews everywhere, whether it's madrid or whether it's rio. rio's correspondents tend to be a little bit more outspoken. tokyo's correspondents seem to be a little bit more restrained. and, of course, we're somewhere in the middle, aren't we? but no. it's a great group and big group and a lot of excitement in the street and even though stoic people are getting into it, we are seeing them everywhere with their cameras wanting to take pictures of oprah. >> jim maceda, thanks. let's bring in

representative jan who joins us live from chicago where i know it is very loud right now congresswoman so thanks for joining us. how much of a boon was this last-minute edition of the president coming in? how big for chicago was that, do you think? >> i think it shows the commitment of the city of chicago to welcome the games here. the fact the president and the first lady went they want to bring the olympics to their neighborhood. the people of all sorts are out today. this is chicago. you know? we represent people from all over the globe ready to welcome the world in every single language because we're an immigrant friendly city. we celebrate our diversity and everybody is out here today biting their fingernails! >> congresswoman, let me ask you about rio. because what we're hearing now is that it looks to be a two-city race between chicago and rio. we've got live pictures there. i don't know if we can throw

those up to show the celebrations in rio as they hope for the same thing you guys hope for. what does chicago have to offer that rio does not? >> well, chicago is really ready for the games because we have so much infrastructure. we're ready to welcome people. but i think the other thing is the story of the people of chicago. i think, in many ways, chicago is kind of a secret. the fact we're such a beautiful city with our lake, with our many restaurants, but, most of all, it's the people of the city of chicago who are from every single place in the world and we want visitors from every place in the world. we welcome them and i think that we're ready to receive them, more than any other city is. >> finally, congresswoman, speaking of the people of the city of chicago, when you look at the poll numbers from the "chicago tribune," 47% approve of the olympics coming to your town but 45% don't want it. what do you make of those

numbers? >> you know, every city that welcomes the olympics, there's always those nay-sayers. think that the kind of attention, the kind of revenue it will bring to chicago, the 315,000 jobs that are going to be created because of the olympics, i think everyone will soon see the benefit. it is not unusual for residents of olympic cities to worry about the cost. but we've had private sector investment like we've never seen before, as well as the city putting up its own support, so i'm not worried that at the end of the day, we're going to all be supporting and cheering for team usa here in chicago. >> congresswoman jan schakowsky, thank you. >> president obama is on the ground in denmark less than five hours today and delivered the final pitch for chicago to host the 2016 games and also met face-to-face with the command of u.s. forces in afghanistan.

joining us now live, chuck todd, nbc's chief white house correspondent and political director. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> what is the buzz? first of all, the buzz on chicago in terms of the gamble that the white house is tag taking. the president is throwing himself into part of the equation and the decision. >> he is, but you know what? he had not gone he was already going to be thrown in as part of the equation. he would have been blamed if chicago didn't get it. and he probably would have gotten credit if he didn't go and chicago did get it anyway because a lot of people would have said, obama's presidency, him being elect is what helped put chicago in the spotlight. at this point the decision was made it's better to have gone if chicago loses than have not gone. because the political pain would have been bad either way and, look. he has too many personal contacts in chicago who knew how to just lobby and lobby and lobby people in this white house, particularly valley

jarrett. she was the point person here for everybody in chicago to be the pressure point to get the president to make the final pitch. and judging by the response he got, treated like a rock star very differently than the president lula from brazil or the folks from japan or spain. it tells you that they were right and even if chicago doesn't get it, he probably improved chicago's chances. >> chuck, let's take a listen to what the president had to say about all of this when he was questioned about it. let's take a listen. >> while we do not know what the next few years will bring, there is nothing i would like more than to step a few blocks from my family's home with michelle and our two girls and welcome the world back into our neighborhood. >> now, that's a chicago perspective, chuck, but how much is this a referendum on america from the global perspective? >> i think that's -- i don't think it's a referendum on america at all.

i think that's kind of crazy. let's remember, this is a business decision at the end of the day. the international olympic committee has to decide where to put the olympics that is making the most sense for them, financially and going forward. obviously, having games in america has been financially a plus for the olympic committee when you think about atlanta and you think about los angeles. it's been 20 years from when 2016 comes, there have been 20 years since america hosted an olympics. i think that factors into it. the number two sponsor, longest sponsor of the olympic games is mcdonald's. headquartered in chicago. so sometimes i think we allow ourselves to get caught up in some of these things too much. this is a business decision at the end of the day and if they go with chicago, it's because of business. >> yeah. in other words, sometimes you got to keep it simple. >> money. on anything, follow the money! >> you're so right, chuck todd, as always! chuck, thank you for that and all of you looking at the other side of the screen from where

chuck is, you're taking a look at the votes under way in copenhagen, denmark. there will be 98 votes issued and i'm sure people make their statements where they are supporting whatever they are supporting. even though 106 members would potentially vote if you are a member representing one of the host cities, from that country, you cannot vote in this early round right now. we're going to keep a tally of the vote and know pretty soon if chicago gets it. i'm excited. >> we will bring you updates. we are expecting an indictment in the bombshell extortion plot against david letterman who admitted to the sexual conduct at the center of the alleged scheme last night on his show. >> the creepy stuff was that i have had sex with women who work for me on this show. now, my response to that is, yes, i have.

i have had sex with women who work for me on this show. >> jeff rossen is covering this. let's talk about the producer. who he is and what do we know about him? >> robert j. halderman is his name, a producer for the cbs news magazine show "48 hours" that airs sat nights. he has covered the september 11th attacks and many documentaries for "48 hours." this is a storied producer at cbs news. apparently, according to several reports, he actually used to live, according to papers, with one of the women who david letterman may have been involved with who is a staffer on his show and it's unclear if this is something about jealousy or something beyond that. we hope to learn more at a news conference with manhattan d.a. in 15 minutes. it's a scandal inside cbs. a cbs employee exploiting a

front man, david letterman. according to david letterman himself three weeks ago, he gets in his car and a package on the back seat saying i know about the terrible things you've done and here is proof of the terrible things you've done and david letterman, instead of trying to hide it, apparently went to his lawyer. they met with the guy. the guy said i want $2 million to keep this under wraps. letterman then went to the manhattan d.a.'s office. the people hosting the news conference today. they had a sting operation. he wrote him a fake check for $2 million and robert j. halderman, that cbs news producer, was arrested. we hope to learn a little more about what happened. the motivation behind this in about 15 to 20 minutes from now. >> we will be watching that. jeff, thank you so much. released numbers from the labor department this morning show the unemployment rate hit the highest level since 1983. the jobless rate reached 9.8% in september and that comes to 263,000 jobs slashed last month. over 80,000 more than wall

street was expecting. in the meantime, singles have been hit harder than married people and lost jobs at a 50% greater rate than people who are legally married. still to come, the senate finance committee pulls a late nighter to cut down the cost of health care and setting the stage for a final formal vote from days from now. president obama challenge iran to unfettered access to the nuclear program and will iran agree? if not, where that sd that leave negotiations? caught on tape and raising questions about right and wrong and live pictures from copenhagen. we are watching the vote taking place right now. which city will host the 2016 summer olympics? chicago has put in an impassioned plea this morning and president obama and the first lady there in person. we'll bring you the vote count when we get it. stay with us. clean so deep...

it's like your old mop's worst nightmare. ♪ [ thunder crashes ] [ man ] love stinks. ♪ love stinks! ♪ yeah! yeah! [ female announcer ] swiffer wet cloths clean better than a mop with new cleansers that attract dirt deep into the cloth and lock it away. new swiffer wet cloths clean better, or your money back. ♪ love stinks!

breaking news now. the voting for the 2016 summer olympic games host city is now under way on the left side of your screen. you are seeing the shot from the conference center in copenhagen where the voting is under way. this is the first round on the ballot here. chicago, madrid and rio and tokyo you see on the right-hand side daley plaza in chicago they are watching the voting live as well. we will keep you posted as each city gets eliminated and you can see there the folks in chicago hoping that they are there for the win today. alex? >> all right. monica, rescuers have not given up hope in indonesia and finding people alive today, two days after that massive 7.6 earthquake. this morning a teen was pulled alive and conscious from the rubble of a collapsed school.

a teacher was also rescued. but officials say thousands more victims may still be buried. nbc ian williams joins us on the phone from indonesia. what is going on on the ground right now, ian? >> good morning, alex. that's right. dramatic scenes this morning outside the wreckage of that school. a young woman, a student and her teacher pulled out alive to the applauds of schools of onlookers. this was a woms school, three story school that collapsed when the quake struck two days ago. many dead bodies have been pulled out and they were giving up hope anybody else could be found alive. dramatic scene. also, across town one of the largest hotels in padang collapsed this evening and workers saying they were hearing voices and estimated at least seven or eight people alive in the rubble. a short while ago they were

making an effort to break in through the back part of the hotel to give them a new access route into the rubble. now, the indonesian health ministry estimated earlier today there could be as many as 3,000 people still trapped in the rubble of the various buildings that collapsed around this city. of course, an unknown number outside of the city and outlying areas which they still have not reached. we drove to one of those areas today which is close to the epi center. there had been a lot of damage there. there were far more buildings down than even in padang but although they were down they tended to be lower rise residencies and, therefore, less deaths than we've seen here in padang. certainly the rescue attempts go out and there ask more aid arriving and rescue workers arriving and from today's scene there is still hope. >> god's speed for those rescue attempts.

ian williams, thank you very much. the senate finance committee worked past 2:00 a.m. to wrap up the amendment process on its health care reform bill and budget office works to put a price tag on the package. president obama is praising the committee for their efforts and final vote expected next week. john decker joins us and kerry bacon of "the washington post." john, senator olympia snowe, heard a lot about her from the last couple of weeks. she hasn't decided how she will vote. how crucial is that vote? >> a crucial vote. they want to put a stamp on the bill that comes before his desk and getting snowe on board would be a big move in that direction. keep in mind, monica, there are no other republicans that have signaled in any way, either in the house or the senate, that they're willing to sign on to this particular bill and it's still unknown whether olympia snowe will actually sign on to the legislation. >> perry, this is progress,

certainly, but still many steps in this process. how close are we really from seeing something concrete? >> i think we're still a few months away from seeing something concrete but this is a big step and this is a bill everybody is watching and negotiated for months and a bill they think is the closest to what the final law is. getting this passed will be a very important step and if it happens next week. >> john, we have to talk to the olympics as we are watching the live vote happening right now. the president making a trip to copenhagen and critics said he shouldn't have made that trip but we learned after his few hours there on the ground in copenhagen he got on to air force one and had a meeting with general mcchrystal who came in from london via afghanistan. does that mitigate what some of the critics were saying? >> i think to a large extent it does. he meant. he met with the general one hour on air force one according to the white house press secretary robert gibbs.

i think that for those critics who argue the president is taking time out of his duties as commander in chief for this concern, i think the efforts on behalf of the white house and president obama really puts those issues to rest. >> all right. good to have you both. thank you. >> thanks a lot, monica. we are keeping a close eye on daley plaza there in chicago where hundreds, not thousands, have gathered. they are all awaiting the decision. it's going down right now in copenhagen, denmark where they decide who will host the 2016 summer olympic games. many are rooting for chicago and fans all over the world rooting for other cities as well. we are having the countdown right now and following it in our control booth and expect an announcement coming up shortly. we'll let you know. we'll be right back.

when we spend a billion dollars a day buying foreign oil... we don't just waste our money... we put our economy in the hands of hostile nations. we let big oil make record profits... while we struggle. and we lose new energy jobs, that go overseas. but we can take charge of our economy... by passing strong clean energy legislation. 1.7 million new american jobs. less carbon pollution. and a cleaner america for our children. it's time for clean american energy. all of the. 25 past the hour.

we can hardly believe our ears! it is a quiet time in daley plaza in the city of chicago. we have just been listening to the vote. apparently chicago has been taken out of the running for the 2016 olympic games. that vote having just gone down in copenhagen. it has received the fewest number of votes. in the running in addition to chicago, continues, tokyo, rio de janeiro and madrid and comes as a tremendous blow to not only those in chicago but it also calls into consider the -- question the considerable efforts for the president and first lady going over there. they were much heralded by that i arrival and appreciated all of the efforts to have them pak their personal bid for the city of chicago. let's go to nb's john yang. john, good morning. >> it certainly is much quieter

here. a lot of the steam, the energy in the air went out of this crowd a few seconds ago when they announced that chicago fallen off and gotten the least votes in the first round. so now the voting continues with rio, madrid, and tokyo. you know, it was, as you say, the president and the first lady there and the president flying over to make the case and chicago made its closing arguments this morning. the word we got talking to people in copenhagen was that the chicago team walked out sort of deflated. they were a little, they felt some of the steam go out of it, while the rio team was very energized when they left the room. but you can imagine, this plaza here outside chicago city hall which had people jammed in here, all sorts of energy, a lot of loud music, now very deflated. people streaming out already leaving this party ending much,

much earlier than they had hoped for. so came as quite a surprise. there was some feeling over the summer that the momentum was building in chicago's favor and especially when the president announced he was going over. there were all sorts of high hopes but now they have just been crushed and the feeling, one of really dejection here in daley plaza. >> john, think what is so stunning in the commercial break we were stunned when we were listening to the live voting in our ears because this was the first round. so this was not the expectation, while no one thought it was a sure bet that chicago would get this, we've been talking a lot about rio this morning and in the past week, especially, but certainly for chicago to go out in the first round is surprising. >> i think that's exactly right. there was so much expectation that it was going to come down between chicago and rio and that it was going to be very close in the end. perhaps decided by only a few votes.

to have chicago go out in the first round, it's so funny because i think tokyo, a lot of the the odds makers, the people who follow this, talked about the bids, felt that tokyo was the most likely to fall out in the first round. 350e78 people who really have looked at these bids, allen abrams said chicago was the strongest and best bid that any american city had ever made and it was very surprising. we have congresswoman jan schakowski here. what is your reaction that chicago fell out in the first round? >> i'm completely in shock. apparently, pat ryan, who was the chairman of our olympic effort, was worried about the first round where people voted for their continent, even people who, on the next rounds, would vote for chicago, apparently he had expressed some sense that he was worried about the first

round, but i think -- i'm shocked and i bet a number of the delegates, the voters, the members of the ioc are shocked as well. i think they thought they would have another opportunity to vote for chicago. the city that i believe is most prepared, most ready to host these games so, obviously, people are leaving this place feeling just so disappointed, you know, and we were hoping for it in terms of the economy, the jobs, but i think most of all the spirit of chicago is really dampen because this is a city that drives itself on being a city of diversity that welcomes people from all over the world, as residents and as guests. so it hurts. >> we're just being told that tokyo has now fallen out. in the second round of voting, they got the fewest votes so

it's now between madrid and rio. >> yeah. well, you know, obviously, we were concerned not about second, third and fourth, but about first place. so we're disappointed. you know, people are i think, really stunned as they walk from this place, which we hoped was going to be a place of great celebration. >> representative jan schakow consist sky, thank you very much. people are streaming out of here. ready for the announcement several hours from now but now the party is over. >> john yang in chicago, thank you. allen abramson of nbc sports. we know tokyo is eliminated in the second round leaving it to rio and madrid. what do you make of chicago dropping out so soon? >> i mean, i think all of us no

matter where you're from in the world everybody is stunned that chicago is out first. as i said a million times, it's notoriously unpredictable and never more so than today. >> yeah. so now we're looking at rio and madrid as the final two. does it look like it goes to rio then? >> anybody who hazard a prediction after what we just saw, i'm not sure that it would be worth anything. i mean, anything. i have said many times that you cannot discount the import of the former president of the united states. i mean, he made a personal feel today to his old colleagues and you don't know how much influence that will have on the numbers. >> we were just speaking with nbc chuck todd and alex will talk to him in a moment. he talked to this boiling down to a business decision at the end. what do you think? >> i'm sorry, a big what? >> boiling down to a business decision, follow the money, if you will.

>> oh, well, i don't think we'll know until we know who wins. we don't know whether the rio map and the compelling emotional argument that is going to south america for the first time is the winner. we just don't know yet. >> we heard a lot about the south american could not meant being off that olympic map so far. alan, thank you for calling in. >> thank you. let's go to nbc's white house political director and white house correspondent chuck todd. chuck, it's a shock for us here in the studio with so much momentum having built around barack and michelle obama going there and you add oprah to the mix and it seemed golden. what do you think happened? >> well, it's hard to predict. alan is the expert on this stuff and he had been warning us for weeks, you know, you don't know these folks, they very unpredictable and it's like predict who is the next pope whenever you've had one of those elections. nobody knows what goes on inside

that room, inside their heads. and so clearly it wasn't a business decision. if it was a business decision, i think you would see chicago still around and chicago end up with these games. it was not a business decision on that front and, you know, alan brought up two points. he had brought this up and written some great stuff about this. he had noted that the former head of the international olympic committee is a spaniard and he was going to have more influence than any of us understood. then the emotional argument and the geographic argument that rio has been making and south america in general has been making when you have an entire continent rooting for you that has to be a helpful thing as well. but i tell you, this is going to be one of those, you know, the instincts of this white house weeks ago was to not buckle under the pressure from all of their chicago friends saying you got to go, you got to go, you got to do it, you got to do it. i tell you, you wonder if everything has an unattended consequence and it's just going

to be -- anybody from chicago trying to call in a favor now from this white house is probably going to be thrown in at the back of the line after this. >> yeah. a former ioc president spaniard pulling a lot of weight there. you talk about the rio bid and alan abrahamson was doing a lot of that. they had this map with red dots all over it to signify places which had held the olympics and then this huge void there in south america. so when you and i were talking, chuck, not 30 minutes ago, we talked about keeping it simple and we could go and we could try and interpret what this is going to mean for the white house and how is this going to be played out, what the spin is going to be and what all of the nay-sayers are going to say but if you keep it simple, maybe it's fair that it goes to rio? do you think that will be something that comes out of the white house? >> guess what? we're all going to be experts about this after we know who won. >> right. >> if madrid gets it, see, it's about having the insider angle

and having that former president of the ioc making a final pitch. and if it's rio, we're all going to be experts how, see, it's geographic. so i mean, that is what is so difficult about something like this. alan has been doing fabulous reporting on this and it was a great reminder that, you know, there was an angle -- there's a reason why all four of these cities were finalists and there was an angle for all of them. the money business decision angle always seemed to favor chicago. forget the politics of obama here a moment and i think that's why a lot of people logically went that direction considering that atlanta got an olympics and that was as much about a business decision more than anything else. >> yeah. okay. chuck todd, we ask you to stand by. want to remind all of you, we're going to have the actual announcement, official announcement and you will know what it's about and they will make probably reasons and talk about the two cities in the running being rio de janeiro and madrid right now but

disappointing time for chicagoans. >> jim is live with us in chicago. tell us about the reaction where you're standing as people hear the results of the first two rounds. chicago out first and then tokyo. >> well, it's nothing less than a bombshell here. it absolutely contradicts the sense palpable at times of momentum that had been growing for chicago. certainly over the past several weeks but particularly in the last few days starting with the arrival of the bid team. all of those olympians, past and present, some of chem them from chicago and followed by oprah winfrey and the first lady who introduces the president of the united states this morning. it seemed to be choreographed day by day just so that as pat ryan told me a couple of days ago, he is the chicago 2016 bid chairman, just so that they would have a nose in front at

the finish line. it really was conceived to be a sprint to the finish. well, there was a sprint but it certainly didn't finish in chicago's favor. i mean, we could speculate now on all of the reasons chuck was just mentioning some of them, the second-guessing, the third-guessing whether obama factored into it or not. whether there is anti-americanism or some sense of in europe which, of course, europe has the majority of ioc representatives, whether they simply still resisting some kind of sense of american in sports. who knows what it is and we will talk to ioc members hopefully, in the hours ahead. i can guarantee you among the 1,500 or so and the media here, it silenced everyone. no one imagined that chicago would go out in the first round, that it would be head-to-head, nip and tuck between rio and chicago. many thought on the bid team that rio was still the

front-runner going into today, but that they would manage with the closer in town, barack obama, to eke it out but they didn't. >> jim maceda, stand by. >> we were all sort of eyes ablaze. we will let you hear right now announce announcement coming from copenhagen that chicago was out of the ousted. >> the city of chicago who obtained the least number of votes will not participate in the next round. >> that was it. nothing more to it. we all said, what? wondering if we heard our ears correctly and we, indeed, had. lester holt and kevin is with us. so the two of you, what did you think was going to happen? were you as pumped up as everybody else that it was going

to be chicago and give me your reaction. >> well, let me tell you how we reacted. we both looked at each other like, like we couldn't believe it. >> i still can't believe it and i don't think that these thousands of people who are still milling about daley plaza where you could hear a pin drop right now. i don't think anyone can believe it. people here are truly stunned. they knew they were in a competition with rio and knew it was going to be tight but i don't think anyone thought they would be going out in the first round. >> i think general feeling people pretty much dismissed tokyo and madrid and thought it's between us and rio. they were jazzed when they came in here. they were watching this vote. a lot of them crossing their fingers, holding their breath but i think there was the expectation this was the easy one, the first vote. could get harder down the line and no one expected it and they are carrying local nbc channel 5 here on the jumbotron and when they cut back to their reporter in copenhagen, the jaw dropping, the same looks. so chl invested in this and news

people we are struck bill the political implications. >> we're in the city of big shoulders and i think people were really ready to roll up their sleeves and building the venues and going into neighborhoods that need a little bit of help and building venues there and really putting chicago back on the world stage. much in the same way that happened in the late -- 1890s when they had the world's fair here putting chicago on the world's map once again and the air went out of that balloon real fast. >> you just think of, you know, chicago's most famous sons and daughters made that trip to copenhagen. oprah winfrey and the president and the first lady. the mayor, we're standing on the daley plaza of his late father and the former mayor. you know, so much personality and so much chicago goodwill that seemed like it would have carried at least in the first round. i don't know anyone has the words for what took place. >> all the talk was we were going to guess into the further

rounds. no one was expecting this. and like i said you can hear a pin drop in this place right now. >> i can tell you monica and i on the set looked at each other and jen in the control booth, like what? it was clearly absolutely disbelief. i want to ask about the money, you guys. because we talked about how from a business perspective chicago made perfect sense. chicago has spent or at least the committee has spent about $48 million over the last four years to try to bring this to chicago. why do you think this means in terms of lost revenue for chicago? is this the kind of thing -- was chicago sort of wank banking on this? >> in many ways, chicago, i thought, was being very smart, because their bid was going to essentially be about half the price that was paid in ads for the olympic games, $4.8 billion is the number thrown around. a lot of people objected to that saying that they were going to be cost overruns but as lester knows they were building a

temporary stadium here in a south side neighborhood that was going to be dismantled and turned into an amphitheater for the local residents. there wasn't going to be a white elephant at the end of this games. people from chicago from the mayor to oprah and right on down thought in today's economic times, their pitch made economic sense. >> right. but we should point out that this crowd here does not necessarily represent all of chicago. in fact, recent polls found this town was pretty much split. i think 47% in favor and 45% against. you have to understand there are chicagoans who are celebrating right now thinking we didn't need this and we didn't need to spend the money. this large crowd here that came to celebrate are stunned and perhaps the other side is stunned but in a different way. >> perhaps the members of the olympic committee were reading the chicago papers and those polls. another thing i want to by out sadly when they came through last spring the weather was

horrendous in chicago and i don't know if that had anything to do with it or not but it snowed and it was awful here. >> lester and kevin tibbles, appreciate the smiles there despite the glum news in chicago. thank you very much. now it's settled in but i did not see this one coming, for sure. >> yeah. let's bring in back chuck todd who is standing by at the white house. chuck, i'm just wondering now. there were critics who said that the president shouldn't go and give as much that was on his plate, particularly this week with iran and afghanistan. the president did manage to get in that meeting with general mcchrystal and i wonder now, looking back, now that it's over, can anyone still come out and point a finger at the president? doesn't the white house at this point stand up and say the president went and stood up on behalf of his country and on behalf of his hometown and it didn't work out but we're moving on. >> that's right. i mean, that's the best they can do and the best the white house can say.

the fact is whether it's fair or not, you know, republicans are probably going to use this to tweak him a little bit and might do it with humor or another way. you know, it is a blow. you know, he made his pitch about, you know, about this being, you know, the world embracing america again so he'll get tagged with that by some critics, but the biggest political loser is mayor daley on in chicago. nobody had more on the line than him. he was pushing this and this was his pet project and he put so much pressure on the white house as to get the president out there. he worked this -- he worked this white house every contact he had here harder than anybody. woint want to be mayor daley looking for a favor from this white house in the next six months or a year. a lot of other people in chicago also. i think the relationship between this white house and some -- some of the political power elites in chicago is probably

temporarily damaged. we'll see how long but politically, mayor daley, he could see his popular ratings already hurting a little bit, take a hit, because he put so much prestige on the line personally to get these games. >> chuck, it's a friday. is this the point where the white house, at some point this amp, puts out a statement in response to all of this and then essentially says we're moving on? >> well, look. they've already scheduled -- it would be -- it would be odd if they didn't see the president. they've already scheduled a rose garden announcement of a statement that he was going to make at some point today. >> which we thought would be like a victory statement, right? >> well, no. they had never said it was going to be about the olympics. they said it was probably about talking about the jobs numbers or the state of the economy. and i think all of us assumed he would make some comment about the olympics. frankly, i think it would look like he were ducking if he didn't talk about the olympics

so i assume we'll hear from him about this. he may go to the back of air force one now. they are flying back and plane expected to land some time in a couple of hours. he may go back there and make a statement to camera there. i would be highly surprised if somehow the president ducked talking about this today. it is what it is. he has to own up to it. he went out there and i expect that he will. you know, it's not that -- i wouldn't say he has egg on his face, but it's, you know, a little bit of a gut punch. it's a bad day. it's a gut punch and they will try to move on. >> chuck, we're just being told in a few minutes we are talking to david axelrod live on the air on nbc so we will get more of a reaction from the white house in a few minutes. >> you got it. >> looking again at the glum faces in chicago right there on the left of your screen. it's a little bit of a chilly day and certainly the news chicago lost its bid for the 2016 summer games is doing nothing to warm the spirits of people there. however, conversely on the right

you got to think people there gathered on the beach there by the copacabana on the famed coast line there they have to be happy they are in the running. do they make the strongest case right now having never hosted the south american continent in the olympic games but you can't forget about the fact that the head of the ioc is a spaniard and make a passion plea of bringing his city madrid as the host city. we will take a short break and back with more -- no. >> we are going to stay with us and bring in michael sal with the new york "daily news." was there anyone who wasn't surprised? we keep saying we were for chicago to go out in the first round, seemed a little early. what did you think? >> absolutely. it was a big surprise. i mean if you talk to insiders and you talk to people who are familiar with the olympic movement, everyone thought this was a race between chicago and

rio de janeiro. but the surprise was chicago getting eliminated in that first round. >> right now, we're looking at madrid and rio, tokyo eliminated in the second round. we've heard a lot about rio in the last couple of days and putting it into a two-city race between chicago and rio but at this point anything could happen. >> sure. what looks good for rio de janeiro there has never been an olympic held in south america and never in rio de janeiro. spain has had one olympics so folks are looking to make history and go with rio de janeiro. >> we are hearing, though, former ioc president has weighed in on this from spain. a spaniard himself. he could have been putting the push in there for madrid. >> absolutely. he is very influential and he has been pushing hard for madrid and pushing hard for spain and we'll see if he was able to lobby enough votes from the ioc members. >> but spain has had the olympics fairly recently in 1992, barcelona and a lot of

people are pointing to madrid and pointing to the fact that this really transformed barcelona and turned it into this wonderful sort of updated and high fashioned city and hoping it would do the same for madrid. >> absolutely. and that's the argument it would transform madrid and improve the city and the same argument though, made for rio de janeiro. this would be enormous boost for south america and enormous boost to have the world's most prestigious how much does the time factor in? the fact that barcelona was in 1992 and we're looking to 2016 but when you're looking at rio and this was the impassioned plea made by the president of brazil that you never had an olympic in south america. how much does the timing play into a factor? >> i do think it is a factor. the united states had the olympics eight times and spain has had it once in 1992 and

barcelona, the entire continent never had it. i think that is a factor. >> how much more will we hear once we know the final round and the final decision whether it is rio or madrid, how will we hear from members of the ioc, do they talk about that? >> they do a little bit and the ballot is secret. who knows if they're honest with how they voted. you'll get members to talk about how their thinking was when they cast their ballots. many do keep it under their hat and don't really discuss the reasoning. >> i wonder, give on the fact that president obama did show up for this and did make that personnel plea along with the first lady it's the first question that those ioc members will be getting, not about chicago, even though it is the winning city. why do they think chicago lost out? >> sure, i think the fact of the matter is that the president of the united states of america traveled all the way to

copenhagen for this, but i think for the white house there's a huge plus in all this. i mean, four years ago when new york city was the bid city, nobody wanted president bush to go to singapore where the decision was made because president bush was wildly unpopular. so, the fact that all of the folks in chicago were tripping over themselves to get the president there shows that president obama is very popular. and i also think that the white house made a calculation even if they were to lose there would be a benefit down the road. illinois is the president's base and come 2012 when the president is seeking his re-election and launching, yes we can, again, campaign, all the folks in illinois and chicago are going to remember that he and the first lady did everything they could to bring out the olympics for chicago. >> michael with the "new york daily news" thank you for joining us. >> we're going right now to

senior white house adviser to gauge the sentiments of everything in washington right now. david, how are you guys feeling? >> obviously, it's a disappointment. it would have been great to have the olympics in chicago. chicago would have done a great job for it. look, the president of the united states would go anywhere to promote the interest of this country and make the case for this country and i think it was worth the effort and we move on. >> hindsight, though, being 20/20. for quite some time the white house has said the president has a very full plate and he would not take the time to get to copenhagen having to send the first lady and oprah winfrey there to support her bid. hindsight, again, being 20/20, do you think it was a smart move to send him? >> absolutely. this president is going to go anywhere he can to promote this country, to try and bring good things back to this country. the fact is that he left at 7:00 last night and he'll be back in an hour or two, so it isn't

exactly like he was gone very long. we trumicated the trip so he didn't miss time back home. i have no regrets and i know he doesn't. >> david, this being a very political town many critics say it was a wasted effort and that, in essence, this is a referendum on barack obama and by extension, america. what do you say to those critics? >> well, i don't think that's true and i think the world leaders would not concur in that. the criticism is part of this job. if you can't take it, you shouldn't take the job. but i am proud of this president for going to make the case for this country. i mean, this country can be proud of that. again, we're disappointed it didn't work out, but it was well worth the effort. i'm not worried about the politics of it. any time you're going and making the case to the united states of america, you're doing the right thing. >> different kind of politics maybe under way under the ioc, the international olympic

committee, david. do you have any inside information on where they may be heading and why it was that chicago went out first? >> well, obviously, i'd be the last person to ask about the internal politics of the ioc. you know, i think that the fact that madrid had a former president of the ioc leading their effort was valuable when you have those kind of long-standing interpersonnel relationships. that is valuable and, obviously, rio has been very aggressive in seeking this, brazil has been very aggressive in seeking this. i can't speak to those -- listen, we got thick enough politics in this town, i haven't yet mastered that. i can't tell you what is going on inside that room in copenhagen. >> i don't know, i think a lot of people think you're at the top of the heap in politics in washington, david. will the president address this when he gets off air force one

and we believe he will speak about 4:00 p.m. eastern time. >> he will make some remarks when he returns. >> okay. and david, when the president goes back, is it business as usual? what is first up on his plate? >> i'm sorry, can you ask that again? >> when the president gets back into the white house, what is first on his agenda? >> you know, the economy is always first on his agenda and we have some jobs numbers today that we're bracing in terms of the challenges that we face. and, so, i'm sure that there will be some issues related, related to that. his fundamental thrust here is to try and bring about a recovery that gets americans back to work. we're making great progress in the economy, but it's not going to be good enough until people who want jobs can find them and that's something that is a focus of his attention this day and every day. >> david, it's monica novotny

here, we heard at the end of the bid before the president left copenhagen, he met with general mcchrystal, anything you can tell us about that meeting? >> other than to confirm there was a meeting and there it was a good and constructive meeting and i don't have the details of it and i'm sure you'll get a more extensive read out from the folks who are on the plane. >> how far in advance has that meeting been planned? >> i think that the president when he heard that general mcchrystal was going to be in london thought he could make up -- that it would make sense for the two of them to get together. it was a short hop to copenhagen for the general and it was a good chance given this ongoing discussion about next steps in afghanistan to take some time with him. i think that decision was made probably in the last 24 to 48 hours. >> does that work to mitigate, potentially, any word you get from the critics in the days

ahead talking about this being a wasted effort, getting this meeting in? >> i think it was purely motivated by the fact that we had this ongoing process. president wanted to spend some time with general mcchrystal. obviously, he's busy in afghanistan. the fact that they were both in the same general vicinity and easier to get together made this a logical thing to do. >> all right, david axelrod, thank you for jumping out in front of the cameras on the heels of this announcement. >> good to be with you. >> thank you so much. again, the announcement what chis not music to the ears of many. the first of the final four cities to be ousted within this hour as the vote came down from copenhagen, denmark. it is the first of the four out and it was followed by tokyo. we expect the official announcement to say it was between madrid and rio de