>> colin and alma powell were talking about having expectations for our children. you've disappointed me on every level today. >> that say rough segue. i thought you brp to take that right off the cliff. willie, what time is it? >> morning joe. days numbers. rahm could be gone as soon as friday. plus a big rally at a college campus to energize the base. why is the vice president calling liberals winers. plus a heartbreak regunion for a father trying to bring his young sons home after they were taken to egypt by his ex-wife. it's tuesday, september 28th, 2010. 35 days until election day. we're in new york this morning for nbc news' unprecedented look at america's schooling crisis. "education nation." the conferences going on all day here. secretary of education arne

duncan will join us this half hour. i'm chuck todd. >> good morning. i'm savannah guthrie. let's get to the rundown. at the top for us, the top love message out of the white house. first vice president biden telling progressives, stop whining. now the president in a new interview out this morning says it is inexcusable and irresponsible for them to sit out the midterms. in "rolling stone" the president says there may be complaints about us not having gotten certain things done, not fast enough, not making certain legislative compromises but he goes on to say if people want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren't serious in the first place. in the meantime, the vice president on with lawrence o'donnell last night explained those whiner comments. >> there's some on the democratic base, not the core of it, that are angry because we didn't get every single thing they want. it's time to just buck up here, understand that we can make things better. continue to move forward. >> the president, meanwhile, on

the road today. this evening he'll try to capture the old campaign magic at a college campus in wisconsin. his first stop, albuquerque, which is where we find mike viqueira traveling with the president this morning. mike, good morning. >> good morning, savannah. we are in the land of enchantment here. the president will hold another in a series of those backyard discussions he's come to love so much apparently according to aides. the line between politics and campaigning and policy and campaigning is never very clear, it's about to be obliterated over the course of the next two days by the president. he's going to, according to aides, really take off after the pledge to america, of course, unveiled last thursday by house republicans. today he's going to try to focus on education here in this very rural setting outside of albuquerque, new mexico. a backyard of a marine veteran, a disabled veteran here chosen. there will be people here to talk about education, to talk about the economy. to talk about the ways they have suffered and the ways that the obama administration policies have helped them. that's been the typical motif

here. after tharkts he is wheels up on his way to madison, wisconsin. that big rally. you stole the line. i guess it's been used a couple of times this morning. that old campaign magic. he's trying get that youth vote back in line. the day after the comments by vice president biden and the president himself about this disaffected base telling them to come on. you have to get out to the voting booth. guys? >> mike viqueira in new mexico on a whirlwind three-day trip. one thing that this episode this week and a member of the professional left's comments. we know what the excuse will be for either side post-november. the base will say you guys beat up the base and brow beat them too much and didn't offer a progressive enough agenda. >> it's very interesting notion. everyone knows the base has to get energized. the question is the base wants red meat. they don't want a lecture. and question whether they'll consider these latest comments.

>> should be a fascinating day in the liberal blogosphere. the president could have a new chief of staff as early as friday. rahm emmanuel is expected to announce any day now to the staff that his -- about his plans to return home to chicago to run for mayor. if that happens, the question is, who takes his job? will be it a permanent replacement or a caretaker chief of staff until the president settles on a successor? and in fact, let's deal with issue number one. two weeks ago, conventional wisdom all said interim chief of staff. definitely the way it's going to be. will not name a permanent chief of staff before the election. that conventional wisdom may not be correct. >> he's known for a while. it's relatively small group of people he's really considering as far as we understand it. likely to be an insider. so in some ways, if that's going to be the case if it's going to be a tom donellan if it's going to be a ron clan who works for vice president biden, why do an interim chief of staff if he's going to make that decision. he could do it right away.

>> does he bring somebody with some sort of outsider credential just not being in the current inner circle? people that qualify on that list, a goi like tom daschle, former senate democratic leader. erskine bowls. and somebody that i'm told the president sort of bonded with when he first met him back before he took the oath of office. >> another name to put on the list, although i don't know how likely it is is leon panetta. the director of the cia. a former chief of staff. knows washington inside and out. but very happy at cia director. >> that's a tough gig to give up, but i have heard through the grapevine, she one of those if the president asks, he'll do whatever the president asks. >> so that will be the speculation through the next couple of days. all eyes are on the governors race in california. and the first debate between candidates meg whitman and jerry brown tonight. she is of course, the ebay exec who spent millions of her own fort town win. he's the longtime politician who is a household name in california. mark murray is nbc news's deputy

political director. so this is the first chance we get to see these candidates in action in a debate. >> absolutely is avanna. the california governors race is shaping up to be one of the most competitive and contrasting races this entire cycle. on the one hand you have former california governor jerry brown who has held almost every elective political office in the state as the democratic nominee. on the other hand you have former ebay executive meg whitman as the republican nominee. brown is running on his political experience. whitman is running on her business experience. so it's old versus new, future versus past. and also political experience versus business experience. a recent poll, the field poll, showed the race dead even. but a new "los angeles times"/usc poll had jerry brown ahead by just a few points. and one other thing worth noting. our colleague tom brokaw will be moderating the final california governor debate in mid-october.

>> a good reminder on that. i am normally not one who thinks these debates can have a huge impact, but in this election, when you see how much money she spent, how well known jerry brown. it is clear both of them have not crossed a hurdle in the minds of voters and it actually means i think these debates will have huge impact on the direction in this race. >> one other note from california in the senate race. the san francisco chronicle has such distaste for both candidates they said they're not going to endorse anyone. >> the big nbc news/"wall street journal" poll comes out tonight, 6:30 p.m. on a little program we like to call the "nbc nightly news with brian williams." in iraq, an american soldier is in custody in his alleged role in the shooting death of a fellow service member. jim miklaszewski joins us. what happened here? >> when u.s. military officials warn that despite the end of

formal combat operations in iraq, at the start of this month, there could still be some u.s. casualties. they never thought in their wildest dreams that this would involve soldiers shooting their own fellow soldiers. what happened here in fallujah, one of the deadliest areas of the war for u.s. military, is that an argument broke out apparently between four specialists when one of them allegedly picked up his weapon, shot and killed two others and wounded the third. he's been taken into custody. it is specialist neftali platero who is charges with killing jebron noonan of waterton, connecticut and another soldier. given the circumstances in iraq and afghanistan, one has to wonder why these things haven't happened more often. after all you, have young people in some of the most intense,

dangerous situations with weapons all around them. and u.s. military officials say that it speaks highly to the discipline, not only of the force, but the individual soldiers and marines fighting these wars that these kinds of unfortunate tragic incidents don't happen more often, chuck. >> jim miklaszewski at the pentagon for us this morning. thanks. some palace intrigue in north korea. the ailing leader there kim jong-il has taken a major step toward ensuring his family keeps an iron grip on power for a third generation positioning his youngest son to take over when he dies. nbc's ian williams is live in seoul, south korea. so, ian, explain the significance of this move by kim jong-il. >> well, intrigue certainly, savannah. it's got analysts here in the south reading the tea leaves even more frantically than they usually do. asking whether this is indeed the third episode of the kim dynasty in the making. now what we do know is that

today kim jong un, the youngest son of kim jong-il, was appointed to the position of four-star general. now that's about all we do know about him. we think he's about 26 years old. we think he's studied in switzerland. we know very little about his personality. and in fact, the two photographs which we think are available of him, some people dispute whether, indeed, they are of him at all. now he's the youngest son, perhaps 26, perhaps 27. very little is known about him, about how he would rule korea. korea, don't forget, north korea, nuclear armed. but it's perhaps a measure of the desperation of the dear leader that, in fact, he is now pushing his son. of course, it doesn't say much about the state of his health either, savannah. >> that's for sure. >> ian williams. it seems that may be the case.

thanks for your report this morning. >> we don't know -- i'm sure we will find out he's the world's greatest golfer like his father who gets nothing but holes in ones when he golfs. the crisis in the classroom. how can america compete when our kids are falling so far behind. the "daily rundown" interview with education secretary arne duncan. why he said education reform is the civil rights issue of our time. and a father's heartbreaking fight to bring his boys back home. he's just back from egypt after seeing his sons for the first time in more than a year. but first, a look ahead at the president's schedule. our man viqueira down there in the land of enchantment. gave you a little preview, a little backyard deal in albuquerque. then off to madison, wisconsin. i hear there's a small little college there. maybe it's now a university. i think they have a mediocre athletic program. i'm kidding. badger fans, the president going to be in madison, wisconsin. >> what are you talking about? >> you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. it's a bad day for us wisconsin folks.

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you can't defend a status quo in which one-third of our kids are dropping out. you can't defend a status quo when you have 2,000 schools across the country that are dropout factories. ultimate fleerks some teachers aren't doing a good job, they've got to go. >> all week we're taking a critical look at the state of our nation's schools here at nbc news. >> one of the key players in how to fix the system is with us now. secretary of education arne duncan who i just joked is practically an employee of nbc at this point because you've been so helpful as we've tried to have this dialogue here and we've seen you all over our air. >> i have to thank you for you guys putting such a huge

spotlight nationally on education reform. i can't tell you how important it is, this movement. i'm thrilled to be a part of it. thanks for your leadership in putting this all together. >> i am always a skeptic when we get around and we all talk. and people talk about solutions. what do you single something concrete that's come out of this week from this dialogue? what action do you think will come of it? >> i think there's a number of things already happen and what this week does is build upon the momentum. you are seeing this huge amount of reform and innovation at the local level. districts and states doing things unimaginable two years ago. removing barriers to innovation. being very creative about how you get the best teachers into underserved communities. we have to do it with a huge sense of urgency. what we're doing simply isn't good enough for our children or our nation's longterm health and vitality with the economy. we have to educate our way to a better economy and continue at the federal level to support the great local leadership. >> my brother-in-law is a high school principal in the

panhandle of florida. he's sitting there having to deal with a lot of stresses having to do with a county system that is getting less money from the state. they surpass -- they get all the as. they get all the correct scores you are supposed to get to get the money yet they're still in a financial crunch. what do you say to him. hey, that sounds great. all of you guys telling us what we need to do. he's on the ground right now trying to juggle all this and being told, you might have to get rid of this teacher. you might have to get rid of this teacher. >> it is very, very tough out there. at the state and local level, many districts have been cutting for a couple of years. we passed the $10 billion jobs bill to save teacher jobs. florida happened to be one of the winners in race to the top. but the reality unfortunately in many places around the country is folks have to do more of less. we're asking for more results. more students graduated from high school. and money is tight. so that is the reality that principals and teachers and superintendents are deal with in district after district around the country.

>> this is a complicated problem. one thing i've heard you say recently is that teachers have been beaten down. that they've been stigmatized. as you look at that problem, what's the diagnosis. why has that happened? and are teachers unions a part of that? by some of the requirements, the certain amount of hours they've got to work. in other words, making it less of a profession? >> probably 20 reasons why that's happened. what we want to do is not diagnose it going backwards. we want to move forwards and elevate the profession. and other countries out competing us educationally, teachers are revered. in south korea, teachers are known as nation builders. it's a really interesting concept. yesterday we launched this national campaign to recruit 1 million more teachers over the next five years as the baby boomer generation retires. we have this new website, teach.gov. we want to do everything we can over the next couple of years to bring in the hardest working, the best and the brightest. we do that well, we'll transform public education for the next 30 years. it's a generational shift. >> how do you make that kind of

cultural change where teachers are really revered? >> no one thing, but several different pieces. one slaunching this campaign. from the president on houn, all of us are saying there's nothing -- we can't do enough to celebrate great talent. teachers are our unsung heros. we need to make the teaching profession a real profession. we need to have career ladders. you need to reward it. it needs to be attractive that people want to go into and stay. >> for 25 years, i've heard in my entire adult life, i have heard 13th and 14th grade. i've heard year-long school or extended school hours. this has been the two big reforms that a lot of people have been talking about for 25 years. what's the big announcements we've heard today? experimental program here in new york city about 13th and 14th grade. experimentam programs around the country. what's taken so long here? >> i think america has become complacent. we're trying to shake america out of that complacency. and one generation, we've fallen

from first in the world in college graduates to ninth. that's unacceptable. a dropout rate that approaches 25%. we can't sustain that. >> we say it's -- you say it's complacent and yet the number one issue when you talk to people outside of the economy is always education, right? so it's certainly -- there has been a -- there is always a sentiment out there that this is the most -- among the most important issues out there. >> i disagree. we need to make education a voting issue. when you look at why people vote. people talk about education. it's usually sixth or eighth. as we go into the november elections, every single voter out there republican, democrat, should be asking their candidates, what your doing to drive education reform? what your doing to challenge the status quo today that doesn't work for children and doesn't work for the country. >> why didn't you then campaign for adrian fuente? >> i went out and talked about the tremendous progress that the d.c. public schools have done. i can't weigh in to a couple thousand local primaries. but lethe leadership under fuente has been remarkable. >> they say unions have been an

obstacle to reform. is this administration really going to take on the unions in a significant way? >> all of vus to move in the right direction. you've seen obama put tremendous political capital and act with absolute courage. the amount of reform we've seen in 18 months is more than you've seen in the past decade. that's due to his leadership from the top. >> arne duncan, secretary of education. i assume you are a bears fan so a big win last night. >> i stayed up and watched it. >> that's why i'm not so happy about it. all right. still ahead, if the early bird gets the worm, what effect is early voting having on the midterm races. and democrats uping the ante in the lone star state. your first look at a new ad that democrats are putting out going after republican governor rick perry. first our washington speak of the day. presidential findings. this is a highly classified presidential order authorizing covert action. >> "the new york times" reports today that the cia has stepped up its bombing attacks in pakistan in recent weeks. these cia operations are

authorized by presidential finding. >> if you have some washington speak you'd like us to clarify, maybe secretary duncan has some education speak to share with us. send us an e-mail, dailyrundown@msnbc.com. brian kerth of portland, oregon is the founder of vocation vacations. he gives the vacationers a two to three-day crash course to test drive a different career. it's an intensive learning experience for prospective entrepreneurs. for more watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc. you know, if we had let fedex office print our presentation, they could have shipped it too. saved ourselves the hassle. i'm not too sure about this. look at this. [ security agent ] right. you never kick off with sales figures.

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democrats in tough districts have been running with more than an arm length's difference. yesterday, earl pom roy took it to a different strategy. take a look at this. >> when george bush proposed a medicare prescription plan, roy pom roy voted yes, putting seniors before party. rig berg would roll back prescription drug coverage. earl joined republicans to fight internet predators, protecting kids. >> what's interesting about that

ad, obviously, you -- democrat earl pom roy using george bush. but the thing he hits his republican opponent to about rolling back seniors drugs has to do with a subtle way of saying he wants to repeal health care reform. it's a state where bush won 63% of the vote in '04. mccain it was much closer in '08. speaking of red states, in texas, democratic governor association who has to save its resources, preparing to spend $700,000 a week hitting republican governor rick perry. a new poll for consortium of texas newspapers has perry up only by single digits against former houston mayor bill white. 46%, 39%. it's a state no democrat has been elected to statewide office since 1994. white is hoping to use perry's tenure as the longest serving governor in the state's history against him in this anti-incumbent year. first, on the daily rundown, let's take a look at this new ad. >> 25 years as a politician

changes you. you think injecting 11 and 12-year-old girls with a controversial drug without a parent's consent is a good idea? you think it's right to use a government takeover of texas homes and property so foreign companies can get rich? you spend taxpayer money on a fancy mansion while texas faces an $18 billion deficit. on the issues, 25 years as a politician has changed rick perry. for the worse. >> those attacks on the cervical cancer vaccine sound familiar because kay bailey hutchison used them in her primary ads against rick perprepare neither proposal actually became law. one thing to keep in mind and why perry still is ahead and why he might survive this thing? texas economy has basically been somewhat recession-proof this year. they are -- their unemployment rate much farther below the national average. and could be the ugliest governors race in the country. president being in new mexico today. we figured we'd highlight it.

it's a state he did very well in. but that governors race between republican suzanna martinez and diane denish is as nasty as they come. >> diane denish did what was right. records prove corporations paid mr. denish as a lobbyist and denish called it a momentous day. right to push sweet deals to a corporation paying her husband. diane denish, she profited. we lost. >> republican martinez and her texas backers where the corporations run wild. martinez would allow 400% interest on loans but families lose their homes to shady mortgage lenders and roll back regulations that protect our air and water. susanna martinez, not on the side of new mexico families. >> there are negative ads running in every race in the country. trust us. this race has been more negative, savannah, than any other major statewide general election in the country. part of the problem, for folks that live in albuquerque, it's a

cheap tv market. so a lot of outside groups can spend a lot of money. the cheaper the tv market, the more ads that can show up in there. there have been a ton of them. easyly, maybe the nastiest race in the country. >> it has some competition. it's amazing to see some of these ads. you see why people get so disspirited. all that nastiness on the air waves. >> they work. >> they work. guess what. they're not going to be stopping. we've got five more weeks until the election. coming up, where it was so hot yesterday it didn't just shatter the record. it broke the thermometer. plus, no more tax forms? is it too good to be true? yes. find out how uncle sam is changing how americans pay the tax man. and heartbreak for an american dad fighting to bring his boys back to the united states. we'll tell you what just happened on his trip to egypt. first, today's trivia question from the almanac of american politics. what future d.c. politician grew up living over his parent' athletic shoe store in the mt. pleasant area of washington, d.c.?

the answer and more ahead on the rundown. ♪

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pepcid® complete works now and works later. let's take a quick look at what's driving tuesday here in new york city. >> president obama is on the road. he'll hit three states before this day is done as he rallies democrats to get to the polls for the midterms. kim jong-il has named his youngest son kim jong un as a military general. the first step in a likely transition of power there. north korea's leader is believed to have suffered multiple strokes over the past few years and is looking to his son to be his successor. officials will inspect the 14-mile sand levee breached by floodwaters in portage, wisconsin. they are optimistic that levee will hold until water levels drop. other stories making headlines today. the country of oman is involved in trying to secure the release of the two remaining hikers jailed for crossing into iran

more than a year ago. oman's leader is said to play a key role in the release of shara shourd last week who was arrested along with those two other hikers, josh fattal and shane bauer. new numbers show the emotional toll taken by the gulf oil spill. a gallup survey finds depression cases up 25% in that region since the deepwater horizon explosion in april. record-setting heat hit los angeles on monday reaching an all-time high of 113 degrees. late september. california utility companies are urging customers to cut back on electricity usage. hard to do when it's 113. forecasters say the heat wave should ease back to double digits today. and don't look for tax forms in your mailbox next year. the irs will stop mailing paper forms and instructions saving $10 million a year. of course, more americans are filing online. paper forms will still be available at some post offices and public libraries. >> the poor post office, though. we wonder why postage is going up. the irs is not using postage.

>> credit card bills online. everyone is doing it online. not good for the post office. new home pricing figures were just released. we're getting the latest look at the prices for major cities across the nation. >> cnbc real estate correspondent diana olick has the numbers for us this morning. diana, where is there good news on housing prices, and where is there more depressing news? >> okay. we'll give you both, chuck. first, this was the s&p case-shiller price report we get each month. i want to read the quote from david blitzer from s&p. we are getting close to some kind of neighborhood of stability. i wouldn't call that a rave. >> i guess in other words we've hit bottom? >> no, he would not use the "b" word. let me get to the numbers. they do a ten-city and 20-city composite. the 10 city 4u7.1%. in july. that's year over year. we're looking back year over year. and the 20-city is up 3.2%. that's positive. the only problem is they are lower than they were in june. so the gains are weakening, so

to speak. only ten of the top 20 cities are in the positive. ten are in the negative. i'll give you the winners. some of the good ones are all in california. san francisco, l.a., san diego. despite the heat, they are showing, some heat in home prices. the losers, though, five fell out of the positive into the negative in july. those were atlanta, cleveland, dallas, denver and portland, oregon. so, again, we are still kind of waiting to see about the effects of that home buyer tax credit. this report is a three-month running average looking back to july. and i want to do any math here but that says we're still under the influence of the homebuyer tax credit. >> and that is gone. basic leil, the next survey will be the first one without it? >> well, again if you do that three-month average. the next one will get most of the tax credit out of it. but we're seeing the weakening sales. prices always lag sales. on the up side and on the down side. we're already seeing sales coming lower off the tax credit. and that will inevitably be reflected in the price numbers. >> now we know why he was

hedging a bit in that statement. diana olick -- >> wouldn't you? >> yeah, exactly. the fresh numbers. thanks, diane. appreciate it. there's some news in the international custody battle that's made its way to the highest levels of the u.s. government. colin bower has met with his two sons who he says were kidnapped by his ex-wife and brought to egypt. >> secretary of state hillary clinton and senator john kerry have both been in bower's corn trying to convince the egyptian government to reunite a father with his son. jeff rossen joins us with the latest here. >> been following this for a few weeks. let me catch people up on what's going on. the update is pretty emotional and powerful. colin bower is married to an egyptian native. they get divorced in 2008. colin got sole cust dooef his kids. but during a routine visitation with the mom, she grabs them, according to u.s. officials, takes them overseas using forged passports, into egypt. her native egypt.

they've been in hiding for more than a year. colin hasn't been able to see his kids. he's travelled there seven times now. we did this story here at nbc a few weeks ago. and just days after our story aired, secretary of state hillary clinton actually got on the phone with hosni mubarak, egypt's president, and facilitated a meeting that happened last week. our nbc cameras were with him when he went into that meeting to see his kids for the first time in 13 months. here's what's happened on the back end. >> it was a start. it was a first meeting. a and, you know, my two beautiful boys. so -- that's what happened. >> those actually weren't tears of joy. what happened when the kids got into the meeting, he says they've been brainwashed. they wouldn't go anywhere near him. he said they were afraid of the

u.s. they don't want to come back. they've only been gone for a little over a year. now what -- and the entire state department to get on board and get those kids back from egypt. there's an arrest warrant out for el nas nady. egypt doesn't recognize the u.s. or international law. they remain in hiding in egypt. >> legally in hiding. >> they are -- under egyptian law is it legal for them to be there? >> yes. under egyptian law, the mother has an automatic right to the child. no matter what. so under egypt's law, she's done nothing wrong. and he has no try to the children. >> his anguish is certainly understandable. jeff rossen, thanks. >> we'll continue following this. >> thanks. let's do our trivia, which future d.c. politician grew up living over his parents' athletic shoe store in the mt. pleasant area of washington? >> well, the answer is outgoing democratic mayor, adrian fenty.

there you go. that's one way to get an idea of how to learn about small businesses. coming up, president obama and vice president biden both serving up some harsh words for the left. is this the right tone to strike with just over a month to go when you are actually trying to get those folks out to the polls? >> perhaps not. but first, they were looking for red meat. instead, we have the white house soup of the day serving tuscan chicken. i want to give my 5 employees health insurance,

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flashback time. eight chicago white sox players were indicted for fixing the 1919 world series in what became known as the black sox scandal.

shoeless joe jackson still not in the hall of fame. some day maybe we'll correct that. >> sticking with the sports metaphor, you'll appreciate. president obama trying to rev up his team. to some progressives, he's coming off more like a lecturing schoolmarm than a team captain. the vice president's comments telling liberals to stop whining. it might be stirring up the wrong kind of energy. >> here now "the new york times" political correspondent jeff zelony and ron brownstein and columnist with the national journal. ron, you are the remote. you are on remote. so we'll start with you to make sure we get you the first word in here. you have both the president and vice president. you have heard this rolling stone report where the present talks about it would be irresponsible for some progressives to sit on their hands this election. we seem to have the built-in excuse now for the white house and the left, frankly, if things go south for the democrats in november. >> well, first of all, the

frustration of the white house is to, you know, a large extent, understandable. you look at the stimulus plan, health care plan, financial regulatory reform plan. that's an extraordinary amount of legislation that tilts toward democratic priorities that they've been able to pass in a climate in which there is enormous public skepticism about government. the famous thing when lyndon johnson passed medicare, three quarters of americans said you can trust government to do what's right most of the time. obama passed health care when only one quarter. and you see the counterreaction all that's inspired. for the left to be frustrated, really is kind of extraordinary. but look. what you are referring to is a real problem. the modern democratic coalition is something of a boom and bust coalition, chuck. because it is very dependent on young people and non-white voters who vote more in midterms -- vote more in presidential years than in midterms. so the question of whether they get democrats out to vote in numbers sufficient to overcome this tilt away from them among independents really is the last big issue on the table in many respects in this election.

>> no question it's the whole shooting match. it may be understandable that the president is frustrated with the left. certainly hear robert gif gibbs opine on this. they are frustrated they haven't gotten all they wanted. are these comments coming at precisely the wrong time? the president is trying to energize the base and now he may have offended the base. >> it's probably not ideal. i think it's all part of a grander plan. does robert gibbs' comments, yes, they were agitating to some but it also pointed out the urgency of this. what they are trying to do is shake democrats a little bit. shake these base democrats and try to get them to pay attention. at the end of the day. may not vote in the midterms. through early voting in a lot of states, these democrats think they have 30 days to get feem the polls. so i'm not sure that there's as much of a rift as some of those comments would suggest. >> ron, i want to stay on this early voting thing enough we're using a note from yogi berra. it's getting late early. you are a baseball fan. but the seriousness is just

that, right, which is this early voting that's going on and more and more states it means the field programs have to be in place, frankly in september. that's why you see negative ads now in august and september to influence votes a little bit earlier. which party seems to have the advantage at this point in time on taking advantage of early voting? >> well, i thing general sense is that the democrats came out of 2008 with a stronger field operation than republicans. it's to some extent all this third party spending we're seeing on television is an attempt to respond to that. the conservative third party spending. the republican national committee has not been as involved as it has in the past. certainly a lot of energy on the other side right now. that is where the energy is. the democrats may have a better technical program in many states. i was just in colorado where they are counting on that to pull them over the line if there's a close race. technical proficiency can only take you so far. the fuel in the engine for these parties is the grassroots enthusiasm. right now it's stronger on the republican side. >> jeff wrote that whole article

about this very concept in "the new york times" today. it does feel like even though election day may be november 2nd, the actual political clock, it's much shorter, isn't it? >> without a doubt. voters are able to go to the polls in ohio today. on election day in 2008, john mccain actually won ohio. but barack obama carried the state of ohio because they had a lot of votes in the bank. republicans are definitely trying to play catch-up in this strategy. i was talking to an ohio voter yesterday, a republican who said he's going to vote absentee for the first time. i said why is that? he said i got this mailer from this outside third party group encouraging him to vote republican early. so they're doing this. >> quick mechanics question. they don't -- you mail in your ballot. it's not opened. nobody knows what it is until election day. >> but they know who voted, right? >> they know who voted. so the best way to not get phone calls, vote early and then you are taken off the list. >> is that the new motto, ron? if you don't want your phone ringing at night, wondering if you just hurry up and vote and

get it out of the way, could you also get a bloerk on your television from tv ads? >> the latter is probably hard. it's becoming kind of a self-preservation program. and it does diminish the value of kind of late surges or late ability to change the debate. i said the whole game for democrats is turning out more of their own voters. it's probably overstated. the other thing that you have out there is the possibility of trying to shift more of the focus on the republican agenda and maybe moving back some of those independents, particularly the upscale white women that are now leaning away from them. i think you're going to see quite a bit of that from the president as well. one thing we found -- >> i was just going to say. we want to pop this up. we want to pop this up. pop up your new poll number. who has done a better job explaining their plans and vision for the country? and you find almost 2 to 1 advantage for the president over republicans and congress. >> and the real significance of that, only 28% saying that the republicans have done a good job

explaining their plans. that means there's a lot of troom fill in for voters what those plans are. there isn't really a strong impression of what republicans want to do. and i think both in do and both in terms of activating base voters and trying to move those college-educated women that are more open to democratic arguments making that a threat in october, hard to do in a midterm, but probably the best course democrats have between now and election day. >> interesting article today, appreciate it. thank you, both. the bear goes where no nfl team has managed to get this season. pains me. speaking of bears. mama grizzly shows up to support her bear cub, where else? on the dance floor. follow us on twitter. no matter how much it bears you to tweet us.

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okay, before we go, we'll take a dip in the shallow end. sarah palin and her youngest daughter, piper, were at "dancing with the stars" to support bristol the pistol after watching last week at home from alaska. >> we had so much fun watching you as we were wooting and hollering. >> it was great. >> i thought, how did she do that? how did she do that? >> the shimmy. >> were you nervous? >> first of all, don't the kids refer to this as "dwts."

i want to show you how hip i am. >> all right, back on the real dance floor bristal and mark performed the quick step and came out near the top on the scoreboard. >> our man who, of course, obsesses over this is willie geist and he was hinting this morning and the good news is michael bolton may be gone. put it this way, didn't know he was on the show. >> neither did i. we don't know who's on until they're off. >> that's the way the show seems to work. monday night football went down to the wire last night and the packers, even after a team record 18 penalties were making what looked like a game-winning try in the final minutes but broke the cardinal rule and protect the football. urlacher popped it out of his grab. packers were going down to get the game-winning field goal. took chicago down to the 2 where gould hits the 19 yarder and

rematch in the frozen tundra when it should definitely be frozen. the bears are undefeated and they put that record to the test on nbc sunday night. they'll visit the new meadowland stadium take on the new york football giants. but this way, the giants lose another game. i think they have to drop the football. it's not doing so hot. they got crushed. eli is coming and no one is scared. >> i wish you had a co-anchor that could actually discuss this with you. i'm like, yeah, right, what you said. >> new york's a jets town. giants who? they're a fossil of their old self- >> that's it for "daily rundown." coming up next richard lui. >> at 1:00 "andrea mitchell reports." jeffrey canada. by the way, we'll have the director of that film on our show tomorrow. >> we will debut the first of the new "wall street journal"

polls on andrea's show at 1:00 p.m. that's breakfast with two pills. the morning is over, it's time for two more pills. the day marches on, back to more pills. and when he's finally home... but hang on; just two aleve can keep arthritis pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is steven, who chose aleve and 2 pills for a day free of pain. and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels. words alone aren't enough. our job is to listen and find ways to help workers who lost their jobs to the spill. i'm iris cross. we'll keep restoring the jobs, tourist beaches, and businesses impacted by the spill. we've paid over $400 million in claims and set up a $20 billion independently-run claims fund. i was born in new orleans. my family still lives here.

i'm gonna be here until we make this right.