you should get some custom fit orthotics. dr. scholl's custom fit orthotic center. it recommends the custom fit orthotic that's best for your feet. and footcare scientists are behind it. you'll get immediate comfort... ... and, you could save a couple hundred bucks. for locations see drscholls.com the state department just issued an alert to americans living or traveling in europe. the latest in a live report next on "msnbc sunday." all. also ahead, the approaching midterms. how are the tighter races shaping up. plus, it's a new era. what can we expect when the new supreme court returns tomorrow. why might the mounted police

soon be history? good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt and welcome to "msnbc sunday" just past 9:00 a.m. on the east coast, on the west coast. the state department has just issued a travel alert cautioning americans traveling to europe to be vigilant. that's because they've expressed concerns recently about threats from al qaeda. tazeen ar maude is with us. what does that mean? >>. >> reporter: good morning, alex. americans are being warned they they be potential terror threats in europe and they should be excellent vigilant such as tourist spots. this is one step below a formal travel warning. there's no focus on in specific countries loerk indication, or

tourist sites and at any one point there are 700,000 americans including tourists, businesspeople and students. the statement also says the european government has taken action to guard against terrorist attacks and they're working closely with them. there have been evacuations of the eiffel tower, trains and bomb threats too. sweden has raised their terror alerts to the highest level it's ever been. and german warnings also. the targets including tourist main sites. but the message that is being put out now by the state department is just be very cautious. >> yeah. so that means that's the reasoning behind the travel alert, not a travel warning. what is the difference between the two, and what would be the concerns of the fallout if it were a travel warning?

>> reporter: well, an alert is much less serious. it would mean trafrmers would start to worry there's a risk. some say that that would just be an overreaction. officials say this alert is not meant to keep americans home but there's a risk that the economy could be struck by this alert. there's not been any opposition to it. >> msnbc's tazeen ahmad. many americans with tickets to the continent say they're not going to change their travel plans. >> the chance that it's going to happen, minor. hey, i'm not going to let them rule me. >> well, u.s. officials say there are hundreds of thousands of americans there at any one time. a big day in washington tomorrow as the supreme court

kicks off its new term. the nation's newest justice, elena kagan, will take her seat, alongside two other women in what is now the most diverse bench in history. mike viqueira is live. what do you expect come tomorrow? >> reporter: well, this is the first monday in october and that's when the supreme court convenes for a new session. you're right. elena will be joining two other females on the court. they're out of the box with some very controversial cases that are going to have far-reaching implications. first of all, there's this issue, alex, many see it to be very distasteful, the anti-gay protests at military funerals. it's now reached the supreme court. they're going to hear the kiss on wednesday and it promises to be very controversial with the very basic first amendment rights at stake. there's also a law in california

banning the sale of violent video games to children, another first amendment question that's going to be taken up fwi court. there's also going to be a case out of arizona about where else hiring illegal immigrants and penalizing for hiring illegal immigrants. this is going to pit the state's rights, state's laws, versus federal prerogative. the ideological make-up of the court, if you will, is not really expected to change. of course, elena kagan is taking over for john paul stevens, known as one of the more liberal members of the court over the past decades. elena kagan is largely expected to follow suit, although, one never knows how people are going to judge once they get up on that bench. and second of all, elena kagan comes of as the top prosecutor and as such many of the cases that are coming before this court this fall she's already

dealt with. she's going to recuse herself to close to half of them. there are not going be as many clues we might hope as to how she's going to vote for the remainder of her tenure. >> that was a come pprehensive k at that. what about the president? what does he have on tap this week? >> reporter: more campaigning. more campaigning. we have less than a month to go with elections. he's going to have a jobs program, a new public/private partnership, retraining the unemployed. he's going to unveil that on monday. tuesday he joins dr. joe biden. wednesday, a posthumous medal of honor to staff sergeant robert miller. then thursday he goes to new jersey for a dinner where he's going to be raising money. thursday he's got an event for

martin o'malley. has a tough race against a republican. then he goes to his home state of illinois, campaigns for a democrat there, alex gino lis, giving them hope to hang onto the senate. >> okay. organizers of the one nation rally say 175,000 people showed up to the steps of the lincoln memorial. that account is unofficial, but 400 organizizations had signed up to attend. however, most speeches focused on getting americans back to work. this was the president of the afl-cio, richard trum ka. >> we have a lot of wuk to do to repair the damage that greed did to our country. brothers and sisters, we come together today because america needs jobs, good jobs, jobs that will support families.

>> and the speaker stressed clean energy technology and they called on congress to pass a new jobs bill. the rutgers university community is remembering tyler clementi this weekend. the football team paid tribute in a moment of silence during its home coming game yesterday. his name was shown on a huge scoreboard and the crowd applauded politely after it ended. they're also planning to hold a vigil tonight. killed himself last week after his intimate encounter with another man was secretly streamed online. nearly half of a north carolina town is under water after tropical storm nicole dropped up to 23 inches of rain in parts of that state. windsor is under a state of emergency with flooding up to 6 feet in some areas. the river that runs through that town began flooding thursday and forced dozens from their homes. let's get a look at the weather from around the country. to do that we held to weather channel's danielle banks. danielle, good morning.

what's it look light out there? >> it depends on where you are. in some spotsite's cold dreary day and in other spots it's nothing but sunshine. we've got the cool crisp temperatures across the country. some of the crispest, as i guess that's a word, are going to take a look across mississippi, further southwardbound. we're going to see cooler air filtering into st. louis. some of those frost advisories and freeze warnings. the freeze warnings are in the darker shade of pink. its going to be nipping as the cool air filters in. there's an example of the jetstream. the cool air cometh. in cities like charlotte and atlanta, you see the departures. on this side of things you can see where it's warmer than average in the areas shaded in orange and yellow. again, there's a difference as

the cool air filters in. it will sag further south which will mean a different to you when you step out there. alex. >> thanks for the heads-up on that. danielle, thanks. to track the latest weather system and see what the forecast is you can head right to weather.com. they're a familiar site on the streets of london but the mounted police could disappear. and he's the founder of facebook but a couple of guys who have sued mark zuckerberg and one, they're going to sue him again. hey, did you ever finish last month's invoices?

sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get back to these invoices... which i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? i'm going to tidy up your side of the office. i can't hear you because i'm also making you a smoothie. [ male announcer ] marriott hotels & resorts knows it's better for xerox to automate their global invoice process so they can focus on serving their customers. with xerox, you're ready for real business. ♪ [ male announcer ] we touch a lot of things throughout the day. so it's nice that clorox disinfecting products help kill the germs that can live on surfaces for up to 48 hours. ♪ feels sweet when i can touch you ♪

police force could be a thing of the past. tight budgets have forced the departments to reconsider the police horses, which, according to the chairman of the police federation, are very expensive.

right now there are 16 remaining mounted sections. that is the largest belonging to the metropolitan police in london there. according to the sunday times, they spend about 11 million pounds a year to maintain the horses. that is nearly $17.5 million. msnbc is the place for politics. right now a final push for candidates across the country with the midterm vote less than one month away. all 37 senate seats are at stake in november and some races may come down to the wire. i'm glad to see you because we're going to run through some of the hottest races. good morning. >> good morning, alex. >> we're starting in the state of connecticut where the recent democrat is leading mcmahon by three points. that's pretty close. what is shaping that up to be such a tight race? >> this is first of all let's say at a macro level. the attorney gentle there now in

an unprecedented fifth term was 30 40rks points ahead of mcmahon at one point. the fact that she's closed is really troubling. i think because longevity is out of fashion, she's self-funded, ran sort of a smart campaign. i think people are looking for obviously outsiders this year. he's been a politician, kind of waiting around, waiting for the big moment. his challenge is to turn out democrats and make sure he can hold her off. if he can't turn out his own, if democrats are disspirited she has a real shot at taking it. >> from connecticut south to delaware where it shows chris coons ahead by as many as 15 points. christine o'donnell knocked the other out of the race. do you think the republicans would be leading? >> absolutely, absolutely. >> huh.

>> mike castle was -- it is -- there's only one representative in the congress of delaware. he was delaware's congressman for 20 years and he's also the former governor of delaware. very popular, never had any problems. delaware is not a red state. we're really talking about what should o would have been a shoo-in. he was considered the next governor of delaware. it's the reason why beau biden did not get into the race. he didn't think he could win against castle. the fact that chris coons is ahead at this point makes a lot of sense. if democrats again on this theme of democratic apathy decide to stay home, republicans will put more money in the race to try to put christine o'donnell over the line, but that's it. she's the most probable. >> west to the golden state of california where boxer leads carly fee or renney by about 9

points. a lot suggest this race closer. >> she's only recently opened up this lead and that's a natural tightening that takes place when the prochoice groups, women, latino voters, you know, start to focus on a race. this is california, after all. look at meg whitman running for governor. she e spent $19 million of her own month, $145 million overall. barbara boxer has to keep this. she has to keep the mow men tell up with the democratic voters. this is a problem for democrats in ohio and pennsylvania and other battlegrounds around the country, alex. but in california if she can continue to keep her own base which is, you know, liberal energized, she's going do well. interesting to note in her last run for the senate in 2004 barbara boxer got the most popular votes statewide in any election in california history. she knows how to do this. she has a lot of infrastructure. she's got to keep pounding away with the money.

but, again, longevity is out of fashion and if carly fiorina could keep it tight, she can pull it off. >> we've got to go so fast through alaska where we know tea party leader joe miller knocked out lisa murkowski. look at that. two points. that's it. but people have to write her name in. th that's going to be an issue. >> that's what people misunder. just because miller and murkowski are neck and neck in this race doesn't mean she has a good chance to get written in by all of the voters. this hasn't happened since 1954 when strahan thurman won. she's hoping because her father was once the governor that she has enough of a brand name in alaska that they'll be able to break through and have a successful write-in campaign. but the effects of that is very high. >> i wonder if people have to

write her name correctly or if it goes invalid. >> this is a question because on the petition it was spelled incorrectly. >> right, exactly. we're going to have more of this next hour. thanks, a.b. let's go to more lists of number one. we start out for a birthday celebration for twin sisters in belgium. they're the oldest living set of twins. hay can't claim the honor until they register for the title but the sent narian sisters say they don't really care about the distinction. nearly 1,600 people in hollywood broke for the largest gathering of superheroes. wonder where the smartest city in america is? it could be the nation's capital. it has the greatest percentage of college degrees in their residents there. hey, thing your co-worker spends too much time on facebook, they say employees waste more computer time on social networks than on anything else, even more than on e-mail

and shopping. research shows they collectively spend 700 million minute as month of facebook. this film puts star wars at the very top. the film series has reeled in about $4.5 billion worldwide and with a 3-d film coming that cash count will only come large jeer to the music makers, it's bruno mars with just the way you are. it's also the most popular digital song. and now debuting at number one on the 200 albums list "you get what you give dts by the zack grouzac brown band. it features alan jackson. [ male announcer ] febreze changed how you freshened fabrics. and then how you freshened the air. now, febreze gives you a whole new way to eliminate odors

and get noticeably longer freshness than a cone. new set and refresh! slide in the cartridge, and click. ♪ the slow release of scented oils provides freshness that lasts 30 days! and set and refresh tackles odors -- so your home stays fresh longer. replace your old cone with febreze freshness. new set and refresh, from febreze! called the humana walmart- preferred prescription plan. it's a medicare prescription drug plan that saves you an average of over $450 a year, with monthly plan premiums less than $15 and copays as low as $2. with savings like these, you have more time to remember what it's really all about. enroll starting november 15. ♪ go to walmart.com for details.

facebook co-founder mark zucker berg says the new move "social network" is fiction but he can't say the same about the legal battles depicted in it. the ongoing lawsuit claims they had the idea for facebook with a website called harvard connect. >> you must really hate the winklebosses. >> i don't hate anybody. they're not suing me for intellectual property theft. they're suing me because for the first time in their lives things didn't work out the way they were supposed to. >> joining me, i have to say every time i hear the winklevi it's funny. it's a pretty serious matter. what he said in that clip is they didn't get what they wanted. it didn't work out for them. i'm curious if that is the case here, even though, jay, they got, how much money? $65 million reportedly when they

first brought a lawsuit? >> they got $65 million. both sides had lawyers. they signed releases. i'm sure they had everything in there. >> they're saying facebook was undervalued. they looked at what it was. $65 million. any validity to that? >> only if they can prove there was fraud initially and i'm guarantee they'd won't be able to go there. what they got was considerably a bad deal because they didn't expect the worth of it to go through the roof, but, listen, as jay said, when you settle a lawsuit, you don't shake hands and write a check. you have to do your due diligence. you're going to sign your life away before you get the $65 million. >> which is a nice chunk of change. >> this is a shot in the dark for them. >> i spoke to david kirkpatrick of "daily beast," he said it could not have been predicted

but there are all these intellectual properties going on. how do you know something that's a specific idea that's different rather than something that's developed over the course of time and evolved? >> it gets very, very complicated. this area of intellectual law is very complicated, and even if they were similar, the sett settlements they had with the appeal of this lawsuit, the intellectual property issues were all taken care of. the only issue is if there was some sort of fraud with facebook put out numbers and said our company is worth "x" and our projections are worth "x" and they have data that shows it's a lie, that's the only way they're going to upset this. >> let's say for example a group of friends are talking about writing a screen play and one person goes forward and actually does it, executes it, and the other people say, hey, that was my idea, i mean is there an analogy to be made here? is there a way to figure out how

brainstorming works versus someone who actually runs with it. >> that is the question and that's the question if you dumb it down. you have to take that and put it into a form that's copywritable. i may have the thought that jay is the most handsome man on the planet but if i have a thought that needs to be protected -- if we have a thought at the same time and i do something about it an you document, it's mine. >> the first call jay made, to your wife. that i thank you very much. the u.s. is telling americans in europe they may be in danger. that say head on "msnbc sunday." ? challenge the need for such heavy measures with olay. new regenerist micro-sculpting serum for firmer skin in 5 days. pretty heavy lifting

for such a lightweight. [ female announcer ] olay regenerist. 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. kicking off with sales figures! i'm yawning. i'm yawning some more. aaaaaaaand... [ snores ] i see your point. yeah. [ snores ] [ male announcer ] we understand.® you need a partner who delivers convenience. next time use fedex office. you need a partner who delivers convenience. discover customersl are getting five percent cashback bonus at restaurants. it pays to switch, it pays to discover.

it's "msnbc sunday" and i'm

alex witt. at 30 past the hour, here are your top five headlines. the state has issued an alert to americans traveling to europe. guatamalan president is condemning. he's calling it a violation of human rights. president obama has already apologized to guatamalan president abelardo colom for those experiments. police are looking for 22 men traveling as a group in acapulco. witnesses say they were taked by an armed gang. t.a.r.p. is dead. experts say the government will get all but about $66 billion of it back. the supreme court begins its new term tomorrow. they'll have issues of illegal immigrations. police in mexico are investigating a mass of 22

people. the person who alerted them to the crime is nowhere to be found. they were traveling together and looking for a place to stay when they were abducted thursday. it was reported by a man who said he left the group to go to the store and when he returned everyone had vanished. acapulco has been a battleground for drugmakers but he told the bbc he and his companions were tourists who worked together at a car mechanics company. good morning to you, general. >> good morning, alex. >> what is your read on this crime? i mean kidnapkidnapping's like . i don't recall kidnapping of 22 men, one who's gotten away to tell authorities about this. how do you read this? >> this is a constant drum of violence throughout mexico. 28,000 murdered. the mexican army has seized over 34,000 weapons in just the last

12 months. right there in the same town there were seven killed in a giant fire fight between drug gangs a few weeks ago a. and by the way, today in dur raingo, there are more than 14 murdered and another giant hand grenades and automatic weapons shoot-out. mexico is in a crisis situation. >> okay. but armed gangs coming after these tourists, that seems pretty random do. you have any doubt that they were just tourists? >> well, we'll have to let the investigation sort out. it sounds unlikely. more likely they were either real or suspected drug cartel members. there's a giant war going on. in this region. again, a lot of this is drirn by centimeter enterprise battling with the police and the army. two-thirds of mexico thinks this

thing is going wrong. they still support president calderon, but they think he's losing this struggle to establish a rule of law and order. >> huh. we're talking about acapulco here, general. this is a resort town. just today "the washington post" has an article says 11 mayors in mexico have been killed the year. the question is are u.s. tourists safe in mexico? >> so far the numbers would indicate, yes, tourism is down dramatically in mexico. obviously they're concerned about their public image. so they're worried about foreign investment and tourism. they don't want this optic of mexico being rife with crime to prevail. their explanation is come on, this is only the border regions. it's not really throughout the country. when, in fact. it is. that "washington post" reporting and also the "los angeles times" has been extra ordinary.

local police are corrupt or missing. a lot of them have quit along with a lot of mayors because they're being intimidated along with the media. >> look, general. you were the drug czar for the united states. you know what kind of people we're talking about here that are involved in drug trafficking in mexico. would you or would you want your family to go to mexico and vacation there right now? >> well, you know, it's a loaded question. i have enormous admiration for mexico. i'm a publicly proclaimed friend of mexico. it's people, it's culture. i think the danger is out of control now. and it's clearly spread to tourist areas. one can argue by numbers -- i mean you're probably still okay, fwu question is where will mexico be two years from now? called ron showed tremendous courage, put 45,000 troops out there to try to confront this issue, building a federal police

force. what will happen when he leaves office? will they lose? will it reinstitute drug cartels? who knows. >> i agree with you. mexico is a wonderful place and i feel like i'm a friend of it too because it's a great place to travel. it's a great shame it's happened. thank you. it's always good to see you. >> good to see you. new this morning iran's president is -- in a speech today mack museum ahmadinejad again questioned who was behind the 9/11 attacks and said it gave washington a pretext for seeking to dominate the region and take its oil wealth. well, the search continues off the coast of it will i for the missing two american balloon pilots. according to the records it pinpoints their last contact with richard abruzzo and care line davis. they were participating in a hot air balloon race.

they were flying over the adriatic sea in rough conditions. they won the race back this 2004. in new jersey rutgers university will hold a vigil this evening for tyler clementi. the 18-year-old committed suicide after he was see credcr recorded. what is the reaction on the campus now? >> as you can understand they're trying to move on on this campus, alex, but there is still shock, sadness, and disbelief that this young man killed himself after the alleged actions of two other young students. today a moment of silence at the rutgers university home coming game to remember tyler clementi. a freshman and talented musician who killed himself only days after two classmates, one of them his roommate, allegedly used a webcam to secretly

videotape clemente in his dorm room in a sexual encounter with another man and live streamed the images over the internet. in california on friday, the funeral of another gay student who committed suicide, 13-year-old seth wolsh. in the past month at least five gay teenagers have taken their own lives, shocking deaths that have led to new calls for action, including this one from talk show host ellen degeneres. >> my heart is breaking for their families, for their friends and for our society that continues to let this happen. these kids needed us, and we have an obligation to change this. >> garrett why dell was bullied after classmates learned he was gay. >> he got text messages like -- they were just horrible. it was very depressing. >> garrett became so distraught

he considered taking his own life. >> he called me one day at work and he said i'm in the garage and i have a knife and i don't like myself and i don't like my life and there's no reason to go on. >> garrett got the help he needed through the trevor project, a national suicide prevention hotline for teenagers struggling with their sexuality. >> if you're feeling helpless or hopeless there's always a safe place to turn. >> back in new jersey, the parents of tyler clementi who never got help issued a written plea. our hope is our family's personal tragedy will seven as a call for compassion, empathy, and human dignity. >> the hope, of course, came too late for their son who was supposed to perform for the first time with the rutgers symphony orchestra last night. they instead dedicated their performance to tyler clementi and left his chair in the

orchestra empty. >> okay. that is heartbreaking to visualize. do we know if the family was there at the performance or not? >> we don't know. the family for the most part has been very silent, as you can understand. they're in mourning right now. >> oh, sure. >> they've asked us to respect their privacy and the time that they need at this moment, so it's not clear whether they attended. >> let's hope their wish is to have everybody have a little more compassion in the wake of. this thank you so much. parents and children at a wisconsin town festival experience add little more excitement than they were expecting saturday afternoon. the ferris wheel broke down during a ride at racine's party on the pavement festival. 17 riders were stuck for nearly 13 hours while the fire fighters made sure the speferris wheel w stable. flakes are the only sign of an unhealthy scalp. also a myth. there are several signs of an unhealthy scalp...

and the fact is, head & shoulders works on those too. with 7 scalp and hair benefits including relieving dryness, itch, even oiliness. because beautiful looking hair, starts with a healthy scalp... and that's a fact. head & shoulders. respect the scalp. love the hair. it's work through the grime and the muck, month. tow and pull without getting stuck month. sweat every day to make an honest buck...month. and if you're gonna try and do this in anything other than a chevy... well, good luck...month. great deals on the complete family of chevy trucks all backed for a hundred thousand miles. it's truck month. now, during truck month, get 0% apr financing on all trucks and full-size suvs like this 2011 silverado.

see your local chevrolet dealer. ♪ [ male announcer ] we touch a lot of things throughout the day. so it's nice that clorox disinfecting products help kill the germs that can live on surfaces for up to 48 hours. ♪ feels sweet when i can touch you ♪ lord of the carry-on. sovereign of the security line. you never take an upgrade for granted. and you rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go. you can even take a full-size or above. and still pay the mid-size price. i deserve this. [ male announcer ] you do, business pro. you do. go national. go like a pro. you're one of the 50 million americans with frequent heartburn. did you know, with prilosec otc, you can stop frequent heartburn before it starts? heartburn happens when stomach acid refluxes,

or backs up into the esophagus. this causes the burning sensation in your chest, known as heartburn. with just one pill a day, prilosec otc treats frequent heartburn for 24 hours, providing all-day and all-night protection. here's how it works -- prilosec otc's unique delayed-release system protects the medicine as it passes through the stomach's tough acid. the medicine then gets absorbed into the body, turning off many acid-producing pumps at the source, so less acid is produced. with just one pill a day, you get 24-hour heartburn protection all day and all night, satisfaction guaranteed. trust the number-one doctor-, gastroenterologist-, and pharmacist-recommended brand to treat your frequent heartburn. to request a free sample, visit prilosecotc.com. prilosec otc. heartburn gone. power on. so the vampires are taking aim at the box office this

weekend but it now looks like the facebook movie has enough friends to take it to the top spot. >> hey, mark. >> hey. >> you split up. >> how did you know that? >> it's on your blog. >> i need you. >> are you okay? >> we're ranking girls. >> you mean other students. >> yeah. >> do you think this is such a good idea? >> i need the algorithm. >> joining me live here in studio. that was so not nice. ranking girls but you know it's done. however, social network, it's been a good week for them. they've come in number one. how much number one are they? >> with a movie with so much buzz you might have thought it would have done a little bit better. it's easily earning a number one spot but with about $23 million, $24 million.

word of mouth is amazinamazing. people like it. think it will do well over the coming weeks and it's already generating early oscar bus, which i cannot believe i'm saying about a movie about facebook. it was written by allan sorkin. it's got the sex, the lies, the betrayal, all of that good stuff. >> talk about the cast, it's the who's who of hollywood. >> it does. jes jessiz jessie eisenberg does a good jo and justin timberlake. and andrew garfield who's the new spider-man and rudy who's been tapped to play the girl with the dragon tattoo. >> there you have that. what about the other film's debuting, "halloween" and "case 39" starring renee zellweger. >> it's kind of a halloween

creepy movie and it's about a creepy girl and a social worker who gets too involved. >> all right. let's take a peak at it. >> scary anomaly. >> get away from me. >> you know, i'm not crazy. >> oh, my gosh. that is such a dawn yanek film. is this a good one? what do the critics say? >> they're not being terribly kind. it doesn't have genuine scars and it's like to elicit more laughs than screams. we love renee zellweger. unfortunately this is not up to her talent. it was made in 2006. it was shelved for a few years. that's never a good sign. it's been beaten out by a slew of other things it.

>> is what it is. rent the dvd next time. continuing with the horror theme there's a new vampire movie, "let me in." let's look at this one. >> yes. >> i need blood. >> how old are you? really? >> 12. >> but -- >> i've been 12 for a very long time. >> hey, wait a minute. there was a line like that in "twilight." but this is not your typical vampire movie. >> it's not. they call it the thinking man's twilight. it's definitely darker, creepier. it's a different sort of movie. it stars the wonderful girl who was fantastic in "kickass," but unfortunately it's not translating well. it looks like it will only make about $5 million this weekend at the box office.

>> let's look at a couple more films in a come minutes. that is next here on "msnbc sunday." last minute... on christmas. and sitting next to us, chevy chase. and we really hit it off. we play golf, and then the luau. he's like da vinci with ice. and after, we help hang christmas decorations. wait, wait, wait. you flew last minute... on christmas... with points from chase sapphire? yeah. amazing. believe it. with points from chase sapphire, you can book airline tickets with no blackout dates or restrictions. take off that mask. lose that heavy makeup look, and slip into lightweight coverage that really fits. clean makeup. easy breezy beautiful covergirl.

[ gorilla ] nice move. but can your retirement income keep pace with changing interest rates? this variable annuity from axa equitable has an option that can help your retirement income move with changing interest rates. but what do i know? i'm just the 800-pound gorilla in the room. [ female announcer ] make the retirement cornerstone annuity from axa equitable part of your retirement plan. consider the charges, risks, expenses and investment objectives before purchasing a variable annuity. contact a financial professional for a prospectus containing this information. read it carefully. whoo hoo!

let's get a quick check ahead of what's heading this week in the economy. tomorrow the national association of realtors is set to release a key report on pending u.s. home sales for existing homes. exists are predicting that report will show sales increased for the month of august. and we'll get a clearer picture of the employment situation in the u.s. when the latest jobs report is released thursday. labor department is expected to report as many as 15,000 jobs were lost in september. that's not the way we want it to go. we're also going to get a better read on how strong the economic rehkopf have i with reports on u.s. factory orders, along with activity in the services sector. those so-called youtube moments are becoming regular features of today's political landscape and senate candidate christine o'donnell is certainly providing her fair share. check out this latest clip of the tea party favorite when she

appeared on bill maher's show 11 years ago. >> i was dabbling into every other kind of religion before i became a christian. >> you were a witch. >> i was, i was. >> you were. >> i was. i was dabbling in witchcraft. i dabbled in buddhism and i was dabbling in hare krishna but i had to become a vegetarian. >> eleanor clift is a contributing editor for newsweek. hello, girls. >> good morning again. >> eleanor, there is this new clip of christine o'donnell, but then you have the new york gubernatorial candidate palladino's confrontation with the "post" reporter fred dicker. do you think the gop is damaging themselves with the prospect i was from the tea party candidates? >> christine o'donnell is really comic relief, and it's unlikely she's going to win and palladino got into a fight with a

reporter, and i suspect many voters would -- would side with him. the press isn't that good favor these days, but i think o'donnell in particular is useful for the tea party movement and for the republicans because she has trouble paying her bills and she comes across as an ordinary person, and frank rich in his column today makes the point that she kind of conceals the fact that there's a lot of big money behind the tea party movement. some of their candidates, particularly rick scott running for governor in florida, is a former health care executive of a company that had to pay fines for medicare fraud, and the notion that this is a populist uprising is the narrative that christine o'donnell advances when, as rich puts, it it's really a billionaire's coup, so i think o'donnell serves some useful purposes for the republican, disguising the fact that there's a lot of big money behind the tea party movement. >> interesting points there. >> erin, if the democrats focus

on things that o'donnell said years ago, do they risk looking like they are more interested in the past than in our future? >> well, i'll say a couple of things. one, the public doesn't really know christine o'donnell. we're just getting to know her so focusing on the past, i think they have to because they are trying to introduce this woman to the broader electorate. secondly, you know, look, this is about negative campaigning, and what is negative campaigning? it's looking into a candidate's past and trying to highlight it and tell the public about it, so those are the two things that are going on here, and i have a hard time thinking this is going to be a -- there's going to be a backlash for focussing on the past as opposed to the present and the future because folks don't really know who christine o'donnell is, but they are starting to get to know her. they didn't know her before. >> four plus weeks to go here. do you think they could get sympathy if people perceive her as being too bashed upon, erin? >> if you go too far there can be a backlash. you really have to be careful about how you present, you know,

you go after a particular candidate so i suppose so, but she seems to be, you know, kind of so far to the right and obviously a lot of people are saying out of the mainstream. that's the narrative that the democrats are trying to say right now, so, you know, i really don't think that sympathy is going to be pretty high for christine o'donnell, but you never know. this election season is proven to be -- to be pretty crazy. >> interesting. eleanor, what about the tea party candidates? do they hurt mainstream republicans? >> well, i think that the tea party makes the republican party look further to the right than i would think some independents would like, so they may be scaring away some independents, and i think that's why the republican leaders on capitol hill released their pledge to america which is really quite full of assurances that they are not extreme, that they want to cut the deficit, who doesn't, that they want to reduce

government. it all sounds pretty benign. when they have candidates around the country running on privatizing medicare and social security and abolishing the department of education, so i think that in this final month, i think that the republicans are really -- really do risk losing some of the gains they thought they would be making by looking like, to use erin's phrase, out of the mainstream just way too much. >> erin, quickly, because i'm out of time. do you think the democrats should allow these candidates self-destruct or draw attention to them? >> well, certainly they are trying to draw attention to them, and they believe if they draw attention to them and draw attention to things like christine o'donnell talking about witchcraft, that they will be able to paint a broader picture, that the tea party is out of the mainstream and so they are hoping that's going to be a valuable card to play in a difficult election for them. >> okay. thanks for being brief there. erin billings and eleanor clift. thank you. >> bye-bye. >> the supreme court begins a new term tomorrow and faces

highly contentious issues. just what are they? that is next on "msnbc sunday." . the clinical results are astounding. olay professional pro-x. read all about it at olayprofessional.com. to save me a boatload of money on my mortgage -- that would be awesome! [sarcastically] sure. like that will happen. don't just think about it. spend 10 minutes at lendingtree and save up to $272 a month. called the humana walmart- preferred prescription plan. it's a medicare prescription drug plan that saves you an average of over $450 a year, with monthly plan premiums less than $15 and copays as low as $2. with savings like these, you have more time to remember what it's really all about. enroll starting november 15. ♪ go to walmart.com for details. ♪

ready to try something new? campbell's has made changes. adding lower sodium sea salt to more soups. plus five dollars in coupons to get you started. campbell's condensed soup. pass it on. campbell's.® it's amazing what soup can do.™