some of the stories about him endorsing compromise in the ground zero project not accurate. we'll leave it with that. if it's "way too early" what time is it? >> morning joe. stay tuned for the daily rundown with chuck and savannah. the hottest part of the world getting hotter. the latest on a deteriorating situation in pakistan home to al qaeda central. is this the way to grow enthusiasm for young voters? put pot on the ballot? tell you about that. our back in business series. if you can't find a job, where you can find cash. our cnbc expert with some ideas and warnings this morning. good morning. it's thursday, october 7th, 2010. i'm savannah guthrie. >> i'm chuck todd. let's get to the rundown. we're going to start with what's going on in pakistan. we begin with breaking developments out of there. the u.s. is trying to stabilize a situation that could easily get out of control. u.s. officials have issued multiple apologies for the

helicopter attack that accidentally killed pakistani soldiers last week and prompted pakistan to close a key supply route into afghanistan. but the u.s. missile strikes are continuing today. tensions are getting high. let's get to ian williams live in islamabad. any hope that we're going to start seeing these nato -- this nato convoy able to get into afghanistan? >> reporter: good morning, chuck. at the moment there's no sign of those convoys continuing because the border remains closed. i've lost count of the number of apologies over the last couple of days as a result of that helicopter strike that accidentally killed two pakistani officers. this morning, the foreign ministry here in islamabad said they were still evaluating the situation and said they'd make a decision on the border opening in due course. now, that leaves many, many hundreds of tankers still stranded on the way to the border.

there haven't been any attacks today, but earlier we went out to the scene of an attack last night and the tankers were still in flames, were still smoldering a couple of hours outside of islamabad on the way toward the khyber pass. interestingly, that attack took place right under the nose of the army. there's a huge army base just up the road from where the tankers were sitting. in fact, the tankers had chosen that place for that reason. but for two hours they were under attack last night, burned by gunmen but nobody came to their assistance. now, a spokesman today in kabul insisted that these delays, the closures of the border was not impeding nato operations buff still clearly the supply line is still dangerously exposed. >> in islamabad, pakistan. a very tense situation and we're going to hear from former national security stephen hadley in the next block.

politics now and fight night in florida. a fiery debate between the three people who want to be u.s. senator, tea party fave marco rubio, independent charlie crist and charlie meek. >> i think it's fun to listen to the governor attack me for positions he himself held six months ago when he was trying to be the biggest conservative in the world. >> you haven't been drinking the kool-aid but too much tea. >> charlie crist stands on a wet paper box as it relates to the issues he stands for because you don't know where he is. >> kelly o'donnell nbc's capitol hill correspondent. a busy woman these days. bring us up to date on where the polls stand in florida. how close is this race? >> one of the things that makes it so interesting is a three-way dynamic makes the debate and race harder to follow for rubio to behave like the front-runner he's become. charlie crist the current governor tried to straddle the middle by by painting himself as

a live and let live social moderate. that's tough as you see from the exchanges. kendrick meek who has been trailing tried to embrace the obama agenda. one of the things meek is trying to do is brush back criticism that a vote for him is in essence a vote for rubio because democrats seem to be split between crist and meek. meek has been fighting back on those perceptions and he appeared after the debate on msnbc, "the last word with lawrence o'donnell" and addressed the whole issue of being this guy far back in the pack. >> let me tell you in the primary you had people down here writing my political obituary saying it's over. down ten points three weeks out. we won by 26 points. >> you got a sense from watching the debate that rubio had sort of the cool air of a guy who thinks he's doing well. and for crist who really needed to land a blow he made his points. all three seemed to have prepared zingers for the other. but it wasn't the kind of knockout punch that a cyst might have needed and because meek has

underdog status he played that big as well. >> kelly o'donnell in our washington newsroom covering that. it was quite the debate of course. there's still a lot of talk inside of florida and crist circles and crist people are hoping to convince meek to get out. meek was pretty feisty. he seems like a guy that's not going anywhere. jobless numbers and the retail picture are setting the stage for wall street. becky quick co-host of "squawk box" and joins us with a quick preview before the opening bell and 23 1/2 hours before the friday jobs report. >> you hit it on the head. the job report tomorrow will be the biggie, the government monthly number. today another glimpse of how the economy is going and how the jobs is looking particularly in the jobless claims. weekley jobless claims dropped

unexpectedly by 11,000 to 445,000. it's still a lot of jobless claims that are coming in but it's the lowest level in about three months. that's giving a little bit of hope to the futures before the opening bell rings. right now dow futures are up pretty significantly. the s&p futures are up 6 1/2. the dow buy 52 points. you mentioned it's the number tomorrow everybody is waiting to see. also today hearing from retailers, some of the stores with same-store sales figures for september. so far it looks like consumers are feeling a little better than the street had been expecting. they've been doing more shopping over the last month. retailers like limited and macy's better than expected same-store sales and folks like target saying they expect a pretty strong holiday season. this adding up to positive thoughts today but tomorrow is the biggie. that's when we really see where the unemployment -- >> that may pop the balloon very quickly. becky quick with a preview of the markets. now to that rare tornado of

outbreak in arizona. in one day four. as many as they typically see in one year. the weather channel's julie martin is in belmont this morning. one ever the hardest-hit towns. i assume there was some kind of warning but this is so unusual for the northern part of the state. >> very unusual, savannah. national weather service says they haven't seen an outbreak of this magnitude in about 15 years. obviously catching a lot of residents by surprise. the timing of this also bad. about 5:15 yesterday morning as people were sleeping. i'm here in this rv dealership and warehouse. you can see the sheer power of what we believe was the first tornadoes to come through literally picked up about 30 of these and tossed them around like toys around the lot here. now, across interstate 40, the neighborhood hardest hit here, about 200 homes also significant damage in that neighborhood. about 30 of those homes uninhabitable at this hour. emergency managers tell me

overall everything turned out better than expected. in fact, of the six people who were injured everyone has been treated and released from the hospital. no fatalities. certainly considering the timing of all of this and the rarity of all of this, it could have been a lot worse. savannah. >> looks pretty bad behind you there. >> julie martin, thanks very much in belmont, arizona. when you were going to tucson do you ever remember -- >> this is the southern part of the state. we didn't hear about tornadoes at all. dust devils is what we called them. >> dirt devil. still ahead, where there's smoke there's voters? why some strategists hope ballot proposals to legalize marijuana will be the secret ingredient to get young voters to the polls. moving election day to april 20th. home to al qaeda. unstable government and cache of nuclear weapons. former bush national security adviser stephen hadley joins us

to break it down. a look at the president's schedule. a political man today. to maryland, do a rally for a governor's race that's getting closer than democrats thought it would. then to illinois. >> see rahm. maybe he misses rahm. >> see p he sees rahm. see alexi giannoulias. oh no, no! i just parked here aond ago! give me a brk, will you? (announcer dr. scholl's masg gel soles with t different gels for softness and support... ...are outrageously comfortable. ...on second thought, i think i'll walk... (announcer) are u gellin'? dr. scholl 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.

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on my orders, the united states military has begun strikes against al qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the taliban regime in afghanistan. >> president george w. bush announcing the start of military operations in afghanistan.

it was nine years ago today. now the united states is still trying to figure out how to bring this war to some sort of close. >> and the key piece of all of this, the u.s. relationship with pakistan seems to be in crisis this morning. stephen hadley was president bush's deputy national security adviser at the time the war began and now a senior adviser with the u.n. institution of peace. let's talk about this relationship with pakistan. you hear things like careening out of control, on the brink. things are very tense. what's your aesment of what's happening there? and explain to viewers why this relationship is such an important piece of the puzzle. >> well, it's -- this is a relationship that is always difficult to manage. it goes from time to time periodic crisis. there are really two issues now, this issue of whether pakistan is continuing to give some quiet support to some of the extremist groups that we're fighting in afghanistan. secondly, this issue that they're willing to allow the united states to do some things

in pakistani territory -- much reported press reports of the predator attacks -- by doing something operationally with our forces across the border. that's a red line and of course was implicated on this helicopter incident here of last week. we have to manage this relationship going forward. there are areas of tensions, lines that have to be walked. and i think we will probably get through this latest period of tension as we have in the past. >> a couple of simple questions. one, who is in charge in pakistan? and, two, do they want us to withdraw from afghanistan? >> the -- of course there is a democratically elected government but that government of course is very much dependent on the military because of the humanitarian crisis because of the flooding and terrorist attacks. they don't want us to withdraw from afghanistan but there is also some uncertainty whether we have the staying power so as to

succeed in afghanistan. is the karzai government for real? is it going to be there five or ten years from now? are the united states willing to see it through? if they're not -- if there's any risk the taliban is going to come back and extremist allies, they want to hedge their bets and have some kind of a relationship with them. part is uncertainty about whether this project we have under way with the people of afghanistan to build a real viable democratic government is going to succeed. >> but going back to the first question of who is in charge, obviously za d-- >> there is a civilian government but highly dependent on the military. does it have influence? does the military want to take over in pakistan as in the musharraf era? clearly not. you have the situation where the military actually wants the

democratic government of pakistan to succeed but obviously that government is very dependent on the military for the humanitarian relief and fighting against the terrorists. so it is a mixed system at this point. >> mixed is a nice way to put it. look at the intelligence agency and once again as people pick up their papers they're going to hear reports the pakistani intelligence agency is in cahoots with none other than the taliban. this is a country that the u.s. government spends billions on! >> that has been an issue for nine years. when president musharraf nine years ago was told you need to break with the taliban and join us with the war on terror, he said he would and he did largely. but for nine years there's always been this suspicion -- more suspicion than hard evidence but some hard evidence -- that there are elements within the pakistani security services that are maintaining some kind of relationship -- >> rogue elements or is this a sanctioned leadership of the intelligence? >> it's very difficult.

when we used to talk to president musharraf, he would say, i'm head of the army and the isi works for me and the isa follows orders. we said are you giving them orders to hedge your bets and deal with terrorists. he said no. this goes back and forth. as i say, there is a lot of suspicion. there is some evidence it's not clear. and it is an issue that the united states does and must continue to push the pakistani government. the pakistani government has to understand you can't have halfway measures with terrorists. you either fight them or not. >> let's talk about the reports of potential negotiations or reconciliation inside of pakistan with elements of the taliban and the karzai government and that the u.s. presence over there -- seems like they're monitoring and not approving but not disapproving. >> two things. low level fighters out of the insurgency making peace with the government. that's what they call

reintegration. that's going on. when you talk about reconciliation, that's an issue whether you should have negotiation with the highest levels of the taliban leadership. that's discussed now. the issue is one of timing. has enough pressure been put on the senior elements of the a began taliban so they're willing to make a deal on the government's terms? because that's the objective here. the acceptance of the government's terms. i think that is the question. are they under enough pressure so now is a good time to deal. >> lots of questions. not so many answers unfortunately with such a complicated part of the world. stephen hadley former bush national security adviser. today's decision 2010. breaking out the ipad. big spender edition. we'll reveal who is shelling out the most cash and where the midterm races enter the final stretch how much are outside groups influencing things. our special "back in business" series. if you really can't get jobs, can you get cash? what are the options. first our "washington

speak." it's personal today. >> they constantly make the argument, samantha. the gap, todd. >> believe me, chuck and savannah -- there is -- >> then a news conference at some point during the day next friday, contessa. i mean savannah. >> i can't believe you called me contessa. wow! >> reporter: i was waiting for that to happen. >> going on the highlight reel for you, mike viqueira. well, this is unfortunate. washington speak it's todd and samantha or suzanna or contessa. loosely translated it means chuck and savannah. >> both my father and grandfather had to go by todd. they went with it. i'm fighting the todd. >> i'll answer to any leigh syllable "s" word. savannah, sahara. >> if you have washington speak you'd like us to clarify send to sahara at

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ipad time. 26 days to the collection and candidates, campaign committees, outside groups are saturating the airwaves. more than 350,000 ads have aired just in senate races alone. this is pretty unreal. 350,000 this year. a little less than 200,000 in 2008. granted you have a presidential campaign happening at the time. look at this ad spending already. just about twice as much now. so we spent about $80 million on senate race campaign ads in 2008. already at $160 million right now and we know that number is probably going to get well over 200 million. this is the year of the outside groups. when you look at some of these outside groups it's a real alphabet soup. all patriotic names and sound like nothing but you're going to

hear a lot of these. you hear americans for job security, american future fund, chamber of commerce, 60 plus association. a lot of the groups all of them mostly republican groups are the ones spending the most that are sitting out here these days. one that we want to focus on is this karl rove led group called american crossroads. look at all the places they're advertising. little symbols here. that's their logo where american crossroads is advertising. what's interesting here -- this is again a republican group being run by karl rove and ed gillespie. they're in all the senate races. more than just about a dozen races. the national republican senatorial committee right now is only in four states. they're also from washington. they're in kentucky. they're in colorado and they're in west virginia. and that's it. look at how american crossroads here is able to basically fill in the gaps everywhere else. mean while, the democratic senatorial committee, they don't have a lot of help on the outside.

there's not many other groups out there. they have to be in all of the states themselves. so they're in colorado and they're in missouri and sitting in pennsylvania, pennsylvania states that only crossroads is in. the national republicans are not in there. they're also in illinois, again, astate that the republicans are not in. only crossroads is in. a very expensive state. look at connecticut another state republicans aren't in. but the democratic senatorial campaign committee is in. so you see what these outside groups have meant as far as filling in the gaps for the republicans. let me show you one state in particular because colorado is probably the state that is seeing more outside action than any other state. just look at this. so ken buck, the republican nominee, he spent about $1 million in tv ads. michael bennet the democratic nominee spent $2 million. outside groups are spending over ten -- wlar we up to -- $16 million dumped into colorado. the two candidates running have

spent a collectively $3 million. outside groups have spent $17 million. now, part of it is colorado is a fairly inexpensive state. you only have to buy one media market to get 80% of the state but it is a stunning figure. $10 million in republican outside groups. $6.7 most from the dncc. look how it's overpowering the actual candidates themselves. this is a case where outside groups have taken over messaging from the two candidates. it's a trend thanks to these new campaign finance laws you're going to see over and over again. show you an example of outside group advertising in this colorado senate race. >> he gambled with our teachers' retirements facing a $400 million shortfall. denver school superintendent michael bennet pushed the school board into a risky deal with wall street bankers. he should work for us, not wall

street. american crossroads is responsible for the content of this advertising. >> investigated for ethics violations. reprimanded for reckless disregard of duty. ken buck's misconduct led an illegal gun dealer facing 37 charges off the hook. >> so there you go, savannah. as i was saying all of the outside groups are really -- colorado is the petri dish of where they're dominating. colorado more than any other one is seeing a lot of action. it's also an early voting state. people have to get their ballots pretty soon. it's a state more people may vote before election day than on election day. >> amazing to see the dynamic early voting is having around the country. still ahead, our special series "back in business." no job, no cash. >> what can out of work workers do to get help in a hurry? the mystery along the texas/mexico border. did pirates attack a couple on a border lake there?

the texas governor is pushing mexico for answers today. and this is one way to fire up the base. could proposals to legalize marijuana be the key to get young voters to the polls? but first today's trivia question from the almanac of american politics. what did a bully do to congressman alan grayson when he was just 11 years old? the answer and more. [ j. weissman ] it was 1975. my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility to identify the most productive strains of algae. algae are amazing little critters. they secrete oil, which we could turn into biofuels. they also absorb co2. we're hoping to supplement the fuels that we use in our vehicles, and to do this at a large enough scale to someday help meet the world's energy demands. stay twice...

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in times like these, you need an experienced partner to look out for you. heads up! and after 300 years we have gotten pretty good at that. quick look at what's driving thursday. for some people it might be friday. >> oh, don't rub it in. some people are taking the day off tomorrow. nato insisting that pakistan's closing of a major supply route into afghanistan is not impeding its military efforts there. the u.s. has now apologized repeatedly for that helicopter attack that killed two pakistani soldiers last week and prompted

this blockade by pakistan. on wednesday, militants continued attacks on those nato trucks trying to bring fuel through that closed border crossing. a milestone in the war in afghanistan. it enters its tenth year today. more than 1200 u.s. service members have died in afghanistan since that war began. and the opening bell just rang on wall street. investors are watching to see how the markets re act to an unexpected drop in new claims for unemployment benefits. a sign that layoffs may be easing. that big monthly unemployment report comes out tomorrow. that last one before election day too. other stories making headlines on a thursday. residents in arizona are cleaning up and assessing the damage after an unusual and dangerous storm there. at least four tornadoes touched down near flagstaff on wednesday. emergency shelters are up and running for the dozens of people whose homes were damaged or destroyed. forecasters say there could be more severe weather in that region today. officials in hungary say that toxic red sludge that burst

out of an industrial reservoir earlier this week has now reached the danube river. nations downstream from the danube hope the river will dilute the impact but officials are testing the waters every few hours. draft report from a presidential commission is faulting the obama administration for underestimating how much oil was spilling into the gulf. the report also accuses the white house of blocking noaa scientists' efforts to tell the public how bad it could become. the white house says the officials were public though about the worst-case scenario. and the exclusive deal between apple and at&t is almost done, "the wall street journal" reporting apple will begin selling a verizon version of the iphone early next year. >> everybody is happy about that. at&t signals not so much. howe does at&t not have good coverage? it blows my minds despite all their crazy advertising. mexican authorities are stepping up their search for an

american tourist allegedly shot last week by mexican pirates on its side of falcon lake. >> now texas governor rick perry wants to talk directly to mexican president felipe calderon demanding mexico use every resource available to find the missing man david heartily. janet shamlian live in texas this morning. this is turning out to be a mystery and something of an international incident, janet. >> reporter: savannah and chuck, good morning. it is. as you mentioned, the texas governor up for re-election by the way, is making waves in the lone star state calling on mexico's president felipe yee calderon to put more resources on this to bring the body of david heartiartly back to the u states. he's not the only politician. a number of congressmen are holding a news conference this afternoon to talk about the latest developments in this case. meanwhile, mexican authorities have indeed stepped up the search and the u.s. authorities confirm they are seeing

helicopters and boats on the mexican side in the area where david hartley was reportedly attacked by mexican pirates one week ago today. yesterday at thissi ytiffany ha back at the scene not on the mexican side. on the u.s. side. sort of saying her farewell with her family on a boat with sheriff's deputies laying some wreaths and some flowers into the water there. that's probably as close as she's going to be able to get to where this incident happened. but it is, as you indicated, savannah, turning into an international incident and everyone is now weighing in. back to you. >> all right. janet shamlian on the story in mcallen, texas this morning. to the midterms with just 26 days to go the democratic senate campaign committee is launching a major ad push in nine states. >> so far the democratic establishment has spent more than $10 million on ads struggling to keep pace with republican outside groups that are dominating the airwaves

these days. take a look at a few of these new ads, watch. >> hes back. dino rossi. he must think middle class families will forget what he did to them in olympia. but he voted to cut unemployment for laid-off workers. dino rossi, he's back and you still can't trust him to be for you. >> what can $2,000 get you? in kentucky -- >> the answer to medicare would be a $2,000 deductible. >> a $2,000 medicare deductible. grandpa may get around but he doesn't get kentucky. >> my partner in the political unit mark murray and this guy over here from -- >> partner in crime. >> partner in crime. >> chris. >> he's got a ton of titles. >> i'm trying to make the title as long as possible. title instead of money. >> it's all about this battle for the senate. mark, first of all, one of the things -- obviously, there's a lot of attention put to delaware

and alaska and connecticut. what are the five closest senate races that nobody is watching? >> the tossups are in illinois and pennsylvania and wisconsin, west virginia. you probably add nevada in there as well. so much attention has been placed on delaware and alaska, we know because of christine o'donnell, the palin, joe miller feud in alaska. but these are the true toss-ups and the ones we stay up real late on election night and could end up determining the control of the senate. >> there's this ad by the democratic national committee for the senate campaign committee -- dscc -- kill me. they're doing it in nine states. what do the nine states they chose tell you about the races? >> it tells us not surprisingly they're largely on defense. seven are states they currently hold. two, kentucky and missouri, are not. i think their best chance -- i can't believe i'm saying this 26 days out. i think the best chance is kentucky. it's not a great state for them but rand paul is rand paul. he said enough things.

he said that drugs aren't that big an issue. in eastern kentucky said some things about medicare that aren't going to go over well in a state older populationwise. i think they have a chance there. they'll keep spending there. but we're talking about a playing field in terms of where the money is being spent that is largely being fought on democratic turf. that's in keeping with what we know. republicans are going to pick up seats. the debate is how many. >> fighting to hold on to seats. >> playing defense. >> the nrcc is up in four states. one kentucky is a defense. it goes to this whole thing like everybody seems to acknowledge guess what kentucky is a real race if both parties are in it. only in three other states, washington, colorado and west virginia. but they have a lot of help. we did this graphic earlier. stunning how they're on their own and the nrsc knows they have back-up in this american crossroads. >> just saw the number you were crunching, that spreadsheet we were able to receive where outside republican groups have

an 8-1 spending advantage over democratic outside groups. it's a huge advantage. some of the places where the democrats are competing are where democrats have a candidate who isn't as well financed as the republican one. in delaware for example christine o'donnell is getting a ton of money. chris coons needs help. similarly connecticut chris's home state where linda mcmahon has all of that money and dick blumenthal needs help from the national party. >> thanks for the cheap reference to my home state. anything i can get the connecticut thing out i appreciate it opinion. >> nobody brags about it. >> oh, man! $1.8 million american crossroads has spent. wild pen. $1.1 million in illinois. the other thing that isn't mentioned, chuck and savannah, $13 million in september being spent in coordinated money by the nrsc. they spent lots of money they can directly give to a candidate. that's not showing up in the independent expenditures. >> i have to ask you about this concept of putting pot on the

ballot as a way to get young democratic voters to the polls. kinds of a tacit acknowledgement. explain. >> there's an idea in california of putting a legalizing marijuana ballot initiatives. there are lots in california every time. but the idea is put this on the ballot. young people may be a little more popular. in 2004 gay ballot initiatives driving conservatives. obama needs young people to turn out. happened in 2008 and need it in '12. can you engineer it. >> mark murray, doesn't the pot initiative -- it can fire up social conservatives or christian conservatives? we see this in california. >> jerry brown is against this initiative. so is meg whitman 2012 if democrats decide this is how to fire up the vote. they don't want the cheech and chong ads. >> it's the law of unintended political consequences. you never know what you're going to get.

>> you have to move election day to 420. >> i don't even know -- >> or the president's election chances go up in smoke. >> i like the fire up in base. >> just to get those lines out. >> the bombshell. >> we're out of time. chris cillizza, mark murray. what did a bully do to congressman alan grayson when he was just 11. >> this explains so much. grayson who grew up in the bronx says the bully threw him in the path of a bus. >> he's if you havened entough. >> nobody's bully now. >> or victim anyway. our special series "back in business." many americans out of work but still need to pay the bills. what can you do if you need cash? and coming up this sunday on "meet the press," the kickoff of the senate debate series. illinois democrat alexi giannoulias versus republican mark kirk this sunday on "meet the press." first without further ado,

the white house soup of the day. serving up chicken chili. >> chili always a good fall favorite. >> it is. >> but they need a little something else with this. chicken jalapeno chili. >> or salsa. >> sour cream, maybe chicken black bean chili. daily rundown on msnbc. [ male announcer ] there's a big idea happening in health care 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.

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now to our special series back in business about getting by in tough economic times no matter what age you are. today's focus how to pay the bills when you're out of work and times are tight. of the nearly 15 million unemployed people in this country pb 42% have been out of work for more than six months. that's 6.2 million people who have not gotten a paycheck since february. >> here to tell us what baby

boomers in particular should do if they're strapped for cash fast is cnbc's sharon epperson. walk us through. there's a number of things that you see advertised. i know on our channel, cnbc and msnbc, we see a lot of things about reverse mortgages. so start with that. >> reporter: we'll start with reverse mortgages but you can't do it until you're 2002 a62 and younger spouse has to be 62. you also have to be willing to live in your home for the rest of your life. there are a lot of caveats to reverse mortgage. but if you go to hud.gov you can check it out and see if it would work for you. it's a way to live off the equity in your home if you're fortunate enough in this day and age to have equity in your home. >> do you have to oh nothing on your home and be fultonly paid up on the mortgage. >> reporter: you don't have to be fully paid up but have equity in the house. >> one of the first things you say this issue of dipping into your 401(k) or i.r.a. what are the considerations there? >> a lot of folks that's going

to be the biggest chunk of change they have in the 401(k) or i.r.a. if you're really in financial distress, you can opt for a hardship withdrawal from that 401(k), not from an i.r.a. but you also want to think about the fact that normally if you're under 59 1/2 you're going to have to pay not only regular income tax, ordinary income tax on the withdrawals but also a 10% penalty. here's a way around that. you can opt for what's called a 72-t distribution allowing you to take substantial or regular payouts from that 401(k) or i.r.a. there are going to be certain amounts and it's not going to be a lump sum but that's something you can do. if you start it, though, you have to do it at least five years or until 59 1/2 so you may be taking a lot of that money out of that nest egg that you have. >> now let's move on to the option of taking out social security before you're 65. walk us through that. >> if you're 62, you can start to take your social security benefits. they are going to be lower than

if you were 65, 66 or 67. you no he that social security age is changing for a lot of folks. but also consider if you can waiting until you're 70. you'll have even more money you'll be able to get from social security if you wait longer. so again another great website to check out ssa.gov. there you can do the calculation to see how much you get at 62, at 65 and 66 and 70. >> can you start and stop? say you're struggling to find a jb, take it for a year, you find a job. can you stop and then take it later? >> the one thing you want to consider if you decide to do that -- again, work with the social security administration and figure out if that makes sense for you. it might make sense to wait altogether to get the most. the other thing to consider is if you're married having one spouse take social security and another one wait. that's another way to stretch the social security benefits. >> we talked about reverse mortgages so let's move on to what you call a social loan.

this is a toughy. assuming first of all that your relatives have money. but it's hard to ask for money. >> it is hard to ask for money and have a real substantial plan on how you're going to get that money and pay it back. that's why some companies out there are trying to help you structure these social loans, these loans between friends and family. virgin money is one of the companies that will do that for you. you have to pay a fee to do it but at least you know there is a third party kind of monitoring that if you're fortunate enough to have again friends and family that can loan you money. >> very quickly, are we seeing an uptick in reverse mortgages? i hear anecdotally about it. are we seeing enough take it early? >> i think a lot of people -- yes, a lot of people are inquiring about how to do that whether reverse mortgages or social security or dipping into the 401(k). they're trying to get money any way they can. but keep in mind there are caveats. you are jeopardizing perhaps your financial security later down the road. but for many people right now

the financial security or insecurity that they're facing immediately is -- >> financial survival. >> >> it's survival. >> that's exactly right. n that is their need right now. >> also think about there are low-interest rate credit cards out there. no one wants to be in credit card debt and we don't want to advocate for people to load up on debt. look for those zero interest rates and bankrate.com and other places to check and do some research on that. >> sharon epiperson, thank you. coming up, history made on first day of baseball playoffs. follow ous any time on twitter @chucktodd, @savannahguthrie. you can yell at us there. first daily flashback. this date 2003. this actor named arnold

schwarzenegger was elected governor of california ending an 11-week campaign after the recall of gray davis. then, of course, you voted. roer remember people like ariana huffington and gary coleman ran. it was crazy. but, you know what, i miss that campaign. that was a good one. >> that was a good one. pearblossom highway? it's just outside of lancaster. sure, i can download directions for you now. we got it. thank you very much! onstar ready. call home. hi, daddy! i'm on my way. send to car and...done! you have one saved destination: dillon beach. would you like those directions now? yes, i would. go north on route 1. check it out. i can like, see everything that's going on with the car. here's the gas level. i can check on the oil. i can unlock it from anywhere. i've received a signal there was a crash. some guy just cut me off.

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before we go, we'll take a dip in the shallow end. david axelrod brought the funny to letterman last night. take a listen. >> the seal dropping off the podium, what happened there and who got fired? >> this comes under my purview as senior adviser. done 500 speeches and it never happened before, right and i can only think of one thing,

witchcraft. >> the seal that fell off the presidential podium he got a couple zingers in about fox news and sarah palin and speaking of sarah palin, the "forbes list" of the most powerful women is out today and a bizarre mix of politicians, pop stars and people you never heard of. first lady michelle obama earns "forbes'" title of most powerful women in the world irene ros rosenfeld and here's the part, lady gaga number seven. seven! that's two behind hillary clinton and four spots ahead of house speaker nancy pelosi who came in at number 11. sarah palin makes the list at number 16. beyonce and ellen degeneres. >> can we just remember there is no methodology to how "forbes" does this.

they just did a ridiculous list which is what they do a lot of times with those silly lists. the 2010 baseball playoffs kicked off with a historic start. in his first post-season appe appearance, phillies' pitcher threw a no-hitter. the first post-season no-hitter since the eisenhower administration. the second no-hitter of the season for him. his first one in miami against the florida marlins. he did this one yesterday and it also means, i don't have to always hear that don larsen was the only guy to pitch a perfect game. it was the yankees beating the brooklyn dodgers back then. >> that's it for "daily rundown." up next, "chris jansing & company." >> at 1:00 "andrea mitchell reports."'s massa gel soles softness and support... ...are outrageously comfortable. ...on second thought, i think i'll walk... (announcer) are u gellin'? dr. scholl

newt gingrich picks a fight with nancy pelosi and the