celebrity very well. >> i think authors need ties like that. >> as general shelton called in, bill geist. >> don't forget to sign up for the all-new morning minutes newsletter. it includes guest interviews and big stories of the day. go to joe.msnbc.com. >> willie, if it's way too early, what time is it? >> it's "morning joe." but right now it is time for the morning rundown with chuck. i'll take dead aim at the cap-and-trade bill. >> wow. with three weeks until the mid-terms, president obama's policies are under fire from all sides. and here comes the sun today. chilean miners begin their precarious lift up through that narrow escape shaft. good news coming there. who's the bigger threat to public safety? kids learning to drive or the distracted parents teaching them? i remember this myself, frankly. it is tuesday, october 12th,

2010. three weeks exactly until the mid-term. but people are voting everywhere. i'm chuck todd, let's get to the rundown. we'll start down in chile. a country holding its breath as a spectacular rescue of those 33 trapped miners is set to begin today. nbc's kerry sanders is live for us in chile. kerry, when does it begin? when will we think we will see the first miner on this side of the earth. >> reporter: i think -- i think that we might actually see that head pop up of the first miner through this shaft that's been drilled down maybe around 8:00 tonight. that's just a little bit of a guess. what i'm really struck by today, 69 days and the families who have been here have been anguished, they've been praying, they have gone through so much. as i walked past the families today, all i saw were smiles. i mean from ear to ear, grins. people are excited because they

have a high degree of confidence after yesterday's test that everything is going to work here. as you though, they took the escaped capsule yesterday. they first ran a test in a pipe, then they said let's try it in the shaft. they sent it down the shaft and they dropped about -- well, just less than 40 feet from the end there. then they brought it back up. and they know it all works. now it is just a matter of getting everything in place. the president will be here, chile's president at around 6:00. that sets the stage for the rescues. >> kerry, so the first one you say approximately 8:00. is this going to be continuous? i mean as one comes up, they send it back down. or obviously barring any other issues with this man-made elevator, of sorts. >> reporter: well, this is what they say they're going to do. okay? they'll take it down. somebody will get in. it will take 15 minutes to come up. then they will inspect it.

this is a little bit of what nasa, our space agency told them to do. they will give it a once over. make sure everything is good. then they'll send it back down and bring it up. as each of those miners comes to the surface, they'll be greeted by just three family members. talk about a tough choice if you have a big family, which three family members are going to meet you. but the miners were able to select hot three are. they get a chance to hug, they get a chance to relish and celebrate the rescue, and then they get in a helicopter after going through a little bit of a triage and they fly over to the nearby hospital. the hospital comes back and it sort of rotates back and forth as miner after miner. they kind of said that they thought it was going to take an hour-per, which means 33 hours. i have a feeling just from seeing what i've seen, i think it is going to be a little bit quicker. >> kerry sanders, just -- i have to admit, it is as exciting of a day we've had in a while. it is this to see some good news. i hope it does begin when you say it begins. kerry sanders in copiapo, chile

this morning. thank you. to the mid-terms. fight night in five states, candidates clashing in a series of critical senate debates before the mid-terms. you know that cliche, the gloves are off, barbs are traded. here's one exchange between kentucky democrat jack conway and of course republican rand paul. >> he doesn't want to talk about his support for president obama and all of president obama's initiatives. that's what this election is about. he's trying to run away from it. >> this selection is not about president obama. this election is about jack conway versus rand paul. he's going to keep saying obama, obama, obama. it is about putting kentucky first. >> kelly o'donnell's nbc's capitol hill correspondent. you were all over these debates. it certainly looks to me as if it was the democrats playing defense at all of these debates which frankly matches the polls. >> reporter: for all the cliches we throw around about these, that is exactly the impression you get, and especially in kentucky. because rand paul, the tea party candidate, just hammered away at the president, his policies,

trying to tie them to jack conway who is the state's attorney general. he described himself as a different kind of candidate. he described himself as saying he wants to extend the bush tax cuts. not the typical sort of rhetoric from democrats. if there was any break to that pattern it really came in wisconsin where russ feingold, a democrat who often votes against his party. he is a three-term senator. he was battling with ron john n johnson, also a tea party candidate, millionaire businessman who's funded his own campaign. paying for his own campaign has been an issue, but here's an exchange where they are fighting about outside groups that have come in to wisconsin, paid for ads, and as we've heard in the news, many have not disclosed who any of their donors are. fine gold went right after johnson in one of the liveliest exchange of the night. >> he is benefiting tremendousfully his campaign from millions of dollars of these ads and i am not and i don't want them. you say you don't want them? will you call on them to stop? >> i have no control over that.

>> will you ask them to stop. >> that's part of the problem. >> will you ask them to stop. >> that's their right to free speech. >> that's your right to free speech to ask them to stop. >> it went on and wen. fine goal pressed johnson and say will you tell those groups to disclose who their donors are. and then with a bit of what sounded like resignation in his voice, he said yes, disclose. i think the closer the candidates sit next to each other the more they throw those barbs at each other. >> that is sort of the way it works sometimes. the orchestration of these things matters a lot. kelly o'donnell in our washington newsroom this morning, thanks very much. tom brokaw moderates a big debate out in california tonight on that big governor's race between jerry brown and meg whitman. with so much at stake, even first lady michelle obama is being called on to put her star power to work on the campaign trail. norah o'donnell is nbc's chief

washington correspondent. so she's all over the place. it seems that her schedule certainly matches up to those competitive senate races we were just -- some of which we were just talking about with kelly o'donnell. >> exactly. she was named the most powerful woman in the world by "forbes" magazine. now democrats hope she can be one of their most prolific fund-raisers. on wednesday she kicks off a cross-country tour that will take her to eight different states. most of these are invitation-only fund-raisers in these key senate contests an other key races you were talking about. there will be invite-only where she helps raise money for the democrats. there will be a joint appearance with the president in ohio, the two of them together. advisors say mrs. obama is going to be talking about her husband. her husband's record trying to rally voters, get them to turn out to the polls. is not going to be sort of the red meat type of partisan speech. first ladies just don't do that. what's interesting about her schedule with these eight stops, it is kind of more laura bush than it is hillary clinton. laura bush did about six events for the first mid-terms.

hillary clinton made 20 appearances. you see michelle obama sort of being a little bit more like laura bush. she's a little bit more restrained sort of in her campaigning for democrats out there. you bet, though, they do want her star power out there and she'll try and help raise some money. she did a call with organizing for america. her message there was pretty much change is difficult, we're just beginning to see the results, don't stay home and don't let frustration sort of keep you from going out to the polls. i think we'll see a lot more of that out on the campaign trail. >> it is fascinating looking at ma map. particularly colorado. that's a state where i'm not president obama will be back there but the fact that you can send michelle obama. all the other states we'll probably see the president as well but colorado really jumped out at me as one state, huh, seeing the first lady, maybe we won't see the president there. >> there's the reason you are the political director, chuck. >> we'll see! thanks, norah, for the plug. in afghanistan, new information about the death of that british aide worker.

linda norgrove. her botched rescue attempt may have been the fault of u.s. soldiers trying to save her from her kidnappers. nbc's jim miklaszewski is live from the pentagon. mick, i understand that general petreaus wants to have a deeper investigation on this. tell us more. >> that's right. when it rises to that level, chuck, you got to believe this is serious. both british and american service members, militaries, decided that this rescue effort was probably the best chance to get this british aide worker out alive from her captors. but in the end when the smoke cleared, a half dozen of her captors were killed but she also died. the initial reports were that one of the enemy inside this building had apparently detonated a device, accidentally or intentionally, and that she was killed in that manner. but a surveillance video from an overhead drone showed that perhaps at least one of those special praoperations forces th tossed a grenade into the

building and subsequent interviews with those soldiers on the ground, there was a bit of confusion so general petreaus ordered this investigation. now to put it in perspective, when i started covering these wars self-years ago, a special operations forces soldier dragged me aside and said, god forb forbid, if you're ever taken hostage and you hear a bang or the door suddenly bust open, hit the ground. do whatever you can to get flat on the floor because in the chaos, the victim could indeed become a true victim and be killed in the cross fire. so if that's what happened here, that could be explained away. but there is a very fine line between confusion and chaos, and the cover-up. that's the concern of some in the military, that those involved in the operation may have tried to cover up exactly what did happen. chuck. >> mick, i'm glad you put that perspective. i know a bunch of election observers, for instance, were just over in afghanistan. they were telling me about the training that they got for that very thing, about, okay, if the

worst case scenario, always get down on the ground. but you're right, it is the cover-up that sinks these things. >> in just about every situation, hit the floor. >> exactly. jim miklaszewski at the pentagon for us this morning, thanks very much. 20 minutes out, let's find out what's driving the markets ahead of the opening bell. for are that, we're joined by cnbc's becky quick. >> focusing on a big deal that came out early this morning. pfizer will buy king pharmaceuticals for 3.$3.6 billion. that's what we're focusing on this morning. this is a cash deal which is interesting, too. a lot of companies are trying to find places to put their cash to work. the best place seems to be recently at least putting some of that money to work if the terms of deals. we'll watch that. also later today, at 2:00 p.m. we'll be getting the minutes from the last fed meeting. that's interesting because it will give us an idea of where some of the fed governors and presidents are thinking and where they might be thinking in terms of monetary easing, whether that will come sooner or

later. that's what's been driving the market all along. after the bell we'll get some more news. earnings news comes out tonight from intel, the big tech company. from csx also, which should give us a good idea of what's happening in the economy. that's what we're focusing on for the rest of the week, some earnings numbers. really it is the deals that are moving things today, chuck. >> becky quick at cnbc's world headquarters this morning, thanks very much. three weeks to go. one of the biggest draws in the campaign trail not even on the ballot. >> be mad. they're playing you. >> former president bill clinton is barn-storming through the states where, well, president obama's not so popular. does it make a difference? and sorry, seniors. times may be getting tighter. don't look to your social security checks for help. it won't be there. how the tough times will impact america's 58 million retirees. some bad news for them. but first a look ahead at the president's schedule. town hall day with young voters.

dnc putting it on. that's driving the evening. plus a press briefing with robert gibbs fairly late in the afternoon. you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. [ female announcer ] you use the healing power of touch every day.

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i figured somebody would jump on me for coming in here to help the governor. then i figured, they won't say anything about me because anybody would rather have a guy from arkansas come in and pay actors from philadelphia to do it. >> well, former president bill clinton in west virginia yesterday where president obama isn't as popular, shall we say. west virginia's just one of the critical states in these mid-terms that's been overshadowed by all of the attention showered on, well, delaware, alaska and a lot of the other shiny metal objects this year. but these are the races that will decide who controls capitol

hill. the national political writer for the associated press is here, and the executive editor of politico. start with bill clinton, jim, start with you. look, let's put this in perspective. you and i both covered the '94 cycle and remember when bill clinton couldn't get an invite to kentucky for house races? put this in perspective for folks. because i know i see democratic partisan or others saying, look, bill clinton's there an barack obama's not. in ten years, barack obama's going to be the guy in kentucky. right? >> that definitely can be the case. i think clinton is now seen as a moderate inside of the party. back then in '94 he was not necessarily seen that way. people were not happy with his policies. he can go a lot of places where obama can't go. obama's still an amazing asset for democrats in that he can turn out a huge crowd like he did the 26,000 in madison not long ago. he can still raise a lot of money, he can fire up the base. but there are places like west virginia, pennsylvania, wisconsin, colorado, we can go

on and on and on where i think bill clinton is a better asset right now because you pick it up in almost every state, there's so much frustration with obama policies which is one reason you don't hear many democrats talking about what they would do if they actually keep control of congress. they're talking about the evils of the republican theology because they know that right now their brand ain't working for them. >> let's bring the map back, liz. walk through the map of some of these places. first, why is it that a campaign needs -- put this in sort of politics 101. campaign 101. obviously arkansas is a home state that he'll be. but new mexico, colorado, nevada, we know the president's numbers are down in those swing states. why is it you need to bring in a national figure at all? >> what we forget, it is not just about bringing in a surrogate but it is a type of surrogate. these are all states that are struggling economically. high unemployment, high foreclosures. a guy like clinton goes in and he feels your pain and he not

only speaks to the democratic base that needs to be fired up right now, but he can speak to those moderates and independents who are just suffering right now out in tough economic times. empathy is not president obama's strong suit. especially with the blue-collar voters that hillary clinton, bill clinton, play better to. >> let's move to what i think are the five closest senate races. of course we don't discuss them nationally as much. one is close to your heart, jim. quickly on the map, colorado, wisconsin, illinois, pennsylvania, west virginia. looking at those five, they may be the five closest in the country. wisconsin you write about today. what makes wisconsin unique among these sniv. >> right. i think that wisconsin captures every single story line of the campaign. surge of the tea party movement. a wounded incumbent who would probably be safe in a different political environment and a newcomer to politics who's

captured the imagination of the tea party movement but also sort of the conservative radio echo chamber. ron johnson from -- i grew up in oshkosh. that's where he lives. he was unknown. no one had really heard of him. he wasn't interested in politics until about a year ago. he is a millionaire. he had the machine and he had this message which is basically the same message you hear from a lot of tea party candidates which is they're not coming to washington to do specific pieces of legislation. they have a big message and they want to change the direction of the country and the direction of governance much more broadly. this is different because in most campaigns you have a bigger mix of people who want to go in and be legislators. these guys want to be messengers and are waging a philosophical war. he's doing it effectively because he doesn't say as many controversial things as say sharron angle does in nevada. >> it is a very pure litmus test of the cycle. liz, look at these five a minute. think back nine months ago. wisconsin, colorado, illinois, pennsylvania, west virginia.

we were all in agreement about colorado. there was some thought that maybe illinois would be competitive. maybe pennsylvania. we weren't talking about wisconsin and west virginia. to me though when you look that these are the five closest, if you had told democrats these are going to be the five closest, they'd say we'll be in great shape. those five states? great, we're in good shape. that's not the case. >> but this speaks to the entire election year, right? start back at the beginning of the year with scott brown's win in massachusetts. nobody thought that that was going to happen. not the republicans, not the democrats, until very late into that race. same thing's happening in this race. races that nobody was talking about even six months ago. all of a sudden they're competitive. i think that shows just how disgruntled this electorate is and also tells me we can't say what's going to happen on election day. any pundit tells you -- sorry, chuck -- this is going to happen on this date, really don't know. >> jim, are we missing anything? six weeks ago there was a debate, hey, we might be missing something in west virginia. nobody's missing that now.

any other race you expect to pop late that we're sitting here going, boy, we should have seen that coming on october 12th? >> i think it will happen in house races, twhauones that non are talking about. you love numbers, this is a fascinating one. there is almost a 20-point rise in two different polls in the number of people who self-identify themselves as conservatives. when compared to '08 and '06. not republicans but conservatives. what that tells me is people are feeling this sort of feeling of austerity and they're feeling this movement towards i think angry independents and tea party people both feeling conservative. that means i think there is a lot of opportunities out there for republicans to probably pick up some seats we aren't expecting. i think some republican incumbents we're not anticipating tougher races because people are so angry at washington. >> watch those libertarian numbers. you may see them with larger vote counts than we've ever seen

before. jim, liz, great. thanks to both of you. still ahead, trouble behind the wheel. why the government says, hey, let's blame the paints for those distracted teen drivers. there's real truth to that. but first our washington speak. cola. has nothing to do with coke or pepsi or dr. pepper. that's a cost of living adjustment. since the mid 70s social security recipients have gotten a bump in benefits every year bases on increased in the cost of living. known as c.o.l.a.s. we'll get into why seniors receiving social security will not be getting that cost of living adjustment for the second straight year, ever. if you've got some washington speak you'd like us to clarify, send us an e-mail. dailyrundown@msnbc.com.o: good t got an email from the office and word is people really love our claims service. gecko: 'specially the auto repair xpress. repairs are fast and they're guaranteed for as long as you own your car. boss: hey, that's great! is this your phone?

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you have a teenager just learning to drive, you're

probably worried about their safety. a new study finds many parents are failing to take one key step that could make a big difference -- paying attention themselves. nbc's tom costello reports from a high school in bethesda, maryland. >> reporter: good day from bethesda, maryland. you know, car accidents remains the leading cause of death for teens between the ages of 15 and 18. 3,000 people killed every year in teen-related accidents. so the aaa foundation wanted to know how well are parents teaching their kids. they decided to do that by mounting cameras on the dashboard. it's a split-screen look at teenagers' first few months behind the wheel from a missed driveway -- i'm sorry! to a confusing intersection. >> you got a red light! you got a red lights! >> reporter: and the parents who are supposed to be involved. >> there's a siren. >> what do i do? >> you need to pull over. you need to pull over. you need to pull over to the

right, honey! sorry. >> reporter: aaa followed 50 families looking at how well parents teach teenage drivers. >> it's a little bit of blind corner. >> reporter: among them, chuck and his daughter leah who he may have saved from a very serious accident. >> whoa, stop! hit your brakes! >> what were they doing? >> they completely ran a red light. >> i didn't even see it coming. it just was there all of a sudden. it just snuck up on me, i guess. >> driving is a complex thing. it takes a lot of stimulus input and reacting quickly and thinking and a lot of it is just plain practice. >> reporter: aaa says the study's results were disappointing because while some parents offer lots of coaching -- >> sometimes what you need to do when you're driving is like look two cars or three cars ahead of you, see what's going on. >> reporter: many others were themselves distracted.

most teens had hardly enough time behind the wheel with mom or dad. >> on average we saw that the supervised driving experience was actually less than two hours a week. >> reporter: with just 20% of the driving occurring at night or bad weather, hardly enough says aaa. as this family discovered -- >> whoa, stop! hit your brakes! >> reporter: -- there's no substitute for experience. most states require that teens have six months or about 50 hours of driving with a parent before they get their full driver's license. the aaa foundation would like to see that raised to 100 hours but they also want to see parents taking the time to teach their kids to drive at night and then incompleme inclement weather. >> please, put the cell phones away! though i remember my father would be sometimes distracted when he would let me drive. coming up, the case against the army psychiatrist charged in the deadly ft. hood shooting spree heads to court.

plus, inside the social security benefits freeze. what the future holds for senio seniors. what about medicare increases? president obama and former vice president cheney? playing xbox in a secret bunker at the white house? the reality show. it's just one of those crazy scenarios willie geist has cooked up in his new book, "american freak show." we're going to get him to explain the rest. but first, today's trivia question from our friends over at the almanac of american poll six. what u.s. senator's mother did laundry at a nearby bordello to make ends meet? the answer ahead on "the daily rundow rundown". we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] imagine the possibilities

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quick look at what's driving

this tuesday. almost home. 33 miners trapped for months in chile. now they're just hours away from freedom, maybe as early as 8:00 p.m. our time tonight, we may see the first man hoisted up that makeshift elevator shaft. three weeks to go before election day. the big debate tonight is in california, gub toernatorial ra moderated by tom brokaw. in connecticut, a debate between richard blumenthal and linda mcmahon. blumenthal still ahead but the latest poll just has him up three points. that's a race where numbers have been all over the map. in lower manhattan, opening statements today in the first civilian trial of a guantanamo bay detainee. ahmed galani. the attacks killed more than 200 people. other stories making headlines, army major nadal hassan is due in military court for a hearing today to determine

if there is enough evidence to try him in the ft. hood shootings. he's accused of killing 13 people last year and wounding 32 others. california, a milestone in the stem cell research. for the first time ever, doctors are treating a human patient with embryonic stem cells in a government-approved study. the test will look at the safety of the treatment and how well the patient can tolerate it. changing fashions. four days after the gap announced a redesign of its logo, the clothing company is reversing course. think new coke. the company says it made a mistake and will continue to use the old, are shall we say, classic look. moving on been senior citizens across the country are bracing for bad news. the government is expected to announce this week that there will be no social security cost of living increase for the second year in a row. nearly 59 million americans receive social security benefits and it is even worse for the one-third of recipients who rely on social security for 90% of their income.

doug holtz eken is a former c bchtcbo director and advisor. explain how the cost of living adjustment is determined and the law that decides whether an adjustment happens or not. >> it is in the law that you do it look at inflation over the previous year, look from the previous september to the current september, and in this case there wasn't any cost of living increase. inflation's flat. in those circumstances those who are already retired do not see their retirement checks bumped up because there is no inflation. >> how do they measure this? i'll be honest, i talk to my own family members who are on social security, their condo fees have gone up, their cable bill as gone up, internet be, different things that's their cost of living, power, has gone up. they haven't seen it flat-line. how does this -- what measurement does this use to decide cost of living increase? >> we have an alphabet soup of

price indexes to look at. this is the cpi for you are gan consumers. the key is it includes the volatile food and energy categories. sometimes we see gasoline prices with weird spikes. then two years ago whether their was a 5.8% c.o.l.a. adjustment in 2009, well above typical inflation. in this case it is down. one change might be to actually look at the core cpi, something that's more stable. the cpi though doesn't measure everyone's real cost of living. everyone buys their own different things, everyone has their own condo so we'll never get this exactly right for every senior. >> some worry among some seniors that medicare -- which isn't necessarily adjusted via the c.o.l.a.s or cost of living adjustments. will seniors see their medicare premiums go up? >> seniors by an large will not. there is a clause in the law that says if you're paying your part b premium, the part you pay for doctors out of your social

security check, if your social security check doesn't go up, medicare premium won't go up. those who are on medicaid or are affluent, theirs will go up but that means medicaid is picking up the premium. if you see drug prices going up, that's going to be an issue. >> last year there was one-time checks. obviously it was part of the stimulus. $250 checks for seniors. this is obviously something, seniors vote, they're the biggest voting block in a mid-term election. should we expect politics of this to push that in that zplex. >> yeah. one thing we know about politics is incumbents get the blame. whether they deserve it or not, sitting president, the party in control gets the blame for bad news. this is bad news. we're already seeing democrats talk about sending out $250 checks again. whether they do or not, they'll talk about it before the election. >> big picture here. social security, the stability of the program. if nothing is done what are we

up to now? 2037? 2042? where are we as far as this solvency of social security trust fund? >> if nothing is done, in 2037 every retiree will get an across the board 22% cut. something that's unthinkable. the bigger problem is beginning in 2017, social security will become a steady cash drain on the rest of the budget. it will be running deficits between then and 2037. pressure on the budget from social security will rise. that's the real reason -- much sooner. that's the real reason -- >> i'm hearing on this deficit commission, apparently the only area of agreement we hear about is some sort of rise in the age of eligibility. >> they'll have to do something about social security. i think there is a real urgency to it. my own view sim's tis i'm the p. i'm an affluent american. if you don't modify my social security benefits, you miss the problem entirely. >> does c.o.l.a. mean government

workers or members of congress aren't going to get an adjustment? i know seniors are saying, fine, you don't adjust my social security? i don't want to see their salaries increased either. >> sure, there's a c.o.l.a. all through the government's budget. we just won't see a change this year. there thank for breaking it down. the countdown is over. we'll move from a little bit from the serious to unfortunately probably the more serious. the moment we've all been waiting for finally has arrived. willie geist's "american freak show" is here to meet "the daily rundown's" every day freak show. willie is host of msnbc's "way too early," author after new book available now wherever fine books are sold. i hope it is downloadable. "american freak show," the completely fabricated stories of our new national treasures. willie, explain the premise of the book and then i want to know which one of your fabricated stories are you most fearful

will actually come true. >> let's be clear, real characters, fake stories. i have 19 chapters. 19 different people or issues. sarah palin is the first chapter. an imagined inaugural address after she's won the 2012 presidential election. it is january 2013. she doesn't want to give it at the capitol with a budnch of insiders. she gives her address at wwe's "raw," a live event on monday nights. >> willie, you already have that wrong. that's an nbc universal property, man. she's not going to go on "monday night raw." >> that's a good point. we'll have to revise that. we do politics, we do blago, sarah palin, we do have the president. we also do pop culture. the chapter about lindsay lohan tweeting from a santa monica jail, her version of martin luther king's letter from a barmibarm

i birmingham jail. you have real characters, fake stories. >> we teased obama and cheney playing xbox. tell us more about this one. >> well this one is an imagined situation where president obama hears something downstairs. he's up sleeping peacefully with the first lady. hears something in the kitchen, a plate smash. he walks downstairs to find -- who else -- but former vice president dick cheney sitting there in his underwear an t-shirt, very tight, by the way, making a sandwich in the middle of the night. it turns out he lives in the basement underneath the white house from which he's been running a u.s. foreign policy for the entirety of president obama's first administration. they go at it. he's down there, he's got a whole layer he talks about and basically shocks the president revealing that he's been pulling all the strings and that's perhaps why president obama's foreign policy looks an awful lot like president bush's. >> willie, one of the things savannah and i sometimes nickname, the coverage of some

politics is "the freak show" that we sometimes focus too much of our energy on the "freak show." i think it was inspired by your book title. how much of this in some ways did you write and have fun with, how much of it was there just a tinge of sadness because you were like, you ghee? maybe this would happen and that's a little bit scary. >> no, definitely a serious point is to made here. it is not just the people we make into freaks. it is we who make them into freaks. for example, yesterday on "morning joe" our top three stories. we came in, linda mcmahon had to answer a question about christiane am pour about why she had women on all fours barking like dogs in her past live. >> is that about creating jobs? >> exactly. creating jobs. in illinois on the "meet the press" debate, mr. kirk held up a letter talking about jaws durango a mobster. we had carl paladino talked about men in speedos grinding on each other. this is the level of political discourse right now.

yes, there is more than a kernel of truth to this. >> you correctly i think put us all in this box here. because the political campaign guys are doing it and we in the media, it is just a constant feeding frenzy in all this. is that sort of one of the points you hope to drive home? it is like, look, here's some ridiculous ways to look at things. guess what? you know secretly some of them might actually happen. >> absolutely. there's a little bit of an indictment of the media in this throughout the book. it is not just the way the people act, it is the way we perceive them and portray sarah palin and blago and everybody else and give them an ongoing platform to become the freaks that they become. i believe there have always been this many freaks in our society. now with the internet, 24-hour cable, now they just have platforms to let those freak flags fly, chuck. >> andy warhol, smarter and smarter as time goes on. >> exactly. >> willie geist, congratulations. the book, "american freak show." there's going to be probably a soundtrack with it. you probably ought to download

green day right at the same time. >> no question. >> willie, thanks. trivia time. what u.s. senator's mother did laundry at a nearby bordello to make ends meet? if you thought about this one you'd figure it out. where's there legalized prostitution? the answer of course, nevada and that would mean it was the mother of senate majority leader harry reid. up next in today's decision 2010, it is abandonment issues. we'll look at which congressional races democrats are throwing in the towel already and taking back some money an moving it elsewhere. but first, the white house soup of the day. ribollita. you know what? this probably should have been yesterday on columbus day. little bit of an italian soup. you're watch "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. we'll be right back.

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alaskan politics, at least in recent history. you kn virtually everything about us. we've drawn know virtually ever about us. we've drawn a line in the sand. you can ask me about background and personal issues and i'm not going to answer. i'm not. this is about the issues. this is not about continuing the personal attacks. it's not about continuing the diversions in illegal acts. this is about moving the state forward. >> interesting. well, not willing to answer questions, simple questions about his background and what he's done when he was a lawyer. we'll see, sounds to me he may have given an opening that lisa murkowski needed to make her writing. democrats pulling money out of key races. we'll start in ohio where this is where the first one that we know of, the first district. the cincinnati district. steve is the first one we know of that no longer has any d

triple c money on the air. the republicans pulled their money last week confident in former congressman steve shabt in his ability to win that district and now democrats pulled their money and they're moving it else where and we'll hear about more districts where this is happening over the next couple days because when you make a commitment to buy tv advertising, guess what, tv stations want the money up front, they don't trust policies or candidate committees to give them the money when they say, you know, after the fact. so, what does that mean? in some of these cases, you have to give them money up front. well, the democrats know this and they're moving their money and yanking in different places. we found out about treehouse yesterday. in the cleveland area betty sutton is somebody that some democrats were getting worried about, republicans were a little excited about because it was a self-funded republican. well, scandal has rocked his campaign. there is some accusations about

sexual harassment suit filed against him, well, guess what, he's a self-funder and pulled all his tv ads yesterday and now sticking to cable and radio and that also tells you something, it's his own money. he doesn't want to spend it and suddenly feeling as if the polls are hurting him. another place to keep an eye on tv ads. mary, will we see more national groups pull money out of that race? keep an eye in the next couple days. one other state we're keeping an eye on, frankly, there are a bunch of one. but one in particular is indiana. three tough races in that district. the second, the eighth and the ninth and, of course, the eighth is the open seat here. that's the one that brad elsworth is vacating. donnelly in the second money moving in, moving out and republicans are the one expanding the playing field and, at this point, democrats are the ones trying to figure out where they're going to play defense and where they're going to do that. a bunch of other states here that this is going to happen.

we're going to track it throughout the week because we're going to learn, literally, in the next few hours. yesterday was a federal holiday and some of these tv stations didn't report their stuff. keep an eye on florida and the orlando media market. that is one hit i will drop at you. today at 1:00 eastern democratic campaign committee chairman chris van hollen talking about their man power. that's at 1:00 p.m. eastern on "andrea mitchell reports." ♪ ♪ [ engine revs, tires screeching ] we give to you the all-new volkswagen jetta. we have one more surprise for you. fifteen-thousand nine-hundred neunzig dollar?

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that's it for "daily rundown." coming up next on msnbc "chris jansing & company" and "andrea mitchell reports" at 1:00. we'll see you tomorrow.

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