>> i'm not going to put "hickey" in anymore of my casting calls. it's not right and i'm offended. >> good call. mike barnicle? >> i learned that that if he were alive, he'd be dead today. what she's talking about is extreme. >> man up, harry reid. >> fight night in vegas or the dud in the desert, as politico called it. the only nevada senate debate was, in a word, awkward. also, can he have it both ways? the president wants to bring back don't ask, don't tell, until he can repeal it again. and what a recovery. three of the rescued miners are home. doctors are hopeful that even more could go home today. it's friday, october 15th, 2010. i'm chuck todd. savannah is off. also this morning, we are watching federal reserve chair ben bernanke. he's speaking right now. how will markets react? and we're going to look at

whether the foreclosure mess is actually an opportunity to help fix the entire system. plus, one other note, why is sarah palin going after michelle obama? that's all ahead, so let's get to the whip. and we're going to start in nevada, where the midterms, it's a race that symbolizes everything so far this year. democrats are up against the democratic leader of the senate, harry reid fighting for his political life against tea party favorite sharron angle. last night the two went toe to toe in their only debate and it was a contentious one from the start. >> all these things i've talked about today, my opponent is against those. she wouldn't do that. my job is to create jobs. what she's talking about is extreme. >> harry reid, it's not your job to create jobs, it's your job to create policies that create the confidence for the private sector to create those jobs. >> kelly o'donnell of course is nbc news's capitol hill correspondent. she joins us from our washington newsroom. kelly, what an odd debate,

especially if you were like probably the both of us that watched the nevada senate and then right after on c-span, watched washington senate, which was a totally different story. this nevada senate, wow. >> we could write a thesis paper on this. and you and i would enjoy doing that. the nevada race is the kind of thing we've been waiting to see. and we knew that on substance, these two candidates, harry reid and sharron angle, could not be further apart. what was really the thing to watch was how would they present themselves. what would their style be? and i watch harry reid on the senate floor countless hours, so i'm accustomed to the way that he speaks and i'll be the first to say that he's not entirely comfortable in that sort of setting. but he came to this debate really not ready to go after sharron angle in a very personal way. he did so to the camera, never to her. she took a much more aggressive approach. it was so aggressive, in fact, that it really crossed into what's personal. she took harry reid on for his personal wealth, in a state where there is the highest unemployment, highest foreclosure. here's a sense of how she went

after him. >> you came from searchlight to the senate with very little. now you're one of the richest men in the u.s. senate. on behalf of nevada taxpayers, i'd like to know, we'd like to know, how did you become so wealthy on a government payroll? >> senator reid? >> mitch, that's really kind of a low blow. i think most everyone knows, i was a very successful lawyer. i did a very good job in investing. so her suggestion that i made money being a senator is simply false and i'm really disappointed that she would suggest that. >> but, of course, chuck, the suggestion really just outlined this divide about sharron angle portraying herself as a simple middle class woman whose been a teacher for her whole career and the man who lives at the ritz carlton, the condos there here in washington, d.c. that's emblematic of what this fight is all about. >> i want to play one other moment, kelly. because what struck me, while

sharron angle certainly had plenty of awkward moments herself, she had a couple of things prepared, including her closing statement, but harry reid seemed to struggle with his closing statement. watch. >> we're going to go to closing statements right now. we're running a little short on time. senator reid, you're up and you'll have about 45 seconds, 50 seconds. >> okay. got to find my little notes here. >> okay. a lot of paper here. i have a few notes i made. thank you. thank you very much, mitch, for what you've done here. >> kelly, just, sort of, to me, that was emblematic of this debate where harry reid seemed a little less prepared for this going after sharron angle on anything, while sharron angle certainly having a tough time herself had just enough quotes to at least, you know, go after him and knew the zingers she wanted to send. >> the zinger that harry reid came with is, "she is extreme." she had a repertoire of planned comments that really outlined

her campaign and she's been working them out on the campaign trail and they were meant to deliver a stinging punch and they did. what's striking is this is the biggest moment of his re-election life. he's always had tough races, always had close races. but this is really, really tough. and to not be ready to go to your closing statement is striking. it was almost as if the air had come out of his tire. when he was talking about policy, he knew the facts, he's so fluent in what makes the senate work. he even referred on a question about abortion, he used the phrase, the hyde amendment, when you're talking to voters. so he spoke like a senator, he didn't seem to have the same fight that you would expect for a candidate whose career is really on the line. >> kelly o'donnell in our washington newsroom, get ready for another weekend of rallies and debates, kelly. we'll be up all night long, i have a feeling. thanks very much. >> yes, indeed. while the president and vice president hit the road for democrats today, a few republican big guns are also on the road. sarah palin is in the midst of a three-day swing through california, in addition to

taking plenty of shots at the elected leadershipship, take out this not so thin ll ll lly veil at the first lady. >> when i hear people say or had say during the campaign they had never been proud of america until that time, i think, haven't they met anybody in uniform yet? >> interesting, it's a reference to a very, very early time on the campaign trail with michelle obama during the democratic primaries when she said, the first time she was proud to be an american, having to do with then-candidate obama's ability to fundraise and winning the iowa caucuses. an odd shot from sarah palin. she in orange county, california, on saturday. both meg whitman or carly fiorina will appear with sarah palin at that rally. the president defending his

administration's attempts to keep don't ask, don't tell in place for now, even while calling for its repeal down the road. take a listen. >> it has to be done in a way that is orderly, because we are involved in a war right now. but this is not a question of whether the policy is in -- will end. this policy will end and it will end on my watch. >> nbc's jim miklaszewski joins us live with more from the pentagon. mik, here's what was awkward about the timing of what the president said at the town hall. at that exact hoemoment, the justice department was preparing an appeal to the federal court that just struck down don't ask, don't tell while he's telling those young voters that he wants to get rid of don't ask, don't tell. explain. >> chuck, this is about as tough a political situation as the obama administration has had to face. and just before the midterm elections are about to be held. first of all, both the pentagon and justice department were caught totally flatfooted when

judge virginia phillips out there in california issued this injunction, halting the enforcement of don't ask, don't tell. it took them a couple of days to figure out what to do. the pentagon has requested a stay of enforcement of that injunction. haven't heard yet from judge phillips on that. and what the problem here is, for the pentagon, is what do you do in the meantime? and we are told that the pentagon, the military officials, unofficially, are advising that no gay or lesbian currently in the military out themselves, declare themselves gay or lesbian, because if, in fact, there is a stay put in place or if this ruling from judge phillips is overturned eventually, the pentagon claims it will have a right to go back and force them out or attempt to force them out of the military. the reality, in the meantime, chuck, though, is that for several months, the pentagon, the military have not aggressively been enforcing

don't ask, don't tell in the first place after defense secretary gates issued this -- his own ruling, which he had the right to do, to say that they were going to treat this more humanely and not force people out of the military who were outed voluntari outed involuntarily. but as i said, this presents a huge political conundrum for -- you know, neither side likes this situation right now, but president obama likes it even less. >> jim miklaszewski, you're right, it's a complicated sort of washington, administration, kind of behind the scenes political problem and it presented quite the few awkward moments yesterday for the president. anyway, mik, at the pentagon, thanks very much. >> you bet. one by one, those chilean miners are leaving the hospital and starting their new lives as national heroes. nbc's natalie morales has been following their story from copiapo, chile, and she joins us now. natalie, how many more are going to go home today? >> reporter: they're expecting that pretty much all of them are going to go home today. and remarkably with a clean bill of health.

three were released yesterday and doctors say they're doing remarkably well. some had dental problems. one was treated for pneumonia, but otherwise, they're in decent shape. now, this weekend, though, day do want to come back here on sunday. there are plans to hold a special mass here at camp hope and up at the mine, because they, of course, being underground for so long, never really experienced what was happening here around them. this community of their families. this became a home away from home for them. so they have asked, in fact, that they not take down all the tents here, that they keep it the way it is, because they want to see firsthand what this place has become. now, as you mentioned, their lives are extraordinarily different than what they were before. they come out -- they emerge ed from that mine as international heroes, superstars by many. they did make a pact, though, they actually had a deal notarized before they left the mine where they agreed that they would tell their story

collectively as a group. they do want to get paid, but the idea is they're establishing a fund and they're going to split it evenly all amongst them, so that nobody gets any special attention here, chuck. >> you know, it's so nice to hear how well that they sort of got along down there. we're not hearing about any stories of back and forths. it's just -- every part of this story, it just makes you feel better, the more you learn. anyway, natalie morales from copiapo, chile, thanks very much. as investors gear up for a final day of trading, they're keeping an eye on what the fed chair, ben bernanke, is saying out in boston today. so let's get a preview before the bell with cnbc's becky quick. >> you know, chuck, the markets really got a jump-start over the last hour when chairman bernanke went ahead and started talking. this is the moment the markets have been waiting for. is there going to be more monetary easing coming from the fed? in his comments today, chairman bernanke said there would appear

to be a case for further action. right now futures are up roughly 30 points or so before the chairman started talking about. he talked about how this prolonged unemployment poses a risk to both the recovery and the economy. we had senator evan bayh on with us yesterday and he said the political reality is that congress is not going to be giving anymore stimulus. they don't have the votes, it won't get through, so the only place the economy can turn is to the fed. chairman bernanke made it pretty clear that the fed is prepared to act. and along with stocks running higher, we saw treasury prices initially rallying and then giving back some ground. but the dollar started falling broadly against both the yen and the euro. the euro was breaking near the highest level we've seen since january. back to you. >> cnbc's becky quick from cnbc world headquarters. thanks very much. >> sure. >> so the fed chairman pushing for stimulus. anyway, less than three weeks to go, midterm elections are hitting the home stretch, with both parties playing the

expectations game, we'll get a reality check on the state of play. plus, home remedies for the foreclosure crisis. ideas on how the government and the banks can do better to help these struggling homeowners. but first, a look ahead at f the president's schedule. as you can see, he's headed to delaware with the vice president today and then he comes back to the white house as a private meeting with former secretary of state condoleezza rice. anyway, you're watching "the daily rundown," only on msnbc. ♪ [ upbeat instrumental ]

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i'm pretty confident that if we work together over the next several years that the political temperature will go down, the political rhetoric will go down, because we'll actually be making progress on a lot of these issues. but we've got to stop the name calling and we've got to stop looking at the next election. we've got to be focused on

figuring out what we're doing for the next generation. >> well, the president may be looking beyond the midterms, but congressional lawmakers don't have that luxury. their fate will be decided in just over two weeks from now. here to break down where things stand, martin frost, former congressman from texas, former democratic congressional campaign committee chairman, and tom davis, former republican congressman from virginia and the former head of the republican house campaign committee. so let's start with a new poll that's out today, the -- i would say the second best poll after the nbc/wall stre"wall street j poll, which is the npr poll, it's conducted by a democratic firm and a republican firm. that's why i like it so much. they did a generic ballot test in the top 75 house races. in june, they had republicans up 49, 41. now, republicans, 47, 44. congressman frost, obviously an improved democratic performance here, but still trailing. >> well, we've still got a big job ahead of us. i'm not ready to write things

off for democrats. a lot of people have been, but this is as hard of an environment as it gets. and a lot of democrats are being pressed to the wall, the dccc has had to make some very tough decisions in terms of where they put their money. they've done the right thing. you've got to go into the races where you can win. this is off the environment. things can change in the last two wokeeeks, particularly in he races. >> tom, this is the time where republicans are getting a little bit nervous going, wait a minute, we thought these races were done, we thought we had these in the bag and now you're seeing places where they thought they were going to easily win and, should we put money back in there? >> this poll was mostly democratic incumbent seats. republicans are ahead, and if you take a look at the undecideds for this, 33% approval for obama. republicans still need to close the deal, but it's a long uphill race. >> i disagree with that that

means 50 seats, but it's still uphill. >> i want to show another graphic today. that is, what i thought we learned, we always knew that the democratic money advantage wasn't as big as everybody thought it was going to be. but i think what we learned this week was just how well republicans are fund-raising. look at these governors' association numbers. the rga, $31 million. the dga, $10 million. yes, the dccc has out-raised the rnnc. then there's the sharron angle number, which to me is still the most astonishing number of the week, the $14.3 million in one quarter. the democratic money advantage, it's not there. republicans will outspend democrats. >> the governor's association with still take soft money. so obviously some of the corporate money that may be spent in outside groups on the house races goes directly into the republican governor's association. democrats are not in bad shape in terms of money, that's what's interesting. they continue to be able to raise money, but clearly, when

you add in the outside group money, it's a money advantage. >> money following momentum here? >> absolutely. the enthusiasms on the republican side, sharron angle's a great indication of this. this is grassroots, small dollar contributions, the kind of contributions that obama had two years ago, those are now going to the republicans. >> but democrats still, i believe, have to be favored to retain the senate. >> they pulled out of missouri. but they've moved that money to nevada. some things have gotten better for democrats. pennsylvania, illinois -- >> washington. >> some things have gotten worse for democrats, wisconsin, missouri. >> republicans can't win the senate without taking washington, california, maybe connecticut, and if they don't take those states, they don't win no matter what happens. i think we're still looking at a 52-48 democrats. >> they're improving in the blue states. the democrats are improving in

the blue states. that's where they need to put their money, because the dna of these districts is generally blue. >> if it wasn't for the tea party, wouldn't the republicans be favored to take the senate? i say it this way. harry reid shouldn't be in a race. colorado might not be this close. delaware. delaware we've already talked about. kentucky is still a toss-up. at the end of the day, you look it here, the overall environment hasn't gotten better for democrats. what's gotten better, they've made the case against republican nominees. is that fair? >> i believe on november 3rd, a lot of people are going to look at the senate results and say, what happened? why didn't the republicans take the senate and they'll point to the tea party, exactly what you -- >> is that a fair criticism? >> clearly in delaware, it's cost the republican seat. in all these other races, they could still fall in line for the republicans at this point. >> but they need the environment. >> it's the environment that's carrying them, absolutely. >> because without the environment -- >> this race is all about environment. people don't like republicans. they fired us in 2006 and 2000, this is all about putting a

check on obama, not giving him a blank check. >> it goes back to what tom said. a lot of these states are reverting to form. those west coast states revert to democratic form. the fact that the democrats coming back in pennsylvania, illinois is still very much in play. democrats on the senate side do have advantage, because they're running in a lot of states that are historically -- >> all right. >> one thing i would just note, the democratic base is still not back. their turnout model is still down. that's what's costing people like john dingell, running very close races in states -- >> but obama is going some real good work, i think, in the african-american community. i think african-americans are going to turn out. i think young people are much more problematic for turning out in big numbers. >> it's going to be a wild final two weeks of the campaign season. we'll have you both back. home foreclosures on track to hit a record this year. and next, is there any hope out there if you're a homeowner? plus, iran's president taunting israel with his visit to the border in southern

lebanon. what's he up to and is everything okay for him at home? but first, washington speak. "dead cat bounce." this is a little political slang for you. when a politician or party sees a brief bounce in poll numbers after a period of decline. the idea that even a dead cat will bounce when it falls from great height. and that's what a lot of republicans are arguing this week. they see the narrowing and they say, well, maybe it's a dead cat bounce, the democrats say, let's wait and see. if you have some washington speak you'd like us to clarify, send us an e-mail, dailyrundown@msnbc.c dailyrundown@msnbc.com. ♪ when the parts for the line ♪ ♪ come precisely on time ♪ that's logistics ♪ ♪ a continuous link, that is always in sync ♪ ♪ that's logistics ♪ ♪ there will be no more stress ♪ ♪ cause you've called ups, that's logistics ♪

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♪ you won't regret it at all! ♪ check the legal y'all. >>offer applies with enrollment in triple advantage.® but my allergies put me in a fog. so now, i'm claritin clear! claritin works great on all my allergies like dust, mold, pollen, or pets without making me drowsy, cause i want to be alert around this big guy. live claritin clear. indoors and out. after the breaking foreclosure records of the last month, the nation is on track for a record number of foreclosures this year. and in 2011, who knows? and adding to the mess, investors are dumping stock, fearing the foreclosure mess will take on a major toll on bank of thes, but then also

threatening the health of banks and the overall economy. feels like deja vu all over again. msnbc contributor ezra klein is a "washington post" staff writer and blogger and he's got an excellent column this morning about the foreclosure mess in particular. ezra, you have four ideas that could maybe stem this problem in the short-term. walk us through them. >> sure. so, i should say, the foreclosure mess, what they can do is high pressure the people being foreclosed on. the foreclosure mess is sort of a paperwork problem. but the people being foreclosed on, we've sort of forgotten about. we'll have records in '10 and '11. here's a couple of ideas, the big government thing they did was called hamp, a terrible program, one of the worst ones they did. >> they started early on, it hasn't really worked. >> not just hasn't worked, it's left a lot of people worse off. what it does is says the bank can help you if they want to. what you can do is turn that around. allow home counselors to make

the modification for you and the bank can challenge it in court. and you have cramdown, when you have a foreclosure happening and the person has to go to bankruptcy court. that judge can deal with all their other debts. and if a they go to bankruptcy, they can deal with everything except mortgage. that would allow some of these underwater on their hopeless out from under water. number three would be mediation. one of the things we're seeing here, banks don't look at any of the paperwork, actually. the paperwork has very serious issues here with what they have to do for people going into foreclosure. what we found in philadelphia, when banks have to sit down with them and actually look through the paperwork, they often find a way to help the homeowner come to sort of a mutually acceptable agreement. and then, you know, the fourth is just to -- the fourth is just to actually pay some attention to this. the fourth is to -- you know what, chuck, i have to be honest with you -- >> the right to rent.

>> it was my column, that's embarrassing. you allow to have the house on fair market value as a rental for five years. now, the bank can still sell the house, but you are guaranteed to be allowed to be the tenant. in this community with a lot of foreclosures, there's a ton of blight with these empty homes. that skbredepresses all the hom values in the community. that would prevent that from happening because the homes would remain occupied. >> there's one other thing i've heard people come up to me and ask and i've had family members ask. we have these incredibly low rates right now. so people who are not yet in foreclosure but are on the brink let everybody refinance at these new 4.2% rates right now, force, you know, sort of refinancing for people that are, say, two months delinquent, not yet in the foreclosure process, but on the verge. that just hasn't taken -- is that just something that's unrealistic? >> it hasn't taken hold, although it's not a terrible idea.

if you talk to the administration, they'll tell you what they care about are low rates. the problem is, a lot of these contracts that people entered into it, which they didn't understand, don't allow them to refinance without a big penalty or in some cases don't allow them to refinance at all. so you would have to go into the contracts and change them, which is what a couple of the ideas here from making the mortgage modification program work better and having a judge just do it for you would do. that would be one option if you're willing to go down that path. but basically, we need to say to the banks, look, we're going to open some of these up. you didn't follow the practices when you built these mortgages, when you put them out. as such, we can't consider them such clearly binding documents given the national foreclosure crisis, we can't get into the guts of this again and help people out. >> let's talk quickly about how the markets are reacting. clearly, all of a sudden now all these bank stocks are losing value. investors fearing this foreclosure mess, whether it gets it shall you know, whether the state's attorney general -- there's a lot of unknown. so that mean investors pull money. let's play this down the road, does this mean the banks are

going to need government aid again? >> if they need it, they're probably not going to get it. the issue is that the banks took all these mortgages, packaged them up, and sold them to other people, the investors. when they did that, the contracts had clauses in them, and among them, these paperwork clauses that the paperwork is well done. if the courts decide that the paperwork wasn't essentially legally done, it means the investors can sue the banks and force them to buy all this crap back. that means they have all this stuff back on their balance sheets and they blow a hole in them. what we do under that scenario, i don't know. i spoke to representative brad miller yesterday and he said to me, look, we are not in congress. and he's a guy on the left here. we are not in congress giving these guys more money. it will not happen. so if anything happens to them, well, we've got this financial regulation bill, and this is a quote, maybe we'll get to that i can that resolution authority out for a spin. but i think he may be right about that, but that is a bad-case scenario for the economy. >> absolutely. ezra klein from "the washington post" newsroom for us this morning, thanks very much. >> thank you. coming up, was it a case of mistaken identity? there's a new twist in the

shooting of an american tourist on the texas/mexico border. plus, an illinois politician undergoes an unwanted name change. it's ugly. and finally, a reason for why those meals served in flight never live up to the hype or that really hefty price. but first, today's trivia question from the al "the alman american politics", what state produced country music stars loretta lynn, dwight yoakam, crystal gayle and ricky skaggs? the answer ahead and more on "the daily rundown." busy man. his day starts with his arthritis pain. that's breakfast with two pills. the morning is over, it's time for two more pills. the day marches on, back to more pills. and when he's finally home... but hang on; just two aleve can keep arthritis pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is steven, who chose aleve and 2 pills for a day free of pain. and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels.

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bottom of the hour, a quick look at what's driving this friday. president obama and vice president biden are joining forces today, making a rare joint campaign appearance in delaware, where chris coons is trying to win joe biden's old senate seat. the obama administration will announce today that the federal budget deficit is down $125 billion from last year, but that

still exceeds $1 trillion for the second year in a row. and three of those rescued miners in chile are out of the hospital and home their families today. more, perhaps all of the rest of the 33 men who spent two months trapped are expected to head home perhaps today. other stories making headlines, a u.s. consulate official says the murder of an american may have been a case of mistaken identity. officials say david and tiffany hartley were mistaken as drug members of a rival mexican cartel as mexico as we understand the search for hartley's indefinitely. and ever wonder where airplane food is so bland? well, in-flight background noise can actually affect how food tastes. the louder the noise, the less sweet or salty foods taste. well, go figure. and a big typo on electronic voting machines across chicago. rich whitney, who is running for governor on the green party

ticket, is listed on ballot review screens as rich whitey. the chicago elections board says crews are working overtime to reprogram and retest 530 early voting machines and the 4,200 the city will use on november 2nd. ouch. while u.s. and israeli officials are denouncing the visit, mahmoud ahmadinejad received a here re's welcome in parts of lebanon this week. and on thursday a few miles north of the border, ahmadinejad promised a crowd of thousands that, quote, zionists will disappear. well, madge is an author of "the ayatoll ayatollah's democracy." i want to start with the news of this week, and ahmadinejad's visit to lebanon. this was happening at sort of the same time he's having problems domestically. he was trying to rally faithful in the region. explain. >> yeah, well, absolutely, i

think the timing is no accident that he is having certain problems domestically, his rivals in the conservative parties, actually, are now criticizing him quite openly in the media in iran. and there's still this bubbling discontent among the green movement leaders and their supporters. so he's facing a lot of problems domestically. but also iran has traditionally tried to expand its sphere of influence. his predecessor went to lebanon as well and traveled extensively in the region and tried to forge stronger alliances with both the lebanese and the syrians, obviously, which they are allies of iran. this is just part of iranian foreign policy, which is to try to extend their influence as much as possible in areas where they're welcome. skpl i don't think the lebanese visit is so much about president ahmadinejad himself, from the perspective of the lebanese. it's more about iran and iran support of hezbollah.

>> also today we found out that iran claims they want to start looking at some dates to resume talks with the p5 plus 1 on the iranian nuclear program. not new. iran will every once in a while will say, oh, yeah, let's talk about negotiating, but how serious should we be taking this offer? >> well, i think we should take it quite seriously. iran has said this a number of times, and and just in this last week, as you pointed out, they've been saying it repeatedly, that they want to negotiate in october and november. so i think it should be taken seriously, because i don't know that there's another solution to the nuclear crisis, other than negotiations. sanctions are working in the sense that they're harming the iranian economy and they're hurting ordinary people, but they're not working in terms of changing iran's behavior, which is the intention of the sanctions, and they're unlikely to do so. and the other option, finally, is military action, which i don't believe is a real option, despite the fact that it remains on the table for both the israelis and the americans.

>> you know, i want to talk about something in your book. you wrote something fascinating about president obama and how he's viewed in iran. this was as of february of 2010. you where, "iranians, both in the leadership and among the public, were as aware of obama's domestic struggles as americans were, and tea party was as well known a phrase in tehran as it was in washington. obama, increasingly under attack in the united states and his message of hope less resonant with an impatient american public was also becoming an easier target for iran. his message of change more readily derided." so this is more proof that sort of all information is flat these days, right? everybody finds out everything that they want to. >> absolutely. g but does this mean that, perhaps, whatever influence me america might have had with the green revolution, say, in 2009, is that wanwaning? >> well, yeah, i don't think that america had any influence whatsoever. it was a completely domestic uprising. it had nothing to do with

america, despite the fact that the government tried to portray it as western-backed insurgents. but i think that it's very unlikely that the american administration or the united states in general can have any affect on the green movement, other than to, unfortunately, give ammunition to the hardliners who accuse these green leaders of being pawns of the west, at best, or actually agents of the west at worst. the ones who are arrested and end up in prison are the ones who are accused of being agents of the west, and the ones who are still free are accused of being unwitting pawns of the west. i don't think there's much america can do to either help the green movement or influence it in any way. it's very unlikely that the united states can have any influence on the green movement. >> i want to close with the title of your book. you say "ayatollah's democracy." is it a democracy? do you feel like this is a version of democracy that iran has today? >> not today. not today.

but the goal has been, among the leaders, certainly of the green movement, and even among some conservatives, i wouldn't say all conservatives, some conservatives, to get to a democracy, which is going to be tinted islamicly. it's going to have the an islamic tint. and there's a lot of disagreement as to what that means and what it's going to end up being, eventually. but i think the green movement actually demonstrated that iran is ready for a more democratic change and eventually will have to become much more democratic, if not completely democratic in the way that we accept democracy. >> all right. well, the book is "the ayatollah' democracy," hooman majd, thanks very much for joining me. so the trivia question, what state produced country music stars loretta lynn, dwight yoakam, crystal gayle, ricky skaggs? the answer is kentucky. up next in today's "decision 2010," the battle in the battlegrounds. . why the states that shifted for

obama in 2008 seem to be shifting back in 2010. and don't forget, this sunday on "meet the press," david gregory has an exclusive with white house press secretary robert gibbs on the democrats' midterm game plan and president obama's post-election agenda. plus, the senate debate series continues with the showdown in colorado, democratic senator michael bennett versus republican ken buck. that's this sunday on meet the press. check your local listings. and before we go, the white house soup of the day, it's friday, a little cajun flavor, a little gumbo, how about seafood gumbo? beef gumbo? what kind of gumbo, guys, come on. you're watching "the daily rundown" on friday only on msnbc. [ female announcer ] kio don't eat breakfast

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it was on this date in 1951 that cbs had some 'splaining to do. "i love lucy" appeared on cbs. it ran for six seasons, took home four emmys and is still ranked among the top five greatest television shows of all time. and somehow they had a baby while sweeping in twin babies. let's move on, "decision 2010" time. in 2008, it was a landslide electoral victory for barack obama. it shifted the playing field, moving battleground states decisively into the democratic column. it seems hard to believe that

two years ago, the most competitive races were in missouri, north carolina, and indiana. now nearly every statewide race in those 2008 battlegrounds is no longer a toss-up and instead they're all trending republican. and it's the rust belt states that went for barack obama by double digits that are now toss-ups again. it's a triage time, actually, if you look at the numbers. so you look at this very carefully here in our states, and you look, you know, you have missouri, north carolina, indiana off the battleground and wisconsin, ohio, pennsylvania starting to look good for there. so let's look at our battleground here and where things stand in the rust belt. in pennsylvania, you had the president won, of course, by ten points. now joe sestak is trying to hold on to a, quote, blue senate seat. pat toomey is up to mid- to high single digits, depending on which poll you believe. that's why the president went back to philadelphia last

weekend, you'll see the pennsylvania there again before the election. let's take a look at wisconsin. i've had republicans describe wisconsin as on fire. obama won it by 14 points, but now three-term incumbent russ feingold is running high single digits behind republican ron johnson. the governor's race, of course, looks like a high single digit lead for the republicans as well. two, perhaps three house seats could go from democrats to republican there in wisconsin. then you have michigan. this is a state that obama won by 16 points, while republican rick snyder is leaving in that race by a solid double-digit margin, and is creeping up on a 20-point lead in some polls. democrats are hoping to offset those losses in the industrial midwest by wins at the top of the ticket in two ultimate battleground states at this point, and that's, of course, ohio and florida. the last two of the big ones that seem to be where they think they can at least salvage a victory of some sort on election night. and if you look at some of these things in ohio, ohio governor, where about three

weeks ago, there was sometalk that democrats might be pulling. strickland is too far behind. john k kasich is up high double-digits. there's florida governor. the president was down there ear yerl. alex cisk and rick scott are locked into. the dnc run by the same folks, david plouffe doing a lot of stuff there, same folks operating the obama campaign, they're throwing a ton of money in ohio and florida trying to regenerate what happened in 2008, but also start test-running 2012. ohio governor, florida governor. if you want two races that are going to test the president's re-election ability and how good their on the ground campaign is, look now further than those two. if they pull off a sweep of

those two, even if they lose the south or almost lose the senate. winning ohio and florida will make the white house breathe a sigh of relief. we'll look at more going forward. coming up, oprah's big surprise for "the daily show." plus burger war. why two restaurants are fighting to give you a triple bypass. we'll be right back. ♪ where'd you learn to do that so well. ♪

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before we go a quick dip into the shallow end. a restaurant needs helps name the megaburg er. it's stacked with ten ounces of meet and onion rings between two grilled cheese sandwiches.

used to be known as the triple bypass burger, but the heart attack grill in arizona has a burger by that name and is threatening to sue. so the john howie steak restaurant is having a contest to rename it. i think sort of the seattle slew of heart attacks, maybe that would work, or the heartless in seattle once you're done eating that. comedy central stephen colbert and jon stewart are combining their upcoming rally in d.c. in the rally to restore sanity and fear. that wasn't the only surprise. >> stephen. >>? yes. yes.

>> [ bleep ] oprah. i'm your oprah. look underneath your chairs. i am bringing this studio audience to my march. you're going to the march and you're going to the march and you're going to the march. everybody is going to my march. whoo! >> cobert is generously sending his audience to d.c. in the lap of luxury on the chinatown bus. that's it for the daily rundown. next on msnbc chris and company. we'll see you back here monday where we're down to two weeks before election day.

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