stretch. both parties aim tath undecided voters. the one-third of likely voters according to the latest polls could still be swayed between now and election day. president obama sticking to familiar territory, trying to inspire the democratic base as he did in minnesota saturday night. >> a choice between falling backwards and moving forwards. i don't know about you, but i want to move forward. i don't want to go back. but the democrat's problem could best be captured by this. house speaker nancy pelosi targeted by republican ads throughout the campaign was also in minneapolis saturday, but not in public. she appeared at closed political events only to hitch a ride to washington on air force one. catch the latest over night action in alaska's three-way senate race. >> scott is not ready to lead. joe is not fit to lead. i have been leading this state. i have been leading this state. in pennsylvania, are democrats going to get off the

vote for joe sestak? kog man robert brady joining us live. plus, if republicans take back the house, can john boehner be an agent for hope and change? "newsweek's" daniel stone on the man who would be speaker. and a republican white house and campaign insider proves fiction can be stranger than truth. the author of "18 achreacres" a republican strategist, nicolle wallace. good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. with only a week to go, midterm madness is in full swing with with anti-ad lists. conservative groups still have the upper hand against liberal groups and unions out spending them five to one. this as a new poll shows more than a quarter of likely voters could still be swayed before election day with 37 state

houses and control of congress on the line. let's get right to msnbc contributor, manager editor of postpolitics.com and author of the block, the fix. it's a mouthful. >> wow. >> let's talk about this massive ad push in the final days and the affect on 80 house races, let's say. what can we expect? >> well, andrea, what you're seeing are lots of money. this happens in every election but not necessarily at this volume. you have, first of all, this very wide playing field. we're talking about 100 competitive house races. i remember when i was covering the house in 1988. there were 30 races. we were kind of strategizing around these 30 races. talking about almost four times that number. 100 races. what that means is that outside money can matter more because some of these races that are late breaking, that bruce braly, a guy in iowa, democrat, who we haven't paid attention to. money matters in a race like that because people aren't paying that much attention, put 2, $300,000 in a race last week,

where the candidates aren't all that defined, it can make a difference. the wider this playing field gets the more outside money you seymouring in. probably the better for republicans. it broadens their margin for error in terms of the 39 seats they need to take back the house. >> even if people are not getting energized and enthusiastic and excited about this issue of campaign money, in terms of the ground game, campaign money has a lot to say about what happens. >> absolutely. look, every poll, andrea, when you ask do you think there's too much outside money, do you think people should disclose, do you think there should be more transparency? absolutely, yes, 100%. they don't typically vote on it. democrats and congress have focussed a lot on these outside groups, american cross roads, seems to me that's a base play. to energize their base. not to appeal to independent voters. >> let's talk about all has a where you've got this incredible three-way race. they had another debate late last night in alaska, early

morning our time. let's play a little bit of it and ask you about it on the other side. >> scott is not ready to lead. joe is not ready to lead. i have been leading this state -- i have been leading this state -- for eight years. >> okay. >> and i will continue to do so. >> with all due respect, senator, when you're appointed by your dad to office, the debt was $6 trillion. you now have a debt of $13.5 trillion and climbing. you deserve to take some responsibility for that. >> i guess you could ask hypothetically what would happen if a democrat were not in a race but basically this is a three-way race and lisa is depending on people to write in. does she have a shot at this now? >> you know, i think she does. you never know, andrea, first of all, look, if she can bottle the energy in that room, a lot of booing but a lot of people excited and interested, that's

actually probably a good thing for her. the worse thing is people who just kind of default to, well, there's a republican and a democrat on the ballot and i'm going to go with either joe mill ter republican or scott mcadams the democrat. she needs energy, engaging. i don't know if she wants people whoing here but she needs people to say there is a third option. the thing that always to remember, polling suggests it's between miller and murkowski. what we don't know is, you are going to have to write her name in, her name does not appear on the ballot. it's, as you mentioned, why no one since strom thurmond has won. polling it makes it tough to approximate that because usually pollsters would say, would you be for them. that's not the experience for a voter when they go into an alaskan polling place in eight days' time. it's hard to know. she's the best chance of a wr e write-in candidate we've seen for a long time to win. >> a familiar name to alaskan voters because of her dad, but,

at the same time, that's a big stretch for people to make. i want to ask you about the president and his role and going to minnesota, going to safe places. here is rhode island. this is the democratic candidate frank caprio radio comment wpro radio in rhode island. this is what he had to say about the president. >> i never asked for president obama's endorsement. he can take his endorsement and really sho it as far as i'm concerned. i'll wear it as as badge of honor and a badge of courage that he doesn't want to endorse me as a democrat because i am a different kind of democrat. >> the president is going to rhode island tonight. he's going to speak for link chafy. what is going on there? this is new england. we're not talking about a red state. >> no, golly, andrea. hearing that, just reminds me, i go back to 2008, just two years ago, democratic candidates from rhode island to alabama to

mississippi to oregon were falling all over themselves to just get barack obama to say his name at a campaign rally. please, just mention my name. now we have a guy in rhode island, obama carried 60% of the plus voters saying, i'm different. it suggests and poll said independent voters, voters inaligned who give them big victory in 2009 presidential election have swung very must have over to republicans. those are the people that lots of democrats in the country need to win these races. >> and nancy pelosi, she's a very effect i speaker. that is a given. she is powerful in a lot of districts but there she was in minnesota hitching a ride back on air force one, not appearing with the president. >> yeah. >> how do you explain that? >> well, because she has gotten over the last four years, andrea, she's gotten a lot better known in the country. when she became speaker in 2006, 50%, maybe less of voters, knew her. that number is way up.

you have only less than 10% saying they don't know who she is right now. and her negative numbers are much higher than positives. there's an ad that came out this morning. earl pomry, democrat in north dakota, ad on the side of the barn, earl pomeroy and nancy pelosi. it's being repeated of and over again. doing everything they can who say this is something who voted with nancy pelosi. if you don't like nancy pelosi, then you don't like earl pomeroy or fill in the bank. she is hurting the candidates. >> reminds me of what they tied tried to do to tip o'neal in 1992 during the reagan years. finally, joe biden today when he hits new hampshire after a stop rally in florida that will be joe biden's 100th campaign stop. >> yep. >> he is the energizer bunny of this democratic campaign, isn't he? >> the surrogate in chief. this is the thing with joe biden and it's not necessarily true with barack obama at this point. joe biden can go into some

places rural culturally conservative places that barack obama might not be able to, including joe biden's hometown of scranton where he was a few weeks ago. >> that takes us, thanks. see you later. that takes us beautifully to battleground, pennsylvania, where jbtd is known as the third senator because of all of his years in neighboring delaware. senate candidates there, pat toomey and joe sestak making last-minute pitches near philadelphia, fresh from their final debate in pittsburgh in this key toss-up race. >> the only time joe stood up to his party was to promote his own personal career. the fact is last year joe sestak voted with nancy pelosi 100% of the time, on everything. he accepted this entire agenda. >> one of the zainiest ideas i've heard is when he wants to eliminate all taxes for corporations. in fact, he says buying american, in his book, is an unfortunate tendency. >> congressman robert brady is chairman of the philadelphia democratic party and joins us

now. hey, congressman. you've got your work cut out for you because this race, as many have in the past, will likely turn for democrat joe sestak on what the turnout is in philadelphia. >> yes, that's true. what we do in philadelphia will overcome other parts of the state that may not turn out as high as we do. you know when a candidate has a 20 or 30-point lead or behind, we don't matter. but when you're in the majority of victory, when you in the 5%, you know, we're the only game in town. we know how to do that and we are going to turn it out on election day. enough numbers to carry joe sestak in the united states senate. >> what is the secret here to turnout? in the old days, old machine days, it used to be walking around money, handing around money to get people to vote. is that still the case? what do you do? what's the magic of the democratic machine in philadelphia? >> we still have the street money and we're knowledgeable and we pay attention. democrats surge. we surge toward the end.

that's why our pels have been surging upward. once a surge goes upward it doesn't go backward. if you're spiraling down, you stay down. the polls a s ars are tightenin. the margin of error is much shorter. philadelphia is the only game in town right now. we're going to have the president come in and we welcome the president to come in. we'll have the first lady come in and we're going to welcome the first lady coming in. joe biden as you noted is our third senator fr for many, many years and extremely popular and we're going to have him in a couple of times before tuesday's election. >> well, when we talk about the popularity of democrats and trying to narrow that gap, you've got a 1.2 -- democrats have a 1.2 million voter registration edge statewide. why has joe sestak had such a hard time? because according to charlie cook's latest advisory he thinks that, in fact, sestak has polled as even as he's going to pull and that he would expect pat toomey's lead, while it is

narrow, considerably to restabilize and rebound a little bit. he's calling it leaning republican. >> i've never seen a rebound spiral down spiral back up again. and we do have a larger voter registration. we're going to utilize that in the city of philadelphia. again, like i said, we will come out strong enough to overcome other parts of the state that may not come out as highly democratic as the city of philadelphia will. >> why is joe sestak a hard sell? because he has been a hard sale, especially in philadelphia. why is it hard to, you know, persuade some of the voters the loyal democrats to come out for joe sestak? >> i don't think joe is a hard sell. i mean, he's -- he's extremely honest. he's straightforward. he beat a popular guy, a popular senator, as you well know, article lynn specter was a republican for many years, became a democrat. but he's focused. he's got his eye on the ball. he's right next to philadelphia's district, right next to mine right in the

delaware county. the philadelphia people codo know joe sestak and they do like him. he put a great ad out with the dog. he's cleaning up the mess of the republican party. that's exactly true. >> doggy poop ad, i did see it. we played it. >> i'm a dog lover but you should play it. and he's right. we are cleaning up the mess. you know, that the republican administration left president obama. clinton left an $86 billion surplus and bush left obama 1$12 trillion deficit. >> when you talked about that seat, the open sestak seat, the 7th congressional district right outside of philadelphia, that is now leaning republican with pat in the u.s. attorney against lan lentz. you've got congressman murphy in

a rematch there with fitzpatrick. why are these toss-up seats, democratic seats, now likely to go republican? >> well, they started out, again, with a high, you know, percentage, the numbers were high for the republicans, both in the seat, his numbers were high and fitzpatrick's numbers are high. they're coming down drastically to the margin of area and evenly. democrats surge. we surged in the last month. we're surging now. we're going to surge in the last week. i also think without question that both of them seats will be in the dem ocratic column. >> is there any way you're going to hold the senate house for democrats as ed rendell, term is limited, also been leaning republican? >> they can lean wherever they want to lean but next tuesday it will be in the democratic column, for sure. >> one quick question. we talked about street money, walking around money. what does that buy? >> what the street money does is

give our committee people, gives them resources to put people to work on the polls. they go out. they knock on doors. they get their street list. check who did vote, who didn't vote. around 3:00 or 4:00, who didn't vote we get people to walk in the divisions knocking on doors. they're neighbors. they are people who know each other, go to church together, school together, shop in the same neighborhood. they knock on the neighbors' doors and remind them to come out and vote. it's extremely effective and will be extremely effective on tuesday. >> you're not buying votes. you're paying people to go out and knock on doors and get people to the polls. >> paying people to work on election day as we always do. >> okay. bob brady, we'll be there. hope to see you later this week. up next, "newsweek" turns the image of hope and change inside out. plus, a female president. sex in the white house? republican white house and campaign veteran nicolle wallace having a political thriller right off the campaign trail.

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it's an ironic twist on an iconic image. "newsweek's" latest cover featuring john boehner, the man who would be speaker as this year's barack obama. it takes a look at what the next congress could bring if boehner and the republicans take over. daniel stone co-wrote the story. senior reporter and "newsweek's" washington bureau. that is a great image to get people's attention. how do you see john boehner as an agent of hope and change? >> well, what the point we were making was, you know, two years ago, which was not that long ago, a lot of people were eager about hope and change, a new narrative, a new power structure in washington, and now if you look at the polls what we're

seeing are voters might be ready for change again. and that agent of change is probably going to be john boehner, the presumed speaker of the house. what we did was take a look at what that would mean in terms of policies from energy to health care and certainly the deficit and congressional reform, what that would mean with a republican controlled house of representatives while the democrats are still in the senate and the white house. >> and what would it mean? let's take a look at energy, first of all, let's take it to the issues. what do you see happening on energy? is john boehner run house going to move forward on energy policy? >> well, we saw cap and trade die earlier this year so it's highly unlikely anything that aggressive is going to make it through with a republican-controlled house. what we heard from our reporting is that the republicans will pursue a broad energy agenda that includes subsidies for renewable energies like oil in the gulf and alaska. democrats will likely push for new regulations on those oil

drillers. and then the likely come to a compromise based on that broad and wide portfolio. >> what about debt and the deficits and taxes and all the big issues that really affect the economic recovery long term? >> well, like you said, tax rest probably the first thing that's going to come up even before the end of the year. remember, if the bush tax cuts aren't addressed and expire at the end of the year, everyone, their taxes are likely to go up as a result and the republicans have an incentive to address those cuts as do the democrats likely is to be a compromise, where the democrats have said, we don't want to raise taxes for anyone over $250,000. they might be willing to compromise up to half a million. maybe even a million dollars to redefine what it means to be high income in this country. the gop is likely to meet them halfway on that. >> daniel stone from "newsweek," it's really an iconic recasting of the image, the obama image. great story. thank you so much. >> thanks, andrea.

and coming up, what lies ahead for nancy pelosi after election day? you're watching "andrea mitchell you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc.s. we've used hydrogen in our plants for decades. the old hydrogen units were very large. recently, we've been able to reduce that. then our scientists said "what if we could make it small enough to produce and use hydrogen right on board a car, as part of a hydrogen system." this could significantly reduce emissions and increase fuel economy by as much as 80%. promising 25,000 miles a flight only to be told... there's nothing for 25. but they will let me give you the same seat for a big miles upcharge. how's that sound? for that many miles we'll be stuck taking a "staycation." [ imitates engine revving ] [ angie ] i'm through playing games. i switched to the venture card from capital one. vacation, here we come! [ male announcer ] don't pay miles upcharges. don't play games. get the flight you want with the venture card at capitalone.com.

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and help bridge the gap between the life you live... and the life you want to live. some of washington's most powerful figures now battling for their political lives, for democrats like harry reid and nan nancy pelosi, winning their position is part of their lives. bureau chief joins us now, martin, what happens to nancy pelosi if the democrats do not retain control? >> well, first of all, she's an ex-speaker. what's most interesting is trying to figure out what she does as former speaker. does she try to stay as minority leader as a diminished democratic caucus or pull back and hand it over to stanley and decide that they ousted her caucus from control. they say she would ease out.

why would he want to be minority leader. >> that's what denny did. she stepped down being in congress. there are a lot of other things that she could conceivable do, specifically with a democrat in the house. she could be a very powerful or interesting ambassador someplace. >> she could be. i mean, and, of course, pelosi herself has not entertained any thoughts of what happens in this election. if you see her interviews she's like, we're going to win, i'm not talking about what happens after the election. we're going to hang on to congress. >> let's talk again about harry reid on the senate side. what happens to harry reid? >> this is a real race. if harry reid loses to sharon angle, the minute those results are in you will have a full-blown race for majority leader. it's not clear who has the insider's edge. a lot of people say schumer would be a bitter whipper of the votes in the senate. we don't know.

dick durbin has the support of the president. he is an obama ally. you have a full-blown minority race between schumer and durbin. people are probably being asked quietly to take sides even before the election. >> and schumer, of course, did so well in the last cycle in terms of electing and getting candidates electing senators. >> yeah. i mean, schumer has a lot of people that he brought in in the '06 cycle and '08 cycle. >> and, of course, dick durbin has a leg up being close to the president, illinois democrat. thanks so much, thanks, martin. up next, republican strategist and former mccain senior adviser. nicollo wallace. plus, the administration considers espionage charges to the founder of wikileaks. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. in reli. it blocks pain signals for deep relief

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topping the headlines right now on "andrea mitchell reports," more severe weather is expected today for parts of the south after weekend tornadoes tore through north texas. this dramatic video comes from the city of rice, south of dallas. the tornado ripped cars right off the highway. a railroad car off the tracks. elementary cool was badly damaged. looks like a scene from "storm chasers." four people were hospitalized. cholera outbreak in haiti killed more tan 250 people and 3,000 have been sickened. health officials are trying to keep the disease from reaching camps and port-au-prince. canadian prisoner at guantanamo pled gill toy the killing an american sold chur in 2002. he has been facing a possible life sentence for throwing a deadly grenade in afghanistan. he was 15 at the time of his capture. the terms of his plea deal have not yet been disclosed. afghan president hamid karzai confirmed today his office receives cash from iran,

but karzai said the aid helps cover his expenses at the presidential palace. it isn't any different from u.s. aid. the comments follow a "new york times" expo say that iran's ambassador to afghanistan handed a plastic bag full of cash, loaded with euros, to karzai and his powerful chief of staff. which brings us towikileaks. it's raising concern iraq could dissolve into chaos if the u.s. removes more troops next summer. they also have disturbing accounts of apparent military misconduct and military abuse. i should point out the iran payoff to karzai's chief of staff also came from wikileaks. today we have a tweet from the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, admiral mike mullen, quote, another irresponsible posting of stolen classified documents by wikileaks puts lives at risk and gives adversaries valuable information. mike mullen's tweet today. what is the chance that they are

going to actually go ahead and the justice department is going to move aweighed with espionage charges here? >> according to the u.s. military and pentagon officials it's not very likely. although, the justice department, fbi, are looking into that possibility and, as you know, the cia director leon pinetta believes wikileaks and officials could be prosecuted under the espionage law. also jurisdictional problems and the fact that you don't really have your hands on any of these individuals right now, and u.s. military and pentagon officials at this point don't think it's very likely, andrea. >> it does create problems with the allies. you've got nick clegg, the deputy prime minister in that coalition speaking out saying that britain thinks the u.s. has to come up with some answers here. that's a problem with our allies. and also questions about the leader of wikileaks because a lot of reports over the weekend about his very strange behavior.

how do you evaluate all the fallout from this? >> well, you know what's very interesting about what wikileaks revealed on saturday in their news conference and then opening up their website, putting those 400,000 documents on their website, not all of them easily accessible, i must tell you. but in those revelations were quite a few reports about abuses and reckless killing of civilians, not by americans or iraqis but by british sources. and that's primarily what the deputy prime minister was talking about on ebc, that, look, here we have all these new allegations that have come to the surface about possible abuses, not atrocities but near atrocities by british sources and demanding an investigation into those allegations. >> that's a pretty good explainer. thank you for that. and now to decision 2010,

independents who are critical to democrats wins in 2006 and 2008 are now poised to push democrats out of power. a new politico george washington university poll shows that republicans now held a 14-point edge among in thes. that is a big switch. nicolle wallace was white house communications director under president george w. bush and senior adviser to senator john mccain's presidential campaign. her new book "18 acres" is a novel, fiction here about the united states first female president. nicolle, congratulations. if i seem tired today it's because i was up until 4:00 in the morning. >> i told you, andrea mitchell read my book. >> so much fun. it's the white house land, you don't realize when you're driving along how big it is. >> right. >> how big the campus is. we'll talk about the book in a second. i wanted to ask you about this extraordinary election because republicans have staged quite a comeback. what are the risks for republicans if they take over

the house, let's just say, and just decide that they, as mitch mcconnell told a national journal he was going to do, just focus on defeating barack obama rather than figuring out tou to gove gov next two years. >> defeating obama's agenda is going to be sufficient for republican voters and sufficient angst about what he's done and plans to do about the explangs of the federal government's role and health care delivery, the greatly expanding size of our deficit, about raising taxes. but i think that it would be a mistake for any of us, the politicians in washington, any of us that observe these races, to misz misread the mandate. it happens every two years. we try to draw all sorts of enduring conclusions about an election's outcome. i think a flip of the house, democrats to republicans, says a whole lot about obama's agenda and how much anxiety it's created, how unpopular it is among independents or

republicans. i don't think it guarantees republicans much safety. >> and similarly, i was shocked to read in today's "new york times" that mitch mcconnell did not have a one-on-one with barack obama for 18 months after he was the senate republican leader. how do you try to get cap and trade, campaign finance, health care, two things that were voted on in the house and never got on the floor in the senate without having barack obama having to persuade o'connell one-on-one? >> he seems comfortable trying to persuade voters to vote for him during the presidential campaign but seemed to have no interest getting republicans in congress or republicans or independents in the country to support him. so i think losing control of the congress will serve him very well politically. and i think it may also moderate his agenda which will serve the country well. >> let me ask you about a woman you know very well, you were accused of dressing her up for prime time and preparing her for debates for better or for worse. sarah palin.

this is karl rove with bob schieffer on palin as a presidential nominee. >> let me get right to it. do you think sarah palin is going to run for president? and if she does, do you think she would be a good president? >> i don't know whether she's going to run or not. if she oruns she will be a formidable candidate. there are going to be a lot of agents that come and go before that presidential nomination fight gels. >> now, famously you had your difficulties with sarah palin and she slammed you and your book. but you have your book now. "eighteen acres" and there is a female president. is the monologue for that sarah palin? >> many women i know in and out of politics have endured in the spotlight that inspired not just the female president but a lot of those characters. and i remember i was governor jeb bush's press secretary when

hillary clinton went through what she went through as first lady with bill's indiscretions. i remember being so astounded by her grace and dignity at a time of, you know, such -- such difficult and i would imagine humiliating revelations at her husband. that stayed with me. i've always been a fan of hers. i've always been admired the way she carried herself in public life. and the thing that intrigued me the most, you know her. i do not know her. but people who work for her say that in private she's so warm and she's so funny and if you've had a loss of a triumph she's the first one on the phone. i tried to create a character for whom those personal moments are very private and it creates a lot of political problems if her that she puts on this brave front. the public actually comes to her defense when she reveals a little something. that was just a topic i wanted to play with a little bit in fiction. >> she reveals the way she responds to a love affair. i'm not revealing too much. there is a lot of sex in this. >> dl is some sex. >> is the white house that sexy?

>> it's fiction, andrea. >> i've never knew the white house was that sexy. >> well, you know, i don't know. ours wasn't. but, you know, again, i wanted to play with some themes in fiction that just drew out some of these things that i think politics does create a real pressure cooker. and "eighteen acres" sounds like a bill big plot of land but it's small when you work there. the higher up you go in the food chain the more clausterphobic it can feel. one is the white house chief of staff is a woman. when you think about it it's more stun that we've never had a woman white house chief of staff. why not? there have been really smart women. we know a lot of them personally for the last three or four presidents. it'ss a stu astounding to me th vallvalu valerie jarrett never ended up with that post as white house chief of staff. >> karen hughes. >> right, karen hughes. >> it's a great read. it is so much fun.

and you play with the whole issue of what does the first man, the husband, whatever you want to call the first male partner to a female president, and, boy, the possibilities are endless. thank you so much. >> thank you for having me. >> get it. "eighteen acres." coming up next, big interviews with president obama and mitch mcconnell. but first, from the candidates corner, a look at today's big debates. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. [ male announcer ] we went to germany's nurburgring to challenge ourselves on the most demanding track in the world. with us, in spirit, was every great car that we'd ever competed with. the bmw m5. and the mercedes-benz e63. for it was their amazing abilities that pushed us to refine, improve and, ultimately, develop the world's fastest production sedan.

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msnbc is the place for politics, decision 2010. republicans hope to take back the senate now rest on a handful of tight race where's democrats are battling to hold on to their seats. first of all, colorado, a new poll finds democratic incumbent

michael bennet locked in a dead heat with ken buck. in wisconsin, senator russ feingold has narrowed the gap but still in danger, trailing republican ron johnson, 49% to 47%. in kentucky's open seat, tea party favorite ran paul leaves dem conway by five points as they head into what is likely to be a contentious debate tonight. a tracking poll out today in pennsylvania finds republican pat toomey leading democrat joe sestak 47% to 42%. finally, there is some good news for democrats out of california. l.a. times poll on sunday showed senator barbara boxer eight points ahead of carly fiorina in that closely fought race. with me now, major garrett, congressional reporter for "national journal." great to see you, major. congratulations on the new "national journal" rolling out

today. two big interview, one with barack obama and one with mitch mcconnell that you conducted. looking ahead to january, if mitch mcconnell is the republican leader, the majority leader, although that -- because of those tightly fought senate races may not be as likely as what is happening on the house side, but what kind of leadership do you think he's going to show based on your reporting? >> i think mitch mcconnell and the rest of the senate republican leadership will expect to increase the number of republicans in the senate but probably fall somewhat short of the ten-seat pick-up they need to get the majority. currently operating. they don't know what's going to happen but they are operating under the theory they will gain six, eight, maybe nine seats but not ten. they're prepared for ten if that happens. mcconnell two different things as looking at republicans as they approach a larger senate conference. one, he believes republicans in the house and senate have one

overriding goal in the next congress. that is to make barack obama, this is what he told me gre directly, a one-term president. he's going to harmonize the house and senate republicans and putting agenda forward that he says whoever the republican nominee is in 2012 can run with and run hard on. already mitch mcconnell is thinking structurally about how to work things in the senate to aid and abet the nominee. control expectations an not suggest that republicans in the house or senate can change america overnight because the president will have the veto, he will still have to deal with the reality of the filibuster. he told me we have to lower expectations about moving rapidly to undo those things that voters in the polls indicate they're unhappy with. >> major, i know joe scarborough seized on this earlier today because this is pretty stunning in your interview where mitch mcconnell says the number one octob

objective is to defeat barack obama, not to run the country, not to get the economy going, not to deal with the real issues that people are hungry for a cloougs solution to. >> that's right. he said, you can read it right there. our single most important political goal is to create an atmosphere where the 2010 republican nominee can take that message and that barack obama as a one-term president. that is his organized philosophy. i think one thing you can deduce from that is that mitch mcconnell knows if some of these tea party inspired republicans come to the senate and they can't get things accomplished rapidly they're going to look to mitch mcconnell and say what are we doing? i think this is the beginning of his structural answer to that. well, we're preparing for the 201 cycle. sh a t this is a two-step process. many will be in re-election in 2012 than this cycle. jon kyl who is a deputy said this is a two-step process. win the house possibly in this election. take on a lot of vulnerable, potentially vulnerable democrats

in the 2012 cycle and we work on electing a republican president. that's how they're looking at it. >> but they have a real challenge as well. no matter how this plays out, if these tea party republicans do well, and win some of these seats, ken buck, whoever, joe miller, then you're going to have a much harder time, they have a hard enough time right now with jim demeant. how are they going to control their caucus? >> re-elect the leadership. he told me he has no intention of run for leadership post. moo people thought he might. he said, look, i was so upset, i wouldn't have the votes anyway. but he is going to try to harness the energy of these tee par -- tea party inspired republicans. he will use that energy to tell the leadership we have to move in a much more confrontational direction. if mitch mcconnell agrees, we are confronting the president. andrea, the reality is that is not an approach that is going to

yield very many legislative success. the president is going to have to move a considerable distance and republicans are going to have to move a considerable distance. doesn't sound like they're going to open up in a move that is -- that is going to lend itself easily to compromise. >> a lot more gridlock ahead no matter what happens. thank you. major garrett, nice to see but. "national journal," great new cover. and as we know, the interview with barack obama, mitch mcconnell, all the major players. what political story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours first, vice president biden making his 100th stop of the election cycle today with a visit to new hampshire. this is "andrea mitchell reports." [ male announcer ] the vanilla caramel latte from maxwell house international café.

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so wh political story will

be making headlines in the next 24 hours, msnbc contributor chris cillizza, author of the fix blog comes back and we've got another debate tonight in kentucky. this is the debate we didn't think was going to happen because jack conway and rand paul really mixed it up. rand paul said he would never debate again, but he is returning. >> the debate that almost wasn't. very contentious last week. conway put up an ad showing college indiscretions. he said jack conway was questioning his religious beliefs, said he wouldn't debate again. they're going to debate again tonight. this is a race that republicans shouldn't be talking about. kentucky is a conservative state. in a year like this, rand paul should be up eight to ten points. he's not. that means jack conway has a chance. i still this the race is rand paul's to lose. that's telling of the two

candidates involves. >> we've been talking about surrogates like joe biden making his 100th appearance today in new hampshire. the real surrogate with the women's vote, so targeted by both sides this year is, of course, michelle obama. the president was out in washington state last week doing a women's event in a backyard for patty murray. the strategy is here. she needs to win independent suburban women. it's the best possible thing for murray. >> then she's in san francisco with nancy pelosi at a fund-raiser and doing an event for barbara boxer tomorrow. a big swing for the first lady out west. that does it for us. tomorrow on on the show, tim

kaine and massachusetts governor deval patrick. you can follow the show online and on twitter at mitchell repor reports. my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next. >> coming up on news nation, we talked about different parts of the democratic base unhappy with the current administration. coming up, we'll look at the independent voters as well as the gay and lesbian community and whether president obama has made end roads or if he's loosing ground with key blocks. plus, a girl who made national headlines for a strange medical condition is behind bars after police say she confessed to murder. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics...

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this could significantly reduce emissions and increase fuel economy by as much as 80%. right now on "news nation", the final push with just over a week to go before the midterm elections. the focus is now on independents. why some independent voters are ready for a gop takeover. what went wrong? and