>> god speed, man. get down fast. what did you learn today? >> i'm just reminded that america and the united states senate really miss senator daniel patrick moynihan. >> mika? >> green is universal. >> what is yun yeauniversal? >> green. >> it's way too early. what time is it? >> "morning joe" time. >> stick around. we should not anticipate that every time countries come together that we are doing some revolutionary thing. instead of hitting home runs, sometimes we're going to hit singles. but they're really important singles. >> well, there you go. the president trying to put the best spin on the g-20 summit despite leaving korea without a free trade pack in hand and without getting much support for his tough talk on china. now it's off to japan for another economic summit. savannah is traveling with the president and has our report. also, is there a family feud

in the mccain household? as senator mccain leads the charge against repealing don't ask, don't tell in the next sex weeks, his wife cindy lentz her voice to the video criticizing the policy. ah, the politics of watching tv. nine of the top ten shows in america are more popular with republicans than democrats. this morning, who is watching what, what does it mean, what does it mean for hollywood? it's friday, november 12, 2010. i'm chuck todd. let's get to the rundown. we're going to start with the president's trip. the president wrapping up the g-20 summit in seoul is now in japan for yet another economic summit. officials are scrambling to put the best spin on what's been a difficult trip, including distractions by what's been happening back in washington, d.c., plus this lack of a free trade agreement that they promised. savannah has been traveling with the president and has more from seoul, south korea.

>> hey, chuck. the president has wrapped up his time here in seoul. the g-20 summit is over. the president held his concluding news conference today and got a lot of questions about those bush tax cuts. specifically, whether he's already decided how to compromise. somehow, david axelrod's comments to a newspaper back home that your compromised position is to temporarily extend the bush tax cuts. is that the wrong interpretation? >> that is the wrong interpretation because i haven't had a conversation with republican/democratic leaders. here's the right interpretation. i want to make sure that taxes don't go up for middle class families starting on january 1st. that's my number one priority. for those families and for our economy. i also believe that it would be fiscally irresponsible for us to permanently extend the high-income tax cuts.

>> reporter: in a pretty big setback the president leaves here without a free trade agreement with south korea. world leaders did agree to do something about those trade imbalances but they put off the specifics to another day. meanwhile, the mpresident was asked whether he feels the midterm has weakened him on the world stage. >> i actually think that my relationships have grown much stronger with the people who i've worked with here. this involves the, you know, the interest of countries and not all of these are going to be resolved easily. and it's not just a function of personal charm. it's a function of countries' interest and see if we can work through to align them. >> the president has already left seoul, he's in japan for one last summit on this long trip with the asian -pacific nations. he'll return to washington on sunday. chuck, back to you. >> thanks. she is now on her way to japan. the white house before this trip started to asia, framed it as a trip about jobs and the economy.

and they did raise expectations a little bit making it the headlines, as you see this morning. a lot tougher on them than they may have expected because they didn't get that free trade agreement, the most tangible thing they thought they were going to get. moving on. new lawsuit and accusations of voter fraud are making a messy situation in alaska's ballot count even worse. nbc's kristen walker is following it for us from june no. and she joins us on the phone. thanks to a little satellite trouble, so kristen, first of all, it seems as if all the vote count is going lisa murkowski's way. the voter intent is pretty clear. if these numbers hold. but, the challenges are still increasing by the miller side. >> reporter: that's exactly right, chuck. and those challenges are ultimately going to be there because if this case goes to court, the court will being looking at those challenged votes first. we're talking about really narrow nar gmargins here. murkowski is holding on to her

lead. another 8% are votes that are being ch challenged by the miller camp. mostly for spelling errors. now, yesterday we got a bit of an afternoon surprise. self described strategist from the miller camp floyd braun announced they were filing suit in juneau today, essentially an effort to compare the numbers of registered voter to whoes to actually voted. they went on to say the miller camp has gotten numerous accusations and calls about possible voter fraud. when we pressed them on it they couldn't give us actual examples of anyone who had experienced this voter fraud or anyone who felt they were a victim of voter fraud. they just said there were possibilities of voter fraud and voter intimidation. yesterday both candidates spoke about these allegations. take a listen. >> we have been asking for some time for not only precinct lists

but also tapes from the mb machines. an affidavit has been issues. we want to verify that. >> the miller campaign realizes that they are not getting ahead in the absentees that they had hoped. they are not getting ahead with the challenged ballots they hoped. they are seeing they are not getting on top of this. this is an act of desperation. >> things are heating up here in juneau, chuck. the counting continues today, day three of the counting. it will get under way in about four hours. election officials had said they would be finish we'd all of this counting by sunday. now they are saying it will stretch well into next week. so we are tidigging our heels i from juneau here, from a very windy juneau, chuck. >> kris, i can't let you go without bringing the name floyd brown. political junkies will remember

him back behind an independent group in 1988 that funded the infamous willie horton ad. now, you said he has shown up as a volunteer. he's been part of citizens united. is the miller camp acknowledges that floyd brown is working for them? >> they are. you know, i spoke with representative the miller camp, you know, after this announcement. and he said, yes, you know, he's the person who is behind this. he didn't really want to get into too many details. but as you mentioned, you know, he is behind this 1988 willie horton ad. of course, that's the ad that helped to derail michael dukakis' presidential campaign. we're really seeing a lot of interesting figures showing up here in juneau. and this speaks to the level of tension that exists here as this counting process continues, chuck. >> great way to putting it. things like this do tend to attract interesting characters. >> yes, they do. >> no doubt.

kristen welker, hopefully it's less windy and see you down the road. thanks very much. >> hopefully so. thanks so much, chuck. >> all righty. back on land following their so-called spancation, the carnival passengers are telling the story right out of gilligan's island, no power, backed up toilets and only military rations on the menu. miguel is live for us in san diego. miguel, you're hearing these stories. sounds like pretty miserable time on that cruise. >> yeah, chuck, those passengers got off of the "splendor" yesterday afternoon and we've been hearing them for the past 24 hours. many of them come down with home video. they've shown us, given us our first glimpse of what life was actually like on board for them. they said they had no hot water, not taking showers. no hot food. many of them talked about at least eating spam for a couple of days. they talked about life onboard

without -- just most of the necessities, most of what they expected when they boarded that luxury cruise liner behind me last week. as a matter of fact, they actually said -- one of them said the best part of the ship was when they decided to open the bar and pour out free drinks. here's what one of the passengers told matt lauer today on the "today" show. >> did this become one big booze cruise? >> yes. >> yeah. >> towards the end, people weren't even -- they were crawling up the stairs. >> yeah. we met two guys up and down and they were just barely pulling themselves along. >> yeah. the last two days most people were just gone. >> you know, they don't even know they're home in san diego yet. >> chuck, kind of hard to blame them after being on that cruise. and you know, not having a lot to do. they said they were drinking the last few days and everybody came off of that cruise, they were happy to be here and some of them were just happy to be around. >> i bet. i guess that's one way to while away the time.

unbelievable. >> yeah. it would help. >> quickly, miguel, what is carnival doing for these people? are they -- some people probably never want to go on a cruise again. obviously besides refunds, what are they doing for these passengers? >> they're also refunding their travel to get to and from long beach and they're offering them a free cruise again, if they want to get back on a cruise. but passenger reaction to that offer is somewhat mixed, chuck. >> yeah. i bet it is. thanks very much. well, just about 20 minutes before the opening bell rings on wall street, so let's go to cnbc's becky quick for a preview. it's friday. is it one of those crazy fridays? is it some sort of option friday that i don't know about. >> no, it's not a crazy witching friday. none of those weirdo things going on. carnival is smart, offer all the free cruises you want. i would never get back on another boat. safe offer when it comes to what they're handing out. when they're looking at futures,

dow is down by 45 points. but they've been rebounding all thr through the morning. part of it may be because of what we heard from disney last night. disney is one of the 30 dow components. as disney trades, that moves the entire dow industrial average. and last night disney came out with an example of how not to report youre earnings. they accidentally put the numbers out for half hour early on the website for investors who were smart enough to figure out what it was. the f. you started typing around, you could find out what the earnings were. they changed the way they set up their quarter. it looked like they missed expectations on wall street. but in reality it just turns out the quarter had one week less than a year ago had. so you're not matching up apples to apples. it confused the street. it cautioned that stock to sell off pretty sharply. all morning long we've been watching disney come back as people start to realize what's really in the numbers. disney shares are just about

back to where they were before the earnings came out last night. again, this is an example of what not to do when you're putting out your earnings report. the other issue that wall street has been paying attention to is what's been happening in south korea. what happened with the g-20. most importantly, the idea that obama left south korea without any sort of a trade pact with south korea and that's bad news because trade pacts are how a lot of economists expect the only way you can really tackle that jobs problem. if we're not making progress when it comes to the trait pacts that's not great news for the picture back here at home for jobs, which we know is an i believe credibly important one. >> all right. well, becky quick, i guess, disney themselves, don't they know it's a small word after all and if they do this, this is what happens? anyway. sorry. >> it is a very small world. >> clearly. all right. becky quick. happy friday. see you next week. coming up, the lame-duck session arriving on capitol hill. a laundry list of issues left to tackle, including what to do with the bush tax rates.

will any of it get done? inside the obama/boehner relationship. can this so-called new washington power couple bridge some differences, work together? we'll see. but first, a look at i "american idol" head at the president's schedule. he is in japan today. sleeping right now. and then it's apec, this is the asian-pacific economic conference. a lot lower expectations for this one than the g-20 or those one-on-ones with korea and china. [ female announcer ] humana and walmart are teaming up to bring you a low-price medicare prescription drug plan that has the lowest national premium in the country of only $14.80 per month. so you can focus on the things that really matter. go to walmart.com for details. until the combination of three good probiotics

in phillips' colon health defended against the bad gas, diarrhea and constipation. ...and? it helped balance her colon. oh, now that's the best part. i love your work. [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health. i love your work. if you live for performance,

upgrade to castrol edge advanced synthetic oil. with eight times better wear protection than mobil 1. castrol edge. it's more than just oil. it's liquid engineering. you should get some custom fit orthotics. dr. scholl's custom fit orthotic center. it recommends the custom fit orthotic that's best for your feet. and footcare scientists are behind it. you'll get immediate comfort... ... and, you could save a couple hundred bucks. for locations see drscholls.com

republican leader mr. boehner said this reform was like employing nuclear weapons to kill an ant, he said. an ant. that's what he called what we

just went through. you can imagine a movie, "the ant that ate our economy." that's a big ant. >> president obama should ask for and accept the resignations of the remaining members of his economic team, starting with secretary geithner. we tried 19 months of government as community organizer and it hasn't worked. >> well, campaign season is over, so the lawmakers are returning to capitol hill next week for what we've told you about the lame-duck session. all eyes are on the awkward arranged marriage now between president obama and likely republican speaker john boehner. will washington's new power couple work together and on what? terry holt is a former spokesperson for congressman john boehner in the house republican conference back in the day and jamie harrison was floor congressman and democratic whip and executive director of the democratic caucus. they both join us here to give

us inside capitol hill perspective. terry, i want to start with you. john boehner, is he an establishment republican or is his heart with the tea party? this is a guy who came in as sort of a guy who liked to be on an insurgent side but kind of enjoys hanging out in the country club side of the party. >> john boehner came to washington in 1990 to change washington and has never veer fred that goal, to shrink government. >> did he campaign against those bush 41 tax hikes? was that one of his mantras? >> i don't think that was the principle objective of his campaign. republican open seat in ohio. but he came in and quickly established his credentials as a reformer, part of cleaning up the house bank. and some of the things that helped put the republicans in a position to win in 1994 and then became part of newt gingrich's inner circle. he knows what's like to be a reformer and legislator and he knows how to lead and to be effective in the process of

running the people's house. >> hey, i want to put up a couple of poll numbers here. cbs/"new york times" talking about and everyone is polling a version of this. what does the american people want from this divided government from president obama, does he want him to compromise or stick to his position. overwhelming my, compromise. republicans in congress, do they want them to compromise or stick to their positions. again, overwhelmingly, the public always says compromise. that's a they say. the basis say another thing. house democrats, is it in their interest to compromise? they watch what republicans did on capitol hill. and they basically were unified against what the democrats were doing in the majority. is that going to be the house democratic instinct? >> i think so. the house democratic instinct will be not to compromise, not to basically support their base, voters in the democratic principles. and so if that means not giving the republicans any vote on raising the debt limit, they're

going to do that and they're going to watch on the other side as the republicans scurry around and try to get their members to vote. >> won't there be pressure from the white house? let's say they know that speaker boehner says, look, i'm only going to be able to give you 100 votes but i will give you a 100 votes on raising the debt ceiling. you've got to get nancy pelosi to find 118 for me. >> i think you're going to see a good cop/bad cop action going on with the white house and the house democrats. in essence, the obama is going to be the good cop. he's going to be the one to say, listen, i'm going to bring you together so we can compromise and move forward. whereas the democrats, the house democrats are going to be the bad cops. they're going to have the motion to recommits that make the republican conference squirm a little bit. >> there's a key difference here, though. and that is that the republicans didn't start off in 2008 with two dozen of their members repudiating the leadership that was going to take them into the next congress. and the democrats face at least two dozen people who publicly

come out against nancy pelosi. and that sets up for more problems within their caucus than problems between republicans and democrats. >> i want to put up something. this is a list of the lame duck agenda, four items to me jump out. you've got the extense of the bush tax rates, don't ask, don't tell. the star treaty, that's a senate project more than anything else. and the dream act a senate project but nancy pelosi said she wants to tackle it. i want to go to the bush tax cuts. yesterday was a lesson in -- and i think john boehner is going to have the same problem. yesterday was a lesson for david axelrod. he was speaking the truth, the gaffe is he was too truthful, a compromise is coming. we know this. everybody in washington knows this. but he said it and his base got really mad so he had to walk it back. john boehner is going to have similar problems, in doing things, knows what reality is but making the tea party caucus mad. >> while there's astonishing level of denial in some democratic circles about what

happened on election day, the republicans have very specifically gone after him, including the tea party, and including the newly elected freshmen in not just into the leadership day to day but in the decision making about how this congress will be organized and the steering committee and leadership elections. so john's going all of the things to include people and the democrats are looking for a ways to manage the disagreements. >> easy right now to do but this is going to be something he's got to manage. >> on these issues it's going to be a long slow process of earning the trust back of the american people, of demonstrating that the republicans know how to lead the house of representatives. but let's not kid ourselves. this government is still obama's government and he's still going to have to provide the leadership to tackle those tough issues. >> you're very close to majority whip, clyburn. we know there's a big leadership spat inside about them who are both very close, actually have a lot of friends. this is not a negative fight but

there's no -- there's a missing chair. there's a compromise in the works. tell me about it. >> well, in essence, you know, the thing that both jim clyburn and nancy pelosi have in common is that all democratic whips. they know how to count votes and how to cut a deal and compromise. in the end i think that's what's going to happen. >> be in position? >> we're not sure yet. but they're going to sit down and say, listen, jim clyburn needs to be at the stable. steny hoyer needs to be at the table. it reflects america. hispanic members, women, men, all different political spectrum, broad political spectrum. in the ends of the day, i think it probably won't be a vote and jim clyburn, steny hoyer and nancy pelosi will -- >> will clyburn be c triple c chair? >> we don't know. >> one of the onyxes on the

table? >> at this point you have all types of possibilities. clyburn will be at that they believe. >> terry holt? >> i never weighed into the other side of the leadership fights. >> i know. anyway, terry holt, little insight on john boehner. thanks very much. >> thank you. still ahead, what what is your favorite tv show say about your politics? we'll reveal what people are watching, what they drink, and how they vote. because i know you've always wanted to do know that. next, the plot thickens in the russian spy caper. more excuses to show pictures of -- i'm kidding. russia says they know who blew the agent's cover and the hunt is on to find them. first, washington speak. plenary. this is summit speak for a meeting attended by all members. president obama's day at the g-20 in seoul started off with a plenary meeting attended by all members. of course, the g-20 has like 23 members but we can't count in the world. but we understand there is plenary to talk about after this session. imf reform was the big thing

that came out of this g-20. if you have some washington speak speak you would like us to clarify or a way to try to count to 23 rather than 20, send us an e-mail at dailyrundown@msnbc.com. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics...

a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. and celebrex is not a narcotic. when it comes to relieving your arthritis pain,

you and your doctor need to balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, including celebrex, may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease or risk factors such as high blood pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods. nsaids, including celebrex, increase the chance of serious skin or allergic reactions or stomach and intestine problems, such as bleeding and ulcers, which can occur without warning and may cause death. patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers. do not take celebrex if you've had an asthma attack, hives, or other allergies to aspirin, nsaids or sulfonamides. get help right away if you have swelling of the face or throat, or trouble breathing. tell your doctor about your medical history and find an arthritis treatment that works for you. ask your doctor about celebrex. and, go to celebrex.com to learn more about how you can move toward relief. celebrex. for a body in motion.

story straight from a cold war spy novel, james bond movie, new twist in the case of the russian spy ring, busted over the summer. now appears there was a double agent, of course, at the center of it all now running for his life from the kremlin. chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell has the incredible details. >> he is credited with recruiting the borecruit ing the bond woman of this tale to live under deep cover in the u.s. until they were arrested and sent home by the fbi. russian newspapers identify him

as a colonel, a double agent defeted to the u.s. last summer. now reportedly under fbi protection from a russian hit man, known as amekeder, so named after the assassin from stalin's secret police who stabbed someone with an ice pick in new mexico in 1940. >> whenever an important defector comes to the united states, of course, he worry iest his security. but the cia gives them false identities and hides them. >> reporter: prime minister v vladimir putin, once a spy himself, was serious this summer. . telling the reporters that the russians had been traited by a traitor. sellouts always end up in a ditch, either drunk or drugged. the other day one such traitor kicked the bucket, exactly like that, abroad. but in this country experts say the defector would be given a new identity by the fbi and c iricia.

for them, a double agent is a huge prize. >> it means the head of counter spy operations for these -- for the russian intelligent service, you know, the old kgb, has defected to the united states. and if that's true, that's a big blow to the russians. >> reporter: making the most of her role in the cloak and dagger drama is chapman, now a celebrity back home, pose for russia's edition of "maxim" magazine, launching a luxury boutique and an app so people can play poker with a virtual anna. she even has her own action figure. >> well, don't miss andrea mitchell reports today at 1:00 only on msnbc. we'll have a little more spy -- with the spy who loved us all. anyway, coming up, cindy mccain versus john mccain on don't ask don't tell. seriously. plus, they call him the pizza boy, but for folks in

illinois and the 17th district, they're now calling him congressman. and the politics of watching tv. are republican viewers the secret to ratings goal? but first, today's trivia question from the almanac of american politics, if superimposed on the lower 48, about how big would alaska be? geographic, you know, in area, by the way, not in population. that answer and more ahead on "the daily rundown." i couldn't conceive this as a heart attack. the doctor leaned over and said to me, "you just beat the widow-maker." i was put on an aspirin, and it's part of my regimen now. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. go see your doctor now.

bottom of the hour now. let's take a quick look at what's driving this friday. president obama is now in japan. it's the final stop of his ten-day tour of asia. we leaves the two-day g-20 summit in seoul with big issues still unresolved, including a battle with south korea over a free trade agreement and another with china over its currency.

4500 passengers and crew and apparently a now of them now hungover trapped on board a disabled cruise ship is back on dry land, finally within reach of hot food and electricity and working showers. at the end we find out was only booze that was left. at sea for more than 72 hours after the carnival ship "spendor" lost power due to a fire in the engine room. "newsweek" is joining forces with the dailybeast.com if an online announcement. tina brown, a veteran of magazines, says the deal makes her editor at chief in both outlets. "the daily beast" online news site began last week. other stories, investigators say they figured out why one of the engines of qantas shut down during a flight last week. rolls royce says the faulty component triggered an oil leak.

rolls royce said it's now fixing all older versions of the ep gin. in the united nations says it a needs $164 million to fight the cholera outbreak in haiti. the funds would be used to bring in doctors, medicine, and water, purification equipment if outbreak has already claimed over 700 lives. the world health organization says the epidemic isn't likely to end any time soon. and in the battle over gays in the military there may be a rather high-profile family feud. republican senator john mccain has vowed to block lawmakers from repealing the military's don't ask don't tell policy but in a new video featuring several celebrities mccain's wife cindy criticizes the military's policy specifically. arguing that it's a form of discrimination and even contributes to the problems faced by gay and lesbian youth by sending the message that it's okay to bully. watch. >> our government treats the lgbt community like second class citizens. why should they?

our political and religious leaders them the youth they have no future. >> and today now, we are wrapping up our week long series with some of the new faces you'll sigh when the 112th congress starts in january. the tea party wave swept 40 house seats, four races in the president's home state of illinois. first run ever for public office, the tea party-backed candidate bobby schilling pulled an upset victory over two-term dem phil hare, 53% to 43%. first time illinois's 17th district over there near the quad cities has gone republican in 27 years. and congressman-elect bobby schilling joins us now, first, congratulations on your victory. and now a front page profile in the "new york times." first time run for office. when was the first time you remember getting interested in politics, before you ever started running? >> you know, i've always kind of -- being a small business owner kept an eye on politics. but just after the presidential

election is when i decided to take a harder look and then in february of '09 decided to throw my hat into the ring. >> what are the three issues -- i've been asking this of a lot of new members. what are the three issues, when you face re-election, if you choose to run for re-election, but when you do so, what are some accomplishments you feel like you need to take home to the voters there in the quad cities to say, hey, this is what i've gotten done, this is why you went ahead and sent somebody who had never been in public office before to go to congress? >> one of the things is true my actions, is for the last 28 years we've had a pro-labor anti-business congress person in this office. in being a small business owner i want to convey that i have 13 years of union background and also almost 14 years of small business. but we've got to mesh those two together to where it's good for the people because if we're all about labor and anti-business, you know, it's not good for the

worker. so that's one of the things is create an atmosphere to where both labor and business work together to get people back at work. and i think that's something that i bring to the table, a uniting factor, i would say, is one of the biggest things i plan on doing. >> how confident are you that -- and you know, not to be cynical here but i've seen the way washington leadership can treat new members of congress, particularly ones that they view as inexperienced. how confident are you that they're not going to just sort of be a little con descending because you haven't held elective office before? how do you make sure you're not sort of treated as a vote they can count on and something that just march in lock step, that you will say, no, don't put me on the back bench over here. i ran for congress, a little outraged, i know you guys didn't take me seriously in the summer but you came aboard after i started showing some life. how do you make sure they don't treat you as a back bencher? >> one of the things that i believe is that, you know, as a small business owner and somebody with the background

that i have, you know, i'm not your average person that's just stepping in. i mean, one of the things -- i have a lot of good solid background. and really, to be quite forward, i'm not going to make friends. i'm going to do what's right for our state and for the 17th district. and you know, if it doesn't line up with the 17th district in illinois and the united states, i'm not going to be there. and i think i made myself pretty clear. i'm not going to be bullied. i haven't felt any of that presence whatsoever from the leadership. you know, and next week we'll go out for orientation and we'll see if things change. but it's been pretty good so far. >> tell me this. did you, you know, that debt commission that's out there that the president set up. it's a bipartisan commission. but i know a lot of candidates ran on this issue of spending and getting control of the deficit. first of all, did you look at the plan and, second of all, what did you think of it? >> you know, i've deviled into it a little bit. it's still not addressing the

$13.6 trillion of debt. you know, i'm not really for taking social security and increasing the age or holding down. i think what we need to do is rather than focusing in on things like this right now we need to focus on private sector jobs, creating an atmosphere to where people want to expand their business and put people back to work. and that's one thing this administration has not done, is focus in on the private setter. you know, they can continue to throw money at things all they want but until they find out what the root cause of the problem is, our economy is going to still fail and until we get to that point, full employment takes care of a lot of the problems that we have out there today. and they're just not getting that yet. but i think here soon, they will. >> very quickly before i let you go. who is going to run the pizza business? >> my son aaron. my son aaron, he's 21 years old. he's going to go back to school. we're going to hire one more person in, but he's going to hold down the fort.

i have three of my children that actually work in. so i think they've done a pretty good job the last year and a half. hopefully they can hold it up. >> all right. bobby schilling, congratulations again. and next week, welcome to washington. >> thank you. >> and i'll be honest, we could use some better pizza here in washington. you're going to be a little disappointed in some of the offerings here. but maybe you can help us out. anyway, thanks very much. >> thanks, chuck. trivia time. if superimposed over the lower 48, about how big would alaska be? the state of alaska could stretch from florida to southern california, thanks to the little islands up there, all of the way up to lake superior. take that, texas. everything is bigger in alaska. coming up, the politics of watching tv and getting ratings. why winning over republicans may matter more than just what's happening in washington and at the ballot box. see, we can take anything and make it political. i know it's going to frustrate you, some of you. first, the final installment

of what we're calling "white house file food of the day." it's what the press corp. is eating or grazing on when you have to stay awake. today's culinary adventure in south korea, brazed ox tail. according to savannah who sent us this pic, who doesn't love a brazed ox tail? i think it looks quite oxillen. you're watching "the daily rundown." paul wanted to turn his love of west virginia white water rafting into a business but there were several similar companies saturating the market. he approached the owners of three of them and they merged into adventures on the gorge. i'm a random windstorm.

shaky! shaky! and if you named your own price on car insurance, you could be picking up this tab yourself. so get allstate. [ dennis ] dollar for dollar, nobody protects you from mayhem like allstate.

well, it's holiday season, of course, with 30 rock we got the new christmas tree coming. we'll tell you more about that. i want to talk to you about something that is kind of interesting when it comes to a hit tv show. a new study seems to show that republicans are what equal ratings gold these days. in fact, of the top ten broadcast tv shows, nine had a higher percentage of viewers who say they're republican. the latest issue of "the hollywood reporter" examines the

rein of right wing prime time, they call it. so here now, who else, but, many snbc's willie geist, host of "way too early" and our resident pop culture expert because if it's cool to him, it has to be cool to at least somebody on this side of the nbc wall. the author of course of the new book "american freak show." willie, the secret to a hit tv show is to somehow whoo conservatives. explain. >> that's the idea, chuck. bottom line. this polling group, media research group, looked at all the shows on television. it turns out the most popular shows on tv, of the top ten of those, nine of them are favored more by republicans than democrats. let's look at the list here. number one is glenn beck. amazing race, "modern family," ""american idol"," "dancing with the stars," your favorite, chuck "the bachelor." >> that's a grit oneat one. of the big shows they're getting

most of the support from republicans. republicans and conservatives like reality tv a bit better. one on the list interesting, "modern family," not exactly "leave it to beaver" but very popular among republicans. now, on the other side if you look at what democrats like best, research -- >> it's more like mitch cable shows, kind of -- >> mitch cable, yeah. >> "mad men" interestingly, number two. number one is "countdown with keith olbermann." number two is "mad men." interesting because this is wildly unpopular with republicans but huge with democrats and progressive. "dexter", a show with serial killers. i don't know what that says. number four, "courtney and kloe," two and three on the kardashian depth chart, kim is the starter, of course. that ranks high among democrats. then you've got "30 rock", a show here on nbc that's kind of

quirky, nichy, big with the democrats. so if you kind of look at the big picture, the big business, the big shows, all the "survivors" and all that is supportive of democrats looking at the smaller shows. interesting. >> is bruce jenner somehow involved in the khloe/courtney deal? >> he lives in the house. it's not clear what he does in that house. but i think he trolls around somewhere on that show. tea parties -- >> let's go to late night. let's go to late night. >> tea partiers and late night. "leno" viewers, 37% say they're tea party. letterman, 27%. conan and then only 9% for jon stewart on the tea party. bottom line here, chuck, wealthy republicans who drink red wine, according to the study, like jay leno. and single, get this, get this for conan, single independent

athiests make up the construction of his audience. and here are the drinks of choice. leno viewers, red wine. vodka for conan. letterman viewers apparently like malt beverages. >> scotchy scotch scotch. >> yeah. scotchy scotch skomp. beer. >> i thought beer was totally out of -- i thought beer wasn't cool anymore. >> it's bad. you like the kraft brews. >> the energy drinks? >> they have that but it's kind of making is the comeback. who knows what the numbers mean but kind of interesting some of these. >> you know, jay leno actually has been very proud of the fact -- and he bragged to me actually before about how he believes his monologues are 50/50 when it comes to beating up democrats or beating up republicans. over time -- i mean, is that what we're seeing here, that people sort of gravitate toward who they think, particularly on this satirical stuff now because people have now blurred the

lines between primetime cable and satirical tv and all one big thing. they hold rallies and stuff. are people comfortable where they're hearing about politics. >> i think so. leno plays more the middle of the country where letterman feels more like a new york show, even jon stewart, even conan. even though he's on the west coast now. letterman is kind of -- borne out in the study -- american car driving, more of a middle american tending more conservative than the rest of the audience. maybe they're seeking south their politics a little bit. >> i love this volkswagen for conan viewers. that was sort of random. i get the -- i got the toyota. >> toyota letterman. >> and by the way gmc struck for stewart? >> that i didn't see coming. >> isn't prius a natural here? >> i was going to say whatever the car is that you have feed corn into that's your jon

stewart audience. >> obviously our viewers are folks that don't drive a car. maybe on segways or waking up, walked home. your viewers in "way too early." >> yeah, they're not an automobile-owning group at 5:30 in the morning. >> fair enough. willie geist, thank you for breaking this down. good stuff. good luck to vandy this weekend. >> going to be ugly again. >> follow us any time on twitter@chuck todd,@savannah guthrie. ♪ trouble, trouble trouble, trouble ♪ ♪ trouble been doggin' my soul ♪ since the day i was born ♪ worry ♪ oh, worry, worry worry, worry ♪ [ announcer ] when it comes to things you care about, leave nothing to chance.

travelers. take the scary out of life.

have you still be feeding pumpkins to your squirrels in your front yard? that's what i'm doing. holiday season arrive at 30 rock. the rockefeller christmas tree arrived this morning in the plaza. special escort al roker of course. a giant 74 -foot tall, 12-ton

norway spruce was donated by a new york city firefighter who is among the hundreds of first responders who rushed to ground zero on 9/11. this year's official tree-lighting ceremony takes place on november 30th on your nbc station. see, we are going to wait until after thanksgiving to light the tr tree. just because it arrives before doesn't mean starbucks should already be handing us our holiday cups but they are. sometime next week you'll see savannah guthrie back in the studios. coming up "kris jansing and company." at 1:00 don't miss "andrea mitchell reports." . chris jansing and here's a look at your weekend forecast. middle of the country where the

nasty weather is. rain and eventually snow in areas of the northern plains including our friends in minneapolis. even duluth too will probably do a tiny bit of shoveling. by sunday it exits the region. a new storm along the gulf. east coast fantastic all weekend long. [ woman ] you know, as a mom,

i worry about my son playing football. which is why i'm really excited. because toyota developed this software that can simulate head injuries and helps make people safer. then they shared this technology with researchers at wake forest to help reduce head injuries on the football field. so, you know, i can feel a bit better about my son playing football. [ male announcer ] how would you use toyota technology to make a better world? learn how to share your ideas at toyota.com/ideasforgood. my friends at work think there's more than one "me." learn how to share your ideas

...because on our trips, i always get there faster. see, expedia lets me mix and match airlines. so i can take one airline out... and another home. so with more flight options, i can find the combination that gets me there and back quickest. with a little help from expedia, my friends will think i can be everywhere at once. where you book matters. expedia. president obama is coming back from his globe-trotting trip without the big trade deal he wanted. has he lost his diplomatic mojo?