♪ welcome back. let's talk about what we learned today. . >> i learned what the zipper club is. heart attack thing. >> lawrence. >> i learned that you have the most generous audience in watching television. >> let me read this. miles la-dahl of nbc partners, i love the desk initiative that lawrence o'donnell championed. i will donate $18,000 to this amazing cause. congratulations. best, miles nadal. chairman and ceo of mdc partners. >> what's the website? >> lastworddesks.msnbc.com. 1-800-4-kids. desks for kids in african schools. >> i'm not good with math. >> five desks -- that's a lot of classrooms. $720, by the way, to outfit an entire classroom. $48 a desk.

>> willie. >> built in malawi. helps. >> way too early. what time is it? >> it's "morning joe." see you next week. before that, stay tuned for "the daily rundown". >> congress burns the midnight oil and give president obama his $800 billion tax deal. so taxes go up on nobody come january 1st. still to go. don't ask, don't tell starts, and maybe even the dream act. julian assange is speaking out one day after getting out of jail on bail. while his movements are restricted, his internet usage is not. so guess what? more documents leaked today. plus, the cha vana awards. the best viral campaign ads. best presidential joke and some of the worst moments. it's a doozy. it's friday, december 17th, 2010. i'm chuck todd.

>> we're just creating our own excitement here. morning, everyone. >> we don't have the envelopes -- >> i know, the suspense is killing everybody. also this morning, pentagon press secretary jeff morel. here are some of the stories we're watching this afternoon. the president is going to sign that tax bill this afternoon. the question is, will this be the turning point in the narrative of the obama presidency. some commentators already calling him the comeback kid. >> republican commentators. saturday sessions. watching two votes in the senate on saturday. one on the immigration bill known as dream act. and the other, a stand-alone bill repealing don't ask, don't tell. looks like it's got the 60 votes. once it hits 60, does it hit 75? and one of the more perplexing political fights. white house aides thing they're going to get it passed in the

senate. so the knot so sure. is s.t.a.r.t. going to happen this year? i say we flip the coin. >> it depends on if they catch this disease called go-home-itis. >> i know. a lot of us have it. let's get to the president signing the big tax compromised bill today, this after a midnight vote in the house where democrats ultimately summoned more than enough support to pass the bill. >> on this vote, the yeas are 277. the nays are 148. the motion is adopted. >> all right. kelly o'donnell's, nbc news capitol hill correspondent. after all the sterm and drum, this passes overwhelmingly. >> it was must-see viewing for us, savannah and chuck, at midnight. i'm glad you noted that the hours have been crazy long for these members. but they did get it done. and what's interesting is when you look at the total for passage, it was almost evenly split between democrats and republicans.

138-139. and that says something after all of the fighting going on. there was, of course, some liberal opposition. they were unhappy about aspects of it that especially benefited more wealthy families, and that did not go down as they had hoped. they tried lots of different things, and a handful of republicans were also not pleased this adds to the deficit by $858 billion. but that now becomes all the footnote stuff. and as you mentioned, the president will get to sign this as soon as they can get the paperwork done here and sent down to the other end of pennsylvania avenue to get his signature. and, of course, the moment we moved off of that, we're already talking about what happened in the senate. it was quite a scene in the evening when harry reid had to abandon his giant spending bill that would fund all the different government agencies over the next year. and that he had to do because the republicans who had promised to vote with him suddenly were against him. and it was quite something. >> you know, kelly, it was a heated moment, it seemed, down on the floor of the senate.

you had this odd moment between mark kirk and john mccain, and that seemed to really upset some other democratic senators. >> well, for us watching it here, you could hear the rumble of ooh around among the reporters when it happened. and for a viewer, it may not stand out as much. but what mark kirk did, republican from illinois, he, in fact, took the seat that once belongeded to the president. he is new to the senate. he interrupted john mccain who was talking. and sort of did an end zone dance, if you will, and that, despite all of the fighting here, is not typically seen. so here's a little bit of what went on. >> as the most jr. member, for those who are not understanding what just happened, did we just win? it seems that change has come to the senate tonight with the death of this $1.1 trillion plan. >> they want the american people to think that omnibus 2010, that all those pages sitting there, were done by democrats.

they weren't done by democrats. those pages were done by democrats and republicans. >> and claire mchaskell of missouri was particularly bothered by this, because as a democrat, she has been one of those fighting against earmarks, so she sort of was riled by the fact that she thought there were some republicans who thought they were a little bit too gleeful about this bill dying. members like harry reid and a number of others have been talking to me over the last few days about the value of earmarks for some of the programs that they are very disappointed to see go down. of chuck, savannah? >> all right, kelly o'donnell on capitol hill. it's going to be a crazy weekend, but who knows, maybe it gets wrapped up this weekend. kelly, thanks very much. and, of course, an earmark actually saves zero dollars in the budget the way it works. it just directs dollars. and i think sometimes that fact does get lost in the debate. all right. let's than 24 hours after being released from prison, wikileaks founder julian assange was defiant today, defending himself against the charges in sweden

and responding to reports that he could be charged here in the u.s. for leaking classified information. >> we don't know what the grounds of that investigation is. in fact, like the swedish investigation, the whole damn thing is kept secret. something is wrong in the united states that such an investigation against me and in effect, my organization, and indeed now, we see serious calls against the "new york times," as well, that all that is to be conducted in secret. >> well, nbc's peter alexander is in suffolk, england. and peter in the interview with matt lauer this morning, what struck me is he did not seem to specifically deny that allegation that's out there this morning, having to do with whether he gave software to bradley manning, the private, that supposedly downloaded all of this information illegally. if he gave him that software, and that, of course, could lead to the u.s. charges. >> well, that's the effort that

federal prosecutors in the united states are trying to do right now. they're trying to find out how exactly they can charge him in the u.s. assange did make it clear, though, that he did not know bradley manning. he tried to assess the situation which saying, you know, our sources are all anonymous for this very purpose. that's for their security and our security, as well. for julian assange's security, as well, and part of the bail requirements, he will be staying here. and we'll give you a sense. this is the first look at the 600-acre, ten-bedroom estate where he is staying, three hours' drive away from london, a dramatic change of scenery when you consider the fact that for the last ten days he was in prison, in the largest prison in all of britain. now, obviously, he's here, among the bail conditions, he has to report to police each day. when i spoke to mr. assange a while ago, he said he didn't even have his electronic monitor on. he will have to do that in about an hour, when he makes his stop

at a police station. he has to do that each day between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. local time, because we're so far from anything, those are the only hours that the police station is open. he denied these allegations in sweden. he called it a smear campaign. he also said that he's going to do everything he can to continue the release. they will not just continue their release, but expedite it. and that fewer than 1% of all the cables, those diplomatic cables have been released so far. >> nbc's peter alexander in suffolk, england in front of the stately manor where julian assange will have his mansion arrest. the markets embraced the president's tax deal when it was opposed. will there be a bump today or has the market factored it in? let's go to becky quick. good morning. >> good morning, savannah. no bump today. it's all been factored in. it looks at this point like the market is going to open up by about 3 points.

of the market has factored this in. if it you watched yesterday, we closed at two-year highs for the stock market, so we're seeing the santa claus rally at the end of the year. there are a few things happening this day. for one, quadruple witching day, the options for the futures contracts for stocks and what does that mean, blah, blah, blah, a lot of times on fridayses like this, you see a lot of volatility. i don't know if that's going to happen today. this could be an unusually calm quadruple witching friday. but we do have good news to tell you, technology news came in overnight. both oracle and rimm came in with earnings better than expected. great news for oracle, up 3% in the market last time i checked. and rimm, the maker of all those blackberries says the torch, the brand-new blackberry is selling better than expected and their core business is doing better, which gets to the question, what do you use, is it the iphone, is it the blackberry, the android? >> must you ask, becky? it's viewers of the daily rundown surely know, we use the

blackberry, because we're constantly on it. >> but also the ipad. so, you know, it's sort of -- >> we're diplomatic. >> the only thing we -- we don't do anything with droid. >> you guys didn't see the -- i think about two months ago, there was a survey that went out, who has the most fun at night, depending which users are. >> iphone, right? >> blackberry users, bottom of the list. >> shocker. trust us, we're not fun. >> yeah, we go to bed at like 10:00. >> yeah. >> quadruple witching friday. becky, i love these names. we could do a whole week of new york stock exchange speak. >> yeah. >> i'm going to start sliding in new terms and try and trick you guys with some of these. >> i love it. >> please do. >> yeah, all right. not just option friday. becky quick at world headquarters. thanks very much. coming up, the white house releases its progress report on afghanistan. did it soft pedal the tough

stuff? we'll ask jeff more rely. >> and catch the fever. today the cha vana's go viral. this morning, we are crowning the best and worst viral campaign moments of 2010. >> plus a few other special treats that have to do with some guy in the oval office who thinks he's a joker. >> presidential humor. an oxymoron. >> right. but first a look ahead at the president's schedule. they already added something today, and that is signing that tax bill this afternoon. you're watching the daily rundown on msnbc. ♪ my doctor said most calcium supplements... aren't absorbed properly unless taken with food. he recommended citracal. it's different --

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i want to be clear. this continues to be a very

difficult endeavor. but i can report that thanks to the extraordinary service of our troops and civilians on the ground, we are on track to achieve our goals. >> well, the obama administration status report on afghanistan is out. critics say it gives the soft cell to some of the region's most persistent problems, glossing over corruption in the afghan government, and pakistan's reluctance to do more about insurgents squatting along the border. >> jeff moreel is with public affairs. >> you don't need to give that title stuff. >> we're a big believer in titles here at msnbc. >> we'll give you your due. >> do you want another one? >> they're all meaningless. >> jeff, i want to start with, and it actually seems to be a focus this morning, was a focus yesterday in the report, and even the one negative downside that was acknowledged by the principles yesterday, the

president, secretary gates and secretary clinton, and that is pakistan. that it feels as if, if you -- were in the same place with pakistan a -- today as we were a year ago, you know, they're kind of involved when you yank 'em in, and you drag them to try to help us out. and then they slip back. i mean, it seems as if the relationship really is the same as it ever was. >> i think the relationship is an evolving one. i don't think it's static. i don't think it's the same as it was a year ago. it's certainly not the same as it was two years ago, when they did not have 140,000 pakistani military forces on the western border of their country, dealing with this threat that is potentially, you know, impearling their government, as well as the afghan government. but remember also, chuck, a lot has happened this past year. they dealt with a flood of epic proportions, dwarfing the death toll that was caused by the tsunami, the pakistani earthquake, the haitian earthquake. extraordinary. and the military were the ones called upon to respond to that. so you're right.

has it been uneven, has it been not completely to our liking? sure, we acknowledge that. the report acknowledges that. but it continues to evolve, it's trending in the right direction, and we need them. so you have to continue to develop this partnership. and that's what we're trying to do. >> well, it's important to remember what this review wasn't. it wasn't a wholesale look and examination of are we proceeding with the correct strategy in afghanistan. that took place a year ago. we have this counter insurgency strategy. so the question was supposed to be, what's working and what isn't? but the unclassified summary that all of us are able to see kind of gives it a gloss. so to the extent you can, let us in on what you all feel is not working, what you are tweaking in the execution of this counter insurgency strategy. >> well, the commander on the security side is constantly making adjustments. but those adjustments shouldn't be made 8,000 miles away in washington, d.c., prescribed by guys in suits here in the nation's capital. >> so what's the purpose of the review? >> we're committing 30,000

additional u.s. forces, another thousand civilians. the allies are committing another 10,000, and it's only fair to those forces and their families that a year into this thing, we make a judgment call about whether or not it is working. because we're certainly not going to continue to sign deployment orders to send young men and women off to fight and potentially die if we're stalemated and losing. >> indeed. but wasn't it the premise that counter insurgency was the correct strategy? it wasn't a look at -- >> we start to see that, savannah, months and months ago. we went in february and secretary gates made it clear then when we were in europe that we had to show demonstrable progress by year's end. he set a high bar in that sense. when we went back to afghanistan this summer, he walked out of there, feeling as though where our troops had been the longest, there was proof of consent. on our most recent visit he said i am convinced this strategy is working. so we saw signs for months the strategy was working, improving in the east and south and i've got to push back on this notion, i heard it in the briefing room

yesterday, that somehow as a result of improving security in the east and south it's deteriorating in the north and west. it's simply not the case. yes, some taliban have been squeezed north and west, but they arislated, they are away from the population centers, they are away from their support base, their supply lines are being disrupted. that's not where they want to be. and we're fine to have them hang out up there while we secure the huge population centers. >> i want to talk to you about another pushback coming about, about what's going on on the ground in afghanistan. the international red cross says things are not going so well on the ground, particularly when it comes to humanitarian efforts. here is what they're -- the head of the international committee said. we are entering a new and murky phase in the conflict of which the proliferation of armed groups threatens the ability of humanitarian organizations to reach people who need their help. the conflict is now in its tenth year, spreading, no end in sight. how do you deal with this issue? clearly, obviously, we're fighting a war, and that's one part of this. but it is now, according to them, getting so bad they can't get in there and help people on the ground to sort of the

civilian casualty issue. >> well, there's -- listen, i'm not an expert on the work of humanitarian organizations, but i think there is always a lag between establishing initial security and then allowing the civilian support that's essential to follow it to come in. so it may not be happening as quickly as they like. but that's -- and frankly, that's contrary to what i have seen when we were down south and east. it seems as though there is a very good and tight-working relationship between our men and women in uniform and the civilians who are key to our ultimate success there. >> and one other issue secretary gates mentioned yesterday in the briefing room, we were there, that he vastly preferred this big omnibus bill, a big permanent budget resolution as opposed to the temporary stopgap budgeting that apparently is going to happen in the senate. any reaction to the senate's decision not to go with that larger bill, but to go with the stopgap bill instead? >> well, listen, the stop -- the continuing resolution has us funding it at levels from last year, which would be about a $19

billion hit to our budget. that is problematic. i don't know if they ultimately decided on a 12-month continuing resolution or shorter term continuing resolution. do we know? >> we don't know yet. >> okay. hopefully, this will be a short term bridging mechanism to get us to when we can take it up again in the new year. if it's a 12-month cr, we're going to have to do a lot of belt-tightening internally. that is oftentimes the impetus for tough and needed medicine to be delivered internally. but obviously, an omnibus would let us function at much higher levels, allow us to institute new programs needed, such as cyber com and so forth. so obviously, we've got to figure out how to work this. the problem with the omnibus, of course, is it included money for the second engine. >> right. >> it would have been nice had they stripped that out. >> one more thing on public opinion. barely the american public barely approves of the idea of leaving combat troops in 2014. if that number continues to go down, how does that impede your work? i know -- everybody says public opinion.

but you can't have the american public against this war for you to be successful in this war, is that correct? >> chuck, obviously, you want support in the homeland. that is our -- our troopers need that. if you look at polling, though, they clearly support the men and women in uniform. they may not be wild about the mission, and that's understandable. we have been doing this ten years. but go back to the fall of 2007 when congress was considering tying with withdrawal -- fixed date for withdrawal to continuing funding for the iraq war. we're in a very different political climate than that. this is not nearly as unpopular conflict as that war was during the dark days of the iraq conflict. >> all right. jeff morel, pentagon press secretary and various other -- >> secretary of defense and public affairs, all around good guy of washington. >> thank you. appreciate it. this week we brought you the best and worst of the campaignses are , some of the best moments of 2010, presidential moments. we saved the best for last.

>> if we do say so ourselves. coming up next, from high heels to farm land animals, where's the music? the chuvannah aawards. but first, our washington speak for the day. quite effective, robust, strategic dialogue. >> a robust, nuclear triadd. >> it's not as robust. >> very capable and robust intelligence. >> not as robust as any that we have ever seen. he and i are having robust discussions. >> ah, robust. in a -- it's robusto. this seems to be en vogue. a buzz word in washington, d.c. yes, literally it means strong, healthy or hardy. >> used primarily to convey the rich and full bodied flavor of coffee. washington adopted this word, made it its own, used it and overused it to death. it's a crutch. >> all right. if -- >> your lexicon.

>> he will not use it again. if you would like us to clarify it or try to end a word. that's another idea. we can end the usage of a word. >> we will have a robust debate about the word here on "daily rundown." if you live for performance, upgrade to castrol edge advanced synthetic oil.

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22% approval rating on meg witman with no success, the campaign finally achieved it in 60 seconds in this tv ad. >> insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. >> insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for different results. >> i am in this office beholden to no one except you. >> i will hold my office to no one except you. >> running this thing more like a business. >> running this more like a business. >> what's the worst that can happen? >> what's the worst thing that can happen? >> well, some staffer spent a lot of hours poring or transcripts. >> they didn't make the connection -- >> in the final hour, dropped the ad. west virginia senate candidate joe manchin's dead aim. ran a series of hard-hitting ads, trying to tie him to president obama, so the west virginia democrat brandished a gun and shot the ever-unpopular

in coal country cap and trade energy bill, and he won the race. >> i'll take on washington and this administration to get the federal government off of our backs and out of our pockets. i'll cut federal spending, and i'll repeal the bad parts of obama care. i sued e.p.a., and i'll take dead aim at the cap and trade bill. >> wow. anyway, some of us thought that wasn't going to work. i didn't. but it worked. and finally, chuvannah watchers know, it's a show favorite. a fred davis special. we had to make it a nominee, right? >> of course. >> the demon sheep. >> a man who literally helped put the state of california on the path to bankruptcy and higher taxes. fiscal conservative? or just another same old tale of tax and spend, authored by a career politician who helped guide us into this fiscal mess in the first place. >> those little red beady eyes

just bore into your soul. and the chuvannah goes to -- will it be what everyone is expecting? no. >> no. wow, it is marisa tomei. no, it is joe manchin, dead aim. i'll tell you, because it actually flipped the race. it turned that race, you can't say it didn't. it caught everything. it suddenly made -- it visually gave him the chance to say i'm not obama. >> yep. second amendment remedies. to coin a phrase. coming up, the youtube sensations that left campaigns cringing. what goes up must come down. the nominees for the worst viral nominee in the next half hour. >> plus, a special tribute. plus, psycho analyzing the president. what can his 1995 biography tell us about the rest of the obama presidency? and after a quarter century behind the mic, late-night interviewing legend larry king signs off. we'll bring you some of the highlights. >> goodbye. but first, today's trivia question.

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see your cadillac dealer for this attractive offer. backed by the peace of mind that only comes from cadillac premium care maintenance. the season's best sales event. from cadillac. well, it's bottom of the hour now. let's see what's driving friday. >> president obama expected to sign that massive tax cut package into law. it will happen at 3:50 this afternoon at the white house. the measure cleared the house near midnight last night and now with the holiday break looming, the lame duck congress turns its attention to a slew of other issues, including the s.t.a.r.t. treaty, don't ask, don't tell and a shorter term bill to fund the federal government, known as a continuing resolution. to the, the alaska supreme court will hear joe miller's challenge to the results of his senate race with lisa murkowski.

miller's camp argues election workers should not have counted write-in ballots that misspelled senator murkowski's name. this is miller's final chance to make his case in state court. and more than 1,500 companies are offering a one had-day-only day. place your order before midnight tonight and get free shipping with delivery by christmas eve. a full list of participating merchants on freeshipping.org. pretty good deal. other stories making headlines this friday. u.s. officials on alert for threats to the u.s. and europe from al qaeda during this holiday season. the fbi and homeland security department sent a bulletin to state and local law enforcement reminding them to keep an eye out for suspicious behavior and to regularly change their security routines. officials have not released information, though, about specific threats. one day after a snowstorm socked washington, d.c. causing flight cancellations and delays and bad traffic, forecasters say more severe weather could hit sunday just as a lot of people

are gearing up for holiday travel. the storm is expected to move across the deep south and strengthen off the atlantic seaboard. on the west coast, parts of california could get several feet of snow, as well. and larry king hung up his us is penders for good last night, signing off after 25 years of cnn. the final installment featured an impressive roster of guests, including president obama who praised king's interviewing skills. king was emotional in his final signoff. >> i am -- i don't know what to say, except to you, my audience. thank you. and instead of goodbye, how about so long? >> boy, there was a time you just didn't miss 9:00. you didn't know whether it was in politics or sometimes he had some crazy interviews. i'll never forget some of them. one of them, just with -- when he would do a scandal and have the scandal person on. he would be quite fascinating. anyway. moving.

for the students of this presidency psycho analyzing, frankly any president of the united states is always a tricky task. just how do you get inside a president's had head? well, arm chair psychologists looking into president obama may want to look at his 1995 autobiography, "dreams from my father" for a few clues. >> as one writer put it, even graying pundits are forever young, get it? of course, that's a referenced to famed psychiatrist carl young and walter shapiro joins us now, politics daily.com and joins us to help us explain and psycho analyze the president. we all are forever young. we just love that line. look, a lot of folks have read this 1995 autobiography, but perhaps not recently. and you looked into it, and you found some examples of things you think are quite telling now. >> well, i'm the person -- i'm the failed political correspondent who didn't read it when everybody else was reading it in 2006 and 2007. filled with guilt, another

psycho anlytic term. i went back and read it now and just looked for clues, not about the overarching theme about the searching for his father, but about what it can tell us about his presidency. >> we're going to play some from the audio portion of his book. and let you give your take on it. here is the president on being strong. take a listen. >> if you can't be strong, be clever. and make peace with someone who is strong. but always better to be strong yourself. always. >> all right. your take on this? >> well, this was the advice that his indonesian stepfather gave him when he was 9 years old, and certainly if you can't be strong, be clever and make peace. certainly explains what obama has done since the election with john boehner and company. >> sure. >> but also is this is all part of a whole anecdote about how obama was taught to box by his indonesian stepfather. and every autobiography of a

boy, you box and you get beat up, get boxing gloves and go on the school yard and confront the bully. the story ends with obama taking boxing lessons. there is never in the entire book another reference to his getting into a fight. >> well, let's move on. there's another part in the book where the president talks about his distaste for slogans. let's take a listen. >> in classes and seminars, i would dress up these impulses in the slogans and theories i discovered in books, thinking, falsely, that the slogans meant something. >> so, all right. since we're psycho analyzing -- i mean, he's got a slogan or two of his own that, yes, we can being one of them. fired up and ready to go. but truly, i think what i understand your take to be is that this is -- president is not an i'd olog, no matter what people think. >> whether black nationalists, whether people in new york giving out marxist literature at a rally and arguing about

trotsky's place in history. and his attack on liberal true believers in his press conference seems to me to come right directly -- >> you mean the sank moanous line. >> the sank timonous line, exactly. because despite the fact the right wing thinks he's chavez reborn. if you read the book, he comes across as a cautious, centrist pragmatist. >> i want to read another excerpt you quote that you think does explain something on luck. the president wrote, i tried to explain some of this to my mother once, the role of luck in the world, the spin of the wheel. so the president sort of acknowledges that, you know, luck is a huge factor in all of this. >> if john kerry picked someone else to do the 2004 keynote address to the democratic party, barack obama would be a democratic senator vying for two minutes sound bites on, dare i say it, the show. but instead, he was lucky in that. the economy collapsed just as

john mccain was getting traction in 2008. and now the luck has come the other way. in the sense the economy has not gotten better and he's lost 63 house seats. but there is that sort of karmaic turn of the wheel. but i will say in obama's defense he was using this as sort of high school slacker druggy years and saying why bother work, mom, it will work itself out. >> exactly. it doesn't matter what you do. and the final one where you talk about protecting yourself, he says the first thing to remember is how to protect yourself. and what do you take away from this? i mean, one thing you might argue is that this is a president who does retreat into himself quite commonly. and is something of a loner. >> very much so. elsewhere in the book, he talks about how he considered other people as unnecessary distractions. i mean, there is -- and when he was in chicago, he talks about while i was alone on weekends with only my books for company. i mean, no president is a loner.

can you think -- even richard nixon, who hated other people. >> he supposed was a loner. >> spent his entire white house tapes talking about how much he hated them. he was garlous. >> when the president goes on vacation, he goes with the same group of people. >> well, and the wrap on the press see -- >> same group of 15 people he picks from. >> let's merely say that one -- if bill clinton wrote an honest boyhood autobiography, his years as a loner would not be part of it. >> would not be a chapter? >> all right. well, it's an interesting take on an old book, but worth reading again. >> suddenly made it. maybe it's time to download it. >> i know. to read again over the holidays. but that would be like working for us. >> obama 2.5. >> walter sha peero, thanks. let's do our trivia. which president slash grinch banned christmas trees in his home, even when he lived in the white house. walter, do you know the answer? >> i'll go with grover

cleveland. >> always a favorite. why not? no, it was teddy roosevelt. the conservist in him. roosevelt resisted the idea of chopping down a christmas tree as a waste of resources. his children sneaked one into the white house one year and decorated it anyway. and roosevelt eventually lifted his ban. well, there you go. all right. coming up next, we showed you the best. now it's time for the worst. >> the viral videos that made us cringe and replay and replay and replay. and of course ask, what were they thinking? and coming up this sunday on "meet the press," david gregory has an interview with vice president joe biden, this sunday on "meet the press." check your local listings, firsfirs. >> first, the white house soup of the day. coconut crab. >> the only upset about coconut crab, i can't stand coconut. the only up side, the song. it makes my daughter happy. it's a happy song. >> it feels like a summery soup.

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all right. the excitement is building and continuing. we're going to end the chuvannah awards. of course, that's chuck and savannah's picks for the highs and lows of politics 2010. did i really just refer to myself in the third person? we turn to the worst viral videos of 2010, the caught on tape moments that burned up youtube, left campaigns cringing and may have cost candidates elections. >> and the nominees are, sue louden's chicken gate, in the republican primary for senate, she neatly derailed her campaign when she said bartering with

chickens was the solution to the nation's health care problems and refused to back away, which was repriced in this democratic campaign video. >> you know, before we all started having health care in the olden days, our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor. doctors are very sympathy wick people. i'm not backing down from that system. >> bring a chicken to the doctor. bring a chicken to the doctor. bring a chicken to the doctor. >> sorry. >> do you want me to do this one? >> our next nominee, it was ken buck's high heels crack, colorado senate candidate. ken buck proved a shoot from the hip style wasn't always an asset with this joke about jane norton that fueled fund-raising against him for the general election. >> why should we vote for you? >> why should you vote for me? because i do not wear high heels.

i have cowboy boots. they have real [ bleep ] on them. as well as county [ bleep ], not washington, d.c. [ bleep ]. >> all right. final carl paladino's near brawl with a reporter, the new york gubernatorial candidate confirmed his crazy carl nickname, looking un00 jed in this shooting match with the "new york post's" fred dicker. >> you are stalking -- you're a stalking horse. you're his bird dog. you sent a daughter's house, i'll take you out, buddy. >> you'll take me out? how are you going to do that? >> watch. >> the chuvannah goes to. >> who will it be, chuck? >> we're giving it to carl and the paladino brawl. she may have beaten harry reid.

>> until the chicken dance. th we have a special moment, chuck. >> the chuvannah recognize that some people deserve an extra special award and that, in this case, goes to councilman phil davidson. lifetime achievement award for the ultimate viral awfulness. those of us who cover campaigns aren't going to forget this one any time soon. >> my name is phil davidson and i'm seeking our party's nomination for stark county treasurer. i have been a republican in times good and i have been a republican in times bad. drastic measures, yes! who said that? thank you! if nominated tonight, i will wip th this election and i'll say that until there is no

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as the chuvannah awards sadly come to a close. the best presidential joke of the year. >> you know what, there's not many of them and not every funny moment was intended. remember that terrible high and outside opening pitch in april, but here's a look at the president's successful, lighter moments. >> i am glad that the only person's whose ratings fell more than mine is here tonight. great to see you, jay. i happen to know that my approval ratings are still very high in the country of my birth.

it's kind of like a turkey version of "dancing with the stars." only one pair would survive and win the big prize, life. the jonas brothers are here. they're out there somewhere. sasha and malia are huge fans, but, boys, don't get any ideas. i have two words for you, predator drones. >> presidential humor. the chuvannah goes to -- >> that's an easy one. turkey pardon reality show. i don't think it was a written line. a chuvannah to the president for bringing a sense of humor to that presidential tradition. >> congratulations, mr. president. >> i know this goes right up there with the noble prize and, you know what, it is about as well deserved. >> we have to thank, deloit and

touch. >> thank you, for all the candidates who ran for office, without you, we would have no award shows. "chris jansing & company" are coming up next. have a great weekend. nobody in my family ever had a heart attack.

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