i believe it is. take it away, chuck. have a great day, everybody. thank you, mika. diagnosis and prognosis, secretary sebelius tries to tamp down the uproar over the -- fix the glitches and get past talking tech trouble. but what is the bigger problem in washington? democrats and their health care blues? or the republicans and their suddenly 2014 trouble as highlighted by the bluegrass battle or that mitch mcconnell was fired by the left and the light. and a royal affair. all right, it's christening day for the newest member of the royal family. wait until you hear how many god parent this is little guy has. that's in our data bank, we're going to get a glimpse of the new prince this hour. it's wednesday, october 23, 2013, this is the daily rundown.

let's get to the first reads of the morning. white house damage control, day four now at this point? it continues under fire for her role in managing the health carcar car carolout. hhs secretary kathleen sebelius spoke out saying the white house didn't know about the website's problems until after its launch. >> i think it became clear fairly early on, the first couple of days. >> but not before that, though? before october 1, there was no concern at the white house or at hhs? >> i think that we talked about having testing going forward. >> sebelius offered something of a mea culpa, but would not offer reports that the administration ignored supposed red flags and she would not give any indication how many people have signed up for health insurance. >> people are enrolling every day.

not as maniy as we would like, not at the volume we would like and we will keep working on it until it's running as efficiently as possible. >> and it's perhaps the most significant and if you're in the white house, the most troubling statement of the day, that they're not coming in, the signups are not happening as fast as they would like. on tuesday the administration tapped former omb director jeff zions to lead the so-called tech surge. he's been their fix it guy in the past. there's an urging now at hhs to be brought in to fix this troubled site. but the handling of the health care roll youth has been -- >> this morning in san francisco apple unveiled a number of products, most notably the ipad air. apple said this ipad is the fastest and most vivid way to not be able to log on to the obama care website yet. >> this concern is starting to

hit close to home for the white house. democrats are getting restless. so the president appealed to some of his closest supporters in a video that he september to the ofa folks. team obama care, he called them and he tried to get these folks to get out in their communities to help people sign up for coverage. > >> by you now have probably heard that the website has not worked as smoothly as it was supposed to. we're going to get it fixed. it's important to remember, though, that the affordable occasion act is much more than a website. >> in the coming weeks, cabinet secretaries and white house officials are going to be hitting the road to try to sell enrollment in ten community where is they have the highest rates of uninsured, dallas, phoenix, tampa, miami, atlanta, northern new jersey, the metro area and detroit.

paul ryan became the latest republican to call for sebelius to step down. last night sebelius skirted questions about calls for her to resign. >> did you ever talk about resigning to the president? >> what i talked about is doing the job that i came here to do. this is the most important work i have ever done in my life. >> at this point now, would you consider resigning over this? >> i think my job is to get this fully implemented and to get the website working right. i work at the pleasure of the president, he is singularly focussed on making sure we deliver on this promise. >> for now nobody in the administration is talking about sebelius getting fired. the white house believes they have about three weeks to get this sight fixed. all right critics of the health care law are using the website's

technical problems to push delays to the so-called mandate. >> on the one hand you're telling people if they don't bye insurance next year, the irs is going to come back and issue a fine. what the bill would basically say is that the obama care website has to be up and functioning for six consecutive months before they can begin to enforce this individual mandate. >> guess what? there might be some democratic support for something like that. because it's not just republicans now expressing concern about the site's problems. in an open letter to the president. new hampshire democratic -- eng rollment period past march 31st, adding as website glitches persist, we are losing valuable time to educate and enroll people in insurance plans. she goes on to write, in light of the difficulties individuals may be having with enrolling in

healthcare.go healthcare.gov--jeanne shaheen by the way, up for re-election in 2014, not a coincidence she would be doing it the way she did with that open letter. so the president's trying to downplay the -- officials-it could have a real impact on people under the ages of 40 to sign up. the whole idea for the website's push is to make it easier for folks to make the exchanges work. deb by wasserman schultz compars the democratic committee. senator jeanne shaheen, the letter that she wrote to the president, democratic senator running for president in 2014, in new hampshire, somewhat of a swing state. do you agree with her concerns

and do you want to see the white house consider extending open enrollment and perhaps delaying at least the penalty phase of the mandate? >> the president, let's make it clear, shares those same concerns. he made that very clear yesterday in the press conference that he did that he has focused on making sure that we have a tech surge of expertise to get that website in proper working order so that more people can more easily get on and comparison shop, which is the intention of the website. and so the president is very committed and focused on making sure that those glitches and bugs are resolved so that we can get people signed up for coverage. and at the end of the day, though, the folks that have been able to -- there have been, really millions of people, i think we're at 20 million people in the first two weeks that went on to the website. they have been able to move around and compare plans and, chuck, i have got a number of people in my district who have

previously been either uninsured or priced out of being able to afford coverage who have now been able to afford it and i can talk to you about those examples. but we have got to keep looking forward. >> but the issue right now, the folks that are signing up, and the concern is that the folks that are signing up are people that have been priced out of the market and they finally have this ability and they will walk on broken glass to get affordable health insurance. the issue seems to be if you don't have a working website, it's the young invincibles who you need to make the numbers work and they're the ones that seem to be pushed away. >> just for example, i have got a 29-year-old young man in my congressional district who previously was not able to get insured, and he was able to get on the website, make the comparisons, apply for coverage and was able to get a plan that will be about $320 a month. so it's not just the people who

are on -- in desperate straits, it's real people who should have coverage, who deserve affordable coverage and who deserve to be able to make sure that the website is up and running effectively and that's why the president is pushing hard and has really made sure that everyone who is within the sound of his voice understands that they have got to get those kinks ironed out. but what we should not be doing is calling for people's heads and focusing on what the republicans have been hell bent on is delay, repeal and stop americans from getting affordable health care coverage. republicans have never supported quality health care for everyone and they never will. we're going to keep pressing forward to make sure that we can ease the ability for people to make sure that that health care option is available to everyone. >> i want to go back to the

first question i asked, you didn't answer specifically on what jeanne shaheen is calling for, that if these glitches aren't fixed in a timely manner, and everybody i have talked to in the administration says timely manner is getting this website up and truly running by december 1, should there be an extension to open enrollment? >> there should absolutely be an openness to extending the open enrollment period. i don't think there's anything wrong with that. >> without the penalty? >> i think getting -- giving people as much opportunity to get coverage and if we can extend the open enrollment period and make sure that we can continue to move forward with implementation, that's the goal. the goal is to give people the time they need to shop arrange, to make the comparisons, to get covered and to nak sure that when it comes to their health, they can focus on staying well. >> you're going to be participating -- you're going to be getting an update, a briefing by hhs, congressional democrats

are. apparently congressional republicans aren't. is they a mistake? >> i'm not aware that congressional republicans aren't getting an update. perhaps they have chosen not to have an update. but what we need congressional republicans to do is to work with us, find -- let's achieve some common ground here. let's all agree that obama care, the affordable health care act is settled law, as problems arise, let's work together to iron those out. but to stop the gridlock and the polarization and the willingness to shut the government down in the name of stopping obama care and, you know, in just a couple of months you've got ted cruz and mike lead and marco rubio who are saying you know what? we might need to do that again. that would be unacceptable. we have the go to stop the gridlock and make sure that question can fully implement

everybody getting able to get affordable health care. all right up next, a west wing mystery has finally been solved. meet the national security staffer fired for tweeting under a fake name for years. we'll tell you how long he was publicizing insults and insider info. . and senator john mccain at the site of his party's civil war, labeled a liberal by liz cheney, sparring with ted krusz scruz supporters. just another day in the life of john mccain. and the daily planner, talk about something that a few years ago was a huge deal. see what that conversation is about today. all sorts of wrap ups on afghanistan. but of course what tonight is, game one of that world series that i can't watch anymore.

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time now for my daily rundown data bank of numbers that i'm into today. just a few numbers you need to know for the day. who knows? you might find them useful. in a tight spot or simply as a way to get free drinks at a bar tonight. up today, 33 months, that's how

long white house staffer joseph -- daily beast josh rogan broke this and reports that joseph's tweets called senior who is adviser valerie jarrett that was -- joseph told politico in an e-mail, quote, what started out as an intended parody account developed over time as inappropriate and mean-spirited comments. i bear complete responsibility for this affair and i sincerely apologies to everyone i insulted. he's married to a former public relations staffer. next up, three, that's how many florida politicians got an uninvite e-mail to the memorial service for the late congressman bill young. guess who sent the e-mail? it was big young's widow. people are capitol hill are very familiar with big young's widow,

she's shall we say quite the character. the tampa bay times said the list included charles crist, whom mrs. young said has a history of transparent attempts to manipulate the public arena and she didn't want her husband's memorial service to be a place for that. r next up, 11 that's the percentage of the republican voters that are being polled on the virginia's race. in all total means he's getting 10% of the overall vote. democrat terry mcauliffe leads overall. next up, 1,300, that's how many cracks and trouble spots officials say need fixing on the capitol dome. so the washington monument is going to get some scaffolding company in the next few months as nearly $60 million in repairs happen over the next couple of

years to the capitol dome. and finally, seven, no they're not changing the royal baby's name to that. that's how many god parents have been assigned to young prince george making you wonder how folks are feel whog didn't make the cut. this means you, king ralph. it's a live look in london where we're expecting to see the royal family arriving shortly for the official christening of prince george. who was president the last time there were three generations of heirs in line for the british throne? the first to tweet @chuck todd will get the shoultout. time for "your business" entrepreneurs of the week. lois holings worth owns store on main street? east greenwich island. they're attracting -- extended hours and live product demos.

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today, and tomorrow. we're going beyond insurance to become your partner in health. humana. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for her, she's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with her all day to see how it goes. [ claira ] after the deliveries, i was okay. now the ciabatta is done and the pain is starting again. more pills? seriously? seriously. [ groans ] all these stops to take more pills can be a pain. can i get my aleve back? ♪ for my pain, i want my aleve. [ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap. well the polls have shown that americans hated the shutdown and they blame congress, mostly republicans for the impasse. but some tea party challengers are betting those polls are wrong or they're not polling

just republicans. nowhere is that more true than in the state of kentucky where the senate republican leader who helped strike the bipart stan bargain is facing og -- primary won't be held until may, but already this race has become a microchasm of the republican party and a huge drooid divide among the two factions, mcconnell's challenger agreed with some republicans who doubted there would be a default. >> there was no threat of default and as often is the case in washington there are these faux crises, whether it was this recent one, many of these things are chicken little the sky is falling when that is not the case. >> joining me is correspondent john harwood who conducted that interview in louisville. trying to figure out how real this is, john, you've been covering politics a long time. how real is matt beven's

campaign and can he actually beat mcconnell other than just bruise him? >> reporter: don't know if he can beat him. but i've got to tell you, chuck, i have seen a lot of first-time candidates before, the first-time candidates have been good. this guy has some skills, he's likable, he's very intelligence, he'll well spoken, he could make some trouble for mcconnell. he is a numbers guy, because he's an investment executive, he's focussed on $17 trillion u.s. debt. not so much on the polls, in fact he's a little bit more interested in the length of time people applauded for ted cruz when he went back to texas after making his stand against obama care. here's more on matt bevin. >> i understand exact pli what polls are telling us, but you

have to look at the source of those. i also see that the very man who supposedly was responsible for this hurting, just received an eight-minute standing ovation when he went home to his state, the people that said, this is not a state that's unrepresentative of how people believe in this country. the fact is the american people want men and women to stand up and represent them and to put their interests ahead of the party interests. >> reporter: now, chuck, the mcconnell campaign has dubbed him bail out bev vin because his family got some aid after a fire. gandhi says first they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then you win. >> and it's six excruciating months of a primary battle. in the meantime, allison grooims, the democratic nominee to be, just sits over there,

collects money and watch this is happen. do you sense that democrats are going to try to play in this primary knowing that bevin might be an easier general target that mcconnell? >> it wouldn't surprise if he democrats decide to put some money behind it. he could put in some of his own money, he says he doesn't want to do that, because that ee's t way you build grass roots support. it wouldn't surprise me if they do that. al cross, a long-time kentucky political analyst you and i both know, told me that brevin canno win the primary, but what he can do is siphon away enough conservative support to beat mcconnell in the general. that's something we're going to have to wait and watch. >> john harwood, i remember a lot of people seven months out didn't think ron paul could win a primary.

>> reporter: he said kentucky is going to catch lightning in a bottle a second time. >> john harwood on the ground giving a little inside scoop there. we're seeing this division among republicans in other parts of country, too. john mccain had to deal with a tough crowd in phoenix last night. let's bring in our wednesday gaggle. former pennsylvania congressman patrick murphy. kriste kristen, let me play the mccain bite for you, mccain being mccain, a ted cruz supporters -- >> we know what ted cruz stands for and that is the shut youp of the government. >> no, he stands for us. i have to disagree with you. >> i want to make my point. >> i who fought and they weren't even members of the senate, fought for 25 days against obama care, so i'll take a back seat

to nobody who fought against obama care. but i'm an old military guy. i know when a mission can succeed and i know when it can't. and it couldn't succeed. >> that was liberal john mccain that was having this conversation. this split in the party, it schemes as if mitch mcconnell is on the john mccain school of thought on this, which is be a little more aggressive in sort of marginalizing some of these folks. >> there's a really interesting interview that chris sal liz a did with republican candidate mike murphy that i thought was fascinating, it was between the math met tigss and the priests. i see the math behind for instance things like the shutdown not being the way to actually get obama care out of the picture. and on the other hand you have the priests, the people who say if only we would have more faith, if only we could fight

the big fight we could start winning these battles. it is the problem that we're not pure enough and that we need to therefore fight harder to achieve our goals or is the problem that we need to fight smart tore achieve our goals? >> they have to have this out. it seems that there isn't a -- while obama's got tech surge going on to try to fix his potential political disaster in the healthcare.gov rollout. >> just today "the washington post" has a story about mike lee, back in his district, one of the most outspoken senators on this shutdown. but mike lee's facing a potential primary on his own, he may have won tea party support, but he's angered some of the business community and some of the long-time folks who have raised money for him. you have that playing out in both ways which i think is interesting. >> so are democrats going to make this unholy alliance with

the business community? >> he's got support with the business community. >> some of these wall street republican donors right now are skitting on the sidelines. the best way to get a republican. >> -- look at what that shutdown just cost. 120,000 private sector jobs lost. $26 billion besides the 800,000 people that were furloughed and the military families that lost loved ones that didn't have the military dearth benefit. this has played out like a broken record. it played out in the last presidential election when mitt romney went to the right, never did go back to the center and got beat bad. and the house republicans lost eight seats. so they didn't learn a lesson, they obviously did not read the memo of the last election. i understand that in 2010 they had their heyday, i was a

casualty of that. the tea party isn't the answer. >> kristen, it's interesting that the last time if you look at '98 to 2000. and you had this tension, nervousness mooning outside d.c. republicans about how republicans were running the house. house republicans didn't lose control of the house, but they somehow didn't win seats, they lost seats and it helped bush unite the establishment and kind of hold off the conservatives. is that scenario possible where the tea party takes the blame for the 2014 debackal and the -- >> you can take a look at this recent shutdown and say there's a lot of people assigning blame to the tea party. >> ted cruz will say, hey, this is a failure because mcconnell and didn't -- >> we have not had the consistent si on why which lost the shutdown debacle. if there's no agreement on why we lost, then there can't be an agreement on how we move forward.

>> go back to mcconnell, it's unbelievably unpress tented to have a fight like that on the republican party. >> harry reid -- >> in some way they're -- he did step in to help end that shutdown, but he was taking kind of a tough position. >> we're going to take a pause her, because, you know, i've got the little royal baby to show. you're live, here we're, that's st. james palast in london, the archbishop of canter bury who's not in that truck, will be cristeninging the prince. the duke and duchess are expected to arrive any minute now, with their son who's hardly been seen in public since his birth three months ago. the prince's god parents, a motorcade is going to be needed for all the god parents will be arriving shortly as well. we learned this morning that

george's god parents will be -- william and kate are breaking with tradition by holding a small ceremony at st. james palace. this ceremony is scheduled to beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern. next up a deep dive into the best possible solution that currently exists to partisan gridlock. plus some scientific proof that folks in washington, d.c. are the least agreeable people in the country. you already knew it, now we get to pro-it with science, just one of the gems in a new study mapping the mood of america. you're watching "the daily rundown" on nns. msnbc. thrusters at 30%! i can't get her to warp.

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we've got allstate, right? uh-huh. yes! well, i found this new thing called... [ dennis' voice ] allstate quickfoto claim. [ normal voice ] it's an app. you understand that? just take photos of the damage with your phone and upload them to allstate. really? so you get [dennis' voice] a quicker estimate, quicker payment, [normal voice] quicker back to normal. i just did it. but maybe you can find an app that will help you explain this to your...father. [ vehicle approaches ] [ dennis ] introducing quickfoto claim. just another way allstate is changing car insurance for good. we have done plenty of diagnosis on the disease that's poe larized -- a deep dive into the type of election that rewards candidates with cross overappeal. here's the problem wright now. it's that in a huge number of

congressional districts, they're either solid blue or solid red. therefore the consequential races are the primaries and in those races the die hard extremists are most likely to vote. that means the candidate who is likely to win appeals to the far wing of one of the two parties. the general elect shung is frankly an after thought. some of these places you don't even get the opposing party to file a candidate. how do you fix is that problem if you can't change the map lines and can't change that aspect? one idea is to institute what's known as a top two system or a jungle primary. under that system, all the candidatings run in the same primary regardless of party. and the top two who gain the most votes advance to a general election. in addition voters who can volt for whoever they like, they aren't restrained by their own party affiliation. this system weakens the parties that can no longer narrow the

field and strengthening voters. so the winning candidate under this -- they have to appeal to a wider field, including moderates and even voters on the other side of the aisle. the system in already in place in california and washington state. voters in montana are going to decide on a referendum to install their version of a top two system. democrats in california -- republicans faced off republicans in two of those districts. in june of 2012, i talked to brad sherman, the eventually winner of the vernon, california district to get these thoughts on this top two process and how it's going to work. >> i like the idea that this decision, which will really determine who represents the west san fernando valley perhaps for decades to come is goings to be made for over 300,000 voters

voting in november. under the old system it would have been made by 70,000 or 80,000 voting in democratic primary in june. i think every kind offensi vote democrat, republican and independent ought to be part of this system. >> according to the national journal, washington state democrats like adam smith and radiculick larsen and dave rike rank in the middle of the pack. so here's -- to sort of put this in plain english, the top democrats with -- in november where all voters showed up, so here's a 70% obama performing district, essentially. but the swing vote was republicans and they both had to appeal to the republicans

t.a.r.p. volt is what- >> how wart brought in john mccain and -- brad sherman -- they appealed to those other 30%. you take a look at when somebody like jim mcdermott retires in seattle, if you're a democrat, one of the 7,000 democrat who is's going to run for that seat, how do you break out? you appeal to the -- >> so this is a huge democratic district, two democrats are going to facing off. but -- >> who were soft obama voters or who voted for mitt romney, the 16% who did. that's a great way to peel off the 5 or ten points to put yourself above everything. >> washington's being done this for a longtime and california, 2012 is the first time they did it. we had some republican on republican, democrat on democrat. and we don't know yet, right, it's going to probably take a

decade to find out, does the entire california delegation essentially shift to the center? >> yes. and as a matter of fact, a lot of the political science disagrees with this based on louisiana and the history of how they are sort -- this is not a moderate delegation. >> arguably this is a one party state. >> it's not a moderate delegation, but that's why. a lot of the problem with part san ship that we have talked about the money that has flowed into politics is because the parties are weaker now than they have ever been. the whole idea of the blanket primary was sfruk gown by the supreme court in an effort by the parties to reassert themselves. this is the end run around that law that makes the parties even weaker. so this essentially makes the parties the weak else they can possibly be. they just say which party they prefer.

one g >> montana doing this, i'm sorry, big deal. but montana has been a pretty competitive state, it's a one congressional districts state. why should it matter? >> it's a big deal because john tester has won election to the u.s. senate twice with less than 50% of the vote because there's been a libertarian on the ballot. that is actually driven by republicans in montana because they want a democrat-republican heads up matchup. if denny rayberg and john tester were the only two names on the ballot last november, does rayberg actually pull it off? >> the state legislatures themselves woblt do it. >> yeah. >> it has to be in referendum states or state where is you can do the constitutional amendment. so texas, new york, forget about it. other states, if you had florida and california, two of the four largest delegations do this,

then you could start seeing an impact on capitol hill. >> you could see places like oregon and ohio start to do this. people really like their voting systems. washington state had this very long-term blanket primary system when it was struck down, the initiative to re-establish the top two system was passed by an overwhelming majority. so people like their voting systems. i think it's going to be really hard to change other systems in other states. >> you basically need one party to feel that they have been -- it was moderate republicans in california that really pushed this initiative in california. it would have to take for instance democrats in florida to feel like their gerrymandered out of the system. reed wilson, you're the manage. thank you sir. up next, kennedy legacy, 50 years after president kennedy signed the mental health act,

patrick kennedy joins me next. white house soup of the day, mushroom misho. we'll be right back. [ unr ass people like to pretend a flood [e could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk.

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♪ [ male announcer ] old el paso frozen entrées. now in freezers. it's been 50 years since president kennedy signed what was called the community mental health act. laying the foundation for moderate mental health in -- an initiate tifr to advocate for those with mental illness. congressman kennedy, good morning to you. i want to start with, you've been a big advocate of this for quite some time. your family has been behind this for years. i have to say, we look -- and here we are, 50 years removed and we're still trying to deal with the stigma of mental health

why we in sort of society to accept it and let alone health insurance policies deal with it in the same way they would deal with a physical problem? >> that's right, chuck. well, chuck, what makes this even more urgent is that our returning heroes from iraq and afghanistan have suffered the signature illness of the word that's traumatic injury and post-traumatic stress. but we still refer to these wounds as invisible. that really goes to the heart of this. is that people do not see mental illnesses as physical illnesses. they think it's a matter of character not chemistry. but what you're talking about, chuck is the rain and the brain is an organ of the body. it's aronnic that -- passed and that said that you have to treat

the brain like any other organ of the body. and that sounds so simple. but insurance companies kind of play on the discrimination that's already out there, because when you're denied treatment for addiction or an eating disorder or any kind of psychosis, you go the other direction because you don't want to appeal because you feel bad enough as it is. now the tragedy in all this, chuck is that the people who are now suffering this discrimination are our veterans because 72% of our veterans, they're never going to go to the va. they're going to get their health care through the private insurance marketplace. so chuck, the need for us to get a good final rule, i mean implementation for regulation ask crucial. that's why tonight, we're really excited to look forward to hearing from hhs secretary sebelius and vice president biden on how the obama administration is going to work to fulfill john f. kennedy's

vision that we do not treat brain illnesses any differently than any other physical illness. >> what rule do you need make sure health insurance companies starting january 1st do treat the brain like an organ? >> we need public disclosure, chuck. so your job is to find out and analyze. you can't analyze unless you have the information. we will need to know how insurance companies make medical necessity decisions so that we can compare the way they treat someone with bipolar disorder and adixdiction to someone with diabetes and cancer. now, you look at all these recent shootings. the underlying fact is the person doing the shooting had a diagnosable mental illness for a long time. but we don't treat these illnesses and that's part of our problem, chuck. i believe that if we start to treat them like other physical illnesses and that means early intervention, chuck, i think we can avoid a lot of these tragedies and save those who are suffering from these illnesses.

>> patrick kenkennedy, thank yo for your work on this. we'll keep following it and keep giving more air time to this. it's pretty important and needs to be done. thank you, sir. trivia time. william mckinley was the president the last time there was three generations of heirs in line for the british throne. that was from 1894 until her death when queen victoria reigned. congratulations to today's winner. there you go. send your trivia suggestions to daily rundown@msnbc.com. we'll be right back. when we made our commitment to the gulf, bp had two big goals: help the gulf recover and learn from what happened so we could be a better, safer energy company. i can tell you - safety is at the heart of everything we do. we've added cutting-edge technology, like a new deepwater well cap and a state-of-the-art monitoring center, where experts

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we are waiting to see if we're going to see the queen, queen elizabeth, arrive any minute now for her great grandson's christening.

you've got kate there, parents, siblings. prince george's christening is scheduled to begin in just a few minutes. oh, there she is, the queen wearing lovely blue this morning. prince philip looking healthy after he's had some health bouts this year. so there you go. everybody has made it. great grandma is there and some more. we've got seven different god parents. there's prince charles there in the background. the whole shebang. camilla, everybody there greeting, greeting the matriarch of the family. all this begins, st. james palace at 10:00 is when the christening happens. oh, look! there he is. prince george in his christening -- there it is, four generations, four potential queens and kings in that little shot right there.

very traditional. we don't have information if this is the same christening gown that maybe his father wore before his grandfather. it's a replica gown, i'm told, for the christenings that were done for prince william and for prince charles. this one was made by the queen's tailor. all right, kristen, you said to me you always wanted to be a royal correspondent. you get to do this. i mean this is -- if you love following the royal family, this must be an amazing moment for you to be eavesdropping in on. >> it is, it is. this is so exciting. the royal family in the u.k. has had some turbulent years and it's just kind of nice to see that they have reached this point where everything -- every time you hear about them, it

always seems to be something happy, something wonderful, an occasion like this. >> will and kate is single handed lly saving the image of e royal family. >> they need it after what they have been through the last couple decades. i was wondering if you could give us a breakdown on the hats, between kentucky and now this on your show. >> a lot of blue. just 22 guests, a very small ceremony. once again, will and kate doing everything in a very sort of -- as constrained as you can be for being a royal -- member of the royal family. >> let me say prince george hopefully will follow his father and uncle's footsteps and go into the military. >> i'm sure they will. i'm going to hand off to my partner, a little live handoff, chris jansing. that was a neat moment to eavesdrop there on four potential kings and queens, all just standing there in a circle as the youngest heir to the throne is officially christened.

miss jansing, the floor is yours. >> thank you very much, mr. todd. it's the first time we've seen him in three months since prince george was born and we were all standing outside the hospital waiting for him to make his first royal appearance. who does pomp and circumstance better than the british? do we have -- maybe we've run a roll on that tape and we can turn it around, but of course prince george will one day be king, baptized today by the archbishop of kacanterbury. this has been a couple that has broken with tradition throughout, will and kate, and this is no exception here. a little known chapel at the st. james palace was the setting for the royal christening today. and seven god parents. none of them family members. no pippa, for example. but they are will and kate's former private secretary, jamie pinkerton, because you have to have a hyphenated name, of course. a number of people that are friends from their school days

and also described as a close personal friend of the late princess diana. kensington palace issued a statement. of those names, earl grovener, julia samuel, william van cutsome. among those that we saw, the queen, prince philip, the prince of wales and camilla and of course the prince is a grandfather for the first time. the dutchess of cornwall there, prince harry of course was there and the middleton family as well, carol, michael, pippa and james. so a small group, 21 people, and officially now the young baby, the 3-month-old baby who will be king, george, is a member of the church of england. good morning, i'm chris jansing. there is a lot of other news going on today. by the way, much later on in the show, one of our royal watchers will join us to talk more about the prince today. but what's going on