see what happens? on the broadcast tonight, things have changed. we are debuting new numbers from our exclusive nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. it's not good for the white house. coming to blows over saving the planet. a rough day in the streets while that global environmental summit es on. family ties. a holiday surpri for an american father in a long and bitter international custody battle for his son. making a difference. how a little guy who's had a tough life is teaching others how things might not be so bad after all. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. we are releasing new numbers here tonight that show what a

difference a year has made for a new president just shy of his first official anniversary in office. of course, there are plenty of problems to deal with at home and overseas, but now the president's popularity is an issue as it heads south. his first full winter in office is proving to be one of discontent. if the political left was in love with barack obama last year, there is strong evidence tonight that has changed. we begin with the new numbers from the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. with us our political director and chief white house correspondent chuck todd. >> reporter: by any measurement this has been a tough year for the country and by extension, a tough year for the president. coming into office, it was clear he was going to have to deal with a slew of problems from the financial crisis to two wars. the public was optimistic and hopeful about the country and its new president a year ago. that's not the case any more. on his first day in office, the

president was full of optimism. >> on this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear. unity of purpose over conflict and discord. >> reporter: the country responded and grew optimistic early on. now the pessimism is back. 55% believe the country is off on the wrong track. less than half, 47% now approve of the job the president is doing. down from 60% at that hopeful start of his presidency. this grading of the president is at odds with his own perception, which he shared with oprah winfrey last sunday. >> what grade would you give yourself for this year? >> good solid b plus. >> reporter: while 54% had confidence in president obama's goals and policies when he came into office, just 39% say the same thing now. much of the second half of 2009 in washington has been dominated by the health care debate. >> kill the bill!

>> reporter: and the longer this debate is going on, the more negative the public has turned. just 32% now believe the president's health care plan is a good idea. 47% say it's a bad idea. for the first time this year, more folks tell us it's better if the plan does not pass. 44%, than if it does pass, 41%. the lone bright spot, 55% supporhis decision to send 30,000 more troops to afghanistan. in november, before the president's west point and nobel speeches, fewer than half, 47%, had favored sending more troops in. despite finding common ground in afghanistan, the unity president obama called for in january is gone. when he took office, nearly half were optimistic that the two political parties would work together. >> you lie! >> reporter: looking back, 81%

believe 2009 was a year of division where neither party showed a willingness to compromise. last week the president acknowledged the problem. >> for decades we watched as efforts to solve tough problems have fallen prey to the bitterness of partisanship, to prosaic concerns of politics, to ever-quickening news cycles, to endless campaigns focused on scoring points instead of meeting our common challenges. >> reporter: brian, i can't emphasize enough how pessimistic the public is according to this data. 61% tell us america is in a state of decline. 66% have very little confidence that our children will be better off than we were. of course, all of this doom and gloom mindset is tied to one issue, the economy. >> chuck todd with the sobering numbers out tonight. chuck, thanks for that. now we switch to the big climate conference going on in copenhagen, as president obama gets ready to join leaders there from around the world. inside, things are a mess. there is still no agreement on a

plan of action or who will pay for it. secretary of state hillary clinton arrives tomorrow, will try to help push through some kind of a deal. outside the conference our chief environmental affairs correspondent anne thompn was right in the middle of what was happening in the streets. >> reporter: the frustrations of the last ten days explode on the streets of copenhagen. outside the bella center where negotiators haven't reached a climate agreement, 2,500 protestors try to storm the hall to make an impact. police in riot gear block their way, and the situation is qukly out of control. as the crowd advances, the police use pepper spray. batons, and seemingly desperate measures to restrain the crowd. >> this will be cleared by force. >> reporter: among the people dragged out, matt hammer from canada.

what did the police do to you? >> i was pulled up by the ears. i was pushed in the face. i was shoved to the ground. >> reporter: to regain control of the situation, police are using these vans to push the crowd away. then in front of these vans is a line of officers on foot. they keep pushing the demonstrators back. those that resist are detained. inside the hall, more turbulence. protestors disrupt meetings. the conference leader abruptly resigns and the gap of mistrust widens over how to reach an agreement. >> we need to have very just, very just process. >> reporter: of the key issues of emission cuts and money, there is still no deal, but there is hope on stopping the destruction of tropical forests like the amazon. today the u.s. pledged $1 billion to halt the practice in developing countries. now, everyone waits to see what else president obama can do when

he arrives friday. >> the president doesn't come to copenhagen to announce failure. he comes to announce success. >> reporter: the pressure is on and the whole world is watching. anne thompson, nbc news, copenhagen. as we continue our look at our world, iran today and its latest act of defiance says it test fired an advance missile capable of striking not only israel, but parts of europe, as well. it showed the test on state-run television. pentagon said the test didn't reveal anything new as far as they're concerned. the white house and leaders in europe condemned it and said it only worsens the tensions over iran's nuclear program. there is big news for an american dad who has been fighting across borders for five years now to get his son back. today an appeals court in brazil ordered that the boy, now 9 years old, be returned to his father by friday. as our chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell reports, this may not be the end

of this international custody fight. >> reporter: david goldman will be packing again tonight for another trip to brazil. he hopes his last before being reunited with his son sean. as he told nbc's jeff rossen. >> i have to preserve myself and my emotions. until we are on a plane and essentially until the wheels have landed back home, i only have one vision and that's just to save him and bring him back. >> reporter: goldman's ordeal began in 2004. sean, then only 5, went with his brazilian mother to visit her family in rio. she later died in childhood and the boy's stepfather refused to give him up relying on power allies in the legal system. >> it's very disturbing how they behaved throughout this process, and i thinthe court recognized that at long last. goldman's case went all the way

to the oval office. the president with meredith vieira last summer. >> i can only imagine how frustrating this must be for him. we have advised the brazilian government that we want to move this forward expeditiously and we want folks to abide by international law. >> reporter: in fact, experts say it's easy for countries to ignore the international child custody treaty because there is no history of sanctions. 62 children are in dispute in brazil alone. 2,800 worldwide. >> secretary clinton and the president himself have both raised this with their brazilian counterparts, so they deserve credit for that, but the whole system for returning these children to the united states is broken. >> reporter: tonight, the brazilian family has filed another appeal. and even if david goldman does get sean back this week, his supporters say there is no way to make up for the years he's lost with his son. andrea mitchell, nbc news, washington. the national transportation safety board today released new documents from the investigation

into that northwest airlines jet that flew past its destination airport back in october because of what was going on in the cockpit among the pilots. nbc's tom costello in washington with the new details on this story that just keeps getting more interesting. tom, good evening. >> reporter: this paints a picture of air traffic controllers failing to notify each other that flight 188 was out of radio contact for the better part of 30 minutes before denver and minneapolis controllers raised the red flag, alerting the airline and eventually the military. the crew was on the wrong frequency, on a canadian air traffic control channel, winnipeg, in fact, and didn't realize their mistake in the flight attendants called the cockpit and asked when they were landing. by then they had aeady overflown minneapolis. the pilot and first officer told investigators they were shocked and embarrassed they lost track of their flight while engrossed this hair laptop and the new systems. captain timothy cheney says, "there is no excuse. i let my guard down.

i wish i could explain why. this was only supposed to take ten minutes. i was wrong. i let another force come from the outside and distract me." the faa revoked each man's pilot's license and each man is appealing. >> tom costello, thanks. with 2010 coming up fast, the government is launching the massive effort that happens every ten years in this country to count everybody in the country. a hispanic community group caused controversy with a poster that's supposed to encourage participation in the 2010 census. based on a bible verse that suggests jesus was born during a census. some religious leaders and scholars say it shows a lack of respect and was out of line. census bureau says it played no role creating that poster whatsoever. all this part of what minority leaders said is an ongoing problem with the census, undercounting african-americans and hispanics. our report from nbc's john yang. >> are you having any pain here?

>> reporter: this year tens of thousands of african-americans and hispanics rely on this chicago clinic for their health care. how much federal money the center gets in the next decade depends a lot on next year's census. >> having an accurate census unt is critically important for us to be sure that we capture every single person who is eligible for health care services. >> reporter: historically the census undercounted minorities. in the 2000 census, an estimated 4.5 million people were missed. the census isn't just an academic exercise. it determines whether states gain or lose seats in congress and the results at the state and local levels dictate how at least $478 billion in federal funds are distributed. in washington african-american leaders met with top census officials. pressing for as accurate account as possible. >> what happens in this census is going to unt us or actually benefit us for the next 50 years.

>> reporter: as a result of the 2000 undercount, 31 states and the district of columbia aren't getting at least $4.1 billion they deserve over ten years, almost all of it for health care for the poor. next year's count faces special challenges. people have been displaced by foreclosures and immigrants might not trust government workers amid the crackdown on i'll lem immigration. >> these are often the same people who night be in need of social services. >> reporter: next year they launch a $300 million advertising campaign, much of it targeted to african-americans and hispanics urging them to fill out the forms. ♪ we need your participation ♪ for better schools and hospitals ♪ >> reporter: at the chicago health care clinic, they are getting the word out to see that the federal dollars get to where they are needed the most. john yang, nbc news, chicago. when our broadcast continues on a wednesday evening, unemployed americans facing another loss, a big one and why so many are scared over it. later, a big life lesson from a small guy who seems to consider himself lucky

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we have a story tonight about cobra. if you're out of work and need to stay insured, you know cobra just as millions do around the country in this bad economy. economic stimulus money has been helping people to pay for it, but now that subsidy is running out, leaving millions with new fears about taking care of themselves and their loved ones. our chief science correspondent robert bazell reports tonight from indiana. >> reporter: this is a typical midwestern small town. population 10,000. the unemployment rate is 15%, making health care a challenge for many people. st january, darwin moore had a job with health insurance as a truck driver. then trouble struck. >> i started having double vision. >> reporter: it was an aneurysm, an abnormal tangle of blood vessels in the brain. he was rushed for emergency

treatments that cost well over $100,000. because of the condition he could no longer drive and hasn't found other work. under cobra, he was allowed to keep buying his company insurance at full cost $1,200 a month. the stimulus package picked up 65% of people's cobra costs, but only for nine months ending now. cobra is paying you how much now? >> the cobra, we were paying $400 some a month for our family. as of this month it was going to be $1,200 a month. >> reporter: the moors simply can't afford that. nobody knows exactly how many americans are affected, but when the stimulus package passed the congressional budget office estimated that 7 million adults and their dependents would take advantage of the benefit. darwin's wife laura has a part time job with no insurance. with credit card debt they opened a thrift shop on main street. and managed to buy health insurance for laura and their two boys.

>> with darwin's pre-existing condition, he is pretty much classified as uninsurable. >> reporter: doctors say darwin needs check-ups to keep the aneurysm from bursting, but he is not getting them. >> i want to make sure my family is protected. it's my wife and kids i care about. >> reporter: congress is talking about extending the benefit. and the moors are trying to get medicaid, but if either effort succeeds, it won't be for months. until then, the family can only hope darwin stays healthy. robert bazell, nbc news, indiana. when "nightly news" continues in a moment, 2009, the person othe year. the man who beat the president, a speaker, a general and sprinter to the top. the man who beat the president, a speaker, a general and sprinter to the top. by changing her medicarepre. all we had to do was go to cvs.com and use the free savings calculator. we learned that changing your medicare part d plan could save an average of $612.

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the news is grim. officials there have called off the search. at this point, they say the odds of finding the climbers alive in the severe weather conditions on the mountain are virtually nil. roy disney died today at the age of 79. the nephew of walt disney whose father was a co-founder of the company, ran and revitalized the legendary animation department there. he also made a big impact on how the company was run as keeper of the flame, leading a shareholder revolt that ended at one point with ceo michael eisner's retirement back in 2005. the suspense is over for another year. "time" magazine named federal reserve chairman ben bernanke as its person of the year. he beat out general stan mcchrystal, the president, speaker of the house nancy pelosi and the jamaican sprinter

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we aren we are in the midst here of two straight weeks of making a difference reports. every night highlighting the ordinary people doing extraordinary things all around us every day. tonight's story is about an extraordinary dog and what he does for people. he's had a rough go in life. he hasn't had it easy. sometimes that's what it takes, as you may know, to remind others they don't have it so bad. our report tonight from the midwest and nbc's kevin tibbles. >> reporter: this little fellow's name is rudolph. happily named for the season, but more on that later. before marcia found him, rudolph spent the first year of his life in a puppy mill and four different homes. he is both blind and deaf

because of overbreeding. but he sure barks like an ordinary dog. marcia had extraordinary plans for him. >> i had a gut reaction that this dog that was a throw-away dog that was living in a cage, probably had a good use in life. this is rudolph. >> reporter: this little castaway teaches children about compassion and empathy. >> this is not a dog we feel sorry for. >> reporter: on this day, to fourth graders in bloomfield hills, michigan. >> like a reindeer we know. >> reporter: marcia wrote a book called "rudolph's nose knows." and uses it as a springboard for discussion. this pooch uses his nose to guide the way. a true story about potential with real life lessons. >> we just have to give people a chance. >> reporter: the teacher wants her students to realize their potential, too. rudolph is the perfect messenger. >> good things come in small packages.

powerful lessons come in small packages. >> reporter: she had her students write about what marcia and rudolph's visit taught them. >> just be yourself. >> just because someone is different doesn't mean you have to treat them differently. >> i wish i could have a dog like that. >> reporter: although marcia has a full-time job, she makes the time to bring rudolph to elementary schools. >> if i touched on 50 kids in a month and one of those kids who was a potential bully changes their mind because of rudolph, then i feel i did a good thing. >> reporter: rudolph the wet-nosed daschund may live in darkness, but he brightens each and every child he meets. kevin tibbles, nbc news, chicago. >> that is a good dog. tomorrow night, another making a difference report about a boy in texas who's found a way to make the holiday season a little brighter for other kids. for now, that's our broadcast for this wednesday night. thank you for being with us. i'm brian williams. as always, we hope to see you

back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com