it's another great day here in chuck-topia. chuck-topia?!out what happens next? you won't have to feel antsy for too long. now that we've shown you part one, we have an obligation to show you part two. so don't miss the next exciting episode of "chuck-topia"! kidding. "word girl"! ♪ word girl hello, i'm beau handsome, and this is... "may i have a word"? as usual, the player who correctly defines today's featured word will win a fabulous prize! let's play... "may i have a word"? yes, you may! today's featured word is binoculars. to give you a clue, here are some clips from "word girl" that show the meaning of the word. tommy! give it a shot! binoculars are a device used to make things that are far away look bigger like tobey was doing in that last clip. that's correct! tobey's binoculars are very similar to the pair i use when i go bird watching. i'm organizing a trip this weekend. would any of you like to come? imagine sitting motionless in the middle of a field completely silent, waiting to get a quick glimpse of a bird that may or may not

[applause] >> chuck is so modest. i always say and i made it for my heart, it's such a privilege to be a partner of his. everybody i think takes that it's a privilege because he's with the rolling stones. that's only an advantage when you're looking for tickets and stuff. last night but from a spiritual and human standpoint, it's totally different reasons. it's because he is the greatest guy in the world and really just a great partner. i told you is going to tell the story. you still don't mind? when i talk about modest, and because even though it's totally untrue and i've been accused of just yelp that so i can recognize opposites attract. but in terms of modesty, i must say chuck called me several months ago when he said hey, i'm going to be in town. she once had lunch? said the outcome on media owns. so we were about having lunch and i see this guy at the reception area anyways and it's an older man who is being retired and was a friend of mine years ago. of course it wasn't, you know i don't think. but anyway he

i'm chuck todd in tonight for chris matthews. leading out of tonight, is newt still the front-runner? the roller-coaster ride that's been the republican nomination fight has been even wilder this week. on monday, the question was, how strong was newt gingrich going to get? after the final iowa debate last night, the question has to be asked, is it really fair to even refer to gingrich as "the front-runner." mitt romney, at least for this 24-hour period, seems to be embracing that inevitability campaign again. gingrich, who was probably disappointed romney chose not to tobacco h attack him last night, instead had to fend off those behind him in the polls. the race has been so unpredictable that one poll has had five leaders in its last five surveys. the final stretch at the top of the show. >>> plus, newt is certainly what military strategists call a target-rich environment. we'll take a look at some of the nastier things republican establishment types have been saying about newt. hoping to knock him off before president obama get

chuck e cheese slammed by the u.s. department of labor. good morning, i'm marla tell less with that story coming up. >>> san francisco will announce charges today against two former city employees. >>> a live look outside from the east bay this morning. looks like traffic is picking up. we'll check with mr. pro, mike inouye in just seconds. it's wednesday, december 14th, "today in the bay." >>> good morning. thanks so much for joining us. 6:30 right now. i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> good morning everyone. i'm jon kelley. let's check back in with meteorologist christina loren to find out how cold it's going to be and for how long. >> this is the last morning where we'll see near record lows. that's the good news. we have rain showers moving in as of tomorrow. make sure to give yourself plenty of time to reach your destination safely. temperatures very, very cold. we're watching for frost, icy conditions through the north bay, the east bay as well this morning. by noon you'll be in the 50s, 5:00 p.m. as you make your way home from work, getti

chuck e cheese. where a kid can be a kid. according to the department of labor the under age employees were doing work reserved for grownups. >> you would think they would have taken a proactive step to make sure that the minors they employed were not performing hazardous work that could injure them. >> investigators found that nine bay area chuck e cheeses from fairfield to cupertino violated the fire labor standard act by allowing teenagers to use the dome mixer and trash pact. >> they could have been hurt as a result of operating the equipment. >> chuck e cheese was forced to pay $28,000 in fines and took steps to the make sure the under age workers don't have access to the dangerous equipment and they will educate the staff so this won't happen again. her dad will take her to her favorite place. part of the joy of bringing her here is gone. she will love it so we will come for her birthdays. but it does alter my view a little bit that it's not a safe place for the high school students, primarily high school students worki

chuck? >> i think there's too many people on this come on the government take, and i'm afraid the balance is already tipped to and when the balance is already tipped they are going to be voting for. >> globalization to the extreme but when the times change its a real big picture that i have. >> i'm not really sure if the downward trend is one of the time periods. it may be because my age i haven't been around that long to see the light think it could go either way. >> what are you thinking? >> the global economy is up there and foreign policy worries me that we are too will link to spend money year after year after year. >> let me ask you a slightly different question. >> and i was ready for this one. [laughter] >> to go for it. >> i'm worried but i'm an optimist. i think if we look to the history of the united states from the time it was formed we will see that it goes up, it goes down, it goes up, it goes down. >> so chris, i will put it to you and the question slightly different what is t

chuck joins us now from des moines. good evening, chuck. >> reporter: good evening, lester. for the entire year the question hanging over the republican race is who is the alternative to mitt romney? today we spent the day with the once surging newt gingrich who days ago looked like he locked up the anybody but romney slot but was now struggling. newt gingrich now acknowledging his slipping status in iowa making the case that a close fourth could be enough. what do you have to do here in iowa? >> you have to be in the top three or four. >> reporter: you have to win iowa or new hampshire? >> and south carolina. every single one. >> reporter: for gingrich it's about trying to become the lone alternative to mitt romney, and romney is doing everything he can to keep the former speaker down here. today a telling exchange over romney's health care mandate. >> i knew he supported the plan in the past, and i believe he supported it until he got into the race this year. maybe before that he changed his view. >> it's amazing that everybody, heritage foundation, newt gingrich, everybod

i'm chuck todd. to my first reads of the morning, according to the new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll, two leading republicans have one thing in common, electability problems. mitt romney's political action committee is spending millions of dollars in iowa to send the message that newt gingrich will have a problem beating the president. >> why is this man smiling? because his plan is working. brutally attack mitt romney and hope newt gingrich is his opponent. why? newt has a ton of baggage. >> the ad may be on to something. gingrich may have convinced republicans that his baggage is old news, but he's still got a long way to go with the political middle. in october 1998, the last tumultuous month of his speakership, 27% of the public had a positive view of gingrich compared to 46% with a negative view. 13 years later, after he was chased out of the speakership, gingrich's rating barely better, 25% now view him positively and 40% negatively. despite, that gingrich has surged to become the stronge

elizabeth cook shows us why the bay area chuck e.cheese's were making underage workers do -- what they were making underage workers do. >> reporter: today, anastasia's 6th birthday. she wanted to celebrate at her favorite place. >> and they sang happy birthday to me. >> reporter: chuck e. cheese. their slogan is, where a kid can be a kid. but according to the department of labor, the underage employees were doing work strictly reserved for grownups. >> so you think that, you know, they would have taken a very proactive step to make sure that the monitors they employed were not performing hazardous work that could potentially injure them. >> reporter: investigators with the department of labor found that nine bay area chuck e. cheese's from fairfield to cupertino violated the fair labor standards act by allowing the employees under the age of 18 to operate the trash come factors and -- compacters and dough mixture. >> they could have been hurt or fairly injured as a result of operating the hazardous equipment. >> reporter: chuck e. ch

well, you just heard what chuck said. neither of the republican candidates look all that good to the american public. three flawed candidates. >> now, are you talking about a potential entry for a third party this year being a ripe possibility? >> well, as bill mcinturff, my co-partner, he says, expect the unexpected. one of the unexpecteds is expect a third candidate in the race, and to make a substantial difference. that will help president obama. >> david gregory, there's a very energized right word facet of the republican party out there. what's fuelling it, and what manifestation could we see? >> well, the tea party sentiment. the tea party sentiment is driving the sentiment of the conservative base. and that's where newt gingrich does well. and that's where romney is coming up short. what peter and chuck is describing is something we don't exactly know yet, in terms of what's happening inside the republican party. they're rejecting the establishment candidate, and they're going back to a guy who 13 years to the day

thank you, chuck. >> okay. >>> back in our headlines now. police asking for public's help in identifying a person they believe could be connected to the brutal assault of an elderly prince george's county county woman. this happened early friday morning at the woman's home on drummond avenue. they see the person walking near the scene at about 6:12 a.m. prince george's county police say the suspect broke into the woman's home and viciously beat her leaving her in critical condition. she sustained bleeding in her brain. broken eye socket and a broken nose. >>> former house speaker newt gingrich and texas governor rick perreal not be included in virginia's republican primary. both men failed to collect the required 10,000 signatures of registered voters before the deadline last thursday. a spokesman for gingrich said earlier today that they'd be launching an aggressive write-in campaign. virginia doesn't allow write-in candidates, though, on primary ballots. former massachusetts governor mitt romney and texas congressman ron paul lob that marc

thanks, chuck todd for waking up early. >>> now to 2012 politics. newt gingrich continues to top the field. the former house speaker is looking toward the general election focusing his attack directly on president obama and called the president's speech "wild rhetoric." >> he represents a hard left radicalism. he is opposed to free enterprise. he is opposed to capitalism and opposed to everything that made america great. we'll have the candidate of food stamps, the finest food stamp president in american history in are barack obama. i want to help every american have a better future. he wants to make sure he levels americans down so we all have a mediocre future. >> with larry kudlow. a new poll shows gingrich surging to the top with 37% support. that's up 15 points from mid-november. mitt romney holding teddy at 22% but 15 points behind newt gingrich. that again a national poll. the iowa caucus is less than a month away, what you want to focus on, gingrich continues to lead there. the latest "the new york times"/cbs poll shows him with 31% support.

i'm chuck todd. my first read of the morning, with just four weeks until the first votes are cast and one last candidate in the republican race, we're unveiling new polls in iowa and new hampshire. the three headlines. newt surge. mitt romney's decline and ron paul's surprising strength. gingrich has been the biggest beneficiary of the cain collapse. gingrich leads the field with 26% and herman cain was in fourth with 9%. when you redistribute cain vote tote total among second choicers, gingrich's lead grows, 28% and paul falls into a second-place tie with romney. but gingrich is also surging there. he's at 24% without cain, up nearly 20 points since october. with cain, he got 2%. gingrich had half of that amount of half of cain support added to his total. overall, the results are a red flag for mitt romney. romney is down 8 points in iowa and 6 points in new hampshire and in new hampshire, the state he has made a second home, his overall lead in the state has shrunk from a commanding 32 points in oc

as chuck has reported.m michele bachmann's campaign. bachmann's iowa state chairman, kent sorenson showed up last night at ron paul's campaign rally, announcing his newfound support for paul. >> we're going to take ron paul all of the way to the white house. 20120.ç >> nbc news campaign anthony tortell, he joins from des moines. anthony, my favorite part of this story is that sorenson was at a bachmann rally earlier in day but didn't speak because he was having dental work done, unbelievable, you can't make it up. what's the latest here in this back and forth? >> kent told me last night, he really didn't have his mind made up until 10 minutes before ron paul went on. i watched him walk into the back door. fascinating. he'll get back to me. six minutes later, i see kent sorenson on stage endorses ron paul. bachmann campaign has came out and made some claims against kent sorenson and reasons why he may have done it. >> kent said to me yesterday that everyone sells out in iowa. why shouldn't i? then he told m

. >> thanks, chuck, good to be here. >> not a texas alumni are you? >> no, i'm not a texas alumni. i have to be careful because that can be sensitive. >> it can be sensitive depending on where you spend your time and who has the mug. >> i've spent many years in texas. >> if you wear longhorns that's trouble in my world. that's all right. >> i've been told to also watch the dallas cowboy lingo around here. >> well you won't get any fights from me on that one. outside on a beautiful saturday morning, clear skies, allowed temperatures to drop off well below freezing in many spots especially out to the west of washington. in downtown we're still holding on to 37 degrees but it's 27 in mannasas, 27 culpeper, 28 in leesburg and ashburn, 35 degrees in arlington this morning, 30 degrees in waldorf and laplata. we will be 100% dry all weekend long but there are rain showers to our west, arriving probably monday night-tuesday time frame. get ready for a great weekend. mostly sunny, high clouds later on this afternoon but a pleasant afternoon to be outside. tomorrow a little bit more cloud co

>> well, it's changing, chuck.u know, when obama was first elected, his approval rating here in israel was in single figures, less than 10%. now the latest polls show that around 53% of israelis believe obama's doing a good job. there's been quite a dramatic change obviously in that period. yeah, this sense -- first of all, the statement we just heard from president obama, that really sounded heartfelt, didn't it? >> it did. >> there's clearly a serious sense among his people you need to impress upon jews, israelis and jewish voters in america that obama is with israel. here in israel, the sense is changing and there is a feeling that whereas in the beginning of his administration, he was too openly pushing for reform in the arab world to the detriment of israel. that's now changed they feel. >> the u.n. speech and the decision to do everything they could to hold off the referendum inside the united statnations t the palestinians were circulating was a big help. how about the way the republican race is viewed in is

chuck joins me live from mason city. hello, chuck. >> reporter: mr. cillizza, doing double duty.ow are you doing, sir? >> well, sir. tell me what newt had to say. >> reporter: we're going two parts of it now. the first part i want to talk about is what you were just talking about, which is this idea of negative campaigning and as you know overnight there's actually some anti-romney, pro-gingrich direct mail pieces that are hitting mailboxes, and i actually asked speaker gingrich about one of them because one of them used some really tough language. here is what he had to say about it. >> i wouldn't call him the second most dangerous man in america. i'm happy to publicly urge them not to repeat that line in future mailings. on the other hand, if they have a factual bily accurate mailingo says he's for this and for this, i think the question is whether or not he's for it. i think beingç factually accure and explaining somebody's position is legitimate. it's when you are factually wrong or when you are factually distorting things or you're taking something and you're turning it int

the rest of the week's forecast coming up. >> thank you, chuck.ee you then. >>> still ahead tonight, we'll show you how our troops are celebrating this christmas day overseas, far away from home. plus, the royal family celebrates this christmas without its patriarch. >>> and it's a happy holiday for one powerball ticket holder in maryland where the $125 million >>> the royal family spent christmas day visiting prince phillip in the hospital. the queen's husband underwent emergency surgery last week to fix a clogged coronary artery. some of the prince's grandchildren, including prince william, prince harry, princess eugenie and princess cedzary we seen driving up. the surgery was successful and the prince is now being monitored by doctors. >>> a few members of the occupy wall street movement were out today. it is the 100th day since the demonstrations began in lower manhattan. the protesters planned to have a christmas meal and listen to music throughout the day. >>> well, someone in maryland must have been on santa's nice list this year. maryland

nbc's chuck todd. thank you for jog >>> joining me now, senior political writer for politico, maggie haberman. thanks for joining me, maggie. >> thanks for having me. >> i want to read to you, i love the way serious republican world is going crazy about donald trump. i want to read to you what the editorial board of the "national review" wrote this morning about trump and gingrich. "as a serious contender running a campaign with maximal in its own seriousness, gingrich lowers himself by association with this consummately unserious man. romney should renews to follow suit. the nominating process must be about which candidate can lead the country back to fiscal and economic reality, not about which candidate can best truckle with a reality tv star." maggie, is there any chance that mitt romney would be smart enough to read that guidance from "the national review" and actually score some points with oldline conservatives by shunning the donald trump debate? >> no, i think it is virtually impossible that m

chuck todd starting us off in our washington bureau. chuck, thanks. >>> also in washington tonight, the moderator of "meet the press," nbc's david gregory. david, as the commercial says, newt gingrich does have a lot of baggage, but this is not his first rodeo. it is, however, a big test for him. >> a big test. how does he withstand all of that ad money that's coming his way? all of the criticism as chuck just reported? and also the debates. he's going to be a target in a way that he hasn't been before. he's got a reputation for fighting back. can he be disciplined enough not to, to keep it positive like he said he was going to do and rely on the fact that there will be conservative voters who don't care too much about the baggage in his past but will remember him as a change agent. that's how he wants to be remembered. can he keep that discipline up? >> what about mitt romney in the meantime? >> he has got to drive this contrast. ideology, temperament, leadership. the real contrast. who's the real conservative? it boils down to romney

mitt romney acting like a front-runner again. >> he is, chuck. i saw him this morning in sioux city at the one event at a steel company before he took off for south carolina. he had a very confident, very assured mien to him out there. as he did in the debate last night. and i think part of the reason for that is he had the nikki haley endorsement in his pocket. he's also, i think, starting to see some movement internally in their polling. some that's reflected in the public polling also, that seems like gingrich is softening. and he's also bending in iowa a little bit, and he's had a chance to look at the television in iowa, where he sees his pro-romney super pac pounding gingrich mercilessly over the air, alongside ron paul, who is doing the same thing, all of reasons which is why they might think he might just win the iowa caucuses. >> $3 million attack ads are airing right now again newt gingrich. he's fighting back with $275,000. there's no money in the gingrich bank account or i think we would be seeing it. right now we were showing picture

i wish you would just be straight, chuck.ause honestly i think you'd do a lot better if you were straight. >> let me ask you about your debate... >> jon: . >> chuck, you have to tell the truth. (laughter). >> jon: that is this man in a nutshell. he can't let go of the question of who called who first! (laughter) and he's going to moderate a debate! you think we're going to have follow-up questions? no, i want to hear you what you said when you said i cut you off. no, who are you to tell america donald trump, whose debate this is how to (bleep)ing moderate a debate? let me tell you something, i handle meatloaf and gary busey, you're nothing to me. (laughter) now, if trump had only announced that he were moderating a debate that would have been enough to make my week. but he did let slip one other bit of good news. >> the fact is that if the wrong candidate is nominated to run, i would certainly think about running as an independent, yes. >> jon: holy (bleep)! this guy is moderating a debat debate... (cheers and applause) if th

>> that was great news when we got that, chuck.are perculating on saying hey, this may be a real number. when we got number is a week ago that showed jobless claims had dropped to 380,000 people thought maybe that was one off. seeing them at 366,000 has people saying this has real legs and maybe we can eventually start chipping away at unemployment numbers. maybe the bigger issue and the reason the dow is going to open up by probably 70 points today is because there is no crisis du jour in europe today. so that has nowhere for some of the bears to be focusing. no crisis today and that is a pretty big deal. because most days we do get something. there was a vote of confidence in italy today. that could have been the big problem if they got the vote of no confidence. nobody expected that to happen. when that vote came off as expected that was a sigh of relief. we've been watching some of the bond prices in europe and they've been coming back down. you know, when they trickle up to or when they start getting up around 7% is when it re

there are 12 chuck e cheese's in the bay area. nine have been fined for having teenagers operate dangerous equipment. the restaurants include, brentwood, newark, fairfield and two in san jose. according to the u.s. department of labor, they allowed teens to load and operate a trash compact compactor. a spokesman says we all want young workers to develop the skills and experience necessary to compete in the marketplace, but safety must never be sacrificed in the process. the parent company is cec entertainment, inc. out of texas. labor officials say it has paid the fines totaling almost $30,000. on the employment page of the chuck e cheese website it should be noted, the company states cec is competed to protecting the safety, health and well-being of its employees. i have put in a call to cec entertainment and waiting to hear back from them for comment. >>> reporting live from cupertino, i'm marla tellez. >> marla, thank you very much for the update. >>> 5:33 right now. they're supposed to clean up restaurants throughout san franc

back to you guys. >> thank you, chuck. >> thanks, chuck. >>> we are hoping the wizards would do better when the regular season kicked off than the preseason. >> i heard you. 0-2. 0-2 in the preseason. the nba season kicked off christmas day with five games played around the league. tonight, it all goes down for the wizards at 7:00 at verizon center. they welcome the new jersey nets to town. yes, kris humphreys will be there. he's such a celebrity now. his soon-to-be ex-wire will not be there. zach has more. >> watching a documentry the other day about the founder of the ferrari race car company. he was the first race car owner and driver to get rid of the rear-view mirror on the car. when they asked him why, he said i don't want anyone looking back. i want my drivers only looking forward. >> reporter: there he was on the eve of a new season. it made perfect sense for the struggling club. >> i'm more concerned with process right now than output although we are here to win. >> reporter: recently they made more news for off the court transgressions than on the court. >> a great camp for u

and nbc's chief white house correspondent chuck todd. also joining the conversation this morning, iowa'sepublican governor, terry branstad. >>> good morning. what a difference a month makes. newt gingrich is now the undisputed front-runner in the republican race, he's atop the polls in iowa and new hampshire, and look at this, this morning we have new results from our nbc/maris poll, south carolina and florida, it is gingrich going away in both of those states. as the front-runner, gingrich bore the brunt of the attacks in last night's republican debate in iowa and here with us live this morning, dr. ron paul, the texas congressman and candidate for president, of course. dr. paul, welcome back to the program. >> thank you, david. good to be with you. >> did newt gingrich do anything to diminish his chances in iowa last night? >> well, i don't know whether he did it. but i think because he had to face a lot of serious questions about, you know, his change in positions, and what he has to defend, i would think that he shouldn't have gained