chuck todd witnessing all of it for us and starting us off tonight. chuck, thanks. >>> now to other news from today. almost nine years ago, the kidnapping of 14-year-old elizabeth smart from her home in salt lake city, riveted this country. tonight, the case is finally over. and tonight we finally get to hear her voice. our own kristen welker is at the courthouse in salt lake city tonight. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. elizabeth smart smiled today in court when that guilty verdict was read. this is the moment she's been waiting for, for nearly nine years. >> today is a wonderful day and i'm thrilled to be here. i'm so thrilled with the verdict. >> reporter: victory for elizabeth smart. >> i hope that not only is this an example that justice can be served in america, but it is possible to move on after something terrible has happened. >> reporter: after deliberating for only five hours, jurors found brian david mitchell, the man who kidnapped smart and stole her innocence, guilty. >> this is an exceptionally victorious day for us all.

our chief white house correspondent and political director chuck todd in d.c. with that. chuck, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. i'm at the big board here. big end of the year poll where we test a lot of things. let's start with the news of the moment and that tax cut deal. overwhelming support. 59% support it, including 54% of democrats and 68% of republicans. it's why it did breeze through the senate and will likely get through the house. about the s.t.a.r.t. treaty, 70% approve of ratifying the s.t.a.r.t. treaty, even though it may not get done. there's still a negative tone in the public. 63% believe we're headed in the wrong track. this is the highest number of the obama presidency. guess what? it's having an affect on the president. believe it or not, a year ago, he was sitting at 47%, 46%, so he's hanging tough. pollsters say he should be in worse shape. why isn't he? it has to do with his americanal connection. 58% get him positive rating on personal characteristics. but only 36% believe he has strong professional qualities. what does this mean for 2

our chief white house correspondent chuck todd was there for today and he's with us to tell us how it went. chuck, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. that's right. it was nearly a month since voters sent the message of change to washington. and finally, washington's leaders got together in the same room here at the roosevelt room at the white house to sit down and have a nearly two-hour meeting, top of the agenda? how to break the bipartisan impasse on dealing with those bush-era tax rates. after the highly anticipated meeting, both sides hailed the session as productive with president obama and republican speaker to-be john boehner almost speaking from the same script. >> the american people want us to focus on their jobs, not ours. >> the american people want us to create jobs and to cut spending. >> we have two parties for a reason. there are real philosophical differences. >> we believe in different things about the appropriate role of federal government. >> reporter: at the top of today's agenda, the so-called bush- era tax cuts. to have a small six-person working gr

our chief white house correspondent and political director chuck todd is at the white house tonight. chuck. >> reporter: today was perhaps the last day upset democrats had to talk to the white house and other members of their own party out of the tax cut compromise and talk they did. rhetoric aside, this compromise appears poised to clear a big hurdle tomorrow in the u.s. senate. >> this is a good bill. >> reporter: after a week of pulling out all the stops to sell the tax cut deal to he reluctant house democrats, the white house is confident the deal will pass. >> every economist from right to left has said this would mean a big boost for the economy, and so i believe that ultimately people will come together around this plan. >> reporter: even top house democrats are reluctantly signalling support. >> we're not going to hold this up at the end of the day. most of us agree with almost all of what the president negotiated. tlz one thing that just was the choking point, and that deals with the estate tax break. >> reporter: assuming no major changes are made, the framework of the plan

perhaps you saw there about ten feet in front of him our chief white house correspondent, chuck todd, who was among the questioners in the room. chuck, on behalf of all those watching trying to understand this tenor, tone, substance, what's going on here? >> reporter: as you know over the past couple of days a lot of democrats have said -- hey, the president is lacking some fight. why won't he take the fight at the republicans? he sort of received the message and he took the fight but he took it to democrats who have been grouchy about this. the bottom line is this. he doesn't yet have the support among the lame duck congress, the outgoing democratic majority in particular, in the house, doesn't have the support for this tax-cut compromise. so he needed to go out here and sell it hard and in many ways, frankly, guilt the left into supporting him for this deal. it's unclear whether this is going to do it. you hear a lot of grumbling among the opinion left about this. but, brian, i'll tell you this. this is also a preview of what you're going to see of the president going forward dealin

i'm struck by what chuck todd just said. think he's absolutely right that this is the kind of tax bill that restores some certainty. i'm not so sure it's going to restore is kind of certainty needed to boost the economy. i don't think there's going to be a lot of stimulus here. >> matt, your thoughts, not politically, but again, we're on this boat for a reason. we're in st. louis for a reason. we're on this road show for a reason. the reason is that this country is in desperate need of meaningful jobs that solve this country's problems and whether that comes inside of communities like those here or philadelphia or seneca falls or places we will go, how does a policy like this go to creating jobs in a town like st. louis? >> it's a great deal if you plan to be alive for the next two years, but after that, the bill comes due. the idea that it's fantastic, we can come together to borrow a trillion dollars from the kids and spend on us now. i do think it's going to help the economy at the margins in the next couple of years, but

and chuck todd, on the white house lawn, has that part of the story. uck, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. what made this trip doubly surprising is it happened today, a day of the jobs report, the day of the debt commission, and in the midst of this tax negotiation with a gridlocked congress, and all of it for a trip to afghanistan secretly done that was designed simply to boost troop morale. the president turned up in the dark of night at bagram airfield in afghanistan today. president obama was last seen at the white house hanukkah reception last night at 6:44 p.m. >> happy hanukkah, everybody. >> reporter: just after 9:30 p.m., he snuck off for a 13-hour flight, landing at 11:00 this morning in afghanistan. on the ground for less than four hours, the president was briefed by his team, led by general david petraeus, and ambassador carl eikenberry. although high winds prevented the president from taking a helicopter to kabul for a planned face-to-face meeting with president karzai, the two did speak by phone. it was just two weeks ago, t

let's try to figure that one out with chuck todd. you are watching "hardball," only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] is your current denture cleanser missing something? now you get a cleanser with scope freshness. ♪ new fixodent plus scope ingredients. ♪ cleans...kills germs that cause denture odors... and provides your dentures with the freshness of scope. ♪ new fixodent cleanser plus scope ingredients. >>> well, sarah palin, the former governor of alaska, says that washington elites don't like her and guess what she is right. a new politico survey put out just today says that 11% of the elites in d.c. say she is qualified to be president. 11%. she can actually see 11% from alaska. 86%, a lot easier to see, say she is not qualified. get this, while 15% of washington elites in the survey say palin is a breath of fresh air, 79% find she is a negative influence in national politics. don't come to washington, governor. we will be right back. are you a senior concerned about financial independence? >>> welcome back to "hardball." the latest

let's try to figure that one out with chuck todd. you are watching "hardball," only on msnbc. if you live for performance, upgrade to castrol edge advanced synthetic oil. with eight times better wear protection than mobil 1. castrol edge. it's more than just oil. it's liquid engineering. >>> well, sarah palin, the former governor of alaska, says that washington elites don't like her and guess what she is right. a new politico survey put out just today says that 11% in d.c. say she is qualified to be president. she can actually 150e9 1% from alaska. 86%, a lot easier to see, say she is not qualified. get this, while 15% of washington elites in the survey say palin is a breath of fresh air, 79% find she is a negative influence in national politics. don't come to washington, governor. we will be right back. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. princess of the powerpoint. your core competency... is competency. and you rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go. you can even take a full-size or above. and still pay the mid-size pric

let's go live to chuck todd in washington, d.c. we're waiting for the president to sign this. will he see this alliance with boehner and mcconnell again? >> reporter: we'll see. you'll see the i license more between the president and mitch mcconnell. that's what is interesting about today's bill signing. who is going to be there, and who is not going to be there? basically of the four big leaders on capitol hill, the only one that will be there is mitch mcconnell. republican senator leader. no john boehner. no nancy pelosi. no harry reid. this deal was cut between the white house and mitch mcconnell. then it got signed off and passed everywhere else. so we'll see. there's going to be only a handful of republicans that do come to the bill signing. a lot more of the folks that attend this will be democrats. but at the end of the day cutting these deals, it is probably, he'll be working with boehner closely because boehner in many ways controls a lot of the legislative agenda by simply being speaker of the house. but the deals, the compromises, finding the 60 votes in the senate,

nbc's chuck todd joins me from the white house. is there anything to this report that we're learning about that significantly different from where things stood a year ago? >> you know, it's funny, thomas. a lot of what you heard did feel like deja vu all over again. you're hearing the same things. it's fragile. we're hoping to make some gains. we're confident, optimistic that the leadership in pakistan is more stable today than it was yesterday. so, you know, there's some parts of that that did sound familiar. but on some of the strategic things they pointed out, you heard the president talk about al qaeda, and he use ad phrase by saying that they are hunkered down now. so they feel they've made a lot of progress on that front. as far as getting afghan security forces starting to stand up as nato and u.s. forces can stand down, they're feeling real progress in certain parts of afghanistan. in the report itself, if you head between the lines there, you know, there's an acknowledgment that things with pakistan could be going a lot be

i'm chuck todd. this is live pictures of the

nbc chief washington correspondent chuck todd is inside the briefing room. re we expecting, chuck? >> we'll hear from the president and then you'll hear from the two secretaries, gates and clinton. they'll take questions. we expect an update where they'll talk that progress has been made and they're going to make the case that the strategy is working but it's not irreversible and that's why they have to continue. it will be interesting to see exactly the language that is used when talking about the beginnings of a conditions base withdrawal. what does 2011 mean. obviously a month ago in lisbon when they signed off with nato when they pledged to keep combat troops in there to 2014. what is the meaning of july 2011 versus 2014 and that will be some of the things that we're all interested to hear from the president. >> is there a general agreement among the secretaries and among the president and among the people who make these kinds of decisions and influence these decisions that the counterinsurgency strategy now is working? >> that is the case that is going t

news chief white house correspondent and political director and co-host of "the daily rundown," chuck toddu. >> good morning. we've got a fast conversation. had andy card coming on and defending bush's spending. i don't know how he did it. i love the guy, but i have no idea how you can do that. again, i'm going to make the japanese guy fighting on -- >> okinawa -- >> okinawa like ten years later. give up, the war's over. you lost. but in this case, republicans blowing a trillion dollar hole in the deficit along with obama. what do you guys do when you take over in the house to make things different? >> let me say the first thing, i think they're serious about moving forward on spending. but i've been hearing this for a long time. you've been involved a long time in politics. >> right. >> the reality is in the last 50 years, they've only balanced the budget five times. but yet, 49 out of 50 governors have to balance it. mayors, county -- >> what's the big difference? by the way, mika, you know i don't like talking about myself. >> no. >> four out of five times that it was balanced, i was th

we have it covered with our chief white house correspondent chuck todd. good evening. >> reporter: it's not quite a done deal, but one is close enough that the president himself has talked about the frame work of the deal. take a listen. >> i have no doubt there are things that not everybody will like, but it's the right thing to do for jobs, for middle class, and it's the right thing to do for our economy. it offers us an opportunity that we need to seize. it's not perfect. but this compromise is an essential step on the road to recovery. >> reporter: here's the outline of the compromise, brian. a two-year extension of the so-called bush tax cuts or bush tax rates. none of those will go up for anybody, including wealthiest americans. a 13-month extension of unemployment insurance benefits. not just for the month of december this year, all of next year, as well. and then a new twist. a 2 percentage point drop in the payroll taxes, a payroll tax holiday. a family of four with a household income of $50,000 will sew a $1,000 tax break next year. so this is a

chuck todd, plus former bush adviser mark mackinnon.karins. >> it's been a nasty weekend. we're continuing this morning. the concern is the area starting to freeze over. if you're in washington, d.c., or baltimore, you now have light snow breaking out. 34 degrees. that temperature is dropping. be very careful driving today, especially on any elevated surfaces. new york city, your temperatures will plunge with snow showers breaking out. cleveland's going to get a snowstorm. the other big story, a cold bhaft from minnesota to florida. some of the coldest weather we've seen in years. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. etfs? exchange traded funds? don't just give me ten or twenty to choose from. come on. td ameritrade introduces commission-free etfs with a difference-- more choice. over a hundred etfs.... ...chosen by the unbiased experts at morningstar associates. let me pick what works for me. for me. for me. the etf market center at td ameritrade. before investing, carefully consider the fund's investment objectives, risk

chuck todd, nbc's political director and chief white house correspondent has the results of the latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. chuck, good morning to you. what does the poll show us about how americans feel about the tax deal? >> good morning, meredith. well, let's start with that tax deal. 59% approve of the overall deal that includes 54% of democrats, 68% of republicans. in fact, even self-described liberal democrats, 50% of them support this deal, 47% disapprove of it. so, there is broad support here and i think that's you why saw it fly through the senate and it will probably only hit little speed bump notice house but probably get through. >> obviously, the white house hopes this bipartisan bill is passed because as the president put it he took a real shellacking in those midterm elections. he needs a victory here. the poll these 54% of the people believe that the president got the message after midterms. how are his approval ratings? >> well, they dip, but only about half of that group believe he is making necessary adjustments. now, his approval rating is actually -

chuck todd co-hosts the daily rundown. you will have the rundown tonight. what does this tell you so far? >> look, when you look across the board it is a majority of democrats, 54%, majority of independents and the largest majority supporting it are republicans. a majority among all three political groups. if you divided up the country that way. it has across the board support and it is why you are seeing some of the criticism that is taking place among the more progressive members of the congress. it is not taking hold. the longest opposition bloc is among the most self-described liberals. a majority of them support this deal. so it is tough politically to sell holding it up if you look at our poll. >> what else are you seeing in the poll? you can broadly characterize it as you did earlier, before you unveil all of the results later on "nbc nightly news" at 6:30 and msnbc. let's talk about the president's standing and general attitudes of the public with the recession over and bad feelings and unemployment continuing. >> what is fascinating is the more thi

chuck todd's the msnbc news chief white house correspondent.rk halperin, the senior political analyst for "time" magazine, msnbc. we think we're going to hear from the president any moment now, but your assessment of the senate vote. >> this was the easy hurdle to clear. they've got this and you heard dick durbin say because the president negotiated this with the senate. everything, his entire presidency has been about trying to get stuff through the senate. don't think dick durbin and reid were more looped in than house democrats. >> let me go to mark, the question of this clinton coalition. the most powerful reality in the country now is the democratic parties united as never before despite this this week, they are united. 80% support for the president. how's it going? what we saw on friday, what's it tell us about bill clinton and president obama? >> the interpersonal drama, bill clinton was on friday, very supportive in public and private with the president. giving advice to people in the administration, having a lot of his people populatin

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chuck todd joins us washington. >> reporter: what made the trip more surprising was everything the president has on his plate right now, these negotiations with congress on tax cuts, the debt commission reporting in, as savannah noted in her piece and of course everything else, the jobs numbers that hit on his plate. but the president felt he needed to get to afghanistan during the holiday season to give the troops a morale boost. >> reporter: the trez tupreside turned up in the dark of night in afghanistan. president obama last seen at the hanukkah recession thursday night 6:44. after 9:30 he snuck off to andrews air force base landing 9:00 in the morning in afghanistan. the president was briefed by his team led by general david petraeus and ambassador karl eikenberry. although high winds prevented the president from taking a helicopter kabul from a planned face-to-face meeting with president karzai, two did speak by phone. two weeks ago the two sat across the table in portugal at nato summit. by the central focus of this visit to afghanistan was to give a holiday morale boost to the troops

i'm chuck todd here in washington, d.c. 57-6 in favor of cloture.ive of the six that have voted against cloture -- and kristen gillibrand of new york. we know bernie sanders is against cloture on this at some point. they are just three votes short. coverage continues next with "the dylan ratigan show." dylan is talking to congressman charlie rangel. it's his first msnbc interview since his censure. i'll see you tomorrow on "the daily rundown". the right. to the right. >> go to the right, go to the right. >> whoa! >> whoa! >> what is that? >> man: well, that's a, uh... i don't know. >> whoa. >> can we call him blinky? >> woman: expert teaching. deeper learning. together, we are the human network. cisco. ♪ [ male announcer ] there are billions of people in the world. ♪ but only one dad. ♪ show him how much you care with gillette's family of products. ♪ [ male announcer ] there are billions of people in the world. ♪ but only one dad. ♪ show him how much you care with gillette's family of products. ♪ hey tough guy, that cold needs alka seltzer plus! it

. >> i'm chuck todd. >> and i'm savannah. >> for those that don't get it, this is in the umpteenth word to spell the word hanukkah. >>> right now, what we have our eye on today, we'll start with republican politics. rnc chairman michael steele holds a conference call at 7:30 tonight to announce whether he will seek re-election. a lot of people think he's going to say he won't, but chuck, he's got a few surprises in him, probably. >> he's michael steele. you know who he is, and you never know what he may end up doing. we're also keeping an eye on a federal judge in virginia who's expected to rule today on whether the new health care law is constitutional. 25 lawsuits are pending across the country, challenging that federal statute, specifically on the mandate. this one in virginia, a lot of legal experts say, was well filed. >> exactly, something to watch. it may have ramifications for other lawsuits. >>> finally, the u.s. envoy for afghanistan and pakistan, richard holbrooke, is still in critical condition today in a washington hospital. he underwent two rounds of heart surgery over the

. >> i'm chuck todd. also the latest on the storms and very frigid weather out there if there is such a thing as very frigid. michael steele surprises us and everybody again and wait until you hear how julian assange described himself on an online dating website. we are going to get to the rundown in a moment. first, here is what we are watching today. at the top for us, where is speaker pelosi? as the tax deal heads toward the house after today's deal in the senate, simmering tensions between house dems and the obama white house are now boiling over. is she going to take the lead, start talking publicly and try to kwai yet yet things down? >> we will see. lawsuit politics also on our radar, will virginia attorney general ken cool. nelly use his success with the health care challenge to launch himself into higher office? here is a hint. he is raising money online. >> senate race in '12, governor's race in '13. >> rahm his day in court, facing legal challenges over whether he really is a resident of chicag

i'm chuck todd. >> we're just creating our own excitement here.orning, 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 hav

. >> and i'm chuck todd. we're going to get to the rundown's in a moment. first what we're watching. we'll going to begin with the war progress. how long can the president hold off discontent with the war from his democratic base? trust me. it's already there. just how many troops can begin to withdraw next summer, also watching s.t.a.r.t. will the white house and senate democrats round up enough republicans to ratify the treaty now before christmas, or will senator kyl and his allies succeed in delaying it until next year. >> looks like they might. >>> plus, the decade is ending. how happy are americans to leave it behind? apparently very. more than half called the first ten years of the 21st century one of the worst in a very long time. we need to remind ourselves, we have just gone through the first ten years. >> tough. the great recession. >> hard to find good news. >>> begin with today's news. house democrats get one last shot to voice opposition to the tax vote bill. a vote could come with hours. kelly o'donnell, any chance that the house passes somet

chuck todd, thank you very much for joining us.or the special olympics. that will keep them going and also builds their self-esteem. >> what about getting teachered involved this? >> all you have to do is raise your hand and say can i help out. >> a lot of people don't realize, just in your neighborhoods there are often things that need to be done. >> if you check out your neighborhood, the local newspaper, just keep your ears open. first of all, kids really are more impacted with empathy on face to face connections. you start with just that hands on charity and it just mobilizes even more so they want to reach out. >> so they can see the impact immediately. there are a lot of things that are being done that excite you, what are some of the projects you have heard about? >> some of the ones i absolutely love, a family in san francisco, they have taken on a local women's shelter and they go and paint together. there's a group of moms with their grandmother, aunts and their daughters, they love to knit, so they taught the daughters t

news chief white house correspondent and political director and co-host of "the daily rundown" chuck toddgood to see you. >> good to see you guys. >> raquel welch was my favorite. if it wasn't terry garr it was raquel welch. >> interesting. >> last night the tax bill passes. harry reid had to pull a 1.1 trillion spending bill. what's going on? >> i thought it was interesting. i thought drama might build more. the president came out after the election and said he regretted passing omnibus spending bills that had all the earmarks, banning earmarks was one of the hot things to come out of the election of the president wanted to co-op the issue, said, sure, i'm for the ban as well. let's keep the pressure on the republicans. let's have them live up to their fiscal responsibility. this put him in an awkward position. you know what the questions were, wait a minute. i thought you regretted that. you're going to pass the bill? when does the new obama show up. if there's a course correction we've seen it. now, is there a tax bill? this spending bill got curbed. look at all the outreach the presid

chuck todd. political director. mark halperin for "time" magazine, msnbc. as hard as it i will let you two guys talk because you want to let you know. your assessment of the senate vote right now, the fact that they've already voted cloture. >> this was always the low hurdle, the easy hurdle to clear. they've got this and you heard dick durbin say, because the president negotiated this vote with the senate. everything is n his entire presidency so far has always been about trying to get stuff through the senate. don't think that dick durbin and harry reid, certainly were more looped in than house democrats. >> okay, let me go to mark, the question of this clinton coalition with the offset for months. i mean, we all know this, we all watch the same thing, the most powerful reality in the country right now is the democratic party's united as never before, despite this kerfuffle this week, they are united if you look at the numbers. 80%-some support. what does it tell us about bill clinton and president obama? she well, in terms of interpersonal drama, bill cl

i'm chuck todd. >> we'll have all that plus the chuvannah award for the best and worst presidential moments of 2010. we'll get to the rundown in a minute. but first, what we're watching today and on our radar, we'll start with the s.t.a.r.t. drama in the senate. will the republicans force a reading of the entire s.t.a.r.t. treaty on the senate floor today and will that stop it? >>> and hot off the presses, the new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll comes out later today. here's a hint, a little shocking how little americans feel they really know president obama. >> and one day before the president's status report on afghanistan, how did the intelligence reports leaked today painting a very bleak picture undercut the strategy's basically working narrative we are expecting to see out of the white house tomorrow. we'll get to that in a minute. but first, the rundown and the tax deal going for a vote today. house democrats' frustration and anger may be giving way to acceptance. kelly o'donnell is nbc news capitol hill correspondent. all right, kelly, how do we expect this to go? >> reporter: w

chuck todd, thank you very much. savannah on "the daily rundown.." >> unlike people in the media. if they could only be as humble. >> or in the world of public policy. remember to tune in all this week -- >> better than the golden globes. i've been watching this week. >> coming up democratic senator from ohio, senator sherrod brown. keep it right here on "morning joe." if you live for performance, upgrade to castrol edge advanced synthetic oil. with eight times better wear protection than mobil 1. castrol edge. it's more than just oil. it's liquid engineering. and while it can never be fully answered, it helps to have a financial partner like northern trust. by gaining a keen understanding of your financial needs, we're able to tailor a plan using a full suite... of sophisticated investment strategies and solutions. so whatever's around the corner can be faced with confidence. ♪ northern trust. look ahead with us at northerntrust.com. that saves you hundreds of dollars a year. it's called the new humana walmart-prefer

a look at the new nbc/"wall street journal" poll with chuck todd.ormer secretary of defense william cohen. good time to have him on. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. ♪ [ male announcer ] you know her. we know diamonds. together we'll make her holiday. that's why only zales is the diamond store. where you can get up to $1,000 off now through sunday. >>> in his latest effort to win support from his own party, obama enlisted the services of former president clinton. >> with obama swinging this way and that, it only makes sense to call in the biggest swinger of all, the smoothest of them all, the barry white of democratic politics, slick willy. bill clinton is a bad mother -- >> shut yo mouth. >> just talking about bill clinton. >> i can dig it. >> ♪ taxpayers are getting the sham ♪ >> too good. too good. 22 past the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." >> guess what today is as we listen to nat king cole. >> what is today? >> suzanne scarborough's birthday, her 21st birthday. >> do you want to sing happy birthday to susan? >> we'll le

chuck todd? >> mr. president, what do you say to mt. democrats who say you are rewarding republican for not budging? a lot of republicans say they are asking them to budge. why should you reward that? president obama: let me use a couple of analogies. i've said before i felt the middle class tax cuts were being held hostage to the high-end tax cuts. i think it's tempting not to negotiate with hostage takers. unless the hostage gets harmed. then people will question the wisdom of that strategy. in this case, the hostage was the american people, and i was not willing to see them get harmed. again, this is not an abstract political fight. this is not isolated here in washington. there are people right now who when their unemployment insurance runs out, will not be able to pay the bills. there are folks right now who are just barely making it on the paycheck that they've got and when that paycheck gets smaller on january 1, they are going to have to scramble to figure out how am i going to pay my bills? how will i make the payments? what am

but first chuck todd has the very latest. >> reporter: well, it took almost a month to make happen what washington's political leaders finally gathered at the white house for a bipartisan meeting to attempt to tackle a number of thorny issues. >> the american people did not vote for gridlock. >> reporter: the president and congressional republicans came away from their meeting with an optimistic tone. >> i was pleased on a number of accounts. >> reporter: it went well enough that republican speaker john boehner and the president seemed to share talking points. >> the american people want us to focus on their jobs, not ours. >> the american people want us to create jobs and to cut spending. >> reporter: and they even seemed to agree -- >> we have two parties for a reason. >> reporter: -- on why they disagree. >> there's a reason why we have democrats and republicans. >> reporter: today the hard work begins, both sides will sit down and figure out a compromise on what to do about the bush tax tax rates. but it's not going to be easy. republicans still want to make the current tax rates pe