. >> joining me is nia-malika henderson, carolyn ryan, dan balz and luke russert. i'm chuck todd and this is "meet the press." >>> just nine days to go until the elections, and we have results from six states which will tell us about which way the wind is blowing and who might control the senate, and as for me, i'm on the road meeting the voters on the road trip and spending the week in the trip west and cover iing three state out there, we dropped in on the unpredictable race in kansas and neck and neck race in iowa and also the battle in wisconsin that i feel like it has been going on continuously for four years, but before we get to the polls and the races, two big races caused major concern for many and also, the homegrown spark of terror in ottawa. and of course, there is the doctor who contracted ebola when he returned from west africa where he was treating ebola patients. so let's start with ebola. >> reporter: this week, ebola came to new york city when craig spencer, the new york city doctor who had been treating patients with doctors without borders in gu

dan balz of the "washington post" and presidential historian michael beschloss are here to explain why how does the white house make these kind of decisions about what to do with the president in these kinds of complicated times? >> well, they make them in concert with the campaigns and particularly at this point, senate campaign committee and the others who are directly involved in the races. he's going place where's he's welcome. he's not going place where's he's not welcome. and i think one of the interesting things, he is campaigning mostly on behalf of gubernatorial candidates. there are a lot of competitive gubernatorial races, as we know, but not nokey senate battle grounds. i think the only state he's going into with an even modestly competitive senate campaign is in michigan, and that one looks pretty strong for the democrats at this point. he's avoiding all the real battlegrounds in the senate races. >> ifill: >> by design. >> by design. >> ifill: how unusual is that, michael? >> not very unusual at all. the record usually is even popular presidents don't help that much. rona

dan balz, chief correspondent for "the washington post." jeanne cummings, deputy managing editor for bloomberg politics. and alexis simendinger, white house correspondent for real clear politics. >> award-winning reporting and analysis, covering history as it happens, live from our nation's capital, this is "washington week with gwen ifill." corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> how much money do you have in your pocket right now? >> i have $40. >> $21. >> could something that small make an impact on something as big as your retirement? >> i don't think so. >> well, if you start putting that money toward your retirement every week, and let it grow over time, over 20, 30 years, that retirement challenge might not seem so big after all. >> the future of surgery is within sight. our research is studying how real time multimodality imaging during surgery can help precision and outcomes. brigham and women's hospital. it all starts here. >> funding for "washington eek" is also provided by the annenberg foundation, the corpo

joining us are two of the best politics watchers around, amy walter of the cook political report, and dan balz about the effect president obama is going to have. at this point, mid-october, could bit determineddive? >> it absolutely could be and usually is. recommends isç usually on the person in the white house and the president's numbers are stuck in the low 40s and if you look at the states that determine control of the senate he's in the 30s even in the states he carried back in 2012,ç so this is a big weight around every single one of these candidates that they can't undo themselves from. >> woodruff: the president is the main national factor in these races? >> i think absolutely. there are certainly other factors. the economy is a factor. i.s.i.s. is a factor. ebola may now be a factor just in terms of creating the kind of national mood of insecurity and i think that's ramped up a little bit, not necessarily affecting the president's numbers in any terrible way, but it has added to a period in which people are unhappy and kind ofo looking for some way to express that unhappiness. >> woo