rachel maddow democratic congressman harold ford jr., msnbc's rachel maddow and cnbc's rick santelli. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >>> good morning. here we are, final countdown to election day 2010. with us exclusively this morning, the chairman of the republican national committee, michael steele. welcome back to "meet the press." >> it's great to be back with you, david. >> let's get right to it. it's final argument time. the president is on the campaign trail. he has been out west, was in the midwest and friday he leveled probably his most potent charge against republican leaders in washington, saying that they made a cold, political calculation when he came into office, basically not to work with the obama white house. let's listen to what he said. >> the republican leaders in washington, they made a different calculation. they looked around at the mess that they had made, at the mess that they had left me and they said, boy, this is a really big mess. and they said it's going to take a long time to fix. so, maybe if we just sit on the sidelines, say no to every

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rachel maddow democratic congressman harold ford jr., msnbc's rachel maddow and cnbc's rick santelliaptions paid for by nbc-universal television

rachel maddow democratic congressman harold ford jr., msnbc's rachel maddow and cnbc's rick santelli

harold ford.white house and the booeder business community have been improved. there have been those suggesting the reset button might be pushed the beginning of next year. is that a sense you get will happen on the part of the white house? will the communications change or the substance change? do you see the problem as being one or the other or not a problem at all? >> well, no. i think it's undeniable that at a time when the american business community is spending $150 million or so ridiculously large sum of money in undisclosed spending against the democratic party in these midterm elections, obviously, hey, what we have here is a tail your to communicate. but i think that -- obviously wall street, $132 billion this year and saying the president's policies have hurt us. here is the thing though. i think it has to be a meeting of both sides. i think clearly the communication can be better. i also think people need to take a step back and look at the policies the president has pushed and say wha

. >> msnbc three guys, chris matthews, ed schultz and harold ford considered running for the senate as democrats although they did not. does any of that, you think i'm splitting hairs here or should, karl rove did criticize christine o'donnell for five minutes. >> he did it with force. >> my question to karl rove, he's raising money, was he invested in mike cassell of the republican wing. he was critical of christine o'donnell, as was i, i should add, but i had no, you know, financial interest in that. i'm not accusing him of that, but once you start to allow money to enter into t we start to ask questions that should be disclosed. >> on friday rahm emanuel emotional ceremony leaving the white house. aren't the journalists going to miss rahm, spent a lot of time yelling at reporters on and off the record. >> yes but the obama administration can be a little boring sometimes, and rahm really brought the entertainment value right up there. he was from the cover. >> he was one of the great press secretaries we've ever had. >> what about pete rouse, a strong solid time he didn't speak at th

deion, harold ford jr., rachel maddow and rick santelli all this morning on "meet the press." >> thankd. >>> a new report shows donations for america's biggest charities have dropped mostly bugs because of the struggling economy yet even in these times people still find a way to give. nbc's ron allen has more now from new york. >> reporter: at the ound zero visitor's center who in the crowd put $10,000 cash in the collection box? and left without a trace? a donation to the new $300 million 9/11 memorial set to open next year. >> i'd love to say thank you to the personand it's just a shot in the arm to everybody who is working on this project. >> reporter: it's a g boost because fund-raising has been tough these days because of the economy. charities across the country report receiving less while people need more. fortunately there are people trying to help. stephanie tillman know lot about receiving and giving. they now own a graphics design business in kansas city but it was just a few years ago when they had hit hard times and had to move to a salvation army homeless shelter. >> it w

but you do have some people who might have run for the senate -- chris matthews considered it, harold ford considered it. schulz was approached. >> right. but i think it's not quite the same as sarah palin and huck. >> you're kind of known, frank rich, as a liberal champion on the times op-ed page. do you ever worry about becoming predictable? >> sure. i think any opinion writer does. that's true in any job in opinion writing, whether you're covering politics or sports or the theater or anything else. and so, i mean, i try to hear the other side, i try -- i'm certainly critical of liberals, including barack obama, and try to find ways into things that are not the same old, same old, because you get bored, too, as a writer. >> you don't want to repeat yourself or be seen as the popular side even though you identify with one side. >> i do, but i've been very tough on them, and most of my mail is for being too tough on what's perceived as my own side. >> when you look at the media coverage in the last year, the mos income manhattan, the wacky florida preacher, balloon boy, tiger woods, brett

other panelists include harold ford. this is about an hour. >> we are calling to have some midterm rumble. i would like to thank george stephanopoulos. post mortems, he said when he was in the white house that the results were not spinable. here are the 18 political analysts. james carville, welcome. harold ford. thank you for coming, harold. howie kurtz. he wrote the book on the spin cycle, which was 24 hours when he wrote it, and it is not down to one minute. leslie sanchez. welcome to our panel. political rumble. we have to hear from the pollster extraordinaire, who has things to say, doug. >> be brief. what i am going to do is summarize for you today the results of the 75 responses we got our survey, which if nothing else is food for thought. we injured by it -- interviewed 73 people. we wanted to assess their assessment of the political landscape and your predictions, how will your assessment match the panel's. the mood of the country has a decidedly mixed one. 23% say things are headed in the right direction. 53% s

harold ford, new york's loss is our gain. thank you. howard kerr. the best analyst money can buy. he wrote the book on the spin cycle. welcome howie. >> and the clean up republican strategist, leslie san chez. welcome to our final political rumble. first, we have to hear from do you go. welcome. >> i'm the opening act this morning. ly do one sming that will be appreciated. be brief. i'm going to summarize today the results of the 75-odd responses we got to our survey, which is if nothing else, food for thought. we wanted to assess people in your own fearless assessment. the mood of the country is a decidedly mixed one. that being said, this is also a sense that things will get better. optimism the american people show is evidenced here. we asked a question that most surveys get a mixed answer this group said they would pay more taxes. a clear willingness to pay more. will sarah palin get the nomination? 7% say yes. 78% say no. if we were in a republican audience, they'd give a different answer. >> who will control the house 16% say the republicans will. the republicans say they wi

your new york yankees harold ford junior last night. >> that's the real story. >> i went to bed last night thinking they lost 3-0 and woke up this morning -- it looks like texeira did it for them. >> when he hit the home run, i didn't realize it was a home run because the announcer didn't know it was a home run. it had everybody in the stadium not been silent, i wouldn't have known right away it was a home run. what a game. >> willie geist, ain't nothing like the "new york post," ain't nothing like it anywhere. the best tex ever. >>> speaking of "new york post" news, willie, you'll know this. richard johnson is leaving for the west coast. >> a lot of shakeup in the media world t press world. that's been his baby for a very long time. >> he scared a lot of people for a quarter century. now he's going to l.a., going to be doing it. in washington, howie kurtz is going over to "the daily beast." >> is that right? >> yeah. >> i didn't see that. congrats to him. >> the rumors are thick that dina brown and "the daily beast" are in some negotiations to merge with "newsweek." >> mika, i feel