in nevada sharon engel demand a debate with harry reid when she was behind in the polls but backed out when she pulled even. in delaware, o'donnell's personal finances are under scrutiny, and today she abruptly canceled an appearance on "face the nation" set for tomorrow. and yet she had many fans in the crowd of state party activists friday night. >> among a lot of the folks there was a sense she was mistreated during the 2008 campaign, that she can't get a fair shake from the media today. >> reporter: indeed, attacking the news media took up four minutes of palin's speech in des moines. >> we've got to hold the press accountable when you know that they're making things up and telling untruths. >> reporter: palin did not tip her hand on future plans friday night, tell the crowd to focus on november 2010 and worry about 2012 another time. but as she left the stage, she had a brief chat with reporters and told the "new york times,," i want to get back to iowa soon." dean reynolds, cbs news, des moines. >> glor: joininginous from washington is political analyst john dickerson. john, good

senate made up of 100 sharon engels? you are a partisan to make that argument. got in this country and they -- for heaven's sakes -- >> this disaster was not delivered to us by the democratic senate or house. call the people responsible who set the policies that led to the crash that nearly destroyed our economy. the thing is, you can be there and cheerlead christine o'donnell, sharon engel, but i still think that having people who understand policy, who know what they're talking about, whether right, left or in the middle is important. >> that is where you're wrong and i'll tell you why. let me talk. people who are intelligence, may be smarter, but have got the wrong ideas and leading us in the wrong direction are worse to have. >> republicans put us here in the first place. >> it's like reagan. carter may have had a higher iq, but reagan happened to be right on the issues when he came to town and they worked and obama's have not. that's the problem. >> a recession -- the same thing happened to reagan that happened to obama. employment went up. he had a recessi

sharon engel was there. about 800 people there. cle clearly, the reid folks sent people in there, but both sides were equally unruly. engel was getting heckled and at the end as she was leaving, there was this scuffle that broke out and there are some astonishing pictures of this man throwing a fist right at a woman who was apparently bothering him and trying to get by him. who started it, who knows, who cares. the kind of passions going on on both sides and it's not go sharon or harry. it's kill sharon or harry. the an mouse out there in this state toward these candidates is just astonishing. >> vaughn, every cycle, we say, it's never going to get stranger than this, than that. this cycle, every cycle takes on its own personality. this is one where it feels like all the venom you read about is now starting to be channelled at rallies. >> i think you've seen that throughout the campaign, frankly. you've seen commercials that talk about get your arms together and let's go against this federal government. >> some absurd rhetoric like

in nevada, harry reid is up now 45-40 over sharon engel. that's a significant lead considering the outfit. public opinion strategist is a republican pollster. now to california where new "l.a. times" usc poll has senator boxer building a comfortable lead over carly fiorina. look at that number. 51-43. boxer leads by eight points. in the pennsylvania senate race, pat toomey again, a seven-point lead over sestak. to florida, where marco rubio is pulling away. we'll continue to check the "hardball" score card all through the races. now, the democrats strategy. let's taug about this final strategy. here are clips from some of the ads that house democrats are writing. let's listen to all three of them. >> you've heard the old say saing, buyer beware, so beware of dishonest used car sales man tom gwanly. >> as treasurer, he had ethics problems an a record of mismanaging our money. he wants to force raped women to bear the child. >> submit to me. >> taliban dan webster. hands off our bodies and our laws. >> submit to me. i don't know -- interestin

general election candidates too far to the right like in nevada where harry read is under fire with sharon engel. that could be a key if mainstream voters decide they've gone too far. >>> overseas to iraq and another suicide bombing, this one targeting one of the main iraqi military commands in baghdad. 12 people were killed and 36 wounded when terrorists deton e detonated a van filled with explosives and then stormed the base. american soldiers returned fire helping to repel the attack. >>> it was the violence of nature in guatemala where landslides this weekend killed more than three dozen people, at least 60 are still missing and thousands have been forced to evacuate. two buses were hit as rain-soaked mountainsides gave way, trapping passengers and even some of the rescue teams. >>> crews in new zealand are checking thousands of buildings for damage in the wake of friday's major earthquake. at least 500 structures have been declared destroyed by the tremor, so powerful scientists say it opened a crack in the earth 11 feet wide. >>> the 33 miners trapped in chil chile, they held an video with

sue loudon, blown away by sharon engel.orton -- i'm looking at these people, you were doing a morning line on this, you'd say everyone was going to win. >> each of them in one way or another, a lot of times, they were the pick of the establishment. in other cases like with bennett, there was a specific vote. and with murkowski, there was hint she may support -- >> this morning on "morning joe" asked mitch mcconnell if republicans are rejecting his picks for office. let's listen. >> seven of the establishment republican picks, candidates you got behind in primaries, have gone down to defeat including in kentucky. so, do you feel like the republican party is rebuking your and the establishment picks? >> look, in the primaries, the voters in the primaries get to decide who the nominees are. there was one state, utah, where the primary voters didn't get a chance to decide. it was done by convention. those things sort themselves out and we'll get behind the nominees of the party. the real elections are in november and as i said,

sharon engel mocks health coverage for autism.s a link to a video. >> everything that they want to throw at us now is covered under autism so that's a mandate that you have to pay for. >> reporter: or this engel tweet, harry reid's plan, coked up stimulus monkeys, a reference to money being used for testing drugs on primates. this tweet gets personal, referring to reid's campaign managers as 13-year-old girls. and this tweet claims engel caught in multiple lies. >> i think we're at the beginning of a new era in american political history. >> reporter: michael is a tea party activist who pioneered a political use for another feature on twitter, the hash tack. that's the pound sign in front of common phrases or acronyms. his tag has become a haven for tea partiers. >> if you search and put it in, you'll see the tcot feed. and about ten tweets every minute now is the pace at which there are tcot tweets. there is a vibrant online conservative community. >> reporter: when palin with more than a quarter million followers tweets, she mak

three new polls show senator harry reid and sharon engel locked in a dead heat forn the race for u.s. engel leading by one point. reid said he is satisfied with where he is in the polls. >>> dutch police have arrested and fined an america delta pilot who was drunk and about to take off with a jet full of passengers. officials haven't identified the pilot but said he is a 52-year-old captain from an unnamed state in the northeast. >> jersey. >> new jersey. police say the pilot was fined $900 and released. the flight, we're happy to report, was canceled. delta said it suspended the pilot pending an investigation. >>> we'll be right back with nbc news political director chuck todd. don't forget you can always listen to us sirius channel 90, xm 120. host: could switching to geico really save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance? was abe lincoln honest? mary: does this dress make my backside look big? abe: perhaps... save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance?really host: is having a snowball fight with pitching great randy johnson a bad idea? man: yeah, i'm thinking maybe t

i vegas as audience members bre into a scuffle tradinging punches while the senate candidates sharon engel and harry reid were booed and heckled. just the latest sign of america, the angry. >> be back here at 5:00. >> reporter: the president, even among supporters wednesday night in new york was repeatedly interrupted by hecklers. >> we listen to you. we heard your point. >> reporter: at a town hall this weeke got something of a talking to. >> quite frankly, i'm exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, dending the change i voted for. >> some people are angry. some people are scared because of the economic conditions. some peoplere disillusioned who invested hope president obama. some people are turned off in the way that they don't believe any party is going to make a difference. >> reporter: for "toda savannah guthrie nbc news, new york. >> for more we turn to john harwood, chieforrespondent for cnbc. you can't make ts stuff up. i don't know where to start. let's start with the anger out there. are people just ang in general and does thatot make this election somewhat un

sharon engel is running against harry reid has a history of walking, even running away from unwanted questions. gary tuckman has been digging to see if he could get some questions answers by the candidate a few moments ago. tonight he joins us from middletown delaware. gary, did she talk? >> reporter: anderson, she talked a little bit. i'll tell you about that in a second. to set up the scene, the candidate's forum in the building here. she was one of the candidates here and after it ended we wanted to ask her a specific question. not about witchcraft or anything like this but about these financial allegations. it's important to ask her that because today a washington watch dog group that investigates politicians, investigating charlie rangel said christine o'donnell is clearly a criminal and she should be prosecuted because of her spending so i asked her if she could ask one specific question and she said if you're polite and shake hands i'll answer but she wouldn't take my question. she just made a general statement. >> we've been ethical. we have not -- i have personally not misus

it seems to me there was a time when people were saying about the woman challenging harry reid, sharon engel, very dismissive of her and now you look at the polls and she's a real threat. >> dismissive is exactly what the republican establishment was in looking at christine o'donnell. they, infact, were aggressively trying to disqualify her and you don't often see that within the republican party. now, she was not known to us, but in delaware she had been a candidate frequently. she had been, in fact, joe biden's senate opponent in 2008 when he ran and won his senate seat and the vice presidency. in delaware, she was far better known. we're all just getting to know her now. voters i talked to described as liking her as a fresh face, someone who is different, not the incumbent. now, as people are looking much more carefully at her record, her finances, her work history, her beliefs, all of that vetting that is happening, there are questions that some people have. opponents say she has some extreme views and conservatives new york ci say, no, her change in washington is what we're hearing from

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they said sharon engel can't win. he's up in the poll.id ken puck gont win. >> the latest poll in nevada here was this person who wasn't supposed to have any credibility and if she was going to win the republican primary, by george harry reid was going to be a shoo-in. there you have it. it's a statistical tie. >> wait a minute, contessa, nobody has said harry reid would be a shoo-in. >> they said it before she won. >> the fact of the matter is most people thought harry reid had a very hard, uphill battle and he's in the fight now. he has a very, very good chance of winning. you know, no one gave us a shot in delaware. and look at what people are saying about that race today. remember, ten candidates, i mean, look, i don't know why john corn ien is still a chairman. he lost eight races where nrc had picked an established candidate, lost to a far right wing candidate. and they know that this is a disaster. they're having to invest in places where they thought they were going to win. that has to benefit us. >> i'm interested in what happens

the tea party -- the tea party and sharon engel here is a marvelous candidate. however, she's at a financial disadvantage to moneys that may have been circumvented from the stimulus plans to support candidates, to buy votes for the democratic party. they're trying to bring about these problematic immigration plans to bring on all of these hispanic voters who snuck into the country, avoided the process of qualifying and getting across the boarders to make sure they're real, live, viable citizens as owe -- opposed to criminals. host: there is a lot in that call. let's start with leaderist. guest: sarah palin in response to a fairly sophomore question said, i think the republican party would be wise to absorb the tea party movement, as much of the tea party movement as possible. they like sarah palin but couldn't believe she said this. they don't want a leader. the power of this is this bottomup grassroots nature. host: there is another big national convention coming up in october. guest: yes, in las vegas. host: what do they hope to do with that? guest: it's inter

fund-raiser in manhattan for democrat harry reid, the senate majority leader facing tea party candidate sharon engelo is being backed by sarah palin. in the interview, the mayor says this, joe, people are angry, their anger is understandable. washington isn't working. he goes on to say, anger, however, is not a government strategy. it's not a way to govern. that, of course, joe, has been the theme of this show for three years. >> i love that line. anger is not a government strategy. the mayor is right. he really is. according to "the times" bloomberg is going to be helping candidates not bound by rigid ideology. that's the message we've been trying to emphasize here and also in my book. we've been doing it every day on "morning joe." what we try to do is encourage politicians and thought leaders and every american to follow the advice of an old british war poster that carried a very simple message, keep calm and carry on. that was the message, mika, that fdr delivered to a battered nation in the depths of the great depression when he declared to all americans that all we have to fear is fear itself.

that's why you're seeing a sharon engel in nevada. >> we just had steve rattner in, saved, in quotes, doing what steve rattner did? >> no, honestly i wouldn't. i don't believe in too big to fail. i think if general motor fails, the free market decides. the problem is you've got too many companies in mayor who would rather send lobbyists to washington to shut down competition than spend money on invoation. general motors was one of them. >> aim men. that message, and we said earlier today -- mike has become the defender of the tea party after scott brown in massachusetts. >> he said to find a right. but we said earlier today, if you put the tea party platform down, the republican party platform down and the democratic platform party down, don't have any names, people would choose that and they would choose no bailouts, let the market decide. >> because of what's hatched in washington over the last ten years. >> when you have members of congress, republicans and democrats, who would rather come to washington and then become lobbyists and get rich. lisa murkowski is a good example. >> ca

nevada, look, the only reason harry reid is viable is because of sharon engel. christine o'donnell is the democrats wanted to run against. so, again, the democrats have had to sort of pick off these races race by race because things are so tight in a wave year. but this was a huge sort of psychological lift for them last night, if nothing else. >> should add a cautionary. be careful what you wish for. we've been surprised all election long. >> conventional wisdom hasn't had a great track record lately. well, michael crowley in washington. thanks for joining us here this morning. >> thank you. >> it was fun. >>> whether you were at home or on the road, you can get the latest political news 24 hours a day on our political ticker. go to cnn.com/ticker. >>> and up next, we're minding your business. consumer reports sticking to its guns. why they're still refusing to recommend apple's iphone 4. hello, steve jobs, call online two. that's coming up next. [ male announcer ] mix it. blend it. sprinkle it. sweet! [ female announcer ] just about anywhere you use sugar you

whether it's ken buck in colorado who wants to privatize medical care for veterans or sharon engel who doesn't believe it is her job as a united states senator to help create jobs for the people of nevada or ron johnson in wisconsin who wants to open drilling in lake michigan. i don't think that those constituents share their views. and there's a reason that republicans ran against them and hall and sharon and christine. they know their positions do not sell well in a general election context. and one more note about their primaries. their wounds are not healing. republicans in connecticut and washington state and nevada and alaska and delaware have not united behind their nominees. and i believe that demonstrates just how extreme these candidates' views are in close elections. that's a huge problem for them. finally, i would simply say that this is a cycle of unpredictability. so who two years ago or even shorter would have predicted that mitch mcconnell, the republican leader, can pick a candidate in kentucky would lose? or 33 days from the election, who would have said 33 days going