elrod, former senior adviser to the hillary clinton campaign, john heilemann, msnbc national affairs analyst, and danielle moodie-mills, siriusxm radio. thank you all for joining us right now. i want to go through the list. john heilemann, tonight everybody is watching this fight. >> yes, sir. >> it's like a heavyweight fight between the reigning heavyweight in the polls and someone who may well end up the nominee, but it's moving up certainly. >> yes. and, look, chris, you got joe biden who took those blows in the first debate. his numbers have bounced back to a large extent. but there is no one, including no one around joe biden in the joe biden campaign who doesn't recognize the stakes here that the calling card for this candidacy is that he is the one best equipped to take on donald trump, and that two bad debate performances would put a huge dent in that aura. so there is expectation and a fair amount of nerves on the part of the people around biden about whether or not he is going