of this the building. >> unbelievable. all right, good day, everybody. i'm norah o'donnell live here in washington for andrea. and the president's approval rating has surged in the wake of that lame-duck victory. and of course, well-received response to the tucson shootings, but what does the future hold for the president? the men behind the new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll join us now. great to see both of you. peter, you say that this is the best six weeks that the president has had in his first two years in office. wow. why is that? >> i think he's done two things, which are very important. one, he's been able to get important legislation through, reacted very well to the election results. and the other thing that i think's important is he showed tremendous, sort of, relationship and compassion on the tucson matter. he handled it well. people have wondered, can he