the sad road home for 30 american service members including the elite navy s.e.a.l.s killed by taliban fire. we're learning more about the attack and about the fallen heroes. >> i'm proud that i will get to carry on his legacy through our children who will take away his strength and his love for this country. and they will know what an amazing man he is. was. >> a nation grieving. good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. as we wait for the president to speak, stocks are getting pounded today after the s&p downgrade of the u.s. credit rating. followed today by dozens of realed listeneders being downgraded including fre dee may and fan neigh mac. the president will address the weekend's tragic helicopter crash in afghanistan.

for more on that i'm joined by nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel in kabul and william co-when. and chris matthews, first, you, let's talk about the s&p. clearly a political judgment by the s&p about the future of debt reduction and long-term solvency. is that exceeding their grasp? and was it wrong as the white house and treasury --? >> it's done. it has power in itself. they have credibly. we live with the s&p every day. the value of our stocks our portfolio is depending on how the s&p rates it. i think it probably has more to do with the dollar and the value of our dollar. i think gold's going up because of that. that's more of a near term thing that any other unrealistic assessment that we might reanything on it. i think this is really big. this has to do with the toring size of the u.s. debt. the more we read about greece,

portugal and spain and italy too in trouble. the more we look at one thing, how's their debt compared to their gdp. by that standard we have problems. we can't keep saying we're different. we have an american exceptionalism at work here. if yoer exceptional, why do we keep rolling up our debt? that's a question i think the liberals, progressives have to deal with. they can't say it's a problem of the idiot right. you can't blame it all on them. there's some idiots on the right. there are some people on the right who will not look at the big picture. >> we're hearing that the president's speech, his remarks have been delayed until about 1:30. stay with us. we're not sure exactly what time. before we turn to afghanistan. let's continue on this theme. what is the practical effect of fannie, freddie on the others who have been downgraded because of their links to the u.s. government? it seems that s&p not joined by moody's and fitch so far,

although there's a negative warning that s&p is looking at our system, our system of democracy compared to parliamentary systems where things can be fixed in some cases more easily? >> up to a point that's true. with all due respect to my colleague chris matthews disagree that i don't believe s&p has -- although it uses political stability as an input to the credit quality of any given nation, i don't think they have the credibility to make this determination. they missed the sub prime mortgage crisis. they missed the heavily indebted nations of europe piling up their debts over the last several years only noticing it within recent months and maybe the last 12. then they've missed the fact that the united states has $14 trillion in debt, $9 trillion has come in just the last eight years alone. they haven't saiding in until now. in my book, they don't have a lot of credibility. they do have impact because various investors may follow a mandate that does not allow them

to own anything but aaa securities. fortunately over the weekend regulators told bans they can hold treasurely bonds without diminishing in capital or clot ral value and money market funds are not being forced to sell treasuries because of the downgrade on long-term debt. i think apart from chris this is a long run problem. this is about defense spending, entitlement reform and tax reform when it comes to getting our fiscal house in order. in a certain sense we are vastly drink different from greece. we have no near term issues with respect to paying our debts. we are not in imminent danger of default. this is the unfunded liabilities of the u.s. government that are our problem. not the ability to roll our debt or make an interest payment. that's not in the picture here. i think we have to be careful. it is not american exceptionalism issue. it's one that because we're the reserve currency of the world and at the same time the largest net debtor that we are different

from some of these other peripheral countries around the world. >> briefly, ron, what's happening at the latest in the markets now as we've seen these reactions? >> we see ironically treasury bonds are rallying and interest rates are falling. most of this activity is deemed to be recession their and deflation their. europe is posing -- imposing fiscal austerity. we may do that in a willy nilly form to respond to this debt downgrade. that's recession their. i think the markets are more worried about a double dip recession than about the downgrade itself. that's what has oil down, gold -- gold is skyrocketing. it's well above $1700 an ounce today. >> thanks for that, ron. i think now to afghanistan, of course, richard engel you're standing by in kabul. the tragic loss and some confusion about the mission itself. i want to raise some questions that our own jack jacobs has raised. why the mission in chinooks?

wiz there a high value target? they were coming to the rescue of those on the ground who are in a firefight, what can you tell us what have we learned about what actually happened? >> all day we've been speaking to witnesses, members of the taliban and also to some degree the u.s. military. although i must admit the u.s. military is giving out the least details so far about what exactly happened. what the military will confirm is there was an operation underway about 60 miles southwest in a remote valley. there was a ranger operation to hunt down what sounded like mid level taliban commanders. the taliban say there were 12 of their fighters in a compound in this valley. the rangers were engaged in this operation. a firefight ensued and re-enforcements were called in. those were mostly navy s.e.a.l.s. as the navy s.e.a.l.s alived in the chinook on this location

they were hit by a rocket propelled grenade. the taliban says it was a single rocket propelled grenade and it brought down the helicopter killing everyone on board. what colonel jacobs and other analysts are asking is why were navy s.e.a.l.s called in as backup? they are a tier one asset. these are the kind of people that are used to hunt down bin laden not be backup for an operation that was already being carried out by the rangers. >> that's the question that i heard him ask and that i was wondering as well. a chinook is a big, fat, slow moving target. that's not the same as the choppers that they use to go in for bin laden, tlaers the primary force. why do you think they were being used? were they the best and the closest available? we're not being told why, specifically. the ranger regiment operates in secret. the s.e.a.l.s operate with even more secrecy. when you have special ops sent

in to aid over special ops is military went into a lockdown mode and is only saying that the s.e.a.l.s were sent in as re-enforcemen re-enforcements. they say it wasn't a rescue operation. you don't send in re-enforcements unless there is to a degree a rescue operation. we frankly don't noi why they were put on chi noox. they were vulnerable. they do fly slowly particularly when they're taking off and landing. >> finally, we're now told the additional reporting and the statement from nato is that they were shot down while going in, note while coming out, is that correct? >> that's what the military as said. there was some confusion. i think partly because the military wasn't saying anything about this and everyone was getting their reporting based on witness accounts. the military is saying yes, it was as the s.e.a.l.s were arriving on this location that they were shot down by a single rpg and apparently it was a lucky shot.

they're not very accurate. these are not guided rockets. you showers point and shoot. it was a nighttime raid. they do come in fairly slowly particularly when they're hovering or turning to go into a landing. jack jacobs other military analysts are saying this was a misuse of resources and that i think that could resonate with a lot of americans. after all it was the s.e.a.l.s who killed bin laden. an incredible operation, maybe some learns are going to say why are they being used in this valley that no one's ever heard of to catch a bunch of mid range taliban commanders? is that really the best use of this asset? >> richard engel on post in kabul. thank you so much. we look forward to your reporting throughout the day and tonight on "nightly news." former defense secretary bill cohen these are questions that are going to be asked. this doesn't mitigate the tragedy. you've lost 22 members of a team. we're talking about 7% of abunit.

this is the most elite, the most valued if you can ascribe value of extraordinarily well prepared men? >> i think there's time enough to question the mission and tactics today. we have to pause long enough to pay tribute to them and their values who are going through great pain. these are a very small band of brothers who obviously have worked together for five, six, ten years. they are a family. this is an enormous loss to them as well as to their personal families who lost a father, son, brother, husband. so we have to pause long enough to take that into account. let's look at the mission. overall why are we there? >> the pace of withdrawal, does this change that at all? >> i think short-term it won't change that. i don't think the president or the military is going to want to look at acting in retreat. i think we have to look at what is the ultimate mission. we were there to eliminate the

al qaeda as a threat. eliminate safe havens. the notion that we're going to pacify the country to make it free from taliban influence and domination is unrealistic. we have to examine, why are we there? what are we doing? is it a counterterrorism operation? is it realistic to think that we could stay there for my length of time and make a difference. you're looking at areas in which the taliban is growing in strength. they're engaged in the beheading of individuals. the interim decision of the local population. another question what will be the impact upon the afghans training for these operations. will they feel they can't carry them out without the united states and not make the effort in the future. a lot of questions to be asked. today we pause for mourning. >> bill cohen and chris matthews, i was reading this weekend an article in "the washington post." his reporting, he's been there noi for more than a year in his

latest deployment. his reporting on the 19 49d-49 investment of $20 million by an american company to try to bill irrigation systems in afghanistan and how it was a disaster, usaid had to come in. this was ordered by the king of afghanistan. we're talking about a bottomless pit to getting to the mission and whether it can ever be achieved. what is the goal? >> i think these kind of horror events, i do agree with the secretary, it's about the families now. i feel it's how the president handles this as commander in chief. i hate to see this brought in on the fiscal crisis. it's about people and our nation. >> people were asking why he didn't come out over the weekend. >> i think the commander in chief has a personal responsibility to the families of every service person. this is one of those critical moments he should be there. we'll see what he says today

this is going to rip the scab off every feeling about this war. joe biden who gets beat up for his mental limitations who was the one that understood this should be a counterterrorism operation. he was beaten down by the sophisticates who said we have to stay there. what are they offering here in terms of a bottom line? we leave in five years the taliban takes over? we leave in 20 years the taliban takes over? sooner or later the people of afghanistan have to fight them. >> chris matthews, and bill cohen, i know we've got to go the president is expected now at 1:30. beefly, you travel all over the world, we have a global company. the imfkt of the downgrade? >> i think the impact is that other countries are not taking us seriously anymore. they don't look to the united states with the same kind of awe and admiration and respect.

when they see the political games being played with arn inability to reach a decision they lose can have many the united states. i think that's going to play out across the board in many parts to have world for some time to come. >> thank you so much. and president obama is set to speak at 1:30 eastern on the debt downgrade and as well the deadly chopper crash in afghanistan. stay with us, live coverage on "andrea mitchell reports." [ male announcer ] members of the american postal workers union handle more than 165 billion letters and packages a year.

that's about 34 million pounds of mail every day. ever wonder what this costs you as a taxpayer? millions? tens of millions? hundreds of millions? not a single cent. the united states postal service doesn't run on your tax dollars. it's funded solely by stamps and postage. brought to you by the men and women of the american postal workers union. ♪ [ kate ] can't believe i have high blood pressure. what's that thing? another medication. ♪ i really should have taken my shoes off before i got weighed. [ female announcer ] you've got a lot on your mind. that's why every walgreens prescription goes through a 10 point safeguard check that reviews your current walgreens health record for allergies and potentially harmful drug interactions. [ kate ] i can do this. [ female announcer ] the 10 point safeguard check from walgreens. there's a way to stay well. [ female announcer ] the 10 point safeguard check from walgreens. we share. shop from anywhere.

and are always connected. we live in a social world. isn't it time we had a social currency to match? membership rewards points from american express. use them to get the things you love from amazon.com, ticketmaster.com, and more unexpected places. they're a social currency with endless possibilities.

breaking news. we are waiting for the president. he's going to be coming into the state dining room to talk about the s&p downgrade and of course, his first reaction to the tragedy in afghanistan over this weekend. we will have that for you life right here. and the fragile economy is taking more hits today after the

s&p downgrade, which has now been extended to fannie mae, freddie mac and other institutions. more bad news for people struggling to make ends meet and find jobs. joining me now rich trumka. a tough day, a tough weekend. the jobs outlook worse than ever. slightly better than some had feared reported on friday. but the outlook still is that people are unemployed for longer and longer time and it's harder and harder to get a job. >> our leaders aren't coming yet. the jobs crisis with the same aggressiveness that they came after the politically manufactured debt ceiling crisis. >> what do you mean our leaders? that means the president of the united states. you're not happy with what the white house has been doing so far to respond to this? >> we think there needs to be more than sound bytes. we want those politicians all of

them, every last one, democrat, republican, independent to come at it with a same aggressiveness that they came after everything else. it means dealing with a group of people that it looks more and more like the pea partiers are actually trying to make the government dysfunctional to tear it down. that's a tough thing for him to deal with. but at the same time we have to be focussing on jobs, creating jobs and letting everybody know that's the main crisis. i hope the politicians when they go home in august will listen to the men and women that their districts and they'll hear a collective voice. >> what can be done? what specifically can be done to create jobs in an economy like this where the government has no money to spend? >> i disagree. we could do a robust surface transportation act. that would -- >> you'll never get that through the republican house. >> you said the magic words, you asked me what needs to be done

and i'm telling you, i would hope that the republican tea partiers and everybody else would understand that what we need to do is create jobs. the most sensible thing they could have done is to put an unemployment trigger in these deficit cuts that they were doing. if they would have said we don't start the deficit cuts until we get down to 6%, and then we'll start them -- >> most of the deficit cuts are back loaded. they're timed to phase in over years from now. so they're not upfront. it's only $22 billion up front. >> epi say it's going to cost about 1.8 million jobs over the life of this thing. that's not what we need right now when you have 14 million out of work. >> a lot of people would debate those statistics from one particular outfit -- >> they're the one group that's been accurate in this whole mess. they predicted it. they said that was going to happen. they said the depth of it and what we needed to get out of it. >> you're talking about the

economic policy institute which is considered on one side of the idealogical agenda. aside from that, what do you want president obama to do? do you think his re-election is at stake here? >> i think the economy is going to play a very pronounced part of the election. i think the first thing we should do is talk about a robust surface transportation act. we need to put about $4 trillion in infrastructure in this country over the next ten to 20 years to put people to work. the second thing is, we ought to be having a serious conversation about a fairer tax system so that we can get the revenues that are necessary for the services that we need. the third thing is we ought to be talking about a trade policy that really helps us export american products and services rather than exports american jobs. we ought to be talking about policiesened increased manufacturing in this country. we ought to be helping our state and local governments and not be

a drag on the economy. these five things we could turn the economy around in the long run. >> rich trumka so good to see you. thanks so much. >> thanks for having me on. >> as you can see on your screen, that is the state dining room at the white house. the president will be coming out to speak about the s&p downgrade and the economic crisis, the markets and of course, the tragedy in afghanistan. we will have it for you live as soon as the president comes out. we're expecting him within the half-hour. and you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." we'll be right back. ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ introducing purina one beyond a new food for your cat or dog.

but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.

here's what you can the expect from regions. a bank that provides you with real business expertise. check. a professional optimization of your cash flow with a regions cashcor analysis. check. cash management solutions and the smart lending options you need to grow your business. check. plus, it all comes with award-winning service to help you achieve more balance. interested? let's talk. looking good. (bike bell) right now you're looking at the state dining room at the white house. the president will be coming in very shortly to talk about the economy. the markets now down 325 points on the dow. as markets around the world reacting to the s&p downgrade of u.s. government. other downgrades to follow today

from fannie mae and freddie mac. from fannie mae and freddie mac. we'll be back in a moment... and a choice. take advil now and maybe up to four in a day. or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. way to go, coach. ♪ how'd you learn to do that? what'd you use? every project we finish comes with a story built-in. it's how our rough ideas become "you did that yourself?" so when we can save more on the projects that let us fix, make, and do more... that just makes the stories even better. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. right now get this vanity and matching mirror for just $99.

you're watching live pictures of the white house, we're expecting the president at any minute to be talking about the economy, the s&p downgrade, the jobs numbers and of course, afghanistan. meanwhile, other stories making headlines right now, right here on msnbc, massive riots in north london left 160 people behind bars this weekend. groups of young people damaged cars and set several fires after police shot and killed a 29-year-old man over a disputed circumstances on thursday. syria is continuing its crackdown today of anti-government protesters despite condemnation from saudi arabia's king. saudi arabia, kuwait and bahrain are withdrawing their ambassadors. this is the first sign they're turning against syria.

the obama administration is planning on giving $100 million to refugees in somalia. today dr. jill biden visited northern kenya to visit camps. in florida a manhunt is underway for three siblings on the run. their mother is urging them to surrender. >> and right now we're still waiting for president obama, but joining me now in the studio as we await the president is chris matthews returning. let's talk about the challenges for the president as a leader, as commander in chief, as leader of our economy as our president speaking on difficult subjects and both on the same time today. >> that's right. i think the most important hat today is probably chander in chief in terms of reacting to the horror in afghanistan. of course, he has the head of administration responsibility as chief executive to try to begin

to convince the american people if he knows the answer what's wrong and what can be done to solve it. i don't think he has to put the political hat on today, the democratic hat. i think the country's had enough of that. they're looking for someone to say here's the reality we're facing. here's the steps we need to take. >> s&p in its downgrade made a political judgment because they basically made a judgment about the likelihood of anything concrete coming out of the committee of 12 and even of the trigger mechanism down the road. but aside from that, they really are looking at both sides. they criticized the republicans for being steadfast against taxes as part of the mix. they're making a political judgment about our system. the president is the head of our country right now. how can he walk the middle line between his own re-election hopes, the disaster -- >> the reason it's lasted all these years since 1788 we never

missed an election. we don't have five republicans like the french. we have an incredibly stable government is because the checks and balances. the trouble is the chebs and balances are now used to stop anything from getting done. each side has enough power to prevent the other side from doing anything. but neither side has enough power to do anything. they're each using their power to check each other. the president says i'll cut the spending only if you'll raise revenues by a trillion or two. if it was worth doing why isn't he doing it. a partisan will say why should he? and then republicans will say, our problem is that we're taxed too much, we have to spend -- but all the numbers point to action on both front seat. 15% of the gdp in revenues. 25% going out in spending. a 10% different shl. close it or move it up to 22. but find somewhere to agree. neither side will tell you if you ask them how much money should the federal government be

spending out of our economy right now? they won't tell you. they'll argue about the other side being wrong. neither side will stake out what they believe is the truth. >> you would think that this would be an inflection point. joining us nous our political briefing of the day, charlie, is this a moment for the president to sort of step outside the bligs role and try to be the leader of the country. >> i think it's the perfect role. we've seen two profound civic traumas. you've got the events, the losses of military personnel in began and then you've seen an event that's damaged our nation's economic psyche. the downgrade of the s&p. there's no better moment for the president to get in front of the people and talk about that. >> and joining us now, charlie is the head of the congressional black caucus.

congressman, here you've got a jobs tour only days after another mediocre report on the jobs front and now this very, very difficult couple of days with the downgrade. where is the president as far as you're concerned? could he have joined your jobs' tour? he's marooning to go to yooi yoi on his own jobs tour next week? >> i think we have two separate missions. i think the president is trying to build up some support around the country for some kind of massive jobs program that he will probably present shortly. we're trying to get people jobs. in fact, we have gotten people jobs. people lined up here this morning at 4:00 a.m. thousands of people here on the chieflandland university campus to try to get jobs. i just spoke in the elevator with a young woman who just got a job and is excited about what happened here today. the president has one agenda. we have another agenda altogether. we think that we can get about

10,000 jobs in our five city stop. if you consider the fact that we have 15 million people without jobs. that may not sound like a lot of jobs, that's 14,000 people who didn't have jobs that we've been able to get corporations to open their door for opportunities to these people. >> one of the reasons for the downgrade, congressman, was this inaction, dysfunction as they see it in washington. and it makes one wonder whether you in the congressional black caucus and the democratic caucus are willing to give something up if republicans would give up their stance on taxes. is this a moment where everyone can take a step back and rethink their fundamental positions? >> well, that moment came for us all the way back to the debate on health care. some-us have been willing to compromise all along. i can tell you right now the

congressional black caucus, the hispanic caucus, the black caucus are all willing to give up things in order to try to bring this economy out of the doldrums. this is a much too serious moment for this nation and frankly for the world because we could easily drag the economy of the world off a cliff with us. we've got to put some of this -- it's not even par sanship. it's more a situation where it's ideology. where ideology trumps everything. ideology is more important than trying to get the debt under control. it's more important than trying to make sure that children and seniors are protected. so it's not us. i went to congress as a single payer supporter. i compromised immediately when the president said it wasn't

important. i didn't like it, but i did it anyway. that's what we ef to do in congress. ly compromise today. we have to do so making sure that seniors are protected. i think we've got to do something with social security. the age of social security recipients when roosevelt started was 57. today it's 70 years old. i think we need to change the cap on contributions from 160,000 to say $150,000 and bring new revenues in. medicare has to be fixed. it has to be fixed quickly. i'm willing to compromise. the problem we're going to have the you're going to find the people on those committees, that supercommittee which may be unconstitutional, are going to sit there one side of the table saying no tax reform. no tax increases. and then we end up at the same place we are today and then we'll get one of the other three

credit rating agencies to downgrade our credit worthiness. >> thank you very much. good luck with the hunt for jobs in cleveland and as you proceed around the country we'll be keeping up with you. thanks to you charlie. we'll be back as we await the president who should be coming into the white house state dining room very, very shortly we're told with his comments about the economy and of course, afghanistan. we're watching "andrea mitchell we're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. this is my band from the 80's, looker. hair and mascara, a lethal combo. i'm jon haber of alto music. my business is all about getting music into people's hands. and the plum card from american express open helps me do that. you name it, i can buy it. and the savings that we get from the early pay discount has given us money to reinvest back

into our business and help quadruple our floor space. how can the plum card's trade terms get your business booming? booming is putting more music in more people's hands. and form a layer called biofilm so strong it survives brushing. thankfully, there's listerine® antiseptic. its triple-action formula penetrates biofilm, kills germs and protects your mouth for hours. fight biofilm with listerine®.

but your cloud of depression is still with you. maybe it's time to ask your doctor about adding seroquel xr to your antidepressant to treat your depression. seroquel xr is a once-daily, extended-release tablet, which means medication is released around the clock. for many, seroquel xr, when added to an antidepressant, was proven more effective than an antidepressant alone at helping people feel less depressed. call your doctor if you have unusual changes in mood, behavior, or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. elderly dementia patients taking seroquel xr have an increased risk of death. call your doctor if you have fever, stiff muscles, and confusion, as these may be signs of a life-threatening reaction or if you have uncontrollable muscle movements,

as these could become permanent. high blood sugar has been reported with seroquel xr and medicines like it and in extreme cases can lead to coma or death. your doctor should check for cataracts. other risks include increased cholesterol and weight gain as well as seizures, dizziness on standing, drowsiness, impaired judgment, trouble swallowing, and decreases in white blood cells, which can be fatal. use caution before driving or operating machinery. isn't it time to put more distance between you and your depression? talk to your doctor about seroquel xr. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. hi, everyone i'm tom ran holcombing up on "news night", we are keeping an eye on the stock market where the dow has been down all day. also today the s&p downgraded the credit rating of fannie mae

and freddie mac. we'll hear what the president has to say and we'll hear about the politics of what's happening on wall street. plus, take a cover of this "news week" magazine. do you see anything wrong where the photograph of michele bachmann. "news week" is being blastd. so. say the magazine is trying to make her look quote, crazy. all of that and more just 15 minutes away. we're watching live pictures of the white house waiting for the president to come out with his statement. he is about 45 minutes behind his orangenal schedule. meanwhile we're sitting here with chris matthews. of course, joined now by robin wright, the veteran author, journalist, scholar who has a new book "rock the cause baa" could not be more timely. rave reviews. thank you for joining us today. first of all, afghanistan, the tragedy over the weekend. this does again show that the

taliban are more deeply rooted than any effort to negotiate with the taliban are going to be that much harder. it does raise questions about the pace of withdrawal. >> it raises questions about the pace. it raises a lot of question about what we do in the aftermath of our withdrawal. we are relying on iraq and afghanistan increasingly on operations. they are the men who are critical in identifying, finding and bringing to justice back to be heard in both countries. this is a real set back. the timing couldn't be worse. it's such a huge tragedy as well. >> and as we talk about that also the crackdown in syria. the u.s. and other countries have seemed feckless with their statements and condemnation. assad ignoring it. the big change the king of saudi arabia. we've been told libya is different. we can't take action in syria because the saudis are continuing to support. there's no arab league condemnation. now you've got saudi arabia and

of course along with it kuwait and bahrain withdrawing ambassadors. is this a breakthrough? >> it's very important. it comes the day before the turkish p.m. is scheduled to talk to a regime to stop them from attacking its own citizens. the king from saudi arabia has been a moderate influence. who was the one that came through the white house after the egyptian protests began saying, look, let mubarak step down gracefully. at least let him stay in power until september. the united states decided to go a different route. the king has been a a man who's tried over and over again to negotiate peaceful transitions and has been an ally of the syrians. this is a major, major step. >> as we're watching the boards waiting for the president the dow is down now engineer 400 points. this is obviously a lot of bloodletting on wall street. robin, also the arab spring

which you write about so movingly in your book. you're hopeful at the same time some fear that the outbreak, the revolution that we saw is not going to be met by real reform and that islamist groups are going to hold sway because of the conflict between moving too quickly or too slowly towards more democratic forms. what is injure outlook now? >> i think what we've seen in the arab world mirrors what happens in eastern europe, latin america and in southern africa. going through the transition to a different kind of political system. it's only the beginning of the beginning. it's going to be a wild ride along the way with many moments when we're going to want to go in and say we know how to do this and we can help you. this is one time many of the people in the region want to decide for themselves. they don't want a repeat of iraq or afghanistan or of libya. they want to determine their political fate. >> in the book you write that the wider muslim world is

increasingly rejecting extremism from al qaeda to the punitive shiites in iran have proven costly and unappealing. >> absolutely. this is playing out across the board. you find people that are protesters in egypt or the young rappers, the new play writes, comedians and take the term jihad and bring it back to its meaning, which is just the human struggle. the majority of muslims have taken a stand particularly over the last four or five years in criticizing bin laden, denouncing the tactics of extremist groups in general. so this plays as parallel to the uprisings on the street. >> congratulations on your latest work. it's just another part of your work and your study many the region. >> thanks. >> thank you. we'll be back in just a moment

as we wait for the president to come into the state dining room and his remarks obviously very difficult for the president right now as the dow continues to head downward. # [ male announcer

and as we watch live pictures from the white house waiting for the president, the obama administration also today planning to announce that it will give states struggling to meet the standards of no child left behind to come up with their own solutions, because congress has failed to reform the education law. margaret spellings was the education secretary for the bush white houses, and also joining me is my friend chris matthews. and no child left behind. and the criticism of it by arne

duncan and we are expecting he to be speaking today, but we expect that you cannot get get of the programs around the country, and if the program has not been reformed by congress, you have to give it the waivers and why do you object to that? >> well, certainly some room for reasonable, you know, accommodation for some of the stat states, but i also think that it is important that this is not a trojan horse to gut accountability, and a which for the states to say, we give up on closing the achievement gap, and we give up on putting the kids on grade level. the education department says that the standards are too slow, and the speedometers are too slow and we don't need to give up and say, we can't get your kid to grade level. but arne duncan says that 50%82f the schools would fail with these standards. >> clearly the data from the

states is half that and probably it will be 40% to 50% of the schools will be labeled needing improvement, and we, americans, can't say that half of the minority kids are getting out of high school and the schools are great. so it strikes me that the schools do need to be attended to if we are losing that many schoolchildren. >> margaret spellings, and we anticipate the president in 30 seconds. chris matthewmatthews, we are s here waiting for him, and this is a high bar for him. >> pivotal and he should have been out by saturday talking about the loss of the troops tshg s.e.a.l.s. >> and he could recover today. >> i don't want to criticize, but i hate to see this double-barreled complicated discussion of the fiscal and the debt situation, because they are two different topics. >> but the challenge for him is to restore america's hope and there is a psychological impact of the downgrade, because he has

to be worried about that the economy will be affected as well. here is the president. >> on friday, we learned that the united states received a downgrade by one of the credit rating agencies and not so much because they doubt our ability to pay our debt if we make good decisions, but after witnessing a month of wrangling over raising the debt ceiling, they doubted our political systems to act. the markets on the other hand believe that our status is aaa and warren buffett who knows a thing or two about good investments said if there were a quadruple a rating, i would give the united states that, and i and most of the world's investors agree. that does not mean we don't have a problem. the fact is that we didn't need a rating agency to tell us that we need a balanced long-term approach to deficit reduction. that was true last week. that was true last year.

that was true the day i took office. and we didn't need a rating agency to tell us that the gridlock in washington over the last several months has not been constructive to say the least. we knew from the outset that a prolonged debate over the debt ceiling, and where the default was a bargaining chip could be do damage to the economy and the world's. and that threat coming after a string of economic disruptions in japan and the middle east roiled the confidence and slowed the pace of recovery. so all of this is a legitimate course of concern, but here is the good news, we know that the problems are imminently solvable and we know what to do with this em. with debt, the confidence is nots in the credit, because the

markets will reaffirm our markets among the savest, and our challenge is to tackle the deficits over the long term. last week, we reached an agreement that will make historic cuts to defense and domestic spending, but there's not much further we can cut in either of those categories. what we need to do now is to combine those spending cuts with two additional steps. tax reform that will ask those who can afford it to pay their fair share and modest adjustments to health care programs like medicare. making these reforms doesn't require any radical steps. what it does require is commonsense and compromise. there are plenty of good ideas about how to achieve long-term deficit reduction that doesn't hammer economic growth right now. republicans and democrats on the

bipartisan fiscal commission that i set up put forth good proposal proposals, and republicans and democrats in the senate's gang of six came up with good proposals. john boehner and i came up with some good proposals when we came close to agreeing on a grand bargain. so, it is not a lack of plans or policies that is the problem here. it is a lack of political will in washington. it is the insistence on drawing lines in the sand. a refusal to put what is best for the country ahead of self-interest or party or ideology, and that is what we need to change. i realize that after what we just went through, there is some skepticism that republicans and democrats on the so-called super committee, this joint committee has been set up can reach a compromise, but my hope is that friday's news will give us a renewed sense of urgency. i intend to present my own

recommendations over the coming weeks on how we should proceed. that committee will have this administration's full cooperation. i assure you, we will stay on it until we get the job done. of course, as worrisome as the issues of debt and deficits may be, the most immediate concern of most americans and of concern to the marketplace as well is the issue of jobs and the slow pace of recovery coming out of the worst recession in our lifetimes. and the good news is that by coming together to deal with the long-term debt challenge we would have more room to implement key proposals to get the economy to grow faster. specifically, we should extend the payroll tax cut as soon as possible. so that workers have more money

in the pay checks next year and businesses have more customers next year. we should continue to make sure if you are one of the millions of americans out there looking for a job, you can get the unemployment insurance that your tax dollars contributed to. that will also put money in people's pockets and more customers in stores. in fact, if congress fails to extend the payroll tax cut and the unemployment insurance benefits that i have called for, it could mean 1 million fewer jobs and 0.5% less growth. this is something we can do immediately and something when congress comes back. we should help companies who want to repair the roads and bridges and airports so that thousands of construction workers who have been oeen with job can get work and spur

economic growth. this is not big government proposals, but ideas that traditionally republicans have agreed to, and agreed to countless times in the past. there is no reason not to act on them, none. i know we have been going through a tough time and we have been going through a tough time through the last 2 1/2 years and a lot of people are worried about the future, but there is one thing we do know. economic factors we cannot control, earthquakes and oil spikes and slowdowns in other parts of the world, but how we respond to those tests is spirely up to us. markets will rise and fall. but this is the united states of america. no matter what some agency may say, we have always been and always will be a aaa country.