i'll cut him some slack. he's only been at it for a few days now. plus, he deserves a break, but how will this image affect the president's image with voters worried about jobs? good day i'm andrea mitchell live in new york today. rick perry comes out swinging and judging from the white house response that may suit the president just fine. democrats are gauging just how the governor's texas heat might play in a general election with voters as the president wraps up his midwest tour today with new details on a white house economic plan. we are told to expect that right after labor day. chuck today is nbc news chief white house correspondent and has been riding the obama bus tour through the midwest and also with us dan bawls correspondent at "the washington post" who's been all over iowa on rick perry. first of all, chuck, what do we know about what the president is planning to unveil? we understand it's after labor day. how would this be different from what we heard before?

>> reporter: as jay carney described it to me early this morning, think of it as two plans. a jobs plan. he's going to do it all in one speech. but a jobs plan that puts together all in sort of one form all of the pieces of legislation that he's been pushing congress to pass over the last month. so it's the patent reform, the trade deals, the infrastructure bank. and then, a few more new details i'm told. and their cold word is that traditional that have had bipartisan support. most likely things like trps project that usually do get more bipartisan support. trying to take requests that have come in from republicans for some government spending, specific government spending and lump that all in together. and then a few other details they say that they're still coming up with and they'll be working on over the next week. and then the second plan, if you

will, is the debt plan. his plan that he wants to give the super committee for the deficit reduction deal and what jay carney said is it will be basically inspired by the last deal that obama and boehner almost cut. the one that included when -- remember john boehner himself went on the floor of the house and said, i put revenues on the table. though the revenues that he would have agreed to, supposedly and the entitlement reforms that the president supposedly was ready to agree to that that would be the plan they would submit to the supercommittee with much bigger numbers. >> dan, you were traveling in iowa. you were with rick perry. you heard the kind of red meat that he was throwing out there to voters. how will that play in a general election context? and what about the reaex we've seen from some other traditional conservative republicans who are

not at all happy, i'm not just talking karl rove? >> reporter: it's an important question for governor perry that he will have to answer. i think the president was right. this is his first trip out as a presidential candidate. and he's been expected to be at the top of his game and there are moments as we've seen this week where he was not at the top of his game, not at the top of the game you need to be as an effective presidential candidate. i think the important question short-term is what has he learned from this first trip? he was more subdued yesterday and today when talking about the federal reserve. he's obviously learned at least a short-term lesson. the larger question is does he export out of texas to the rest of the country. his whole political style in texas has been to focus on the republican base. and that is a successful formula in the state of texas. it is obviously a more conservative state than many of the states that he would have to try to win in a general election. so, they're really two

questions, one is how effective a candidate is he going to be to win the nomination. what kind of a primary candidate he's going to be. the second is if he were to win, would he be able to make the transition to be a national candidate. >> one of the thins yesterday when his advisors were telling reporters well he's going to tone it down a little bit or suggesting that he'll be more careful. when he was asked about ben bernanke and the fed comments he said i'm passionate about this. he does seemed to have toned it down a bit today. this seems not just rookie mistakes. it seems to be that he really believes in this stuff and that the language he uses is the language he's comfortable with. it seemed to be more tactical. >> i think he's totally comfortable with the language he uses. i think the way he talked on monday night -- he is that style

politician. i don't think he's going to be able to change his, you know, change his persona or personality. nor probably should he. he is who he is. if he tries to change that, he'll be less effective. the question is as he's seen, how much reaction there will be even among republicans about some of the language he uses. i think it may be more the language he uses in some of these cases than some of the positions. i think in a republican primary a lot of what he's saying is quite popular. the question is will he say it in a way that while it might work in texas the idiom of texas, does it work more broadly? >> chuck, one last question, our colleague is reporting that chris christie has started with some focus groups. do you think that the rick perry launch has caused some rethinking of chris christie and reopening that door? >> reporter: well, i can tell you it's not just the launch now, but over the last three weeks as the run up to the perry

campaign that you have this group of unaffiliated businessmen republican donors sort of part of the establishment wing of the party that is not sold on mitt romney at all was curious about jon huntsman, but unimpressed right now with huntsman that had continued to call chris christie as far as i'm aware of in the reporting that i've been able to do and he picks up the phone. he gives them the same answer. i'm not interested in running, but he keeps picking up the phone and keeps talking about it. he could be open to it. i think nuggets like this don't surprise me and neither did for instance, the paul ryan news where he went from i'd say 95% no, to 80% no according to folks i've been talking to. >> chuck today and dan, the best in the business. thank you so much my friends. johnthon will be on in the next hour. the president's speaking on his bus tour. let's listen. i traveled through illinois,

when i traveled through iowa, i am absolutely confident about this country. and the reason is because of you. the reason is because of the american people. because as tough a time as we've had, there is not a country on earth that would not readily change places with us right now. [ applause ] we've still got the best workers in the world. we've got the best entrepreneurs in the world. we've got the best scientists, the best universities. we have so much going for us and you see it at a company like this one. i was talking to the brothers and they're telling me they're now expanding. they've hired some new folks. they're starting to go into new markets around this region.

so we've got so much going for us. there's nothing wrong with our country right now. there is something wrong with our politics. there is something with our politics. [ applause ] when you look at this debacle we had with the debt ceiling and raising it, what you realize is that our politics engaging in partisan brinksmanship and potentially seeing the first default of the united states of america, that that has no place in how we move forward together. when this country is operating off of common ground, nobody can stop us. but when we're divided, then we end up having a whole lot of

self-inflicted problems. the fact of the matter is that the economy's gotten better than it was when i first took office. we've seen over the last 17 months over two million private sector jobs created. but everybody here knows we've still got a long way to go. and it is urgent for us to make sure that we are joining together and not thinking about party first. not thinking about elections first, but thinking about country first. [ applause ] that's the message that we need to send to washington. there are some things that we could be doing right now to put our neighbors and our friends, some family members back to work. and over the last not just two days but over the last several weeks i've been talking about some additional things we need to do. there is no reason why we should

not extend the payroll tax cut that put $1,000 into the pockets of every single family out there. that means they've got more money to spend, that means businesses have more customers. that means the economy grows and more people get hired. we could renew it right now to give businesses certainty that they're going to have customers not just this year, but next year as well. the only thing holding us back is our politics. traditionally a bipartisan idea. there's no reason why we shouldn't pass it. there's no reason why we shouldn't put americans back to work all across the country, rebuilding america. as i was driving in here -- [ applause ] as i was driving in here i saw a new fire station is being built. [ applause ] thanks to the recovery act. well, we need roads and bridges

and schools all across the country that could be rebuilt. all those folks that got laid off from construction because the economy went south or the housing bubble burst, they're dying for work. contractors are willing to come in under budget and on time. and interest rates are low so we could finance right now the rebuilding of infrastructure all across america that drove not only unemployment in the construction industry down, but drove unemployment down across the board. and traditionally that hasn't been a democratic or republican issue. that's been an american issue. we've taken pride in rebuilding america. the only thing that's holding us basket right now is our politics. we should be passing trade deals right now because look, the koreans they can sell kias and hyundais here in the united

states. i think that's great. i want to be selling fords and chryslers and chevys into korea. [ applause ] and i want products all across the world stamped with three words made in america. that's something that we could be doing right now. [ applause ] there's a bill pending in congress right now that's called the america invents bill. it says entrepreneurs who are coming up with good ideas, let's say if the brothers came up with a new strain and wanted to patent it in some way, it's easier for them so they can market it. and make money off it and hire people for it. we could do that right now. the only thing that's holding us back is our politics. over the last six months, even though the economy has been growing, even though the economy's been recovering it has not recovered as fast as it

could. and some of those things are not in our control. we couldn't control the sue namny in japan that disrupted supply chains. we could not control what happened in the mideast that drove up gas prices. we don't have complete control over what happens in europe with their problems. and all those things have affected our economy, but there's so many things that we've got control over right now that we could be doing to put people back to work. and by the way, there's no reason to think that putting people back to work is somehow in conflict with us getting our fiscal house in order. you know, this downgrade that happened, they didn't downgrade us because america couldn't pay its bills. they downgraded it because they felt that our political system couldn't seem to make good decisions in order to deal with our budget the same way families

deal with their budgets. and so the fact of the matter is that we came close to a grand bargain which could have said we're going to cut spending we don't need in order to pay for the things we do. we're going to eliminate unnecessary programs so we can pay for student loans so they can go to university of illinois or university of iowa. [ applause ] we know that we've got to invest in basic research. that's part of what made us the most productive agriculture power house in the world. so we don't want to cut back agriculture research in order to pay for it we've got to get rid of some things. but what we've also said is we've got to do it in a balanced way. we've got to do it in a balanced way. a couple days ago warren buffett wrote an op-ed piece in which he said it's time to stop coddling billionaires. he pointed out that he pays a

lower tax rate than anybody in his office including his secretary. that doesn't make any sense. [ applause ] you know, if everybody took an attitude of shared sacrifice, that we're not going to put the burden on any single person, we can solve our deficit and debt problem next week? and it wouldn't require radical changes. but it does have to be balanced. i don't want a tax break as lucky as i've been if that tax break means that a senior citizen's going to have to pay an extra $6,000 for their medicare. that's not fair. i think it makes sense before we ask that student to pay a little more for their student loan, we should ask the oil and gas companies to get rid of some

corporate tax leap hole that they don't need because they've been making record profits. [ applause ] a lot of this is common sense. i was saying in a town hall in minnesota, i pointed out when there have been times in my life, michelle and i things were a little tight when we were just starting a family and had all these new expenses. we had to make some choices. we didn't say to ourselves we're not going to put any money into the college fund so we can keep on eating fancy dinners anytime we want. we didn't say to ourselves, i didn't say to michelle, honey, you've got to stop buying clothes, but i'm going to keep my golf clubs. what we said was let's figure out what are the things that are going to be important to our

family to make sure it succeeds not just now but in the long-term, let's invest in those things and stop investing in the things that don't work. and the same approach has to be taken for the american family. now, what's been striking as i've been traveling through over the last few days, you know, you guys you're all fulfilling your responsibilities. you're working hard. you're looking after your families. you're volunteering at church. you're coaching little league. you're doing everything right. and all you're asking for if i'm not mistaken -- as the president continues speaking we're joined by lloyd doggett an expert on all things rick perry. let's talk about the president's bus trip and the tour across the midwest. he's been getting some push back from his own base supporters and as we saw earlier the congressional black caucus has been in detroit as part of their jobs tour getting an angry

reaction about what they see as the president focussing on one portion of middle america and not on their needs? >> i think it's an incredible contrast between a president who's out there talking about bringing this together to address our challenges and governor perry elected as governor by talking about succession from the union and now using the term treason about an important federal economic official. rick perry will do anything, say anything to get elected president. but i think this time he's put his boot in his mouth. i do want to see president obama focussing more on jobs. if what he just outlined the one that i think is most important is doing work that needs to be done to deal with our infrastructure here in san antonio, austin, across central texas and across america there are jobs out there. there are skilled construction workers who could be at work. where people across america see what we're building and know that the economic recovery is

getting in place. >> i know you're a long time critic of rick perry, let's look at the numbers. he claims and it's been substantiated by others that 40% of the new jobs across america in the last two years did come from texas. the explanation is a little more complicated, military jobs, we're in two wars ark lot of federal money spent there. there's the oil and gas industry as you well know. there's a population explosion and a lot of new trade with mexico. that said, he is creating jobs. does he have a very potent message especially with republican voters? >> andrea, as you know, governor perry's very big on miracles especially those that he thinks he performed. i don't think he brought the oil and gas out of the earth. i don't think he's responsible for the many government jobs that came as a part of the federal economic recover act that he attacked just with one voice as he was reaching out to get billions of dollars of federal money to help balance the state budget with the other.

so many of these jobs in the alleged perry miracle which is really a bit of a texas tall tale so many of those jobs are minimum wage and lower. so many of them are government, and some of them are just jobs that got moved from one state to another. i don't think rick perry has outlined a single bit of economic vision about how he would turn this country around. his message is always let's do less. let's make washington inconsequential. we tried that approach before and it led to a serious economic decline and a financial crisis. we need washington that is lean but responsive on these problems and particularly taking some leadership on job growth and job creation in america instead of just exporting all our jobs. >> congressman, the president's job tour and the bus tour has been criticized. we're going to hear from reince priebus and the republican party later in the program, but what

about his own problem with the democratic base because he's getting a lot of push back along the way from disappointmented democrats? >> well, i think we've wanted to see him more engaged. he has tried to bring people together. some people just don't want to be brought together. i wish lyndon johnson's come let us reason together worked. these people who are elected to be disagreeable, don't want to agree. we'd like to see the president be a little more assertive. stand firmly between medicare and social security and promote an active jobs agenda. that takes money. it takes spending. it can be fully paid for without worsening the deficit by closing some international corporate tax leap holes that have led to the export of american jobs. i'm pleased to see the president talk about jobs. i'd like to see some leadership when we're back in set forcefully pushing a jobs agenda

that is fully paid for. and we need with all the kind of cut backs rick perry has made in texas to our public schools and cut backs that are occurring in other parts of the country federal support for education to help open opportunities for the future. and improve our competitiveness. i'd like to see the president get more actively behind that. >> lloyd doggett, democratic congressman from texas thank you. >> thank you. and with me now the host of "hardball" chris matthews. hey, chris, there's been a lot of red flags for the president along the way. i want to play a little bit of the session that maxine waters held with the congressional black caucus in detroit on their jobs tour. watch this. >> the congressional black caucus loves the president. we're supportive of the president, but we're getting tired of it. we're getting tired of it. and so what we want to do is we want to give the president every

opportunity. >> how long? >> to show what he can do and what he's prepared to lead on. but our people are hurting. >> yes, ma'am. >> the unemployment is unconsable. we don't know what the strategy is. we don't know why on this trip that he's in the united states now he's not in any black community. we don't know that. when you let us know, it is time to let go, we'll let go. >> let go! let go! >> she said when you let us know that it's time to let go of the president, we'll let go. they all started shouting let go. this is -- this is pretty big trouble for the president along the trail. >> yeah, well, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. there's a lot of squeaky wheels out there. it's about time you have an unemployment rate in the black community of 20%. that's a fact. in terms of underemployment it gets up to that level. it's real.

it's high recession time and nothing's getting better. the question you have to ask is what is the difference between the president's policy and the republican's policy? we know the republican policy. government gets small, get out of the way, lower taxes, lower regulation, lower everything. get out of our face, big business is going to solve our problems. small business will solve our problems. that's the republican philosophy, laissez faire. what's the obama strategy? i don't know what it is right now. that's the challenge. generally what's the president going to do. we're getting stories out now that he's going to come back the day after labor day and give us a jobs program and a deficit program in two addresses. let's hope it's more than just cutting the payroll tax. extending unemployment. something to do with panama, colombia and south america trade deals and patent reform. that's too sundry. that doesn't have any impact. that doesn't have any bang to it. i think he needs to come out with something that conservatives won't like, the

middle of the road will like, and will have to buy. and the liberals will definitely like. he has to do something that they disagree with on the right. he has to draw the line, i think and say the government can create jobs. every member of congress, left, right and center has spent most of his or her career trying to get government money into their district for jobs for projects of different kinds. water projects, sewer projects, defense plans, arrow space. they know government creates jobs. we grew up with with it in philadelphia. the navy base creates jobs. why doesn't the president create those proposals from all the members of congress republican and democrat including bachmann in minnesota and say, yes, you can have the money on those projects that you've personally asked for and dare them to say no to their own projects. this isn't my idea. i was talking it over with rachel maddow the other night.

let's everything they've ever asked for in terps of federal investment in their districts and say, yes. and do it. >> it would be like telling rick perry this number of jobs in texas that you've been bracking on come from federal defense jobs that go to texas. but -- >> exactly. >> partly it's frustration that some seem to be expressing along the way at the way the president negotiates with republicans. he is trapped because the ipd pents want to see him a compromiser and get something done. the base wants to see him go up against them. this is the president describing his negotiating strategy as if he were negotiating how to pay for the shopping bills with michelle. >> in my house if i said, you know, michelle, honey, we've got to cut back. we're going to have you stop shopping completely. you can't buy shoes. you can't buy dresses.

but i'm keeping my golf clubs. that wouldn't go over so well. >> maureen dowd points out that perhaps michelle should be sent in to negotiate with speaker boehner and the republicans. >> she might get a 9-1 deal. i don't think that's very strong. i think it's a bit upper middle class to be talking about golf clubs and dresses and people right now are in a recession they're not quite in that league right now. i think he has to go back and think about what he wants to do. there are a lot of people that will cheer him if he'll do something. this talk -- lloyd doggett just a moment ago says we have to pay for a jobs program. that's not the fact of it. nothing's going to pay for it. it's going to have to bo borrowed money. the government's going to get out there and have a big jobs program and have to borrow to do it. it's not going to be popular. in the businesses in investing and they're not. if the consumer is spooked and they're not investing government has to pick up the slack.

that's what we all learned in grad school. if somebody's going to come out with a new kind of economics, i'd like to have somebody explain it to me. my economics is somebody has to spend some money. if the business community's not spending it and sitting on it for all kinds of reasons, maybe some of it is partisan and the consumer is scare fod spend any money, the government has to do it. it has to do with that way. he has to make this case and he hasn't made it. >> chris matthews, i know you're going to be looking at the perrys and bushes. it's an interesting -- >> that's a good fight. >> an interesting texas rival reason on "hardball." don't miss chris on "hardball" of course every weeknight at 5:00 and 7:00 on msnbc. up next here now republican party chairman reince priebus. the obama bus tour and rick perry shaking up the 2012 presidential race. this is "andrea mitchell reports." chloe is 9 months old.

she is the greatest thing ever. one little smile, one little laugh. honey bunny. [ babbles ] [ laughs ] we would do anything for her. my name is kim bryant and my husband and i made a will on legalzoom. it was really easy to do. [ spits ] [ both laugh ] [ shapiro ] we created legal zoom to help you take care of the ones you love. go to legalzoom.com today and complete your will in minutes. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. republicans have been blasting president obama's economic bus tour as a poorly

disguised campaign trip. the white house saying the president is reaching out to the american people. reince priebus is the chairman of the republican national committee and joins me now. >> good afternoon. >> thank you for joining us. what's wrong with the president going out, touring middle america? make your case. >> there's nothing wrong with it. most americans understand that this is a taxpayer paid bus tour that is really just one campaign speech after the next. and just happened to be rolling through iowa during the ames straw poll and, you know, the stops are also a bit curious. if he really wants to see what's going on in the jobs market in this country he ought to go to racine, wisconsin, detroit, michigan. that's where he should go to talk to the people. this is paid for by the tax payers. you don't need to be a political expert to understand this is nothing by a sham. >> the white house claims not. what about the republicans and what we saw in ames and

afterward with the entry of rick perry? perry is a little toned down today, he hasn't really stepped back very far. are you comfortable with the kind of rhetoric that people are describing -- republicans are describing as a vailed threat at the fed chair, the republican, a bush 43 appointee initially ben bernanke? >> well, i think governor perry said it best today. he said, look, i'm passionate about this issue. he finds the idea of printing more and more money in america to be something that he doesn't agree with. i think he was making his point. i think that the media's overblowing this entire situation. >> it's not the media. with all due respect, it's karl rove, well known conservative republican writers. we're talking about republicans including wall street republicans and politicals. i gived governor mcdonald the fan and a friend of governor perry's who's his successor at

the head of the republican governors association. >> that's the beauty of a primary debate. >> governor mcdonald said he's not a partisan in this, he said he would not have used those words. in fact, he suggested that he would say that president obama is a patriot and a great american story. why challenge the president's patriot simple? >> that's great. they have an opinion some people would use those words and others wouldn't. the fact of the matter is i think it's a good thing in america that we have a rigorous debate in this country. we understand that our economy's in a ditch. we have a president that's not engaged. i think that we have a lot of passion not only on the republican side of the aisle, but for people who are independents and people who love america that we need to get serious about our debt and deficits and jobs in this country and we need to do something very quickly. otherwise we will lose america economically. if you don't mind me saying part of our big problem in america is we have a president that is not engaged and we have businesses and we have employers that have

no surgeonity in the market. as allan greenspan said the other day our problem is we've got nonfinancial firms sitting on half a trillion dollars because they have no certainty. because we have no leadership in this country. yes, andrea, people are passionate about what's happening in america. i think that it's a great thing that governor perry and others in the republican feel are voicing this concern. i think it's time to we take our country back. >> we certainly have a lively republican primary field coming out of ames. we saw a lot when we were out there over the weekend. we've got michele bachmann, ron paul, and clearly now rick perry jumping into the race and mitt romney out there now seeming to embrace the tea party as well. is the tea party going to determine who is nominee is? if that's the case, is the field moving too far to the right to appeal to a general election audience, what you really need to take back the white house? >> i'm not so sewer what the

fixation here is. i think that people across america, moderates, conservatives, independents people who are disengaged for a while and now engaging in the political process, i think that people understand that we are in a battle for freedom in america. it is a battle for freedom between government's appetite to want to grow and grow and grow. and our individual right for economic freedom to provide for our families. sunday our kids to school, live the american dream. we are embarking in a great debate in this country over what type of america do we want to have. that's the fight that you're seeing across america. the fight between government's insashl appetite to grow and every american's right and wish and desire to have economic and independent freedom in this country. >> i know we're almost out of time and your time is so valuable, very briefly, do you think this is the field or do you think we're waiting for paul

ryan, waiting for chris christie, is someone still going to jump into that race? >> your guess is as good as mine. i think we have a great debate. >> thank you very much. great to see you. thanks. and now joining me michael feldman former senior advisor to vice president al gore and partner with the park group. and david winston. first to you, mike. is this a field? >> i think it is. this is a perennial conversation we have at this point in a primary, democratic or republican. i do think there's a fair amount of anxiety right now in the republican party. i do think there's a lot of people, you hear it from karl rove, from others more in the mainstream of the republican party. there's anxiety about how far the party is moving to the right. how far it's tilt og the right.

the tension is and david knows this well as one of the best pollsters many the country and a smart strategist. the primary electorate in the republican party is essentially angry on the to the right. the general election is going to be won among per saidable voters. what karl rove is anxious about and others in the party are anxious about, is how far the conversation in the primary is moving to the right that could be a problem in the general leather. >> do you david winston, what do you think about that and the rhetoric that we saw from rick perry at the launch? >> there's no question that the political center of independent, is the key to this election just as it was in 2006 when republicans lost, it was in 2010 when republicans won the political center going to where the majority ended up being. so clearly as this primary develops all these candidates have got to keep an eye on the fact when they're in this debate right now independents in the political center are watching

this debate as well. i think governor perry it's his first week out and he's going to refine his narrative as it develops and everything is not going to be perfect out of the box. i would expect you to see and make some improvements and refine the tone a bit. like every other candidate who starts off, he will clearly get better with time as they all do. having said that, i want to go back to the ames straw poll. remember, in this particular case michele bachmann had she been participating in 1999 would have finished third. it's a volatile group of people that show up. it's not a particularly large group and all the candidates have to deal with the overall general electorate as well. >> david that is the point. david and mike, that we saw in ames is a reflection of the tea party movement and everything the way the republican party activists have changed and that will influence potentially given

the calendar where you have iowa, new hampshire is a little bit of an outliar, then south carolina and south to florida that very well may influence who becomes the nominee. >> well, i mean, look, what you're watching and this is not particularly uncommon for any party who's in a majority is how do you manage your majority coalition? so far you've seen this in a house, you've seen house republicans very effectively manage this majority and get a lot of thins through. you're now watching how does this group of candidates co-the same thing that john boehner has done as speaker in terms of pulling together the party and creating coalition. thest not a simple task. it's something if you're going to be effective that you have to do. >> mike, the president is now apparently going to incorporate some of the boehner-obama grand bargain elements in a new plan. what can he really announce the week after labor day that is new, different and might get passed? >> everything i know i've heard from chuck today's reporting in

the broadcast. i think everybody was a little dissatisfied with the results at the end of the debt ceiling debate. i think the president is going to be back again and try to put a big deal on the table. be very serious about deficit reduction. be very serious about job creation and put it before the congress as david says and then we'll find out would the congress and republican leadership have an issue or create jobs and improve the economy. one thing i want to say about this field and the gravitational pull to the right, you see it with mitt romney who's doing his best to try to remain focused above the fray, keep his eye on the general election. in the last week he's flip-flopped on the flat tax. he took that 10-1 pledge which is absolutely ridiculous. and he's appointed robert bourke to run his judicial search committee. he's moving to the right. i think that's why you see karl rove and others in the mainstream anxious about where this is going. >> we're going to have to leave it there. to be continued. thank you both. and vice president biden has

now arrived in china today. one of his first stops, his first stop after touching down from a 21-hour flight a georgetown basketball game. he made a surprise trip to the so-called friendship match between the georgetown hoyas and a team from china. the hoyas beat the dragons 98-81. meanwhile, thousands of internet users in china are getting their first and somewhat surprising look to the u.s. ambassador to that country. this picture of gary locke the former gosh of washington state at a washington state airport as the former governor ordered a cup of coffee before heading to beijing. the photo of locke who's just departed the commerce post created a lot of buzz in china where people are not used to seeing their leaders carrying their own backpacks.

hi, i'm richard lui. coming up on "news nation yts. we're following breaking news

from florida. police say an expelled high school student was planning what they're calling it a catastrophic bomb plot at his high school. his intent was to create more casualties than the columbine massacre in 1999. we'll talk to the police chief who's heading that investigation. police today's gut check. a french lingerie designer coming under fire for marketing a line of bras and underwear for little girls as young as 4 years old. all that in 15 minutes. and now education nation. california's public higher education system enrolls more than two million students. many of those students and the schools themselves are being forced to make some very tough choices in drastic budget cuts. we have the chancellor of the university of california at bergly and joins us now. thank you for joining us. >> it's my pleasure. >> how severe, we've been watching from afar here on the east coast at what's happening that the california system. the big picture is dreadful and

berkeley is one of the stars if not the star of the california system. how is it affecting you in terms of the services you need to provide to your students? >> obviously these are challenging times for public education nationally and particularly here in california. and just over the last five years we've lost more than half of our public funding for higher education. and this is having a lot of ramifications. >> we look at these budget cuts there's the obvious impact on tuition. for the instates it's one thing, for out of state students who pay a much higher dollar this is a huge increase. >> right. for instate students our tuition has gone up from about $5,000 just a short time ago to now over $12,000 and for out of state students our tuition is in the mid $30,000s. total cost is about tuition and fees is about $35,000. and fortunately we have a very

robust financial aid programs here in california. so our low income students have been relatively protected. but this is having huge negative impacts on the middle class in california. >> is it affecting your ability to recruit and retain students, especially those from middle class families? >> right. i would say so far we have not seen serious negative effects in our recruiting. but we have on the financial burden that's being imposed especially on middle class people in california. >> and finally, what about the brain drain. because we know that there are a lot of professors with expensive laboratories who are looking elsewhere now that it's open season on california. >> right. we have an extraordinary number of our very best faculty which make berkeley the great place that it is that have offers from stanford, yale, princeton, et

cetera. obviously, this is tempting for them. i spent a lot of time re-assuring them that we have a strategy and that we're finding other sources of income that will help us to maintain berkeley's excellence. it's an incredible challenge. i have to say. >> thank you for your insights. we know the wonderful reputation of berkeley. we've got some great people right here on our team who are graduates of your great university. thank you for joining us today as part of our education nation focus here on msnbc. >> thank you. and what political story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours? that's next right here on "andrea mitchell reports." nts. only one calcium supplement does that in one daily dose. new citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal.

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so which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? msnbc contributor and managing editor of postpolitics.com chris cillizza joins us right now. just to clean something up, jonathan alter is tweeting out another source in chris christie camp says they are not doing focus groups. >> yeah. >> that's what the chris

christie team tells us. >> i made a bunch of calls after i saw jonathan's tweet, too, and got the same thing that no real movement in christie world, flattered by the calls, not completely, completely shutting the door. no focus groups, denying it on the record. i think i know what you know. >> let's talk about vacations, not that you are going or i'm going on vacation but president obama tomorrow is going on vacation. >> yeah. >> the family vacation, no one begrudges him a vacation, just asking about the optics because of the location, you know. we know that in 1995 facing a re-election and some problems at home bill clinton went to wyoming, camping in wyoming remember than martha's vineyard. >> right. >> which was not his normal venue. >> is there any virtue to having another choice other than martha's vineyard, rather upscale? >> you know, andrea, first of all, let me say i'm in your camp on this, the idea that the president isn't allowed to play golf or go on vacation seems to me to be ridiculous. we all need some down time.

i would say that probably goes in triplicate who is the commander in chief, probably the most powerful person in the world. that said, yes. look, he's going to martha's vineyard which is at least viewed as kind of the vacation haven for the wealthy and intellectual of the world. it is not a place the average person goes on vacation. the other point that someone made to me today as i was sort of debating this, andrea, where else would he go? there's no other natural fit. chicago isn't a natural fit. if he went to hawaii where he grew up we'd have the same problem. but you're right. he could have picked somewhere else in the country to spend ten days. i think the obama political team does not like to bend to what they believe to be the political chattering class which they probably put both of us in, that they don't think regular people care about this and we're not going to change. >> i think we do qualify for chattering class, but the bottom line it's just optics, just politics. if you go to camp david or go some place, as george bush did,

w. bush, to his ranch or reagan to his ranch, you're less seen and sort of less elite. >> agree, agreed. >> we're out of time. chris, tomorrow, to be continued, and that does it for us, this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." happy vacation, mr. president. tomorrow on the show, former democratic party chairman howard dean, congressman john lewis joining us live from the congressional black caucus jobs fair in atlanta and "washington post" columnist michael grissom. my colleague richard lui has a look at what's next on "newsnation." >> thanks very much, andrea. in our next hour, following breaking news about a foiled bomb plot at a florida high school. police arrested a former student who they say was planning a catastrophic event that included a minute-by-minute plan to attack students and administrators at his school. plus, president obama is wrapping up his bus tour in the midwest, and he's announcing a major jobs plan that he'll unveil after labor day. "newsnation" is minutes away. úñ

hi. i'm richard lui in for tamron hall. "newsnation" is following breaking news right now coming out of tampa, florida, and when could have been a catastrophic attack on a local high school. 17-year-old jared cano was planning to blow up his former high school on the first day of school. police believe as many as 32 people could have been seriously injured or killed. cano is now in police custody, but it's not his first run-in here with the law. >> he had been arrested recently for a burglary in which a firearm was stolen, possession of marijuana, so we've been very, very familiar with him. >> it's unfortunate that we have a situation like this, but it's more fortunate that we stopped it. >> okay. nbc's kristen dahlgren is following this breaking story for us live from atlanta. what's the latest? >> reporter: hey, richard. well, can you imagine the shock in this community of north tampa. police calling it a potentially catastrophic event, the likes of which tampa has not seen before. they arrested 17-year-old jared cano last night. police say they