plus the east coast's major airports are back in business. airlines are warning today it will be days before the millions stranded by the storm find their way home. and president obama vows all federal hands on deck to help with storm response. >> we're going to make sure folks have all the support they need as they begin to assess and repair the damage left by the storm. that's going to continue in the days ahead. also coming up, colin powell fires back at dick cheney accusing the former vep of taking cheap shots in his new memoir. >> the fact the kind of headline i would expect to come out after a gossip columnist or one of the headlines you might see a supermarket tabloid write. not from the former vice president of the united states of america.

>> the exclusive cheney interview and the fallout. plus, in libya the family of the only man convicted for the pan am lockerbie bombing tells nbc news he is now at death's door. good afternoon, i'm savannah guthrie in for andrea mitchell. we begin with the impact of irene. here is the latest. the storm has been linked to at least 28 deaths across the northeast and new england. damage estimated at $7 billion. and the situation could get worse. multiple rivers will at or near flood stage in vermont, new jersey and new york. at the same time, crews are working to restore power to more than four million people. a job that may take days ark week or perhaps longer. virginia was hardest hit. at one point 2.5 million people were in the dark. the second largest outage in that state's history. and all of this of course is making it tough to get around today. hundreds of roads remain closed, bridges have been washed out in

some places and train service in new jersey, new york and connecticut has been suspended. and one of those effects still playing out today of course, is air travel. at one point as many as a million passengers were believed to have been grounded when major airports including jfk, la guardia and newark shut down. let's talk to brian at newark today. >> reporter: it was earlier we have a gorgeous day the skies were so quiet. just about an hour ago slowly about one plane ever ten minutes hitting the skies. just because it's beautiful doesn't mean we're through the woods with air travel. over the weekend 12,000 cancelled flights through sunday night. today we got the latest numbers about 1600 cancelled flights. close to 400 alone here at newark and close to 400 at jfk airport. that's where jetblue for example has their hub. they've actually been excellent in terms of being transparent

with customers and media. they've cancelled more than 330 flights today. part of their problem is they flew a bunch of planes out of here to get to safe ground. they have to get those planes back in to start moving people out. it could be 3:30 p.m. eastern time before that specific airline starts to think about flying out of jfk. if you're plying you can't call ahead. some people can't get through. try the internet. try to find out anyway to get information. we talked to a but of people who slept here over the weekend. one woman from alabama she's on standby for a flight in this hour. if she doesn't get on that flight she has to wait for 7:00 tonight. she's been here since friday. it may be blue skies right now, but not for a lot of people in the terminal. >> i saw a lot of blue blankets and cots inside the terminal. of course people in places like new york got less of an impact from irene like expected, vermont got hit much harder. the storm delivered the state's worst flooding in a sjry.

inundating the cities with several feet of water. at one point every single road in the state was inpacted. here's the headline in the again itch paper "water world." have the rivers crested yet? >> reporter: a lot of shop owners are shoveling mud out of their showrooms. we pan out to the river here, you see an awful lot of debris floating down the river, we've seen refrigerators, propane tanks, some people said they saw livestock earlier. they are some bands and tributaries a little higher. officials are releasing major amounts of water from that. we do expect the connecticut to continue on the rise through

tonight. the major story the clean up from this. the governor just held a news conference as he toured the damage here. and he said there are multiple communities in vermont that are still ice late. they're still trying to get into. they're not putting a damage total on this. they're not announcing how many businesses or homes are impacted. today is the day they're totaling up that number. the governor did say they're vermont we will do everything to rebuild because we are resilient. he was accompanied by members of the congressional delegation who will be helping the governor request more aid from the federal government. fema in here in a very big way. >> i wonder what people are saying to you. do you feel they were sufficiently warned about the impact in their state? >> reporter: well, i talked to a couple of shop owners and a former selectman from the city here. they knew irene was coming and they knew they would get heavy rain. he said he said he left church and it was a moderate downpour. then all of a sudden the heavens

opened up. he said it was an incredible amount of rain. the weather channel checking statistics we came up with 7.87 inches of rain in this county, but it all fell in a short time. he told me he was coming down flat street along the wet stone river which has never flood out was filled with cars, dumpsters and propane tanks all in a rush down to the connecticut river. >> ron bloem in bratleboro for us. some of the images were shot by the lieutenant governor of vermont. in a few minutes we're going to talk to vermont's governor about what he saw. there may be some good news for residents along the delaware river who were forced to leave their homes in the face of rising water. the national weather service says the river has crested now in the town of easton, pennsylvania, below the level forecasters had feared. the mayor is joining me now. give us an update of what you're seeing in the town today with

regard to the river is. >> we're really fortunate. our river is receding. we did have other tributaries on the other side of the downtown did flood yesterday. but right now we're just cleaning up. we prepared for the worst and we got the best. >> that's good news indeed. i know there was a mandatory evacuation of homes in the city. are people now able to return? >> everyone's able to return. we've restored power to the two major senior citizen high rises that were without power last night. most importantly our lafayette college campus was without power for the last day and a half. they should be restored this afternoon. >> what's the primary impact you've seen in your town and among your tell low mayors in that area? >> the primary impact was falling trees. most of the storm in pennsylvania was falling trees which created power outages. we really didn't get the amount of water we thought we were going to get, which was the good news.

the winds were high and did topple a lot of trees because the soil was saturated. >> are you hearing it at all from people in your town saying why were we evacuated the day after storms sometimes they're second guessing about how officials or the media have reactd. >> they're not saying that. this is the fourth time now in almost about five years that we've had this type of a scare. the first three weren't scares we were flooded. the last two we've been able to avoid them. right now a lot of people coming down to our new water front park seeing the water as high as it is. it's right at the top of our wall. it's a lot to talk about. there's a lot of college students walking around downtown. and people are getting along really well. there's not the tension that was there on saturday has now fallen. >> a lot of relief in your neck of the woods. thanks for your time, sir. appreciate it. >> thank you. and thank you for keeping everyone updated. there is some second guessing of the official reaction to this storm with

memories of katrina still fresh many political leaders rushed to get out in front of it. president obama came back early from his vacation. he spoke again today about the impact of irene. let's get to nbc's kristen welker live at the white house for us. kristen, the president once again addressing the nation and talking about irene today. >> he reminded people that he is still work to be done. as you said there has been a little bit of second guessing about the response to this storm. white house officials say this is the appropriate response as you mentioned they were keenly aware of what happened during hurricane katrina when president bush was really hammered for his reaction to that storm. we remember that iconic image of him flying over the hurricane zone in air force one. fema administrator craig fugate said to the media, look, we did learn some lessons from hurricane katrina. one of them was to dispatch crews and emergency equipment ahead of the storm so they could be in place to actually respond to what was happening.

we saw this reaction from governors and mayors across the eastern seaboard who told their residents to get out and stay indoors. of course, as you mentioned, savannah, this was a damaging storm, more than 20 people died. it cause billions of dollars in damage. >> kristen, i'm sure that the white house is anxious to demonstrate that it's focused on the economy as well as the hurricane. have we heard anything further about the president's jobs plan after labor day and when we might hear from the president on this issue? >> right. we're just getting information in little bit os and pieces. i can tell you that that jobs plan will probably include some tax cuts as well as new investments in construction projects. the president just today announced his nomination for a new counsel -- chairman for the council of economic advisors. that person is alan kruger who will be replacing us atan

goolsby. but again, once the president does release in jobs plan, we still don't have a date for it. we're expecting there to be a bit of a fight. remember that bruising fight they just had here over the debt limit. just today house majority leader eric cantor released a memo to his members saying they have to vote down all jobs killing measures. we're gearing up for a busy fall here. >> kristen welker on the white house north lawn. thank you. and coming up, we're going to check in on north carolina. still recovering from hurricane irene and parts of the state remain unreachable today because of the extensive flooding there. the governor's estimating quote millions and millions of dollars in damage. plus, dick cheney's new memoir, the former vp taking shots at some of his old bush administration colleagues. now some of them are returning fire. we have the exclusive interview and the fallout coming up next on "andrea mitchell reports." [ male announcer ] redesigned power e-trade pro.

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live pictures now from new jersey where the waters are overflowing. in fact, new jersey national guard has had to start using trucks to get people out of two hotels surrounded by water there. the rock away river has breached a floodwall along the river wall. these are pictures from our new york station wnbc, morris county new jersey in the central part of the state. we'll keep you posted. now to politics, former vice president dick cheney's book. it doesn't hit store shelves until tomorrow. some of the tales he's telling on old colleagues at the white house including president bush are already making waves. cheney seems to relish that prospect in an exclusive interview with nbc. >> this book is going to make a lot of people angry.

>> there are going to be heads exploding all over washington. >> you know that? >> yes. >> and jamie joins us now. is it just me or is the vice president enjoying this event? >> look at that smile. what can i tell you? this is really dick cheney unapologetic, unvarnished, the book is filled with revelations, criticism. it really does give a glimpse behind the curtain of private conversations and critical moments with president bush. you hear about what it was like being in the white house bunker on 9/11. and how decisions were made on the eve of the iraq war. but it is a very different picture than we've had before. >> it doesn't seem that he is reflective or at least regretful about some of the more controversials a pks of his tenure. here he is when you ask him about some of the programs that he was a part of after 9/11.

>> in your view we should still be using enhanced interrogation? >> yes. >> rendition? >> yes. >> secret presence? >> yes. >> wiretap aing? >> well, with the right approval. >> you said, it is one of the things you are proudest of and you would do it again in a heartbeat? >> it was controversial at the time. it was the right thing to do. >> no apologies. >> no apologies. >> jamie, was there anything that the vice president pointed to that he did wish he could do over? >> not on those kinds of policies that he's so well known for. absolutely not. he did say that he did not think that gorbachev was going to bring down the end of the soviet union that was one thing he pointed to as a mistake. on these issues that he's so well known for, absolutely not. unapologetic. >> some viewed from the earlier release of this book that he seems to be wanting to settle

scores. he says that's not what he wanted to do, yet some of things he writes about do singe. here was colin powell reacting to some of what's in this book. >> he is also in some ways indicated he didn't always approve of what president bush was deciding. and there's nothing wrong with saying he disagreed. it's not necessary to take these kind of barbs and try to pump a book up by saying heads will be exploding. i think it's a bit too far. i think dick overshot the runway with that kind of comment. >> jamie, what about it? does the vice president believe he took shots at former colleagues like powell or former secretary of state condoleezza rice? >> for the record, he's going to say that was not about score settling. i think other people are going to disagree. that said he and colin powell have barely been on speaking terms for quite a long time. i don't think general powell was frankly surprised at what was in

the book. i don't think former vice president cheney is going to be surprised at what powell had to say. i think what will be more interesting is frankly what former president bush has to say because he does reveal these private conversations, differences with the president. he says that the differences in the book are that he gave greater detail. but i think it's going to reignite the question of -- it's not who was running things, it's how much president bush was relying on vice president cheney. >> i know in your interview you compared some of the president bush's accounts of certain events with now former vice president cheney's account in some cases there are differences. it's a fascinating interview and reminder to our viewers that they can see jamie's exclusive interview with dick cheney tonight on a special edition of "dateline" 10:00 eastern on your local nbc station.

tomorrow matt lauer will interview dick cheney live on the "today" show. . up next, the 2012 trail mix. rick perry doubles down on his comments on social security. and we continue to receive your first person pictures of hurricane irene's impact on the east coast. this person was sent to us from the waters from the rivers there topped 15 feet in some areas. if you have some pictures or video you'd like to share with us, you can email it to firstperson@msnbc.com or upload it at firstperson. [ male announcer ] we've got all you need for back to school with low prices every day on everything. backed by our ad match guarantee. save money. live better. walmart. backed by our ad match guarantee. finally, there's a choice for my patients with an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation, or afib, that's not caused by a heart valve problem. today we have pradaxa to reduce the risk

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in my book. so read the book again and get it right. >> it is a ponzi scheme for these young people. it is -- the idea that they're working and paying into social security and the current program is going to be there for them is a lie. >> i want to ask you about an article in politico today about rick perry. here's former bush advisor when he compares perry and romney. he says perry is hot and angry and romney is cool and dispassionate. the question is do primary voters want to nom gnat arthur fonzarelli or richie cunningham. politico asked a more provocative question, is rick perry dumb?

explain. >> there has been a buzz that's circulated in texas around him and insiders around washington, d.c. that he's not the brightest bulb many the box. when you look a little bit further there's no question the guy's political smart. he won three elections. she shot himself to the top of the gop nomination for president. so the question is more is he -- is he book smart? is he a policy wonk. you won't find many folks his supporters saying he is a policy wonk. they say he knows what he needs to know and he knows how to make decisions based on information that he is able to process and surround himself with people who are able to filter and put him in the position to make the best decision. >> he certainly has a shot to the top of the polls. is he still getting that kind of excitement within the republican party or is it a tighter race with bachmann and with rom mi? >> his challenge is going to be

to push out bachmann and hermann cain and ron paul to consolidate the anti-romney vote because even as he is past romney some of that is probably attributable to the i announcement bounce and to some of his sort of staying out of the fray until this point. we'll learn a lot when we get them both together romney and perry during the debate and see whether rick perry is able to stand toe to toe with him which gets back to the first question. >> let's talk about michele bachmann she raised some eyebrows with this comment in florida yesterday. >> i don't know how much god has to do to get the attention of the politician. we've had an earthquake. we've had a hurricane. he said are you going to start listening to me here. listen to the american people. >> a bachmann spokesperson said

she was joking there. is there lasting damage from that comment? >> it begs to question why she's joke about a natch disaster that claimed quite a few lives and was ongoing at the time she made that comment. it invokes a broader question as to whether she believes weather patternsings disasters, climate change are in fact manmade or at least exacerbated by manmade activities and that's one that jon huntsman called her and rick perry even more acutely out for saying the republican party shouldn't deny science and so it kind of raises these two questions neither of which are good for michele bachmann and looks at least clumsy. >> interesting times on the trail. ken, thank you. and a reminder that nbc news politico republican debate at the reagan library is september th, 8:00. it will be moderated by nbc's brian williams. coming up next, rivers rising in new jersey. so bad there firefighters had to

use a boat to try to fight flames in a flooded out neighborhood this morning in pompton plains. and politics of natural disasters from the federal government to state and local levels. officials are today defending the unprecedented measures taken in the wake of the storm. >> just because it could have been worse, doesn't mean the preparation wasn't justified. there's listerine® antiseptic. its triple-action formula penetrates biofilm, kills germs and protects your mouth for hours. fight biofilm with listerine®. whose non-stop day starts with back pain... 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. ♪

we asked them to be part of an experiment to prove febreze air effects eliminates tough cooking odors. [ facilitator ] take a deep breath, tell me what you smell.

it's grassy. it's green. it smells like fresh wood. like a latte. [ facilitator ] go ahead and take your blindfolds off. oh my goodness. are you serious? wow. i think my nose touched that. [ facilitator ] ok, rachel, annie. wow. [ male announcer ] eliminate tough odors with febreze air effects so you can breathe happy guaranteed. in north carolina at least six deaths have been blamed on hurricane irene. the governor was out today to visit survives at a shelter there. one of the biggest trouble spots on the main road to the outer banks which is washed out in several spots. the damage done to highway 12 as the headline in today eats paper. nbc's mark potter is in the town of duck on north carolina's barrier islands. mark, we see the construction, the rebuilding behind you. what are you seeing there? >> reporter: well, this is one of the two areas along highway

12 where they had problems. this is the lesser problem area. as you can see it's right next to the water way here. this is the sound. on the back end of the hurricane the water was pushed on to the road over here. it underwashed some of the road. undercut some of the road there they're fixing one of the lanes. traffic is coming through here, but it's having to connect down because of it. the worst problem is much farther south near hatterras where the water actually cut through the highway like it did back in 2003 during irene it did it again. we are hearing the only way you can get down there now is by ferryboat. it's going to be that way for a while. the rest of the island is okay. they ever getting the tourists back in here. the residents came in yesterday and the business owners came in. they're trying to get everything ready for labor day. let's look over here at the problem they're all facing. this is what can happen at some of the businesses when the storm

surge comes up on you. the water came in here really hard saturday night. it took out a deck area. that was a deck where they had tables and the wait station. even with the damage, these are tough people. they say they're going to have this restaurant back open on wednesday and certainly in time for labor day. over all, the damage here was relatively minimal. most of the houses are okay. there was flooding along the sound side of the houses where the water came up. those houses typically are built on stilts. they didn't lose the whole house. and on the ocean side where the wind was a bigger problem they lost things like shingles and all that. overall they're doing pretty well and hoping to be back in business on labor day to catch that last weekend of the summer season. >> after basically losing the last weekend. mark potter in duck, north carolina, for us. thank you, mark. we'll move on to connecticut. shoreline communities there took the brunt of the damage as the storm roared a i shore with 60

miles per hour just as high tide was beginning. here's the headline today, shoreline devastated by hurricane irene. nbc's anne thompson is in east haven a community on the coast of the long island sound. >> reporter: there are power outages in every town and every city in the state of connecticut this afternoon. some 600,000 people are in the dark including many here in east haven. they've lost more than power. as you can see behind me they've lost their homes. some 40 homes were damaged by the storm surge from irene. 25 homes have been declared a total loss. this afternoon people are coming back to assess the damage for themselves to see what they can salvage. and as you could imagine the people who are coming back here are reacting with a mix of shock, sadness and anger. but there's always relief because despite how devastated this neighborhood is and how bad it looks, believe it or not no one was injured and no one was

killed. and no one is missing. how did they escape without any kind of human injury? it's because people listened to their local initials and evacuated and decided to ride out the storm in a much safer place than here on cosy beach avenue. savannah, back to you. >> all right. anne thompson in east haven, connecticut. it's still too soon to butt an accurate price tag on the damage caused by hurricane irene. new jersey governor chris christie sugged it could be tens of billions of dollars in new jersey alone. we're joined by bertha coombs. some have said this could be one of the most costly hurricanes in this country ever? >> it's too early to put an estimate on. some analysts say it's costly but at this point it doesn't look like it will rank among the top ten hurricanes. obviously the biggest being katrina at over $100 billion. and hurricane andrew back in

1992 in florida at $45 billion. this one is in the range of $7 billion in losses and less than half of that actually ensured. remember, you have the issues you're seeing there with the water. flooding is covered under separate insurance as opposed to wind damage. if you're a homeowner you know this is a big distinction when there's a hurricane in particular that's what's covered by the other insurers. the biggest damage of course, is where the storm first made landfall down in the carolinas. the estimates right now are looking like about $1.5 billion there. again, these are early estimates. and then the big estimates appear on the northeast of about $2 billion in new jersey, $2 billion in new york. >> all right, bertha, i know we saw some lost business from this weekend. we can only hope the construction business will get a little bit of a lift.

thank you. the flooding in new jersey has been devastating and it may only get worse. several inland rivers are well above flood stage. and have yet to crest. the new jersey papers tell the story of how dire it is in the garden state and how much worse it may get. michelle franzen is on the phone with us from manville in central new jersey. i know you're trying to make it a a live location along main street, but you've run into some problems. >> reporter: that's exactly right. we are getting stopped by water wherever we try to go. that's the problem. that's why much of the area there along the river in manville has been has been evacuated because the river is sort of overflowing its banks and it has not crested yet. there are flood areas all around on the secondary roads as well as some of the main roads there. it's sort of indicative of what's going on inland of new jersey where many of these major rivers as well as the streams and creeks are sort of catching

up with what irene dmped in the last 48 hours. they've got another 24 hours to go, many of them before their rivers crest here. the governor chris christie is already indicating this is going to be record flooding on some of these rivers as well as a few other areas here. and in pompton lakes not far from here early this morning of course, you've been talking about the house fire there. and other homes in that neighborhood that are just swallowed by water from the river in that area. and along with the flooding you've got a lot of power outages that are still going on at the height of this storm more than 800,000 people in new jersey alone were left without power. crews are working as hard as they can, but they too are hindered by either water or downed trees still that they're dealing with and other sort of

challenges that they're facing at this time. it could take more than a week to restore power. that's where we are in new jersey. of course, proving to be a big after math of irene as well as what she brought. >> indeed, nbc's michelle franzen in central new jersey in manville where the waters are still rising today. of course, natural disasters when mishandled can become political disasters and eager not to repeat the mistakes of the past, east coast governors and mayors sponed to irene aggressively. one memorable moment came from new jersey's governor chris christie. >> i saw news feeds of people sitting on the beach in asbury park. get the hell off the beach in asbury park and get out. you're done. it's 4:30. you've maximized your tan. get off the beach. >> msnbc contributor chris is

managing editor of politics.com. never shy to put it straight. these moments are very important for leaders to get it right. when they blow it in these situations, boy, do the voters remember. >> absolutely. we've seen this if it's a hurricane, a snowstorm. there's the image of george w. bush peering down from a plane over hurricane katrina. far lot of people that encapsulated him being out of touch and now understanding how government needed to function. yes, remember most people -- i'm sad to say, most people don't pay the kind of attention to politics that you and i do. when they're paying attention is moments like this when they want their government to work. they want their streets cleared if it's a snowstorm. they want evacuation plans. they want their government to feel like it's on top of things that their politicians are leading. that's why you saw michael bloomberg did as many press conferences as head did and chris christie everywhere. >> some have said maybe

bloomberg and christie overlearned the he sochbs the snowstorm earlier this year when a lot of people in new york and new jersey thought that terp not as on top of it as they should have been. some are saying, wow, did they overcompensate with this storm? >> i think -- the answer is probably, yes. but i think it's a better safe than sorry as a politician. you'd better overprepare and have people say it wasn't as bad as bloomberg said. than underprepare and have a panic on your hands. did they maybe say it was too much? sure. in weather situations we never know until it gets there. it is a better safe than sorry at all times when you're a politician otherwise can lead to political disaster. >> interesting moment on the trail because ron paul the republican presidential candidate actually slammed fema the federal emergency management agency which is somewhat surprising in the context of whether or not people should get federal money to rebuild. here's what he had to say.

>> it's a system of central bureaucratic planning which is deeply flawed. fema has been around since 1978. it has one of the reputations for bureaucracy ever. i win elections because i fight for the constituents to overcome the bureaucracy. >> chris, ron paul exempted do you think this will be a theme picked up by other republican candidates on the trail? >> no. i think broadly, savannah, candidates will and will continue to talk about how we need the government out of our lives. in this one unique situation i think even most republicans want the government to be doing something. whether it's giving federal money but they want action. they want leadership. i think ron paul's very much an outlier even in the republican field on that. >> we're going to talk to you a little bit later on about the next 24 hours in politics. so stay close. coming up next, we're live in libya where there are some big developments on the

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60 years of eye care expertise. i'm tamron hall. coming up on "news nation", former vice president dick cheney said his memoir would make heads explode all over washington. now colin powell is firing back. plus, a 23-year-old engaged woman vanishes and police say there's no signs of violence in her disappearance. her parents say she's never gone more than 24 hours without contacting them. so what's happened here. and a grizzly bear roars into a man's backyard while his children were playing. he shoots and kills that bear and now he's facing charges. it's today's "news nation" gut check. developing news from libya. nbc news has learned three of muammar gadhafi's children along with his wife have fled to neighboring algeria. the location of gadhafi himself, however, is still unclear.

nbc's stephanie gosk is live in libya's capital today. what can you tell us? >> reporter: it's interesting news. there was a rumor earlier in the week that six blackmer sads had slipped into algeria. it was unconfirmed. no word on saif al-islam and muammar gadhafi. his family considering it too safe to be here for them. algeria is listed as a possible safe haven for muammar and his son as well. >> i wanted to ask you about the terrorist convicted in connection with the bombing of the pan am flight over lockerbie, scotland. rebel leaders saying that he will not be released to the west to finish out his sentence and now his family says he's in a coma.

what have you heard? >> reporter: well, once the gadhafi regime was toppled a number of u.s. lawmakers called on the national transitional council to extradite mcra he again back to the courts to answer what they consider unanswered questions in this case. the national transitional council said they're not going to do that. there was a furor two years ago when he was released from scottish prison. he was serving a life sentence there. he was released on humanitarian grounds his doctors said he had only three months to live. he's lived two years since then. and certainly families of the passengers on board pan am 103 are upset that he's here. they see it a as a travesty of justice that he is still here. they're upset. they want him extradited. what we learned from his family is he's in a coma. they also say that they don't have the medicine that they need for him. he's at home and they say their house was looted. we went to that house.

it's a jn upscale gated community. there's no graffiti on the walls. there's no stuff in the street, stuff you see all around tripoli. a pretty well protected place. we saw no evidence of looting. it's a little unclear exactly what his condition is. they say he is on his deathbed. >> stephanie with the headlines out of libya and tripoli today. thank you. what political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? that's next. but first, sicily's mt. etna erupted with huge lava plumes today and spewed ash along the southeast slope of the mountain. the italian peak is one of the most active and has been showing bursts all year. [ male announcer ] this is lara. her morning begins with arthritis pain. that's a coffee and two pills. the afternoon tour begins with more pain and more pills.

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which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? msnbc contributor and managing editor of post politics.com chris cillizza joins us. chris, i know that the president

is headed off to minneapolis to address the american legion convention, and this is the second trip to minnesota in a few weeks, and what does political types such as yourself make of that? >> well, you savannah, are an observant person of the political landscape and minnesota twice is somewhat surprising, because minnesota is not one of the most up ended races, and he won it in 2006 and we believe he will win it again. we see that the president does things not haphazardly, but in states like iowa and ohio and florida and not by accident, so that is why minnesota raises an eyebrow and it is not by accident, because no white house does that. >> and he wants to address this

particular convention of the american legion and are you expected to hear any more meat on the bones as it were on the president's job proposals? >> well, savannah, that is what we are all waiting on, the big jobs speech that the president is going to announce after the president went on va case, and they have been playing it close to the vest as to anything specific he is laying out. i think they want to hold off and kind of get the tension and the excitement building to the extent that you can get something building for that post-labor day speech, and maybe inklings rhetorically, but i don't think he will lay out a plank or two of that proposal, because they will hold out on the specifics to give the speech which is smart politically, because the more specifics he lays out the easier it is for the opponents to tear it down. >> right, they take shots at it, but they have not set a date for the speech yet, right? >> right. after labor day. we assume that there is a debate

that you have heard of that nbc is hosting onut california september 7th, so we expect it september 8th, because he will not do it on the debate day or i'd be stunned. >> well, chris, i would like to see you stunned, but we will save it for another day. and i'm savannah guthrie, and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tomorrow, we will be joined by david paulison and richard trumka. and up next is tamron hall joining us with "newsnation." thank you. and we are following developments of moammar gadhafi and we have learned within the last hour that gadhafi's two sons and wife have fled the country. and the governor of vermont says that his state is enduring the worst flooding in a century. the state of emergency has been declared for vermont and we will have an update of all of the damage up and down the east

coast. and former secretary of state colin powell talks about dick cheney's book saying that what he had to say would have heads exploding, but colin powell is calling it a cheap shot, sond we wiand so we will on the war of words. have i got a surprise for you!

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listen to this. three out of four americans don't get enough vegetables. so here's five bucks to help you buy v8 juice. five bucks. that's a lot of green. go to v8juice.com for coupons. you can count on us. right now on "newsnation" and now this. it has been called the worst flooding in a century in some places and the last punch of irene is being felt at this very hour. the latest on the travel logjam and the cleanup and the unbelievable cost of the storm, and the staggering figure. and now comatose and near death is the encodission of the lockerbie bomber set free nearly two years