mitchell reports," washingtoned out. vermont struggling to deal with the worst flooding in that state in decades. officials start airlifting food and supplies to communities cut off to rescuers. and then there's new jersey, the water still gushes over the gre falls of the passaic river. rescue crews are out in force trying to reach residents stranded by that state's historic flooding. as hurricane irene continues the white house dispatches the heads of relief agencies to the hardest hit states. >> a lot of you are fellow citizens are still reeling from hurricane irene and its after math. the folks are surveying the damage. some are dealing with tremendous flooding. as a government we're going to make sure that states and communities have the support they need so their folks can

recover. >> good day, i'm chuck today in for andrea mitchell. we begin in vermont where residents are coping with the worst flooding in more than 80 years. here's the latest, as of right now three people are known dead while a fourth is missing in the wake of irene. fema is delivering emergency supplies including food and blankets to those hardest hit by the storms. at least a dozen up tos are still cut off meaning aid is being flown in by helicopter. the burlington free press headline today an epic deluge. vermont senator patrick leahy is live with me. he toured the devastation yesterday. you took some photos your own pictures of thins you saw while flying over the devastation. tell me about it. >> well, you know, i was born in vermont, chuck. and i know this state like the back of my hand. i've never seen anything like this. never seen anything so capricious, too. as you fly over you'd see a small town and the house is

fine, roads fine, you go just a few seconds further houses are tumbled into the river, the road has disappeared. businesses have been lost. when the governor and i helicoptered there there were a couple places we landed. the only way we could have gotten to these towns were by helicopter. the roads were all, all cut off. and yet you see people working hard trying to put their businesses, their houses back together. people volunteering to help each other. but we vermonters, none of us can remember anything like this. >> senator, walk me through this entire year, the governor i was talking to him earlier this morning he was reminding me this is -- you know, this has obviously been devastating you've had some historic flooding at the is the start of this year. >> we have lake champlain reached its highest level ever after ice jams in the spring

thaw we had a lot of flooding there. it has not been an easy year. we're a very small state as you know. only 660,000 people. whether impresses me is how hard everybody has worked together to try to put things back together. but as one resident said to me, yes, he said, you know, pat, it gits a little bit old having to do this all the time. that's probably new england understatement. it is really hurt. and in the loss of life is something you can't put a dollar figure on that. >> let's talk about this, you just said you were talking to somebody as you were flying over saying this hurts to do all the time. what does this mean -- is we may be in a situation where we have to do things differently now in vermont because of climate change? >> well, i think that we will see some changes because of

that. we've done a lot over the years. we've done it with flood control and better construction of our bridges and our roads. and again, in a small state we've done a great deal. my parents talk about the flood of 1927 which is devastating and a lot of changes came as a result of that. when these things are unprecedented the type of things we're doing so you have different kinds of preparations. i think the damage in vermont would have been much, much worse had we not taken those steps other the past few decades that we have in our state. and i also think that the way our national guard, our local law enforcement, fire department, red cross everybody else responding shows that people were prepared to respond even to something we had not ever seen before. >> what do you need -- very quickly, what do you need from the federal government, you're getting all the aid that they say you need, but what is it

that you need that's unique maybe that other states can contribute, people can contribute, things like that? >> we're going to need some transportation help. i know national guard from other states have offered help. the ability to get into the towns where we don't have anybody. we're going to need the ability to get water into there. and we're going to need the kind of help that some of our neighbors the same kind of help we've given them when they've needed it. and i know the help will be there. >> all right, senator patrick leahy the senior senator from vermont, a native from vermont. thanks for sharing your photos and your observations this morning. >> thank you very much. new jersey governor chris christie is warning residents they aren't out of the woods just yet. nine rivers have hit record flood levels, nine. alon long the passaic river in patterson rescues were still taking place three days after the storm. seven are confirmed dead, an

eighth man is still missing. the storm flooded several miles of rail line and washed away portions of two major highways. the headline "a waterlogged state." patterson is the district of new jersey congressman bill pres grow. he's with us on the phone. tell us what you're seeing right now. >> chuck, i've been throughout the passaic river basin over the last few days. the hurricane has caused a very severe flooding in the area. records certainly of the last 30, 40 years. we're about to crest the passaic river about 3:00, 4:00 this afternoon. it will crest from little falls just about patterson about 13.2. you have to go back to 1904 to see a higher level of water. we just have two -- you referred to it, chuck, we had two great rescues this morning right out

of the pasic river. -- passaic river. all bridge is closed. when you're trying to evacuate people, when you're trying to respond to a tremendous need and your bridges are closed. you've got major problems of traffic in the area. two people rescued that fell into the passaic river by our brave firefighters who are called on to do things like this day in and day out. they don't need a pat on the back. they need our support 365 days a year and our police officers particularly for a member of congress. that's a commercial for me. >> tell me, that's fine. ob absolutely, that's why we all endorse that message. congressman, tell me this, what are experts telling you you say the river's going to crest in a couple of hours here. how long is it going to take it for to fully recede to see the

bridges opening? >> i don't think we'll see it fully receding until this weekend being realistic about it. the water is still rising. we may have to reevacuate about 3,000, 4,000 more people out of the presidential apartments. a lot of seniors will have to be evacuated more so than have been evacuated already. putting them into a particular place that's what we're working out with the red cross. the mayor's trying to stay on top of things. this is going quickly. we've had cooperation from the state, the locals. the o.e.m. office has done a spectacular job staying on top and coordinating. coordination is so important. you can go through this thing one at a time. every specific thing is unique. we have a situation up at one of the public schools, lincoln school because of what happened up river on the other river where toxins have been spilled into the water it's coming down

here and the smell is just -- it will knock you over. we've got people going up there as well. i'm trying to stay on top of it as best i can. look, i support what the governor just did. he sent the letter yesterday to the president asking for expedited declaration of major disaster. just sent my own letter asking the other congressman to join on in supporting the governor's request. it's realistic. i just not to get political about this, where is this money going to come from? we didn't ask where the money was going to come from when we responded to tornados in the midwest, when we responded to hurricane katrina, regardless of the situation, we're americans. if we don't come together now, when are we going to come together? >> we're going to be monitoring the situation. talking more about that issue of fema later in the show,

congressman, thanks for your thoughts. our thoughts and prayers to everybody. nice to talk to you. the obama administration is sending top officials to several of those states to personally assess recovery and response efforts. now joined by the former head of fema around president georges w. bush he joins me now from florida. david, i'm sure you just heard. you heard from senator leahy on the ground and congressman pascrell. the passaic river is doing something that we haven't seen in 100 years. tell me when you hear these local, desperate pleas and they're coming at you and right now at fema they're coming from multiple states, how do you prioritize? >> fema has a great organization. after katrina we learned a tremendous lesson about changing fema from a reactive to a proactive organization. craig fugate is currented

administrator is going an outstanding job. the initial response belongs to the local and states. they're doing an outstanding job. we've seen all of the governors up front not only telling people what to do, but how to do it. telling them what is expected to do. i've been pleased with the response. i have to tell you that. >> you know, in about two or three weeks, the attention that we're all giving this because it's in the moment goes away and then you do start seeing the political fights on funding on prioritizing. when you were at fema and you were in the middle of some of these political fights you wnt trying to have them, you're getting drawn into them. how do you keep going and fight for some extra funding that i know you need and at the same time try to keep the politics out of it? >> the whole purpose of the disaster relief fund is for what we're looking at right now.

they help people get back on their feet that don't have insurance. help communities and states to rebuild the public infrastructure has been damaged. that's what the disaster relief fund is for. it's separate from fema's normal operating budget in. the past the congress has been very careful to watch that fund and make sure that fema had the resources to do its job. it's going to be difficult. we see the politics getting involved. don't forget some of these projects are going to take years to rebuild. we could stagger some of those dollars out. we can make sure there's not a big hit at any period of time. craig fugate is aware of this. there's got to be permitting and engineering for the bridges. they have to be reinspected and perhaps rebuilt in some cases. those are the types of things that take years to do and we can make -- we need to make sure that we have the funds to do that. that's the purpose of fema. that's the purpose of the disaster relief fund. >> very kwukly, i want to ask you about the science situation.

both governor shum len and senator leahy, vermont is experiencing some problems they've not experienced before. they think it's a possibility with climate change. how much does fema need to get involved in studying this so that you can be better prepared for flooding from what was not even a hurricane, a tropical storm by the time it hit vermont because of of changing weather patterns? >> chuck, that's right on target. i think that this was barely a category one storm when it hit. what if it was a category three or four storm? just like we learned in katrina the lessons there, we have to step back at look at the lessons we learned here. the storms are getting bigger, more ferocious. fema does need to be involved in what's happening with the climate regardless of the cause. and make sure that we adjust to that and provide the resources and engineering to help these cities and states prepare for these type of events. >> former head of fema under

former president george w. bush. thanks for joining me tonight. >> thanks, chuck. >> up next, meet the subcommittee, the republicans tasked with solving the nation's debt crisis. they huddled for their first meeting on the hill. big labor holding on the to a big wish list when it comes to the president's upcoming jobs plan. i'm going to talk to richard trumpka and find out what he would like to hear from the president next week. we'll be right back. tic. its triple-action formula penetrates biofilm, kills germs and protects your mouth for hours. fight biofilm with listerine®.

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five of the six republicans serving on the deficit eskimo as well as staffers in office with the republican leadership are meeting today on capitol hill. luke russert is monitoring it all. seems like there's a lot of

action, luke. we had the naming of a staff director by the democrats on that side. fill me in. >> reporter: good afternoon, chuck, how are you? this is the first meeting that we can consider of the eskimo, the soup congress, whatever you want to call them. it's on the gop side, it's going on downstairs in the office building, the office in the rotunda. you talk about the staff director. the gi's name is mark parader. he's the deputy staff director of the minority side of the finance committee, she a republican there. he's been on the senate finance committee for over 20 years. from talking to democrats and talking to republicans he is somebody who's well liked by both sides. he's respected. he's trusted the word i kept hearing all day when i asked folks about this is he's fair. he's fair. mitch mcconnell the senate republican majority leader issued a statement saying quote, he's one of the brightest, most knowledgeable, most trusted people on capitol hill. patty murray as she released

also praised him for being fair. he really is an expert on tax issues, chuck. so one thing we saw is going to happen with the deficit reduction talks the possibility of tax reform, if that's what they're trying to do, mark parader is a guy that would be a tremendous resource. >> this sounded like it was a max bachus idea. and everybody united around it. >> reporter: it means, okay, the staff director's a republican, so if anything has to do with increasing revenue, i.e. the possibility of somewhere raising taxes, closing loopholes things that republicans were just totally opposed to in any capacity, if you have a republican staff director maybe from the democratic side you can lead from the back a little bit. it does give the democrats and republicans some cover on that issue. >> luke russert on capitol hill. and it just -- there's no such

thing as recess anymore. >> reporter: it started august 30th, all the way to christmas, my friend. >> who knew the kickoff classic of congress. thanks very much. >> reporter: you're welcome. >> as the president prepares to announce his own new jobs plan next week, he's facing a growing number of critics on the issue many from his own political base, union groups in particular are calling for more decisive action. richard trumpka president of the afl-cio, the largest labor federation. let's go on to what you're hoping to hear from the president. it seems there's reporting in "the washington post" a little bit of a split of how big to go and what to put out there. you put out a plan that you're fighting for maybe all the way to november 2012 and put out something you think you can get passed in this congress. >> i think members and the history are going to judge the president on what he does in the next couple of weeks in his

leadership on job creation. this is a tough economy. you've got record unemployment, more people living in poverty. they're looking for solutions to problems. he can do it one of two ways. he can be bold and lead and say this is what's necessary to solve the problem. or he can let the tea party lead and let them continue to put out programs that attack the middle class like social security and pretend that deficit reduction is the real problem here when deficit reduction isn't the problem. we have a jobs crisis. that's the problem. >> there is a political reality. you have to be able to get something passed in a kronk that is divided. the democrats controlling the senate nominally, republicans with strong control of the house. so do you blame the president for trying to find something that he thinks can get past the house? >> he needs to lead. and he needs to say this is what will solve the problem. not just hit it around the edges a little bit here and there

knowing if it does get passed that it's not going to solve the problem. look, if he takes that approach, he lets the tea party people and the congress control the agenda. he wasn't elected for that. he was elected to lead. we have a jobs crisis. he should be leading that. we're sporting him on that. we're supporting anybody that will go out and say here's what's necessary to create jobs. and those people, those politicians that should be ashamed of themselves. >> we're hearing some hinns of some things he may call for. some of which have to do with tax credits to corporations that make hires. are you comfortable with that? >> it all depends on the package. there's probably no single stroke that's going to do this, but it's the scale as well. what we're saying we're going to give somebody a percent to hire people. they're not going to do that.

we need a big bold program to go out and rebuild roads, bridges, schoolsing make us more competitive at the same time put americans back to work. >> president's new chief economist, what do you think? >> let's give him a chance. he has the skills, we'll see if he has the aggressiveness and the spine to go out and push for the kind of solutions that are necessary. if he comes in and all he does is more of the same, he's not going to serve the president well. >> sounds like as if you feel the last economists were not hard enough? >> i think roamer was terrific. she was talking specially about the need to create jobs and she was behind that. i think us atan i've talked about it, i don't think he pushed it through. >> richard trumka you're a man who doesn't hide some of your opinions. i appreciate you. thanks for comingen on. >> thanks for having me. up next, the politico briefing. getting into some 2012 politics. we'll be right back. time for the "your business"

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96% of african-american voters supported candidate obama in 2008. if there's anything close to political certainty in 2012 is more than 98% of african-americans will back him again. what's the turn out going to be? joe, a little unexpected addition to the president's schedule this morning that had to do an interview that he did with tom joyner an african-american radio host. i want to play a clip of what the president said and have you talk about it on the other side. >> it's always important to remember that when dr. king gave the i have a dream speech, that was a march for jobs and justice. not just justice. and the the last part of his life, you know, when he went down to memphis, that was all about sanitation workers saying

i am a man and looking for economic justice and dealing with poverty. >> before obviously hurricane irene came through and hit the east coast it was going to be a big week in the unveiling of the martin luther king memorial in washington, d.c. a lot of african-american radio hosts coming to d.c., came to d.c. for this event, but joe, this does highlight an issue that some of the white house are concerned about that is the intensity of support among african-americans right now. >> absolutely. look, this is based upon the fact that the cbc and some others have come out with an agenda saying let's bring jobs back to the african-american community. unemployment there is almost twice the national average and they've had some issue with president obama over this particular matter. it's also reminds me of the facebook status it's complicated when you consider the relationship between the two of them. >> i was talking to the mayor of atlanta yesterday. he was quite critical of some of

these leaders saying that he believes, look, you're not fully understanding the full situation president obama inherited. and that this idea that, you know, maybe you can criticize him on not picking up the phone enough and communicating to certain leaders of the black community, but this is not an -- you can't hit him on specific actions. what -- go ahead. >> that's part of the problem. they don't have an issue with him on specific action so much as for one word and that word is fight. you have the first african-american president who has run a transracial campaign and is seeking to run a transracial administration. he wants a rising tide to lift all boats. meanwhile the cbc is saying our boats have holes in them. you have to have some patchwork before the boats will float. we don't think you fought hard enough. the white house response is we've fought plenty we just can't do as much as you want us to do because a, we've got a

divided government. republican led congress. and some squishy support in the senate. and also we can't try to turn off the middle of the road voters. many people believe we're living in a post racial society and this is what he's very cautious and sensitive to kind of reversing that impression. >> joe williams, politico reporter. joe, we've got to can get back to that briefing room, don't we? >> indeed. all right. the debate at the reagan library on september th moderated by brian williams. that's all going to be on msnbc right here because we're the place for politicians. speaking of 2012 appearing at the vfw convention in san antonio a day after rick perry was there, mitt romney went to perry's backyard and he slammed career politicians, a veiled swipe at the texas governor who has served in government for

more than 26 years. >> the final image that osama bin laden took with him straight to hell was not a party symbol, a republican elephant or a democratic donkey, but an american flag on the shoulder of one straight shooting u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s. career politicians -- >> he is traveling with the romney campaign and joins me now from san antonio. wow, career politicians got us in this mess. who's he not swiping at? president bush, rick perry, dick cheney? where does it -- the quote mess is complicated. >> he really goes after the whole crew. romney's been saying on the trail lately the only other guy who's not a career politician is hermann cain. then he makes the point that

cain doesn't have his gubernatorial experience. taking shots at perry and president obama and the last couple of presidents. >> another clip i want to play has to do with mitt romney's take on how safe we are in the world. here's what he said. >> consider simply the jihadists, a turbulent mideast, an unstable, pakistan, a delusional north korea, an assertive russia and an emerging global power called china. now the world isn't becoming safer. >> sounds like a comment that the interventionists wing of the republican party is probably pretty pleased with mitt romney's speech. >> he really went back to sort of reagan peace through strength. he hit it really hard today. romney made the point to criticize president obama on foreign policy all the way from cuba to israel across the map.

none of it was about backing down. he said our response in libya was muddled. the two things he criticized the president for were what he called a disgrace for not interviewing ourselves at all in the fallout from the 2009 elections in iran and withdrawing in afghanistan without agreement and consent from the generals. >> all right, garrett traveling with mitt romney in san antonio. your neck of the woods of texas. good to see you. be safe. next, we're live in bratlebor organization, vermont, as officials rush to get aid to residents completely cut off by the worst flooding in almost a century. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. [ woman ] jogging stroller. you've been stuck in the garage

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how impassable is it? >> reporter: well, here's a bit of an example of how bad it is, i'm standing on what used to be a road. you can see just here to my life, camera right, it's gone. there's now a river there. this water wasn't here before the hurricane and the floods. and you can see it's ripped out the corner of that building. this water was about 100 yards over in that direction. about 50 yards over in that direction and it was a babbling brook. there used to be a little park with outdoor sculpture. this is an artist colony and the first floor had been completely torn out. across vermont that's what's happened to so many roads and bridges. there are 250 roads that have been washed away. just about every significant road in this state has been impacted by the hurricane in a bad way and there's damage. there's such a problem -- it's such a problem that they have to airlift supplies to people who

are cut off in dozens of communities. chuck? >> ron, i want to emphasize that was a road. that is not a driveway, that was a road. >> reporter: yes. this house was sitting on dry land. this was not a house that was build overlooking a river. there was a road here and you can see it's just completely severed. in that direction the road is being threatened it's a major two-lane roadway that comes through this neighborhood. the river came with such force, built up to eight, ten inches of rain and it just carved out this path. new path for itself and that's what happened to the corner of that house. the the owner of the house wants the state to move this all back, the river. it's just a good example of what the engineering problems are in the state as it tries to recover. it's a collection of towns that are connected by roads and

bridges and now so many of them are just gone. >> ron allen in brolt bore, vermont, thanks very much. just an unbelievable scene there the power of mother nature. talks are reportedly underway between rebel forces in libya and the remaining fighters still loyal to muammar gadhafi. it's happening in the former dictator's hometown. where an opposition invasion could be just days away. stephanie gosk is live for us in tripoli. do we ne where gadhafi himself is? >> reporter: we don't, chuck. at this point the best guesses are these pockets where there are still loyalist fighters. there may be people that live in these cities that aren't going to take a reward. they aren't going to be bought with promises of amnesty that they're going to protect him. that's another city about an hour or two southeast of us here and right now they're issuing an ultimatum in both of those

cities. the held of the national transitional council say they have until saturday to basically surrender their cities or they'll face rebel forces going in and attacking. chuck? >> stephanie gosk in tripoli for us. thanks very much. i want to bring in the national security correspondent at "the new york times." so, game out what the next -- are we looking at days now at this point to when whoever remains loyal to gadhafi is simply negotiating a way out? >> as you heard the rebels are trying to sort of change the dynamic a little bit by giving this deadline. clearly they are unsure about exactly how to address these final pockets and so they're hoping that a deadline will force some of gadhafi's loyalists to switch sides. but so it does look like, you know, we're days rather than months away from the end of this, but as your reporter said, there still is no real clear picture on where gadhafi

everybody thought it was only going going to be days or weeks away this took months. is that plan that they were starting to come up with, the european leaders, the libya, the transnational council folks attended that conference, i believe it was in london is that plan starting to be enacted now, finally? >> they are trying to go through with this plan as you said has been months in the works. but there is some real practical problems on the ground. the transitional government hasn't been able to relocate yet because of the fighting in tripoli. there really is -- there's still

a war going on. that has to stop for the most part until you can really start enacting this sort of post gadhafi plan. >> how important is it that they find gadhafi? is the assumption until they either confirm gadhafi is also in algeria or headed there with his family or simply turns himself in, the war's not over. >> that's what the rebels have said. they have said publicly the war ends with gadhafi killed or captured. if he ends up in another country. it's still unclear about what country would take him. they would be certain to get him back for some kind of a trial. so that -- it seems to be their end game. >> mark, thanks very much. former vice president dick cheney sounding off about the decisions that reshaped america's image around the chin world. it's an exclusive and it's nexts host: do people use smartphones to do dumb things?

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i'm tamron hall. coming up on "news nation." north carolina national guard is using helicopters to deliver food and water to towns completely cut out from communication after the bridges there and roads were flooded. we'll get an update plus the latest on the massive flooding in new jersey and north carolina. also, new details about former vice president dick cheney's memoir including how he's now going after senator john mccain. and from the dog fighting ring to a super bowl ring? the eagles are shelling out $100 million to michael vick just two years after he was released from prison. will they get their money's worth? and what happened here? details on the college party that went shall i say horribly wrong. well, there's major fallout from the widely criticized u.s. operation aimed at tracing the flow of illegal weapons into mexico. pete williams joins me now with the details.

i believe a big resignation. what can you tell me? >> two big changes. this is involving something called fast and furious, an effort by atf to try to trace the flow of illegal guns from the u.s. into mexico. they would watch illegal buyers purchase guns in the u.s. and then take the guns into mexico. but agents were instructed not to try to stop the guns because the theory was that you'd see how the system worked. well it went awry, thousands of guns nearly 2 hao weapons ended up in mexico. and two of them were found at the scene in december of last year where a u.s. border patrol agent was killed in a shootout. it was widely criticized. there have been a number of hearings on this in congress. today the acting director kenneth nelson was re-assigned to a policy job at the justice department. and out in arizona the u.s. attorney, the top federal prosecutor there dennis burk has resigned. senior justice department official says in essence that

the attorney general eric holder had lost confidence in the two of them and he thought a fresh start was what atf needed here. that was the latest fallout of this operation that everybody in the justice department now concedes was a mistake. >> and very quickly we do know that atf is supposed to be a confirmed senate position. everybody though that runs atf is always acting because it's something that can't get confirmed in the modern day united states senate, correct? >> that's right because of the politics for the national rifle association which doesn't want a muscular atf, if you ask nra they say no, it's been policy differences over the nominee. there is a nominee now pending to take the change. it was changed when atf used to be part of the treasury department. when it was moved into justice the decision was made to make the director of atf senate confirmed. there's been no director confirmed. >> that was a poison pill that was enacted during the

reorganization of homeland security. >> exactly right. >> pete williams our justice correspondent. thank you, sir. >> you bet. a little insight from former vice president dick cheney about his role in the bush administration as his just released book hits book shelves and ipads today. with matt lauer the vice president played down claims that he was the central figure in convincing president bush to invade iraq. >> it severely damaged our reputation around the world and there were no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. you still think it's worth it? >> oh, sure. i don't think that it damaged our reputation around the world. i just don't believe that. i think the critics here at home would argue that, but in fact, i think it was sound policy. >> you can see matt's full interview with the former vice president on towshow.com at msnbc.com. well, what political story will

be making headlines in the next 234 hours? that's next on "andrea mitchell reports." we'll be right back.

we just had a category 1 or 2 storm coming toward the east coast and people forget we have an economic 5 disaster presently in the country. people want to know what we are going to do to expand the economy and create jobs. >> ah, jobs. which political stories will make headlines in the next 24 hours? we join contributing managing editor of postpolitics.com, chris cillizza. okay. can jon huntsman grab a headline? >> well, yes, chuck, he is, but it is to grab a headline that will ensure no votes in the primary. he is trying to hold off mitt

romney and president obama who are coming out with a jobs plan after labor, and he wants to hold a jobs rally at new hampshire manufacturing plant and based on global competitiveness and make things in the united states again. maybe. the thing with huntsman, he gets a lot of attention from the media, but in every poll i see he is at one percent or behind gary johnson, the former new mexico governor which is not a great place to be. i just wonder whether it translate, because he is trying to dictate the debate in advance of the guy's debate, and make himself a voice in there. >> and let's go to the riddle that is wrapped in the enigma of sarah palin for president, and yesterday the tongues were wagging because there was going to be another person involved in this rally that she is speaking in iowa saturday, christine o'donnell, and yet 12 hours later after a whole bunch of republicans were like, what are you doing? she pulls out. whatis going on here?

>> well, it seems that we can debate sarah palin whether she is credible or can win, but it does not seem to me that there is much debate to have your way tied in any meaningful way to christine o'donnell is bad politically, because she is a three-time loser in delaware senate races and someone by a quirk of the nature of the year managed to be the party's nominee in delaware in 2010 and not a good connection for sarah palin to make, and not the way that you know, chuck, we don't know what will happen saturday. i feel like i say that always when it comes to sarah palin and if she is going to indicate that she is running, you don't want christine o'donnell on the same docket. >> and every once in a while, you say, hey, that is a mainstream political pragmatic decision you just made there, governor palin. >> and she is unpredictable and sometimes she will make a decision that is right convention politically. >> well, you know what this is like and i'm getting the wrap sign, chris cillizza.

thank you, chris, very much. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tomorrow on the show, congressional black caucus chairman emanuel cleaver will talk about the cbc job fair in los angeles. and my colleague tamron hall has the "newsnation" next. >> thank you, chuck. we are following events out of vermont where the national guard helicopters are delivering food and water to towns cut off by flooding. let the battle begin. we have the latest comments from president obama on as much anticipated jobs plan. where will he draw the line in the sand with the republicans, and this as the republican members of the super committee meet behind closed doors for the first time and why some of the president's supporters say that the only solution is for the president to make a bold move that will likely be rejected by the tea party and other republicans when it comes to his jobs plan, and plus surprising new comments from the father who gave steve jobs up for adoption.

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