at 8:00 p.m. the white house says it's to unveil his new jobs plan in order that he has been teasing out over the last few days, including yesterday where he said if congress doesn't pass it, he will take it to the campaign trail, take it to the public, and make it part of the political campaign. oh, by the way, the 8:00 wednesday night timing, that's the same time as the nbc news politico debate at the reagan library where all eight presidential candidates are set to debate, scheduled to debate, have accepted invitations. jay carney was asked about the timing of that schedule earlier today. >> the sponsors of the debate control what the timing of it, they can make a decision based on how they want to handle this. there are many channels and opportunities for the public to hear the president speak, to watch this debate, and we'll let

that sort itself out. >> no doubt it's going to be a night of political theater. this debate is going on as scheduled. we can tell you that here. this debate will happen on wednesday night. quite the night of -- it's almost as if the president will be starting a debate with the republicans that night. meanwhile, a man with his own plan, republican presidential candidate jon huntsman, he wants to grab the lead on jobs issues by becoming the first republican candidate to lay out a plan in new hampshire. all this as the east coast is reeling from real problems, not political problems, in the after effects of hurricane irene, three days after the storm, rising flood waters prompt new evacuations in new jersey. in vermont, food and supplies are finally reaching residents that were completely cut off by those historic floods, and today fema and homeland security are getting a first-hand look at new

jersey. fema says it will work out a temporary halt of rebuilding projects in other disaster zones including joplin, missouri, tuscaloosa, you remember those tornados. america may be safer, but not safe. new warnings from the 9/11 commission, plus, tom cain tells us where the nation is still vulnerable. he's right here with an exclusive interview. all right, we begin with the president's request for a joint session of congress next wednesday evening. kristen welker joins me now. kristen, the timing, they are very defensive over there publicly by saying that republican debate, that was just happenstance, a primetime speech to congress, we don't know yet if speaker boehner has agreed to the invitation. >> that's right, a bit of a political buffet. we checked in with speaker

boehner's office, haven't heard back from them just yet. the president will be unveiling his jobs plan next wednesday. we're getting bits and pieces about what might be in that plan, what the white house is considering. as you mentioned yesterday, the president did an interview. also during that interview he said his plan might create anywhere from half a million to a million jobs. we're also hearing some of the proposals might include increasing or extending the payroll tax cuts as well as investing in education, jobs training plans as well as infrastructure, green energy projects, and also providing tax cuts for companies that hire new workers. white house officials say look, this plan will have new ideas and should have bipartisan support. here's what press secretary jay carney had to say just a few minutes ago, take a listen. >> i want to be clear that the president is focussed very much on steps we can take, together,

congress, the administration, to grow the economy and create jobs at this important time in the american economy. >> but, of course, chuck, it's hard to see that this job's plan won't become another battle here. as you know, republicans have unveiled their own jobs plan this week, talking about things like decreasing taxes as well as freezing government regulations, and, of course, they have staunchly said they will not support anything that increases spending. the white house is saying look, this jobs plan will pay for itself. it will, of course, have a deficit reduction component as well, so we'll have to see what the plan actually looks like and we'll have to wait until next wednesday, chuck? >> kristen, i know that some behind the scenes at the white house is pessimistic of all what they are going to propose wednesday night has a chance to get through the republican house, let alone if it gets through there, probably won't be able to get through the senate, so the question is how much of

the plan he's unveiling, the setting is a going big setting, the question is is the plan a going big plan, any indication that the plan itself will be "big" as some in the president's political base want him to do? >> well, white house officials say they are still talking about that. they say the president wants an aggressive, robust plan, but they also say he has to be pragmatic and try to get something through the republican-led house, and as you say, they are not feeling incredibly confident right now. i spoke to a scholar at the brookings institute that said you might see the president unveil the plan, republicans not perform it, and that plan become the president's platform in 2012. as he said he will take it to the people if he doesn't get people behind him. >> kristen at the white house, thanks very much. this is high-stakes political theater in this respect, the

white house is gambling that they are not going to be looking overly political by doing this and asking for this and all of the run up about running against congress if they don't get this agenda passed. it's something you don't often see when it comes to white houses asking for time. homeland security director and the head of fema is headed to new jersey. it's particularly bad in communities along the posaic river which crested seven feet above flood stage. the headline in "the star ledger" was "a flood that won't quit." live for us in paterson, new jersey, how about good news out of paterson. >> the good news, chuck, is the river is starting to recede, but the flood that won't quit won't quit soon enough. take a look, still showing, you get a bit of a perspective with

that vacant building there of just how high the water went right here, just about a block away from main street here in paterson, it's also covered roads and bridges cutting off neighborhoods. we've had evacuations in the area in the last 24 hours, just a little bit of what janet napolitano as well as craig fugate will see. earlier they were in new york surveying the damage there along with the governor, and this afternoon, when they come to new jersey, we're expected to hear exactly what they saw in these devastated areas, chuck, town after town and counties and states here that have been dealing with the flood waters that have been on the move, and we are four days here in new jersey after irene made landfall. >> all right, michelle franzen in paterson for us, thank you very much. the congressional black caucus is wrapping up their effort to get black americans back to work. what does the cbc want to hear

from the president in his jobs plan wednesday night? we're live in los angeles with the chairman of the cbc, emanuel cleaver. and ten years after 9/11, are we safer now than we were ten years ago? 9/11 commission co-chair governor tom cain tells us where the biggest gaps still remain. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on a big, busy day on this last day of august only on msnbc. this is coach parker... 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. ♪ riding the dog like it's a small horse is frowned upon in this establishment! luckily though, ya know, i conceal this bad boy underneath my blanket just so i can get on e-trade. check my investment portfolio, research stocks... wait, why are you taking... oh, i see...solitary. just a man and his thoughts.

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well, republican hopeful jon huntsman has been struggling to get off the ground and will now become the first republican candidate to release a jobs plan. he spoke this afternoon at a new hampshire manufacturing plant.

-- studios there that we have over at the union leader, now tell me this, joe, walk me through this plan. is it a republican plan, is it something that president obama could have signed on with his old ambassador to china, what kind of plan is it? >> well, it's certainly a plan that jon huntsman hopes will bounce him ahead of mitt romney. he's preempting mitt romney by six days and president obama as well. basically what he's saying he wants to do is create new trade deals with south and central america and consolidate the tax code. as for the tax code, he says he's going to bring it down to three brackets, he's going to eliminate capital gains tax and reduce the corporate rate to 25%. it's definitely something that sticks to what he's been saying on the stump the past couple of weeks, but if it's going to work and make a splash remains to be seen, chuck. >> joe, have you gotten a hint yet at one of the things i've

been mildly surprised with, huntsman, got a late start compared to romney in new hampshire, wants to make new hampshire the last stand, i've been waiting to see the last guy making television buys in new hampshire i would have bet would be huntsman, any bet he'll make the jobs plan and try to start selling it on television? >> well, we're not sure yet. we are expecting some sort of announcement in the coming days, as he is spending six days in new hampshire. we saw a video posted online, it isn't a tv ad but it is previewing his jobs plan. so i think we'll expect to see more action from huntsman, not sure, but i think he's hoping for a pretty big splash. >> we'll see if he gets traction up there, joe, good to talk to you. >> thanks, chuck. well, for months, mitt romney's strategy has been a noun, a verb, and barack obama made the economy worse. well, yesterday in a

not-so-veiled swipe at rick perry, romney revealed he doesn't think he can avoid the political scrum much longer. >> now, i'm a conservative businessman. i spent most of my life outside politics dealing with real problems and the economy. career politicians got us into this mess, and they simply don't know how to get us out. >> executive editor of politico, jim, career politicians, i'm trying to figure that out. gosh, who could he be referring to in san antonio, texas. >> could be perry, could be himself. he seems to have been in politics for some time himself. >> he runs for office, didn't win a lot of them. >> exactly. obviously, he's starting to think about how do you go after rick perry. the strategy, as you talked about for mitt romney from the beginning, keep low, raise tons of money, don't do anything stupid and make the other candidates seem a fad.

it worked with trump, worked with bachmann, now he's trying to figure out if it will work with perry. he'd like perry to have a surge and have it deflate on his own weight. i don't think the romney people think this will happen to perry. they think the threat is real, four polls in a row show how real it is, so he has to start engaging him, and i think engagement will start at the upcoming debate. if you think about the debate, the nbc politico debate, it's high theater now, you have the obama speech talking about jobs, and now you have the leading candidates having to respond to it in real time and they'll use that to show who's better on those issues. >> look, it's going to sound like we're self-hyping this, but berealistic, it feels like a preview of a general election type of moment night of general theater. i want to play for you a rick perry byte from yesterday, asked about a potential rift opening

up already with romney. here is what he said. >> frankly, i don't know governor romney well enough on a personal basis. we were both governors for a period of time, he was just four years in massachusetts, but look, this race is not going to be about personalities from my perspective or personal. it's going to be about records. >> interesting, he said it's going to be about records, he believes, and to borrow a phrase, he's got a texas miracle to sell, and it sounds like when he says records, sounds to me that's a subtle jab he wants to talk about the four years that mitt romney served as governor of massachusetts, because that means he gets to talk about health care and a certain mandate. >> bingo. that health care plan is going to be a central part of his critique. rick perry knows he's sound with conservatives. he doesn't have to worry about it, there's not going to be tea partiers protesting his events ever, he's one of them.

romney has a problem with that segment of the republican party. romney is smart, the guy's won elections for a reason, he understands how the game is played and he's willing to throw tough punches. it's the only person in the field who, if perry could withstand the scrutiny he's going to have in the next couple of months, romney is the only real threat to him if you look at the polls and talk to republicans and look at the fundraising. romney is vulnerable. he's not as socially conservative as rick perry. >> jim, i'm curious about the research that got dropped yesterday that letter that rick perry wrote as agricultural commissioner there in texas to hillary clinton, sort of in a hey, you know, if you're working on these issues about health care and rural things and commending her and all this stuff. can you hit rick perry from the right, i mean, can you make him vulnerable from the right? that was the only thing odd about the hit to me, is that a

vulnerable for him? >> i don't think it is. i mean, a lot of people were talking in the last 24 hours about that letter, but if you read the letter, one, he wasn't praising the final product, no doubt he was raising the effort and coming at it as an agricultural perspective, which is his job back then, it's easy for him to brush that attack away. he used to be a democrat, so he has to explain that, but it feels the tea party knows that and doesn't have any questions about whether or not he's authentically conservative. so i think it's a tough place to go, especially for mitt romney. >> executive editor over at politico. boy, we picked a pretty good time to have a debate, what do you think? >> no doubt. >> good talking to you. all right, president obama plans to lay out his jobs plan next week, not a moment too soon. up next, we're live in los angeles with the chairman of the congressional black caucus, emanuel cleaver. this is "andrea mitchell

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the big problem in washington, d.c. is the republicans in the united states congress. that is our obstacle, that's president obama's obstacle, that is where the fight lies. >> some strong words at last night's jobs town hall meeting in los angeles where the month-long initiative finishes up today. nearly 20,000 people have attended such meetings, jobs fairs, workshops from coast-to-coast. emanuel cleaver is the chairman of the congressional black k kau -- caucus and joins me now from los angeles. the president is going to have a

big stage for his jobs plan. does that give you hope for a big plan since he wants a big stage? >> well, certainly, i hope the plan that the president lays occupaout at the joint session is one that deals with every aspect of revitalizing the economy and getting hiring going in the united states and also job training. the big question is not so much about the plan the president submits but whether or not the congress is going to be receptive in the sense that there's some kind of congressional embracement, embracing of the president's plan. as you know, we already have a substantial number of job-creating bills in the hopper in the house, none of which have seen the light of day, and

there's no sign that that's going to happen. in spite of the fact that we had people here in los angeles who were in line this morning at 3:00 a.m., and if you look at all these people here and the crowds are still growing, there is a very clear need for something very big and aggressive, and i think the president's going to do it, the question is, as always, whether or not congress is going to support it. >> well, congressman, earlier today the president did sort of hint at some of the things he'd like to see his administration be able to do when it comes to the jobs front, here's what he had to say. >> today i'm directing certain federal agencies to identify high-priority infrastructure projects that can put people back to work, and these projects, these are projects that are already funded, and with some focussed attention, we can expedite the permits and reviews to get the construction underway more quickly. >> now that's something

basically he can do, his administration can do and move some of those things along faster, that's what he was talking about, but this issue of infrastructure spending, there's a transportation bill, i know, that some folks would like to see passed and expanded. when the president speaks wednesday night, congressman, do you feel he needs to present bills that have a chance of passing or maybe present some bills that he thinks are good ideas but don't have a chance of passing? >> i think he should present a package of both, some big ideas, some new ideas, work force development, training and so forth, and also some things that the public, including independents and even republicans, will look at and say why congress should object to that. i think afterwards, the president needs to go out and carry that message around the

country, even in the congressional districts of obstinate members. i think the public understands now that this economy cannot continue without some desperate attempt by government to make repairs, and in the absence of that, we're only going to see a continued stagnation. the numbers are not good today, it doesn't appear as if we created more than 100,000 jobs. we need 300,000 jobs, new jobs, each month, so the president, i think, is going to go in the right direction, and i think he's going to get 100% support from the democrats. i hope that there are enough open republicans to support the president's package so that we can get the economy rolling again. >> all right, emanuel cleaver, congressman from kansas city, missouri, but also the chairman of the congressional black caucus joining me from the los angeles jobs fair. we look forward to seeing you back in washington soon. >> all right, thank you. up next, 9/11 commission

co-chair governor tom kean, why he says a decade after 9/11 there are still gaps in national security. plus, residents in connecticut wondering when will their power be restored. the latest on irene storm damage there. that's coming up next. ♪

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>> has been good news and we're making process. i've seen extraordinary acts, heroic acts throughout the last three days here in vermont, but there's none that has moved me more than the one i'm seeing now. i'm standing where we had a local operator of the water -- water plant for rutland, swept away at the height of the storm. we're looking for his son and the other son is here looking for his brother, and he's not leaving here until we find him. you see him, he's chipper and upbeat and just extraordinary courage. you hear about stories like that, and it moves you to tears. we're making progress, we've opened a number of bridges, we've gone from 60,000 power outages to 16,000. we have road access now into every community in vermont that was isolated. when i say roads, we're talking

goat pads in some cases. the red cross, national guard, fema, president obama, has just been extraordinary, and we are making progress in respect that we have food, water, medical supplies into every community in vermont. so we have a long dig, it's a long slog, but we feel we're making some progress. >> governor, you were telling me yesterday about frankly what was historic flooding months ago, and, of course, now it doesn't seem so bad compared to what you're dealing with today, but had you been -- are you worried that you were going to lose some funds from some of the projects you were trying to do to deal with what you had six months ago in some of that damage to what -- by what was happening today? we already heard back and forths about how much money fema has, how concerned are you about long-term recovery money? >> well, we're plenty concerned, but i have to tell you, i've been talking to governor

christie of new jersey and governor malloy in connecticut, governors all up and down the sea board, we're going to be working together to appeal to congress on a bipartisan basis to get us the resources we need. when america is in trouble, we don't care what state they are from, we come up to the plate. we need hundreds of thousands of dollars to get us on our feet. if we can get congress working together to get us the help we need. the answer is i don't believe there's not money in fema, they don't have it, we're going to need all the help we can get. >> pete ere shumlin, governor of vermont, god speed to the recovery efforts out there, i hope that boy is found. connecticut's shoreline took a beating from tropical storm irene, completely demolished several beach front homes. the headline from "the new haven

register," "still reeling." that's an understatement. what can you tell me, the power outages in connecticut, i don't think there was a single community or township not touched by it. what can you tell us today? >> well, right now east haven has 25% of our population without power, that's very good considering yesterday we were at 49%, but if you're in the 25%, it doesn't feel so good. we are urging to, you know, the expediency in getting our power restored. we have neighborhoods that have been damaged and neighborhoods that have been decimated by the storm, homes that are piles of rubble and homes whose security have been compromised. add to that darkened neighborhoods, makes for scary situation for residents. we've stepped up police patrols and we have a 9:00 p.m. curfew

along the shoreline, but we need our power restored as soon as possible. >> any delays to the start of school? >> yes, until september 6th. it just makes the most sense and a lot of communities around here are doing the same. >> thanks, mayor capone for that. thanks for the update, we'll stay in touch. hope power gets turned on very, very soon. thanks so much. in north carolina over 1,000 homes were damaged or destroyed and the storm caused thousands of damage. today nbc affiliate witn in north carolina is teaming up with the american red cross for a fundraiser to help victims of the hurricane in that state. they are accepting donations in person, online, or by phone. call or follow a link on witn.com. nearly a decade after 9/11, a new report card out this

morning suggests the government still has work to do when it comes to keeping the country safe. the group says nine, count them nine have not been fully enacted. the commission's former vice chairman discussed one of the areas with andrea mitchell. >> i'd like to see the first responders have the ability to talk with one another at the site of the disaster. ten years after 9/11, it's very frustrating that this challenge is not been worked out. >> well, the chair of that commission, former governor tom kean is with me now, he now co-chairs the bipartisan policy center preparedness group. okay, governor kean, let's talk about the specifics of the nine areas, tell me the two or three that concern you the most. >> the one just mentioned, the

fact first responders can't talk to each other and police can't talk to fire people, as we know, that cost lives in 9/11 and katrina. i suspect we'll hear stories after these floods in the northeast, so that's very, very worrisome, that particular one, but all of them, all of them should be done. this is ten years after 9/11 and these simple safety things. we talk about the congress, congress passed a lot of our recommendations to reform the federal government. didn't pass any recommendations to reform itself, so we have, for instance, homeland security, doesn't sound as surprising. homeland security reports to almost 100 committees and sub committees now. now, that means that janet napolitano and her staff spend tremendous amounts of their time testifying or preparing testimony. that's ridiculous. it should be a number of oversight committees and that's it.

they should be spending their time defending us, not testifying before 100 different committees. >> governor, you brought up something i want to ask you more deeply on, homeland security and any time -- i personally, as an observer of congress over the years get nervous when congress makes decision in a crisis-reactive mode. in hindsight, homeland security, was it built with care, is this a department that is got a foundation that can make it an effective department over another generation? >> no, it wasn't built with care at all. it was agencies that were thrown together and the first number of secretaries have a tremendous problem holding parts of it together, let alone doing their jobs, but they've been good secretaries, gradually it's gotten better and finally it's starting to upgrade in a way

that's going to help the american people, but it's still got a number of problems. i was talking today with some of her deputies about the problem of home grown terrorism and what we can do to americans being radicalized. we could stop people from coming into the country, but if somebody's traveling around with an american passport, that's much more difficult to stop. how do we intervene to stop this kind of thing from happening? that's going to be a big priority for this department. >> you brought up politics a number of times, politically looks like a struggle to implement was the idea of a director of national intelligence. you tell me, governor, who's really got more power in the intelligence community, the director of the cia or director of national intelligence? >> or the national security advisor. >> you brought up that. it's very confusing. >> well, i'll tell you, the

confusion of authorities is one of the problems of 9/11 that the intelligence agencies didn't have an overall head to force the sharing of information and force them to work together, and that was one of the reasons that 9/11 happened. we recommended having a tough single person heading the whole intelligence communities with power to do the budgets, with power to force them to share information. we thought that was common sense. the congress passed it, but they passed it a little more weakly than we recommended, and so that we're very concerned right now that we've had four of these people over six years that we don't have the authorities that person needs to really control intelligence or, frankly, the authority from the last two presidents to really be in charge of intelligence, and we can that's very, very important if we're going to get this thing right. >> ultimately, should the

director of the cia be reporting to this director of national intelligence or should we essentially say okay, let's reform the cia and all of these intelligence communities inside the defense department somewhat in -- you could argue, within the fbi, at least the counter terrorism portion of it. should all of that say fine, the cia is the infrastructure, let's reform that? >> there's got to be somebody in charge. there's got to be somebody to force the reforms, force the sharing of information. this is vitally important that these intelligence agencies operate correctly, and the only way they are going to operate correctly and upright with each other, we believe, is to have somebody in charge, and the d.n.i. and congress and the recommendations of our commission should be the person in charge, but we're not sure right now whether or not the d.n.i. is really in charge and that's troubling. >> one of my pet peeves about us in the media is we always focus on what's not working, tell me

something you've been sbreimpre with, something wow, government got it together. >> we're certainly much safer than we used to be. they are sharing information more than they used to be. there's much closer liaison between state and federal and county and local than there used to be. a number of of our recommendations have been implemented wholly or in part. the government has been good at tracing money through the banks, we chose today to say these things still need to be done, because they do still need to be done, but i'm an overall optimist, we've done a pretty good job in a number of areas and people have worked hard over two administrations. >> governor tom kean, the chair, one-time chair of the 9/11 commission, thank you for your continued public service on this front.

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call this number or go to selectquote dot com. selectquote. we shop. you save. hi, everyone, coming up on "news nation," we're following big, breaking news out of the white house, president obama announced he'll reveal his jobs plan before a joint session of congress next week. does the big stage mean the president will offer big solutions as his base has urged? plus, a merger between at&t and t-mobile would raise prices for millions and customers and now the justice department is trying to block the deal. and a huge fight at a theme park after muslim women not allowed to get on some of the rides. what happened here? and a shocking new report finds up to $60 billion of american money has been wasted or used in fraud in iraq and

afghanistan. all of that and more ahead on "news nation." thank you, tamaran. the new unemployment report could set the fold despite gop opposition, the president's base is calling for additional spending on federal construction projects. here's what i was told yesterday here on "andrea mitchell reports." >> he can do it one or two ways. he can be bold, he can 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. >> president of the committee for responsible federal budget at the new america foundation. okay, we now know the president decided he wants a big stage to

unveil this jobs plan. a lot of the things we're all hearing feels familiar, but as somebody said, it's never really had the old shoulder blocking and tackling, real push by the white house. how big do you expect this plan to be and how big of a burden on the federal budget do you expect this to be? >> this is going to be the big pivot on to jobs, and there aren't that many new ideas you can actually do in job creation. there's plenty of disagreement between the republicans and democrats on how you do it, but there are not that many new ideas, and i think one of the big questions will be is this part of the overall package that will bring the debt down in the long-term or will they separate them. >> jay carney, today, at the briefing was asked that specifically and said the majority of the speech will be about jobs. the president will have a plan on deficit reduction and tax reform, but they want this to be the focus on this job creation,

so a lot of this, let me ask you this one big one, we hear about these tax credits for hiring workers, how much do corporations really want these tax credits? how much of an incentive are they? >> you brought up the question earlier in the show, is this going to be a political show or is this a package that can really pass? depending what's in the package, it's only going to get passed if it's part of a broader deal, and in the short-term temporary incentive, all of those things can work, but they are not the long-term fixes that you need to really change the structural course of the economy, which is why you want to think about how you keep demand up, create new skills, deal with the housing market and deal with jobs in the short-term, but at the same time you want to put in place long-term items, otherwise that short-term fix, some would call it a short-term high isn't going to work. so i don't think anything you can do, a temporary tax credit,

is really going to change the business outlook until they know what to expect over the next coming years and decade because there's so much uncertainty in the economy and budget, that's why it needs to be put together to pass and to work. >> there's a whole bunch of corporate america sitting on money, $2 trillion, what incentivizes them to invest money? >> there's one answer, all businesses are different. tax reform will be a big piece of that. hearing a lot more about regulatory refirm but it's easy toe talk about it. it depends on where you're looking, what kind of regulations we need to think about altering. i do think debt reduction has to be a piece of this because everybody knows this will come into play and until you know how that will keep that uncertainty there, and that's the real cause of those dollars staying on the balance sheet, i don't think a temporary measure will change long-term behavior unless it's coupled with a real understanding of where we were headed. >> all right.

rough times. good to see you. >> thanks. >> well, what political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? think we already know, but that's next on "andrea mitchell reports." but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. so lily and i are back on the road again. with zyrtec® i can love the air®.

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consistently fast speeds... and more ways to customize your technology. well, which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? chris cillizza joins me now. chris, we know what's making headlines today? i sort of -- i should have seen this coming. i was hinting that this was going to be state of the union-like old school, that they would unveil their plan and start selling it around the country. i didn't know they literally really wanted to do a state of the union. >> fascinating. you know, my favorite part of that, chuck, jay carney, the white house spokesman saying it was purely coincidental. there are coincidences at the presidential political level do not exist. i know they wanted to do it

after labor day. they knew what was happening. they knew that nbc was hosting a debate. this is not by accident. they want to force the contrast with republicans. they want to force a choice of people of what they want to watch, fact. >> it's you have to. it politicizes though a joint speech to a joint session of congress. >> and it makes you focus on strategy, chuck, rather than what's actually in the speech. >> potentially. quick sideshow note. it's been very funny to follow the on again, off again, on again and i hear maybe off again story of sarah palin and kristine o'donnell apparently when one agrees to speak at the event the other is not there. sarah palin might have cancelled on iowa if christ own o'donnell is there. what's going on? >> what did we ever do with these stories before twitter? i feel it's entirely twitter-based. >> it is. it seems clear to me that sarah palin does not want to share the stage with christine o'donnell. when christine o'donnell is on, sarah palin is out. when christine o'donnell is out,

sarah palin is out. i don't know how we resolve this. sarah palin does cancel on events. if she's not there on saturday i wouldn't be all that surprised. >> there's a reason that christine o'donnell tag is od at the end. i'm od eid on this story. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tomorrow we'll talk 2012 politics with kevin madden who served as chief spokesman for mitt romney's 2008 campaign and "the financial times" dwilian tett, cnbc's ron insana. my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next on "newsnation." tomorrow ro-- tamron, it's all yours. >> i don't want to appear at the same events as you. >> split screen. >> new details coming in on president barack obama's big jobs plan. the president will announce it next week before a joint session of congress. we're live at the white house. plus, we're getting new video

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