i opened the first sammy's back sammin 1966. box. my employees are like family. and, i want people that work for me to feel that they're sharing in my success. we purchase as much as we can on the american express open gold card. so we can accumulate as many points as possible. i pass on these points to my employees to go on trips with their families. when my employees are happy, my customers are happy. vo: earn points for the things you're already buying. call 1-800-now-open to find out how the gold card can serve your business. stormy weekend, a lightning strike forces the evacuation of a football stadium while residents near new orleans are forced to evacuate after tropical storm lee hits the louisiana coast. storming iowa, sarah palin thrills a crowd in the hawkeye state, as she takes shots at president obama and even the 2012 republican field. but is she running?

economic storm clouds. president obama looking to answer the jobs puzle and jump start the u.s. economy. what can we expect from his big speech this week? surviving the storm. a lost and weary penguin found thousands of miles from home, a story with a good ending. you'll want to stick around for that. i'm alex witt. welcome to "msnbc sunday." incredible pictures of violent and destructive weather. lightning appeared to strike notre dame stadium during a thunderstorm storm. it happened during the homeowner. the stadium evacuated twice, once during halftime, once in the fourth quarter. fortunately no one was hurt. the center of tropical storm lee has come ashore in louisiana. a handful of residents in jefferson parish ordered out, they were evacuated. thousands have lost power. more from the weather channel's alex wallace with a very good sunday morning to you, and a

busy one. what is the latest on lee's track? >> busy for sure, following lee, alex. the latest on it. it has, as you mentioned, moved onshore, 50 miles to the west of morgan city, louisiana, sustained winds around 45 miles per hour. it hasn't changed a lot within the last several hours out there. except for the movement, moving more to the north and the east. starting to take more of a jog in this general direction. that's what we anticipate here, as we head through time out there for us. here's how the radar looks. you can see, heavy rain, heavy downpours to contend with. even over towards the western portions of florida seeing some outer bands stretching in. we do have that risk as we often see with tropical storms making landfall. a tornado watch out there for us until 4:00, panhandle of florida, all the way towards southeastern portions of louisiana, including new orleans. heads up out there. we have seen occasional tornado warnings this morning. here's the projected path of lee, as we head through time. early in the week, we'll be following it here. very slow movement with the

system. we'll be dealing with this throughout the southeast. by the time we get towards the mid and end of the week, working its way, remnants, moving it's way closer to the ohio valley. we'll be following heavy downpours, heavy rain threats stretching into portions of the northeast. the area shaded in yellow could be looking at 6 to 10 inches of rain. some beneficial rain in some areas in the south but if it comes down too quickly, of course that could lead to problems and we'll have to keep a track on things in the northeast. already those rivers are running high. we need no more additional rain. out in the tropics, ckatia here to the north and east of the leeward islands. heading to the north and the west, approaching the east coast of the u.s. most computer models take it off towards the east, away from the coast. but we'll follow it closely. >> stay away, is all we've got to say. thank you, alex wallace. let's go to new orleans. the weather channel's mike seidel has been there all weekend. good morning, mike. >> reporter: hey, alex.

so far, so good here in new orleans with tropical storm lee. the problem, though, is lee is not move, it's hovering around the louisiana coast. as a result the weather doesn't change a whole lot. that band of rain that hit us yesterday when we were talking to you yesterday morning has rotated all the way into western louisiana, some of the rain got as far west as houston, a spot that needs the rain, all of those areas in exceptional drought. that blob of tropical moisture has come back over the gulf and moving back in towards new orleans. we'll have more squalls moving through today. but what we'll notice today we don't have 50 to 60-mile-an-hour-wind gusts. yesterday one point, 37,000 customers without power. this morning that's down to 4,000. again, squally weather. we'll have wind gusts, 35, 40 miles an hour, heavy rainfalls and a forecast of 2 to 6 additional inches of rain on top of 9 1/2 we've seen in the city of new orleans. it's been spread out. it hasn't come fast and furious, so pumps have been able to

handle the water and the rainfall in the big easy. a long and standing process, more rain tomorrow. then a front will pick up the system, what's left of lee, a tropical depression, spread the rainfall, potentially flooding rainfalls up the appalachians into atlanta, georgia, and later this week, some of the rain will fall in the flooded areas, hit by hurricane irene last week. alex, back to you. >> mike seidel, many thanks for that, from new orleans. for more on the storm and the weather head to, where else, weather.com. an alert of a potential terror threat in the u.s. the fbi is warning about possible attacks by small airplanes just a week before the tenth anniversary of 9/11. a bulletin sent to law enforcement around the country but officials say there's no credible, nor specific information about a plot. both federal and local security precautions have increased around the country before the anniversary. in just a few hours, president obama will be on his way to patterson, new jersey, touring the extensive flood

damage from irene, a week after the storms forced hundreds to evacuate the town. chris christie is planning to lead the tour. at the half hour, we'll get a preview of the president's tour and what we can expect from the visit. we are learning more about what to expect when the president delivers a key speech on jobs. coming up in the half hour, we'll examine what he might be able to accomplish with the speech and what are the potential pitfalls there. also, reminder, we invite you to watch the president's speech before congress, 7:00 eastern on thursday, right here on msnbc. decision 2012 now. sarah palin launched a barrage of attacks yesterday in iowa but they weren't only directed to president obama. speaking before severthousand t members, page went over the republican field. >> some gop candidates also raised mammoth amounts of cash, and we need to ask them, too, what, if anything, do their donors expect in return for their investments? we need to know this because our

country can't afford more trillion dollar thank-you notes to campaign backers. >> joining me now, nbc political direct already, mark murray. good morning. what you heard from sarah palin, sounds like a shot at rick perry arc among others. is that now you read it? >> kind of. almost a shot the republican field. attacking president obama in the speech for raising what might be upwars of a trillion dollars this campaign season. on the one hand, she's taking a shot the republican field, that made people realize maybe she is going to actually run for president. on the other hand, the line of attack was kind of interesting to me that she was attacking fund-raising, big checks from contributors, if she does run for president, that's kind of an interesting attack because that normally wouldn't be something you would hear from a republican candidate. if she's going to be the presidential nominee for the

republican party and she does decide to run, she's going to have to raise money and and some have to come from the $2500 amounts from big-time contributors. if she does run, maybe she's setting herself up to be a protest candidate. to me this kind of sounds like a populism method, to be able to keep her above the fray where she can actually, you know, hit the republican candidates, the democratic candidates, et cetera. >> yeah. can i back it up for a second? i'm glad i was sitting down. did you say the president needs to raise a trillion dollars this campaign season? >> that was one of the numbers that came out a while ago, and of course, the obama campaign will say we're probably not going to raise that amount. they did raise $750 million in 2008. that's where the projection they might be able to raise even more. right now with the president and his second quarter fund-raising the projection doesn't get you to a trillion dollars by that pace, but we're going to see a lot of money this campaign

cycle. >> wow! now let's get back to the sarah palin conversation because at one point there was a suspect she might endorse perry down the line, wasn't there? >> there is. they had a reportedly close relationship when she was governor of alaska, he's governor of texas, their constant meetings republican governors association. the way they both governed is very similar though texas and alaska are so far apart, separated by thousands of miles they are similar states politically. they were kind of simpatico as governors. but of course that, you know, people's ears when she was talking about crony capitalism, people interpreted that perhaps as a dig at rick perry. i do think, overall what palin's trying to do, trying to grab attention, maybe she runs, maybe she doesn't. but when she makes a dig at the republican field, makes a dig at president obama, we're paying attention. that's exactly what she's trying to get at.

>> one supporter at the rally told politico, quote, i know she's going to run. sarah would not string all of these supporters this far along. what is the deadline for palin to decide to get into the race? do you think she might alienate supporters if she does string them along too far and doesn't run? >> there is a possibility. if she's going to get, she needs to get in quickly. she's giving another speech in new hampshire monday. we'll see if we can read anything more into that. we have our own nbc politico debate wednesday. there are two other debates this september. if you're not in the debates, the campaign season's going to be here before we know it, and if she's going to want to get in, you almost have to do very, very quickly. >> with regard to the gop nomination, as we look at the primary schedule, who's better positioned to win it? mitt romney or rick perry? >> that's a great question. i don't think we know right now. rick perry's in a fantastic position. she's soaring in the polls against mitt romney. the way you look at the

calendar, too, it sets up where you end up having perry win the eye and south carolina contests and end up having mitt romney winning new hampshire and nevada, them battling it out in florida. after florida a lot of the contests are actually in the south and those on paper would seem to benefit rick perry. alex, we do have time to go. and one little warning, the person who has been the front-runner the past two election cycles, whether in 2004 with howard dean at this point in the summer or mitt romney or hillary clinton in 2008, sometimes being the front-runner in the summer isn't the recipe for success once you get to iowa and new hampshire. >> well taken that point. mark murray, thank you so much. see you again. for the latest political news and analysis from nbc's political unit head to firstread.nbc.com. you can see full field of republican presidential contenders squaring off for the first time in the nbc news politico debate wednesday september 7th, this wednesday, here on msnbc.

free in france. former international monetary fund chief dominique strauss-kahn is back in paris, his first time home since a new york hotel maid accused him of attempted rape. annabel roberts is live in london. what have you heard about dsk's return to france? >> well, alex, as you say, two weeks after charges of sexual assault were dropped, dsk is back in paris. he was besieged by photographers when he landed at airport and again when he arrived at his flat paris in one of the most exclusive addresses in the city. the really interesting thing, question is now that he's back, will he return to front line french politics? remember, when he was arrested he was the most likely candidate to be selected to represent the socialist party in next year's presidential elections and believed to have a chance of defeating the current president, sarkozy. some in his party say he's ruined politically and should not consider a return to

politics as electorate is disgusted by what happened. even if you were to endorse one of the socialist candidates this could be an embarrassment and backfire. in the back few weeks france has learned a lot about his character and sexual behavior, and many haven shocked. there are voices that say this blow 0 over and he's too valuable to be left out. france, like the rest of europe, is facing big economic problems and dsk has a wealth of insurance and is a highly regarded economist. they say he could become a kingmaker or even appointed prime minister if the socialists are eventually elected. but he also facing charges in france in a different sex case. a writeer accused him of attempted rape in 2003 and prosecutors are deciding whether to proceed with case. expect very soon he will be putting his side in a tv interview, probably high-profile one, in the next couple of days. he keen to put his version of events of what happened in the

hotel room in new york to the french people pretty soon. and of course, he'll have an eye on the polling after that to see how his version goes down with the french people. >> that should be a very interesting interview to listen to. many thanks. the struggle to get back to normal in new england. one week after hurricane irene hit, live in vermont next. also, the job fair attended by thousands across the country this past month. where they a success? might they create new momentum in washington as congress goes back to work. getting most for your money at the mall. the best labor day deals. so i was the guy who was never going to have the heart attack.

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new trouble for vermont this morning. heavy rains are in the fort cast and they could cause new flooding because the ground is still saturated from hurricane irene. a flash flood will -- watch, rather, will go into effect tonight and throughout most of the state. msnbc craig melvin remained up in vermont over night and moved to bratle borough. you and i were talking about the vital tourist season for vermont's economy. all of the beautiful leaves that come out, yet they've got impassable roads, miles of them, right in. >> reporter: it's rough going for a lot of folks here in vermont, specifically highway 30 and highway 100 here in vermont, alex. talked to folksiest who say those are the major thoroughfares for would-be tourists and a lot of parts of the roads now that are blocked, that are unpassable. it's already drizzling. the prayer even that is that does not turn into a complete downpour because the last thing

that the already-swollen connecticut river behind me needs is more rain. of course, brattleboro, vermont, a week ago, we saw refrigerators and propane tanks moving down the river. the river where the brooks and streams, this is what they dump into. so the concern now is, as you just mentioned, thunderstorms tonight, significant rainfall tomorrow, could spell a lot of trouble for people in vermont who are still trying to clean up from hurricane irene. one of the things that continues to strike us, though, about folks here, their pure, utter resilience. >> i think this is probably the more -- most helpful people, the most resilient people i've ever met, and i'm not from this area. >> they have rallied around each other, people that you've seen walking around, you know, never had any conversation with, armpit deep and doing the most remarkable things.

>> reporter: and there have been charity concerts, there have been all sorts of things. this is one of the bridges. this bridge is from 1920, this bridge, as you can see, very much intact but dozens of bridges around vermont are not and that's another huge concern because, again, some of these roads and highways, they can be patched up, made passable, fairly quickly. with bridges, it takes a lot longer. we spent time on a bridge yesterday, completely wiped out. one of the other things that the emergency operations mentioned in the sound bite talked about people helping out. folks who had excavation equipment last week who didn't wait on the state, didn't wait on county government, got in there started moving boulders and huge rocks by themselves. alex? >> okay. lots to keep an eye on for us. thanks, craig melvin. what to expect from president obama's jobs speech? will he have anything to tell to the public that's new.

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environmental activists wrapped applause a two-week protest outside the white house against a proposed oil pipeline. dozens arrested bringing the total for two weeks more than a thousand arrests. demonstrates are want obama to reject the proposed keystone xl tar sands pipeline, bringing oil from canada to refineries in the u.s. protesters say the pipeline would go through fragile ecosystems and public aquifers. carbon efissions from tar sanding traction to be 80% greater than average crude. members of the congressional black caucus back in washington with colleagues this week, after a five-week recess jam-packed with job fairs. more than 30,000 job seeker as tended the cbc-sponsored events. and the latest unemployment report shows the job hunt is not getting any easier. no new jobs created in august.

and the unemployment stayed at 9.1%, unchanged from july. >> been looking for over a year now. >> to get my foot in the door with a company, i'd be willing to take a pay cut, absolutely. >> a lot of employers are looking, they're listening, and just don't get called back. >> jeff johnson, contributor to msnbc and thegrio.com. jeff, good sunday morning to you. >> alex, how are you? >> i'm well, thanks. hope you are, too. looking at your writing on thegrio.com, the most vocal job seekers in the afairs in detroi. unemployment rate up to 50% in some communities. tell us more where that is coming from. >> in detroit, in particular, you're not just talking about the standard unemployment rate but you're talking about people, 1 to 9 niners there, those who have been out of work and aren't necessarily looking for work,

talking about a continuing removal of jobs. and we are talking about detroit in particular, that has that 50% number that not only job seekers but the mayor has admitted to being a real number of unemployment in the city of detroit. >> we talked about the national unemployment rate as being 9.1%. but, jeff, unemployment rate for the african-american community shot up to 16.7% this month. that is up from 15.9%. there was a stat, worst it's been in 27 years. i mean what can the cbc and the president do to stop this slide? >> well, i think, one, it's going to be unrealistic to think that the president or the cbc have a magic wand because they want this to stop that it can. i think the real question as the president begins to have his remarks this week is, what is he going to say about 99ers and provide continuing support to those out of work two and sometimes three years. and then where is -- what is the

vision for what is probably going to be a new stimulus? what are the industry areas where there's going to be support from the private sector to be able to expand job opportunities. but, alex, what we saw at the local level and the job fairs was either really entry-level folks, some that are skill labors, some service workers, people that may not be at higher levels within companies or opportunities but who want to work, that's what the real challenge, i think, is going to be, not just the president and the cbc, but for the local economies that can't just create jobs out of thin air. >> when you spoke to these folks at the job fairs, what did they say about the president's efforts on the economy? >> well i think people are frustrated, and you know, there was a lot of publicity around detroit and congressional black caucus vis-a-vis maxine waters saying, unleash on the president to talk about some of these things. i think people, for the most part are in support of the

president. they're frustrated what they see happening. they want to see him more visible in some urban areas because at the same time these were going on, he was speaking to rural issues. i think there's a level of realism with folks, they know the president can't create jobs out 0 the oval office. if thhe could, he would. they want to see people in the communities doing what they can even if jobs are not created overnight. >> jeff johnson, thanks for chatting with us. the three big things people can save on this weekend. a preview of the best labor day deals. if you're in the mood to shop, next. for pain. new bayer advanced aspirins it has microparticles and enters the bloodstream faster. works twice as fast as before. did you invent this or something? dr. eric first, from bayer. wow. [ male announcer ] new bayer advanced aspirin.

or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business -- it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities, so we're helping them with advice from local business experts and extending $18 billion in credit last year. that's how we're helping set opportunity in motion. the president will be in paterson, new jersey, today. governor chris christie plans to join the president as he tours the flood damage. kristin welker has more from

paterson, new jersey. wow, the river keeps rushing behind you. >> reporter: it certainly does. hi, alex. when irene hit one week ago, the floodwaters here were so high, in fact, they came up to about here on the building, about halfway up. now the waters of the passaic have started to recede a bit but the people in the community are still hurting, and trying to rebuild. after a weekend with family at camp david, president obama will come here to paterson, new jersey to assess the recovery efforts. one of the communities hit hardest by hurricane irene. >> i think it's very important that -- to see up close and personal what, you know, the effects the storm like this were, talk to local officials, talk to affected americans, so he looks forward to doing it. >> reporter: when she touched down one week ago, irene brought some of the highest floodwaters this working class town has seen in a century. 1500 people evac watts as

hundreds of thousands lost power and streets became flooded waterways. homes and businesses destroyed, some city blocks completely submerged. many say the president's visit will send a strong signal. >> i think it will be pretty good for him to see what this area, paterson we need to get past this. a lot of people affected. >> it's very good for him to be here. i think it will be excellent for the community, give them a little, you know, rise their spirits or something. >> reporter: the president declared new jersey a disaster area this week, which means flooded places like paterson eligible for federal assistance. saturday fema officials started setting up an office here, tasked with helping people put pieces back together. for sherry, help cannot come soon enough. she's lived in the apartment for 48 years but irene destroyed almost everything. >> memories, everything. it's beyond repair.

you know? everything. >> right here is where the water went up to. >> reporter: mary ann says she can't go through another flood. >> i'm not coming back down here. i can't do this again. >> reporter: irene caused damage to communities up and down the east coast, the growing list of disaster areas spreading to more than half a dozen states now, from virginia all the way to new hampshire. fema officials are still assessing the costs. as for paterson the waters of the passaic river started to recede, but this community has only begun to heal. the people here will be watching the president closely. >> if he could help us. >> reporter: a lot of people here in paterson saying that. a lot is riding on the president, his first public appearance since the dismal job numbers came out free that showed the economy add nod new jobs during august.

paterson a community struggling economically before irene hit. a lot of people here saying things have gotten worse ever since. alex? >> okay. kristin welker by the raging passaic river, and the president will be there shortly. thank you so much. decision 2012. gop candidates taking shot as the president following the dismal august jobs report. rick perry spoke. he laid out what he wants -- to hear from the president in the job speech this thursday. that actually was rick santorum. we can reroll that. we'll get to what rick perry had to say shortly. in south carolina, rick santorum criticizes the president on everything from the job on compete to the handling of the uprising in egypt and he tried to cut down on enthusiasm for the newly minted republican front-runner. >> look at rick perry. he may be a good guy, may end up being our nominee.

but rick perry went to the top of the charts. why? because of what rick perry did? no. because of what the media did. whoever the flavor of month is, the media grabs its attention. >> joined live on the phone by nbc news campaign embed ali wineburg covering the santorum campaign. good sunday morning to you. what's the categorization here? rick santorum being really hard on his republican rivals? is that the m.o. now for the campaign? >> good morning. yeah, that seems to be the case. he's certainly said that a lot of the attention his opponents received in that sound bite you played, have received a lot of attention because of the medium dubs them flavors of the week. he's going pretty hard on them, saying perhaps some attention that candidates like michele bachmann and herman cain received have only been because of the media spotlight is on them. it was notable, though, he did

go on to say rick perry might end up being the nominee, which he seemed to contradict himself a little bit there, am lex. >> from going after though within his own field to going after the president, how is he doing now? what's the strategy there right now? >> yesterday in his two appearances in south carolina, he invoked some of the same rhetoric we used to hear during the health care town halls of 2009. he said that obama's campaignseer rilly rezermed some of the dictators and he went on to say obama thinks america needs to be ruled and obama wants to create a socialist republic in the united states. and that is hot rhetoric that we've heard from some kan candis on the trail, such michele bachmann, rick perry, for all of the rhetoric he has used, for instance on ben bernanke, he hasn't used the socialism charge since becoming a presidential candidate they they used it in his book "fed up" and several

times while governor. it's also worth noting that rick santorum, this is his 19th trip to the state since 2009. he'll be here tomorrow. other senators come in for the jim demint forum. >> thank you so much, ali. don't forget for all of you, see the full field of republican presidential contenders squaring off in the nbc news politico event wednesday here on msnbc. as students return to class at indiana university one remains missing. lauren disappeared. with each passing day her family's holding out hope she will be found. john yang reports. >> reporter: indiana university's new school year begins with an old question -- what happened to lauren speier? the 20-year-old fashion student was last seen walking back to

her offcampus apartment at about 4:30 in the morning, after a night hoof partying with friend june 3rd, three months ago today. this summer, her parents retraced the steps at the same time of night. rob speier says what they saw disturbed them. >> we saw people walking, many of them were inebriated, some walking by themselves. our message had not registered with people. >> reporter: as the school year begins, lauren's apartment complex held safety seminars. >> we were extremely, extremely disappointed by the lack of turnout. they're either invincible or they are just completely oblivious to their surroundings. >> reporter: weeks of searching, including last month's search of thousands of tons of trash at a landfill, haven't turned up any trace of lauren. rob and charlene have been in bloomington all summer, putting

flyers and full-page ads in the student newspaper. >> hope by getting the message out that lauren still is missing, that someone will come forward, give us a piece of information, something they heard. we desperately need it. >> reporter: with students back on campus, university officials are focusing on a practical lesson, personal safety. >> we educate students what they need to educate themselves, the buddy system, looking after each other, so on, i think the safer the environment will be in the future. >> reporter: in hopes that no other parents will have to experience what the speiers have gone through with no end in sight. john yang, nbc news. a came across something last night on the internet a letter written by charlene, an open letter to the person or persons who know what happened to lauren and it is heartbreaking. you're going to hear excerpts

from it at 10:30 eastern. i'll be reading them. she writes very, very eloquently. in libbia, rebels say they're ready to take another of gadhafi's remaining strongholds. talk with tribal leaders have broke undo. they have surrounded the town of bani walid. in japan, heavy rains and mudslides from a powerful typhoon killed at least 15 people, and 43 others are missing. the storm was moving slowly and, because of that officials are warning heavy rains and more flooding are likely to continue. then in mexico, a dance for the record books. 457 dancers with the help of 300 musicians set a new record for having the largest number of dancers performing at the same time. were they in sync? they look good. u.s. retails are did better than expected last month, despite low consumer confidence. chain stores posted a 4.6%

increase in sales for august, and that is certainly good news going into the labor day weekend. as buyers look for big deals on everything from suntan location to the back-to-school supplies. r regina lewis is here. it's a great weekend to get out there. you mentioned suntan lotions and things like that, can you buy those and make sure they'll stay good until next year? >> they have a three-year shelf life. if you know you're going away this winter or next year, why not go for those that? those items will go away next week. a transition phase for the stores, that's why there's an eclectic inventory now. s sun tan location, christmas ornaments. it's an important weekend. the national retail federation does not track labor day sales because it's not event driven like halloween or gift driven

like a mother's day or valentine's day, but needless to say any three-day weekend is an community for commercialism. >> yeah, yeah. other ways to save on travel, on big appliances, washers, dryers, big screen tvs and the like. >> no one will wake up and say i really want a dishwasher. it's a need-based purchase. i spoke to folks at sear and home depot and elsewhere, the next 30 to 60 days is the best window on big appliances, clearing out 2011 models which is a rocketship to make way for new inventor. you see that trend in other categories. travel is interesting. a rule of thumb says eight weeks out is the best time to buy a ticket. eight weeks from now, the busiest travel. repositioning cruises where they want to get ships from one part of the world to the other in time for holidays, one-way cruises. if you can get yourself to europe cow can be on a luxury

cruise ship for $50 a on a one-way trip. transition phase for different industries. >> bikes, though. does that ponder that summer feel? i c kids need bikes. >> the carbon component, the weight of bikes are important, on the tail end of the cycling season and the triathlon season. you own a bike shop you do not want the parent, you or i, right to have the option to buy last year's model on sale when the holidays come. you want them to have one option to buy a full-priced one. >> okay. all right. so within a week we're going to see the sales on halloween candy. seems like every year they keep all of the sales for the big holiday pitches. is this the beginning of that season already? is this like a test period? >> you know the big stores certainly are reauditioning for your holiday dollars. if you're in target or macy's, that is a challenge. if you go into them you smell,

you know, fall fragrance, it's chilly, they want to sell sweaters, that kind of thing, and they want you to have a good experience so you come back to the store because it's the critical time period. certainly always auditioning, once you become a shopper, loyalist at a certain store you tend to make repeat purchases and of course that's critical. there is a term, though for the thing that i think you're describing, christmas creep, the notion that it's creeping up on the calendar, you see onments earlier and earlier every year. >> the christmas creep. that's a good one. thanks for bringing that to us. more on the president's job speech. can he win in 2012 without a jobs recovery? we'll talk about that next.

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the latest unemployment report showing zero job growth in the month of august, and raised the stakes for the president's big speech on the economy. the president will speak on thursday. here is a preview. john decker, media fellow at the hoover institution and host of white house insider which premieres on september 17th. high five on that. nice one. >> thanks, alex. >> the president says his speech is not about politics. this is all about getting americans working again. it'll me what you think we're going to hear relative to that on thursday. >> well, the stakes are so high. it's the first time the president will speak to the nation after getting the terrible jobs report on friday, 9.1% unemployment, no jobs created in august. and he really has to take control of the narrative, as it relates to the jobs picture, particularly ahead of the 2012 election. and beyond the politics of it there's also this idea, alex, that he needs to make it clear to the american public that he

understands that things are going poorly in so many communities in america, and that jobs need to be created. >> here's why he needs to explain that. if you look at numbers with me, 62% of americans disapprove of the way the president's handling the economy. 32% approve. do you think there's anything the president can say to change those numbers come friday morning? >> well i think he has to put forward a lot of proposals that he hasn't mentioned before. he talked about payroll tax cut, passing the three trade bills in congress, but beyond that i think he needs to put forward some bold proposals related to infrastructure spending, related to things that -- >> like the transportation bill he's trying to put forward yesterday when he's talking about that? >> that certainly helps matters, absolutely. we'll see him put forward a proposal as it relates to short-term government spending in construction, which would certainly create jobs in the u.s. economy. >> the past months in washington, though have been all about the spending cuts

scenario. hi chance we'll hear about spending more from the government to put people to work? >> well, democrats want this speech to be solely focused on job creation. they don't want to have this speech really focused on deficit reduction, but i think the reality is the president is in the course of his speech to both the house and the senate going to talk about deficit reduction as well. i think he has to, because wall street wants to hear about that, they want to get some certainty has it relates to our economic picture going forward and the short and long term, and i think the president will talk about that. >> jon decker is here. >> go andy roddick. >> thank you very much. the penguin that captured the heart of new zealand on his way home today. this guy, named after the movie "happy feet" first show nod interest in leaving. after a little push he returned to the ocean. happy feet discovered in june malnourished and 1800 miles away

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hundreds of residents struggling to recover from the devastating floods in paterson, new jersey that city among dozens along the east coast that were ravaged by hurricane irene. and we're joined by dora cohen, forced to leave her apartment when the storm hit. good morning. so glad you're here safely with us, that's most important, of course. but tell us what happened when you were forced out of your home. >> well, when the water started coming up so high, we had to leave our apartment. the firemen come up and knocked on our doors and said we had to evacuate and at first i didn't leave right away.

there wasn't mandatory at that point. but later on they came back again and i had to evacuate, and i had to walk down 11 flights of stairs, and over in the back of the parking lot they did cut a hole in the back. ones who could go to relatives and friends' homes, maybe go up five blocks up the hill to 7th avenue, over across the west broadway where the water hadn't got there yet, and that's where i got safe. >> dora, tell me, you live in paterson. it's a place that gets flooded out a lot. have you been flooded in your apartment before? and if so, how hard is this for you to live with this constant threat of flooding? >> every time we had something like this we get flooded out. all four buildings gets flooded. right across the street from the

river, right here in the river view towers and water always come up, and we get flooded every time. i've been here 48 years. and this is the worst i've seen. >> yeah. dora, how important is it to you that president obama's coming there to your backyard and he's going to be speaking and surveying the damage there? >> i think it's very important, because this way he can see how much damage was done here. we get flooded out a lot, but this is, like i said, the worst. and very devastating to me because we were without, you know, phones, tvs everything was out, we couldn't get in contact with anyone, even my relatives couldn't get in contact with me. even my cell phone wasn't working properly. i feel that it's very interesting that he comes here to see what happens in paterson. >> are you home yet?

>> i just came home two days ago. >> all right. >> i had to walk up 11 flights of stairs because the elevators wasn't working yet. >> dora cohen, doing a lot of extra duty work. hope the cleanup isn't too bad. thanks for speaking with us. best of luck to you. >> thank you so much. from tropical storm lee to the fierce storms tearing through the midwest, the latest on the severe weather hitting parts of this nation. the hottest tick net town during tough times. how a dollar and a dream creating new records.hen wifi, you've got it. with a verizon mobile hotspot, you can connect up to 5 wifi devices to the internet with lightning-fast verizon 4g lte speed. a gaming device. ereader. mp3 player. connect any 5 for wifi on the go. get the 4g lte mobile hotspot now for only $49.99.

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