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plan, he's got a country that's very unhappy. voters stung by the battle over the debt ceiling and a credit downgrade give obama a 44% approval rating. that's an all time low. and just 37% think he's doing a good job handling the economy. >> his policies haven't produced and the voters are unhappy. >> i think he's going to have to be tougher. >> but majority discontent goes way bass the white house. >> they're equally unhappy with the congress. >> a whopping 82% don't like what congress is doing either. a lot of that anger is directed squarely at roeps in the tea party. >> let's take these -- and give america back to america where we belong. >> for now the president is not giving any clues about his jobs plan. although he is unveiling some tough new talk as republicans return to capitol hill. >> there is work to be done and there are workers ready to do it. labor's on board. business is on board. we just need congress to get on board.

let's put america back to work. >> john harwood is cnbc's chief political correspondent. there is the lowest job rating for the president. there is 54% that don't believe he'll recover from this rut. is there any good news? >> reporter: only one. that is finding that 70% of the american people still like president obama whether or not they agree with him. that's a significant asset as he goes into a re-election campaign. almost everything else is negative for the president. 73% of the american people think the country's on the right track. the president's low job approval is more significant than the congressional 82% disapproval number that's institutional rather than personal. this president's got a lot of work to do on thursday night and one other result shows how difficult his challenge is. the president's preparing to lay

out a new stimulus package of a couple hundred billion dollars to try to get the economy going. when we asked americans is it more important to boost the economy now even if it drives up the deficit or to keep the deficit down. a majority say keep the deficit down. that's the republican message and president obama's sailing into the teeth of it on thursday. >> how can 70% of those polled find president obama to be likable, but such a large number disapproval of his performance and his policies? >> reporter: the president's always been more personally popular than his policies have been. that's because he's done a good job and michelle obama has done a good job of projecting their family life, the president showing an even temperment. people generally credit him with being honest and straight forward. so all those things are assets for the president. but remember when we've got trillion dollar deficits, 9% unemployment people are going to bun happy and sosht that with

the person in the white house. >> a quick look at the 2012 candidates. rick perry seems to be solidifying his newly earned front runner status. >> reporter: rick perry is off like a rocket in this race. it underscores the fact as we've been discussing for months now, romney was the front runner but he's been a relatively weak front runner. that's going to be tested tomorrow night when the republicans all get on stage in the nbc politico debate. our colleague brian williams is going to be moderating that with john harris from politico. that's where we're going to see whether rick perry can take the heat from other republicans, whether they bring the heat and exactly the beginning of the real engagement of these candidates with one another. so far it's mostly been directed at president obama. that's going to change. >> what did the poll say how the president could stack up against perry and romney? >> reporter: he leads perry outside the margin of error by several percentage points.

he's running neck in neck with mitt romney. but he trails a generic republican. none of that means the president is now likely to lose re-election. he still has significant assets including the likablely component. he's got a lot of work to do beginning on thursday night to try to get this economy on firmer footing and get americans feeling more confident about his leadership. >> thank you for your time. >> reporter: you bet. >> the president will lay out his plans for creating jobs thursday night 7:00 p.m. eastern. you can watch that speech before a joint session of congress right here on msnbc. president obama not the only one getting low marks in that new nbc "the wall street journal" poll. about 43% polled admitted to having a somewhat or very negative view of the tea party. yesterday detroit labor leader jimmy hoffa made his views of the tea party quite clear. >> everybody here's got a vote.

if we go back and keep the eye on the prize, let's take these son of a [ bleep ] out and give america back. >> jamal simmons is now with the raven group. tony katz a tea party activist and radio talk show host. thank you for joining me this afternoon. does it do anything to advance the dialogue? >> i think it's going to advance the dialogue it's going to get the people on the left, the labor members who are a bit demoralized whofl like the tea party's been running rough shot over their agenda for america is going to get them engaged and motivated. we're in the middle of a political fight. you can't be the only adult in the room. there's a bunch of kids running around acting out. so i think it's going to be time for the labor members to get in the middle of this fight and

that's what jimmy hoffa was doing. >> is this the new battle now? is it now tea party versus union leaders in this country? >> first of all, jamal was right, the democratic party indeed the labor party. they are the progressive party. you ran the democrats out tom make this a fight between the unions and tea party is nonsense. just like hoffa's words were nonsense. this is a guy who still thinks that because his father was an actual man that she's somehow a big man. >> now, wait -- >> hold on. >> come on. >> this is about the democrats -- no. this is the democrats imploding upon themselves. >> tony -- tony. >> i've got to finish, this violent rhetoric, the president says nothing, they're trying to embarrass the president. democrats very much seem to hate the president and they want to embarrass him at every turn. that's what we're seeing. >> tony, there was nothing that he said that was violent.

what he said was we're go i think to march. >> oh, stop it. >> he said everybody here has a vote and this army is going to throw those s.o.b.s out. you can argue about the use of s.o.b. he talked about marching and voting that's an american right. >> tony can you stop talking and lon to a question one second. will you at least acknowledge that there has been language from tea partiers as well that has not necessarily advanced that advantage? let's not pretend -- >> i want you to show it to me. show me the language. again, this isn't about the tea party this is about hoffa, why are we spinning the subject? we have carson, the congressman talking about people hanging from trees. you have maxine waters telling the tea party to go straight to hell. you have biden calling us terrorists and then barbarians at the gate when he won't call barbarians at the gate barbarians at the gate because

that wouldn't be politically correct. >> who are the barbarians? >> democrats don't like president obama. they are trying to embarrass him. i didn't know that obama was a kenyan term for rodney dangerfield. they give him no respect. >> hey. >> this is laughable. >> tony, i think -- >> really quickly let's get off this. i want to turn our attention quickly to this poll that we're just talking about here for one quick second. 2012 race a poll shows rick perry pulling further ahead. tony, is rick perry your guy? >> i don't have a guy yet. it's a great question, though. i think rick perry does a lot to inspire. i think he's got a couple questions to answer that only comes from the debate. i think guard sill is going to come up. i think this transtexas corridor and the whole thing about eminent domain is going to come up and he's going to have to explain these issues.

this is a three-term governor vetted by the texas press. so far he is getting a lot of love. >> jamal, who do democrats want to see come out of that field? >> these candidates all have pluses and minuses. mitt romney is the wally cleaver and rick perry is the luke duke. the reality is that all their policies are -- these same policies out of the war on workers that we were talking about a second ago. if you take a look at it, corporate profits are going up, wages are stagnant. unemployment is going up. at the same time the reason people talk about the tea party being the barbarians at the gate, people talk about the tea party that way because by cutting government spending right now we're taking demand out of the economy. we're cutting out workers. if we look at the unemployment numbers every month you're seeing more and more government layoffs while private sector's creating jobs. we need both government and private sector jobs to stay in place. we have more demand.

more growth and get out of this. >> no, we do not. stop praying at the altar. >> that is going to have to be the last word. thank you so much. tony katz. jamal simmons thank you so much. we appreciate your time. u.s. stocks sharply lower in early trading the dow down more than 211 points. s&p down about 21. nasdaq down about 41.5. to the wildfires that are raging out west. fireworks are being blamed for sparking a wildfire near seattle, washington. crews are working to keep the flam fast moving brush fire that spread across 20 square miles. officials say the sfier is threatening more than 600 homes. in texas the most destructive wildfires in the state's history have taken a turn for the worse there. firefighters are now battling more than 60 fires that have

scorched more than 30,000 acres. governor rick perry had this warning for residents. >> we're a long way from having these around control. the most important message here for people is to when the evacuation order comes, take it seriously. get out of the way of these fires. rem in and abouts of tropical storm lee wreaking havoc in parts of the south. flash flood watches and warnings are in effect after the storm dumped large amounts of rain. zell people were swept away by floodwaters and road closing as well. one mississippi man drowned while trying to cross a swollen creek. the violent storms whipped up twisters that damaged dozens of homes in georgia. suspected twisters sent trees crashing through roofs and ripped siding off homes. meanwhile hurricane katia is not expected to hit the united states. but forecasters say that large swells could affect the east coast many the coming days. to whom it may concern, the

mohr of missing college student lauren spierer writing a chilling let tore the person responsible for her daughter's disappearance. al ahead, the next legal battle over same-sex marriage in california. ♪ whoa! hey! [ dog barks, growls ] ♪ whoa, watch out, little man. ♪ [ male announcer ] when you take away the worry, it's easy to enjoy the ride. hey, bud. hey, dad. [ male announcer ] introducing cadillac shield. the most comprehensive suite of owner benefits offered by any luxury auto maker in the world.

a burst of gun violence in new york city left ten people dead and others wounded over the weekend. two police officers were shot from the indian day parade in brooklyn. police say it happened after a battle between two armed men spilled on the street. they shot and killed the suspects. the bystander was also killed in the cross fire. a battle over california's gay marriage ban advances to the next court now. the highest court is expected to meet today whether prop eight backers have legal authority to pursue an appeal. they're seeking to challenge the

federal ruling that overturned the voter approved ban last year. . this week students are returning to college campuses across this country. but indiana university student lauren spierer is skill missing. saturday marked three months since the 20-year-old fashion student's disappearance. her mohr described what it's been like not knowing what her daughter is. >> what frustrates me most is we don't have lauren. i'm heartbroken. there's not even a word to express the emotion that philadelphia to that person that knows what happened, you're responsible. you know where lauren is. it's time. it's time to come forward. >> michelle is the investigative crime reporter. michelle, her mohr also wrote an open letter as well. what do we know about that? >> the letter is just sort of describing the details about the pain that they've gone through over the last three months and also describing about having to pack up her apartment. going there shipping 19 boxes back to home.

and really kind of making a plea to the person who may be responsible for her disappearance to sort offense come forward and to have a little insight to the world and to what her and her husband have gone through and her friends and family. >> let's talk about the facts of the case. at this point we know that lauren was last seen at 4:30 in the morning walking back to her offcampus apartment. what else do we know? >> we know at this particular point she left the kill roy's bar around 2:27 a.m. they did make a stop off at her apartment. she was there for a short period of time. and went to another apartment building. she was last seen in an alley way. after the moments sometime after 4:20 a.m. from that point on her tracks were not able to be traced. there are some surveillance photos and some surveillance video that can help to kind of close in the time line, but many people have not come forward with information. as a matter of fact a lot of people who saw her in the final

hours have laurd up. they are concerned persons of interest. no one is considered a suspect here. lauren's parents are hoping now school's back in session. everyone's back at the campus. everyone's getting together and hopefully some new nuggets of information will come out. someone needs to pick up the phone, needs to make important phone calls and close in the time line. there's a large reward in this case. you can remain anonymous also if you chose not to be identified. we really need to give this family some answers. a lot of lauren's friends are back at the apartment building going back to school and so let's try to help bring them some closure, some justice in this cause. >> investigative crime investigator, michelle sigona. thank you. coming up, america's hidden war against terror. a look at the military's most secret organization and how the president plans to get back on track despite the bad economy and high unemployment numbers. details on a covert retreat to hash out a plan, next.

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[ male announcer ] university of phoenix is proud to sponsor education nation. because we believe an educated world is a better world. earlier in the broadcast we told you about those wildfires that continue to rage out west. texas, perhaps the worst spot for them right now. jay gray from texas right now. >> reporter: hey there, craig, the battle has intensified along the front lines with the wildfires here in texas. it's a battle right now that crews are losing. mohr nature with the upper hand. it's been that way for several days. more than 500 homes have been destroyed in this area. bastrop alone, more across the state of texas as dozens of fires are burning right now we know that more than 30,000 acres have been burned in this area alone as well. they are attacking this fire from the ground and from the air and that will continue around

the clock. but crews are very honest. they say it's going to take several days before they have any kind of handle on exactly what's going on here. there is not good news when it comes to the forecast. we could use some rain. that's definitely not going to happen. while the wind has died down today and will stay this way for a couple of days, it looks like by the weekend we're going to see those winds pick up again and that's really been fuelling the fires across texas right now. pushing them and forcing them to change directions. and not allowing the crews on the ground to really establish a front and to try to turn these flames back. they'll continue that work today. it's something they'll continue around the clock hoping that they can at least get a little bit of containment before the conditions take a turn for the worst. they expect to be doing this, fighting these fires for the next several days if not weeks. that's the very latest from here in bastrop, texas, craig, back to you now. >> the worst wildfires in texas state history.

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purina cat chow helps you well-being. we're all striving for it. nurture it in your cat with a full family of excellent nutrition and helpful resources. purina cat chow. share a better life. welcome back to msnbc. in afghanistan an american civil engineer was found dead in kabul. security officials say the man was murdered. an investigation is underway. a convoy of libyan soldiers reportedly cross t.d. border into niger. officials there insist that muammar gadhafi is not in that group. an australian man is in police custody after he walked into a law office with his 12-year-old daughter and claimed he had a bomb in his backpack. the daughter was released after a 12-hour stand off. she was not hurt. back here gas prices increased nearly six cents last week. the average is now $3.67.

our nbc news "the wall street journal" poll shows that more americans may be giving up hope on a president who entered the white house on a wave of hope. according to the poll 54% think president the facing a long-term set back. "time" is reporting how the president's re-election team is facing the challenge. what is team obama's strategy right now as you understand it? >> the immediate strategy is to pooift out of the summer. he's gone through a bruising several weeks as the poll reflects. he's got to convince the american people first that he has a plan to fix the economy going forward which they don't see right now. second he's got to get some forward momentum going by next spring. at that point he's going to pivot to making the case that even though the economy is not where anybody wants it to be, it would be worse off if a

republican gets in the white house. >> is this a strategy that you think can actually work? >> it depends heavily on some external factors here. if the economy is still in a position it is now and if the american people are still reflecting the sort of hopelessness that they have been telling pollsters not just in your poll, but other polls he's going to have a very, very difficult time. we're talk about levels of discontent we haven't seen since 2008. the american voters have gotten used to throwing the bums out every two years. >> this speech that he is going to be making thursday night to a joint session of congress, how does this speech fit into this plan? >> it's the set up before the hard pivot. he is going to address bipartisan group of lawmakers in congress. he's going to make the case for what he's going to characterize as very mainstream, bipartisan proposals to get the economy going again. and it's almost a sure thing that a number of those proposals

will be blocked by a majority of republicans and when that happens, he's going to pivot on them and his aides say really campaign against republicans in congress right now in a way he didn't do this summer. >> will he use the jobs plan, the proposed plan as a platform? what i mean is in a few months let's say this doesn't go anywhere, does he then take the plan and run on that? >> that's right. this is the set up. and then he takes a swing at the pitch. he's setting the stage before the american people saying here's exactly what i want to do in order to get the economy moving again. some of that will pass. some of it won't pass. when that part of it doesn't pass, which could be a substantial amount, almost of of it. >> the president is slightly ahead of republican front runners rick perry, mitt romney as well in fictional head to head matchups. how's the president's team planning to take on the republican challenger when the time come?

>> those republican head to heads don't mean too much right now. the american people don't know very much about romney less about perry. in the same poll the generic head to head is much worse for president obama. he's losing against an unnamed republican opponent. the key for obama and his advisors is to make this a race between two different views of how to get the country moving forward again. he's going to make the case that the republican administration is anchored in the past with the bush administration. that even though you're unhappy with how far we've come, we're headed in the right direction. >> thank you for your time this afternoon. >> thank you. defense secretary leon panetta toured the world trade center site this morning with new york city mayor michael bloomberg. the freedom towers is now simply called one world trade center. it's part of the skyline standing 80 stories tall.

it will be a 104-floor tower with an antenna that will reach the symbolic height of 1776 feet. a far cry from the record of ten years ago. the emotions of that day still run as deep as ever. >> i can hear you. i can hear you. the rest of the world hears you and the people -- [ cheers and applause ] who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon. >> i'm joined in the studio by bob beck with retired firefighter and stood with president bush at ground zero with -- that speech hasn't lost any of its power in ten years? >> not a bit.

>> when you hear those words now ten years later, what types of emotions does the speech stir up? >> it really built myself up and plus a lot of the guys down there at ground zero at the time. >> what do you make, i know you've been down there, what do you make of the new building, the new memorial as well? >> i've seen it. it looks very strong this time. it's built up a lot better this time. >> what about the building and the design of the memorial? >> that's it. the design of the memorial, too is got to be some reflection on the people who -- the people who lost are going to go down there this seasoned and they're going to see the names on these walls and it's got to take the wind right out of your sails. >> i imagine you spoke with other firefighters as well, what

do they say? >> they say the same thing i just said. it's going to be a tough call. these people have to get up there again lying they have been through the years and read their names off. it's a tough -- tough time for the people who lost. i didn't lose anybody, but they did and my heart goes out to them. >> have you been to the remembrance ceremony every year since? >> i have. but i go to a point lookout and point lookout near long beach. i go every year. again, because i didn't go to the oned a ground zero because i didn't lose anyone and i don't belong there. >> this weekend where will you be? >> i'm going invited this time for the first time to ground zero, so i will be down there. >> what do you think is going to be going through your mind ten

years later? >> again, how sorry and the scar of time. it's ten years and these people are going to go through it again as they have. and you know, we as americans we'll never forget. and it's a tough time when you have to bury your family, your children, or your spouse. >> bob beckwitt retired new york city firefighter. thank you for your time. >> thank you. turning now to the u.s. post office. officials with usps are headed to capitol hill today with a dire warning. they're about to go broke. the postal service says it doesn't have enough cash to make a $5.5 billion payment toward employee health care at the end of the month. luke russert joining me from capitol hill. luke, what's going to happen here? >> reporter: it's quite an amazing story here, greg. around 2:00 p.m. the senate

committee that's in charge of how the post office operates is going to hear some testimony from the postmaster general. he's expected to say look if it goes at the current rate of the u.s. postal service they won't be able to operate much past the winter and the summer months. they have a $9.2 billion deficit on their hands. much of the reason because of such new technology that's taken over. email has taken a lot of business away from the u.s. postal service and some things they need to do. there's some changes they want to put forward. end saturday delivery, slash up to 120,000 jobs, close up to 3700 branchs. it's interesting a lot of people think that the government runs the postal service. the government gives no money to the postal service. the government has some laws in place about how the postal service has to operate. a lot of small state rural state senators want the postal service to be able to operate within localities in their state that make it very labor intensive.

they have very generous benefits. i saw an amazing statistic when i was doing my research for this story that 80% of the cost of the u.s. postal service is labor. if you go to ups that number is 53%. fedex, 32%. unless they have some real labor reforms in terms of the pengs system, which is another thing the postmaster general is going to ask today, if they can make changes by laying off workers or reforming their benefits or even closing branchs, they're not going to have enough money to operate into the summer and they'll be in for some dire straits. >> no layoff clause that postal worker unions were able to negotiate a number of years ago. that hasn't helped the post office. >> reporter: correct. >> is the political will there to make some dramatic changes here? >> reporter: it's tough because there have been a few bills that have been introduced. darrell issa a republican fl the house wants to assign a committee to run the post office until they can get their act

together. a lot of folks from the post office say no, that's too extreme. then a lot of other senators they don't want to end saturday delivery, people in rural areas they depend on their news on saturday. when you have a congress so divided it's hard to see how they're going to come together where such massive changes have to occur in order for the post office to survive. >> unless something changes dramatically, the post office's future is ugly. speaking of ugly did you see the terms uniforms? i couldn't let you go. how would you describe these things? >> reporter: craig, we're taught here in washington to fear the turtle. i fear looking like the turtle after seeing those things. those were god awful. we're talking about maryland football which has been irrelevant for the last ten years. they have accomplished one thing. and we're talking about under armor. in terms of advertising notoriety we're speaking about it. they've got to change that up. that is terrible.

that's not even arena league. that looks like some medieval weird coat of arms which is what the flag is. not in the football field. >> i read a tweet it was like versace threw up on the helmets. >> reporter: i all like talking sports with you. >> and with that, luke russert, thank you so much from the hill. school back in session for nearly all kids right now. there's a growing debate, what's the right age to start kindergarten? michelle reed a former education chancellor in d.c. is going to weigh in on that. plus, is she running or not? sarah palin spending labor day in a key presidential state what she's saying and not saying about her presidential campaign plans. don't forget you can watch the republican presidential candidates square off tomorrow 8:00 eastern. brian williams and john harris moderating the debate. moderating the debate. you can watch it only on msnbc., plus support for bone and breast health.

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more and more people are taking antidepressants without a psychiatric diagnosis. a new study finds nearly four out of five prescriptions for antidepressants are written by doctors who are not psychiatrists. hard to believe it's been four months since the raid that took down the word's most wanted terrorist. tonight a two-hour discovery channel documentary will take you behind the scenes. it includes s.u.v.'s with the president and senior counterterrorism officials as well. >> it was a quint essential presidential decision. >> we were all ig baited breath. >> the stakes were just too

high. >> i thought about the options. i've considered the decision and it's a go. >> phil craig is the producer of "targeting bin laden." thanks for joining us. we appreciate your time. there's been a number of looks at this particular mission, what's new with this one? >> i think it's the most complete account that's been brought to the screen so far. we had really extraordinary access to the white house and to the cia. i have a feeling we managed to get very detailed, very intimate and sometimes really quite intense interviews with people who were present through all of the most labored and complex negotiations that went on inside the white house before the mission was launched and also a second by second account of those breathtaking moments in the situation room itself. it's quite a special film. i think there's something in it for everybody. >> you seem to get some pretty

unprecedented access. you did not manage to talk to any of the s.e.a.l. team members involved with the actual mission. one of the things that the documentary did do you seemed to spend a fair amount of time inside the compound after bin laden was killed and the mood inside the situation room as well. how were the moods similar, or were they? >> i think that the scene in the situation room was really quite extraordinary. the amount of preparation, the amount of detailed planning, the amount of all the kind of options that could have happened i think that one of the things we discovered was they planned for so many different results. most of them were not good. the history of missions like this is not impressive. they knew it could end badly. they were standing by for those.

they were standing by for some very bad diplomatic results. they were able to swing into action if american embays is were attacked ar even the s.e.a.l.s were taken prisoner. that's why i think those are particularly intense atmosphere in that room. and great waves of relief. people were talking about gasps when they finally heard the message. messages like gentlemen monica ekia. it's an extraordinary scene. we did not speak to any of the s.e.a.l.s who are present, but we did speak to people who were very close to the mission. and a remarkable man who was the former commander of the unit. >> thank you so much, phil craig. "targeting bin laden" two-hour documentary tonight on the history channel. thank you. try this. bayer aspirin? i'm not having a heart attack. it's my back. no, this new bayer advanced aspirin... clinically proven to relieve tough pain twice as fast as before. what, did you invent this or something? well, my team did. i'm dr. eric first, from bayer.

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political side bar. a key member of michele

bachmann's team is out. campaign manager ed rollins says he's too old to work 14-hour days and says he's worried about his health. rollins gets most of the credit for bachmann's ames, iowa, straw poll. he sapolitico reporting that ro ins deputy has also left. ron paul is running an attack ad and accusing rick perry of being a liberal. it highlights perry's endorsement of al gore in 1988. >> and al gore found a cheerleader in texas named rick perry. rick perry helped lead al gore's campaign to undo the regular revolution. >> sarah palin still not a candidate. she did hit appearances in new hampshire and iowa. >> sudden and relentless reform never sits well with entrenched interests and power brokers.

so please you must vet a candidate's record. that is not enough to just change up the uniform if we don't change the team and the game plan, we won't save our country. it was tea party americans who won the november 2010 election. now, we're seeing more and more folks realize the strength of this grassroots movement. and they're wanting to be involved. i say right on, better late than never. for some of these candidates especially. okay. and there's your side bar. the first day of school is a right of passage. across the country more and more kids are not getting that experience until they're older. the majority of states are choosing to push back birthday cut offs when children start kindergarten raising the children are all 5-year-olds mature enough to start school. michelle reed is the former chancellor of washington, d.c.'s public schools. she's also the ceo of student

first. thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. >> thanks for having me. >> let's start with the age. is there an age that kids should be going to kindergarten? >> i think generally what is sort of the commonly accepted wiz come is that 5 years old is what makes sense for most kids to start kindergarten. what we're actually seeing now is that age moving earlier. so people want their kids to have exposure to school at earlier ages. when i was in d.c. we actually opened up 4-year-old programs and 3-year-old programs mostly to try to alleviate the achievement gap because we knew by the time they were 4 years old low income kids were pecks easied to 13 million less words than higher income kids were. we opened up more programs. we saw an incredible interest from parents all across the city and from all socioeconomic statuses of wanting to have their kids in the 3 and 4-year-old programs.

>> since 1995 nearly half of all states have pushed back their birthday cutoffs. what do we know about the motivation there? >> i think that there are lots of things that could be insenting that. part of what maybe insenting it now is the fact that the budgets are -- the budget deficits are so significant that pushing back the age may lessen the demand and have -- allow schools to have lower class sizes. i think we have to look at the long ball as well, which is that our kids in america have to be just as prepared as kids in other nations. and we have to make sure that they're just as prepared to come to school. so i am a little worried about pushing that age off and having our kids coming into school later. >> what do we know about the correlation between the age of a kindergarten student and academic success or is there a

correlation? >> you know, i think that there's so many things that play into academic success many the long-term. i think just having a kid in school earlier doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to have greater academic success because it's really tied to the quality of the programming that they're in. so you want to make sure that they're not just in school, but in high quality school programs. >> a lot of folks follow your career for folks who are not fully aware, what have you been up to since you left washington, d.c. as school chancellor? >> i started a new organization advocacy organization called student first. and we are doing extraordinarily well. we have about 600,000 members across the country so far. we're advocating for policy changes much like the things that we implemented in washington, d.c. all across the country. and we had laws changed in places like michigan, ohio, florida, and nevada across the nation. so we're looking forward to working in lots more states moving forward. >> former d.c. schools chance

lore michelle re,now officially an advocate as well. thank you so much. appreciate your time this afternoon. >> thank you. i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching see you back here tomorrow at noon eastern. up next "andrea mitchell reports." we're live with a preview of tomorrow's politico debate. we're going to break down the latest msnbc and "the wall street journal" poll and what that mean for president obama. honoring the heroes of 9/11. we're going to talk with a first responder about the wound that haven't healed. with your business

travelerers forecast, looking at a heavy shield of rain moving across portions of the mid atlantic. northeast as well. winding down through northern georgia. could be some severe weather firing up through the carolinas. some of the biggest impact cities through new york, d.c., atlanta some thunderstorms. dallas to chicago looking pretty good. see if we can "stitch" together a better deal. that's a hint, antoine. ooh! see what anandra did? booking your flight and hotel at the same time gets you prices hotels and airlines won't let expedia show separately. book it. major wow factor! where you book matters. expedia.

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