top of the show, we asked for your thoughts as we approached the tenth anniversary of 9/11. our producer tim carter back at 30 rock has your are they sayin? >> to this day, it angers me we lost so many fellow americans. my hope is peace. we all need to be alert and aware. ronald writes my thoughts and prayers are with the families who lost loved ones in the attacks. >> amen to that. "morning joe" starts right now.

>> now, as we approach the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the nypd, fbi and entire intelligence community have been on heightened alert. we know terrorists view the anniversary as an opportunity to strike again. the threat has not been co-ob rated. it is credible, but not co-ob rated. >> good morning, it is friday, september 9th. welcome to "morning joe." we have mike barnicle, mark halperin and richard haass. willie, as you know, with us live from lower manhattan, near ground zero as we are days away, this sunday marks the tenth anniversary of 9/11. >> waking up to this news of a

9/11 terror threat. we are going to talk about that in a bit. most of america looking at this headline this morning. the president delivered a speech last night. some say he was combative. others say he was as forceful as he needed to be. let me ask you, mark halperin, was he too hot? was he too cold? or was the president like that bowl of psoup, just right. >> he was okay. >> what about you richard haass. >> if it led to quick action on the part of congress, it would not lead to a change in the american economic picture. it was larger than most anticipated. i don't think it's enough, even if it was an act to make a major dent. >> we have a president in a difficult position. >> very. >> his base wants him to be

combative. it seems that the middle and others want him to reach out more and strike a consensus. really, that's the only way he's going to get anything done in washington with this congress. how do you think he did? >> he came as close as he could have to doing everything you said. he reached out and said come on now. come on now, the things i'm putting forward have been supported by republicans and democrats, let's get it done. it's up to the republicans to respond with maturity, in my opinion. >> what do you think, mike? >> you keep hearing from people who voted for him, ordinary people who have been mystified. the constant phrase you hear is his inability to throw a punch. he threw one, i thought. it was strong. it was a terrific performance. he indicated he would take the message to every corner of the country, if need be.

it probably will be. you say, joe, he's in a tough position. he is in a tough position. he's no no tougher of a position than the 15% or 16% of the people in the country who are unemployed and the rest of us who fear for the future. >> right. >> let's look at what he said. the plan he wants congress to pass. the president spoke just over 30 minutes. he urged lawmakers to put aside political rhetoric and approve a package called the american jobs act. >> the question is whether in the face of an ongoing national crisis we can stop the political circus and do something to help the economy. there should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation. everything in here is the kind of proposal that's been supported by democrats and republicans, including many who sit here tonight. everything in this bill will be paid for, everything. >> all right.

some of the highlights from the president's plan include payroll tax cuts, tax incentives for those hiring, spending for infrastructure and unemployment benefits. they say it won't add to the deficit. this task falls largely on the new congressional supercommittee. i don't know how they are going to do that. they are tasked with finding $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction. is this realistic? >> the speech yesterday focused on the stimulus package, the same size the president and the democrats passed. he promised he was going to lay out his own deficit reduction plan. if the president, in that speech, lays out the entitlement reforms they talked about when they were trying to negotiate the grand bargain, that could change things. that could be a way that the

president can get the whole country engaged and the final piece is tax reform. those are bigger things for the economy in the short term that show washington can work than whatever might emerge from the stimulus. >> i am hopeful. >> oh, geez. >> i'm hopeful this president will step forward. you have been optimistic. you have believed in hope and change and that he would do what was required on entitlements. i am hopeful. >> for tactical reasons he didn't want to embrace the deficit. for tactical reasons he didn't want to put it in his budget. for tactical reasons he didn't want negotiations with the republicans. i don't see how he can avoid doing it now. >> you know what? when faced with -- after exhausting all other options, politicians do the right thing.

>> president obama will release his own blueprint for reaching $2 trillion in cuts. last night, he threatened to use the bully pulpit to hold congress to these goals. >> this isn't political grand standing. this isn't class warfare. this is simple math. these are real choices we have to make. i'm pretty sure i know what most americans would choose. it's not even close. it's time to do what is right for the future. this plan is the right thing to do right now. you should pass it. i intend to take that message to every corner of this country. >> so, he's going to richmond. >> yes. >> today, richard. and he could end up -- maybe he gets a van, ends up going around like the grateful dead. keeps going and going and going. >> he did a very good job last night and you know it. >> i know. i think the president of the united states going out and selling his plan is a great

idea. i'm not mocking him. i like the grateful dead. i had a vw van. mike, why does she hate me so much? i'm trying to compliment the president. >> you have a funny way of doing it. richard, richard. >> what we are seeinging is the inside and outside game simultaneously. he's putting together a bunch of proposals within the realm. it will not explode it. he's telling congress, if you don't go along with it, i'm prepared to go over your heads to do his version of truman or another president that ran against congress. he hasn't given up trying to make it work in washington. part of the strategy is to go above their heads or around them and make it an issue. >> truman is a great analogy.

harry truman, 1947, complete and utter contempt with the congress. 1948, his own party didn't want him in there. had no use for him. he went out and ran against the do nothing congress. nobody expected him to win. the famous chicago tribune. this may be barack obama's best chance to run against the do nothing congress. >> you know, harry truman thing, obviously is interesting because harry truman represented a couple things it president is trying to do now. fight back, throw a punch. stand-up for what he believes. this occurred to me, not for the first time watching the speech. when did so many people in public life in congress lose respect for the presidency? this idea of one side sits, the other side stands to applaud, is ludicrous. did it begin with bill clinton?

reagan used to get bipartisan support. >> richard nixon. >> it's foolish. >> i don't think the democrats treated him with respect. >> and the democrats didn't treat george w. bush with a lot of respect, either. >> i don't know when it began. i don't. i like the last speech they had, the last state of the union where everybody sat together. i think it made good sense. you are right though, this president in particular is not being treated with a great amount of respect. i thought some of the republicans statements yesterday, where they weren't going to watch the speech, bachmann was going to hold her own press conference. a press conference where you don't answer questions, with all due respect, it's not a press conference. there was a lot of overreaching on the republican's part

yesterday. john boehner had a good statement yesterday that was self-correcting of some of the republican extreme statements earlier in the day. he said, the proposals the president outlined merit consideration. we hope he gives serious consideration to our ideas as well. it's nice. mark halperin, about this tour, life is full of these funny coincidences. the president, first, is going to richmond. then he's going to ohio. i'm sure they just closed their eyes and threw darts on the dart board. the first dart went to eric cantor's district and the second went to john boehners in ohio. >> talk about one of the bridges that need to be fixed. it goes between mitch mcconnell's kentucky and john boehners ohio. the country agrees with the

president about a lot of this stuff if you look at the polls. i think republicans are acting because they see a crisis and want to help. they are seeing the same polling the president is seeing. the country wants washington to get along. they don't just want bickering. it's driving john boehner's comments. i don't see how you get from more support in richmond and columbus to john boehner and mitch mcconnell changing. i don't see that in the way the world works. >> maybe not. if you don't see the fallback, it sets up a large national debate and election. >> the president said it was intollerable. waiting 14 months to address unemployment. >> on this tour, if he began saying about the republicans they would rather defeat me than help you, he would be correct? >> i think he would be correct about a lot of them. that's why the republicans are

saying we want to work together. >> hmm. okay. >> we'll see. >> let's get to the other big story of the morning, mike. did you really have something you needed to say that's extremely important. >> yeah. >> okay. >> i wanted to ask joe his perception about boehner and the wing of the party he has difficulty controlling. >> good question. >> i think most people -- most people in the republican congress right now are focused on two things. one, slashing the size of government and two, making sure barack obama doesn't get re-elected. those are the two goals. >> that does not fit with a signing party where they celebrate the president's great leadership in getting people back to work. it's hard. >> and the republican members who feel this way feel this way because they believe, and you see it more and more in writing

and conservative blogs, they believe the only way you get the grand overhaul of government and make it significantly smaller is by having a republican president. a republican house and republican senate. of course, given what happened the last time we had that, we had $155 billion surplus, $1.5 trillion deficit. i'm skeptical, but it's what they are thinking. >> defeating the president and cutting out the size of government. it's not what americans are thinking, job creation. we have moved from the focus on deficit to the focus on jobs. it seems the republicans haven't caught up with that. >> the reality is, it is the president of the united states. if people don't get back to work, if the deficits continue to go higher and the election next year, it's the president that is going to be judged for that. if you are one of 435 people

running in the house of representatives, you can go back and say why doesn't washington work harder to take care. unfortunately, it may not seem fair, but those are the political realities. it's like we said with the government shutdown and the debt ceiling crisis, a republican congressman in the south or midwest is going to be rewarded for saying i will never vote to raise the debt ceiling. >> the country hasn't totally shifted. the deficit reduction is driving politics more than creating jobs. >> let's get to the other big headline of the morning. we need to turn to richard quickly on. new york is on heightened alert, there's news this morning of a potential terrorist strike. time to coincide with the commemoration. the united states government officials say they have received specific, credible but

unconfirmed intelligence that al qaeda in pakistan may pursue an attack that targets new york city and washington, d.c. it involves car or truck bombs. in light of the intelligence, which is unconfirmed at this point, but deemed credible. i would like to characterize more specifically with you richard, security has been stepped up. mayor bloomburg and ray kelly announced there will be increased vehicle check points and closer review of bridges and tunnels. the best way to fight terror is not to be intimidated by it. he plans to take the subway to work this morning as he always does. explain the words they are using. if they are going public with the threat, it's worth worrying about in a big way. >> what icon firm means you have a lot of signals. there are a lot of things in the intelligence suggesting this is real. on the other hand, you don't

have specific evidence that person a coming from point a is going to do certain things. you don't have that degree. you have enough chatter that you have to take it seriously. one is pakistan was, is and likely will remain the epicenter of world terrorism. this is where the most powerful terrorist organizations are tolerated by the establishment there. secondly, you cannot -- in the sense of eliminating it. you can attack it. you can protect yourself. you can build resilience. it's not part of our lives. ten years after 9/11, terrorism is part of the fabric. it doesn't define everything. it's there. society is permanently having to be individual lent. we are in a position to be permanently individual lent about terrorism. you can't eliminate it. wars in iraq and afghanistan

will not do that. this is part of modern life. that's the fact. we, as a society, particularly people in new york and washington have to understand this is psychologically and politically the chosen target. we have to figure out ways of remaining individual lent without turning our economy over. we have to try to get the balance right. this is, again, disease. it's not something you can get rid of. it's something you have to live with. >> we'll follow that throughout the show and hearing from willie down at ground zero this morning. coming up, tom brokaw. president obama's top economic adviser james sperling, eugene robinson and david remnick. after the break, politico's top story. first, let's go to bill karins with the weekend forecast. bill. >> good morning, everyone. we are getting the pictures in from all the devastation in pennsylvania and new york. the country's latest billion

dollar disaster took place yesterday. clean up is going to be massive. thousands and thousands of homes under water. thousands of people evacuated. the river is crested. the damage is done, especially in southern new york. a whole town had three feet through downtown. hopefully people will be back in their houses through the upcoming weekend. as far as what we are dealing with, showers around d.c. and baltimore. not the heavy torrential rains like yesterday. three tropical systems, hurricane katia is going to push away from new england today. nate and maria to worry about. nate looks like it's going to be mexico's problem. the storm i'm worried about that we have to watch for the southeast united states is tropical storm maria. this is forecast to be a hurricane outside the bahamas by tuesday or wednesday next week. it will brush the outer banks, pass harmlessly across the

coast. today's forecast, not that bad in the northeast. the rest of the country is looking okay. we'll get to the weekend forecast later in the show. beautiful shot. hopefully we'll have more sunshine in new york. you are watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. hey, i'm really glad we took this last minute trip! me too. you booked our room right? not yet, thanks for reminding me. wait, what? fret not ma'lady. i have the hotels.com app so we can get a great deal even at the last minute. ah, well played sir. download the free hotels.com app and get exclusive mobile deals. hotels.com. be smart. book smart. it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious.

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i'm a mom. i raised five bilogical kids and 23 foster kids in my home. one thing i know is kids need -- >> love, love, a lot of love, strong parenting. >> kids need jobs. >> jobs? a lesson you learn as a mother is that children need employment. the 23 foster children you took in -- was that before or after you began manufacturing i phoipe

parts? everyone get down in the kitchen. >> isn't that great? >> that is funny. >> yeah. yeah. actually i agree, teenage kids need jobs. get them to work right away. wear them out. >> teenage kids of a certain age. >> time now to take a -- what? time to take a look at the morning papers. the new orleans times sent packing the green bay packers. they prove to be too much for the saints. threw touchdowns. the game came down to the final play. at the goal line, the packers win the shoot-out. >> rogers looked great last night. >> he did look fabulous last night. the state chose not to take a

field goal in the fourth quarter when they were down close, couldn't get it in. it provided me great relief when the boston red sox neared toronto. >> the modesto bee, a limited edition shoe based on the pair worn by marty mcfly in the 1989 movie, "back to the future ii." it benefits michael j. foxx's foundation. >> more than 50 objects recovered from the 9/11 attacks. among them, a speed indicator. a flight attendants logbook. a door crushed during the collapse of the world trade

center. >> "parade" magazine is going to have a special commemoration of 9/11. it's going to feature an essay from tom brokaw, what it taught us and what america must never forget. that's this weekend in "parade." let's go to politico. let's start right now with struggling candidates. let's face it, struggling candidates are more fun to follow than strong candidates. after wednesday's debate, some candidates are having to take a long, hard look in the mirror to figure out what to do next. what is politico reporting? >> first, jon huntsman. his debate performance was strong. it may buy him another day. it probably did that. it may be too little too late. a lot of resources from florida up to new hampshire. he had to shed light in that state. he really is out.

two d.c. consultants left the campaign. they say huntsman put $500,000 of his own money out to meet payroll. bachmann has a stick with what works strategy. she spent all weekend back in iowa to make sure rick perry doesn't get in there. it's where she won the straw poll. maybe that will carry her into south carolina. >> they are trying to at least lock one win or one good performance. bachmann has to do very well in iowa. if she finishes third or so, she can't run four years from now, let alone continue this race. huntsman, so many people that saw him said he did well. he's planning for 2016. if he's a complete bust in 2012, it doesn't work, does it? >> there's more bad news for him. when he started his campaign, he

said south carolina was going to be his victory. the governor there saying yesterday that she will not endorse him. he does not sync up with her values. it's iowa or bust for michele bachmann. let's talk about the supercommittee. what do the superheroes do yesterday when they met? >> not terribly super. they had their first meeting. john kyle started off. he's the only guy in the committee actually retiring. he's free to speak his mind. he said he would actually resign from the committee if they cut too much from the defense budget. on top of that, look at president obama's speech yesterday, a lot of what he wants, a lot of how he wants to pay from the jobs bill comes from the supercommittee, putting more on their plates. the democrats are saying i don't

know if we are up for what we already have to do on top of what president obama put on our plate. >> fascinating stuff. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> what are you and your cats doing this weekend? >> i'm going to clean the water out of my basement here in washington. we have bad, bad flooding. the basement is where our litter boxes are. it's created for quite a mess. >> eww. >> come down and help, joe. we need help. >> he's overwhelmed with his baby. seriously. >> get a dog. coming up -- the author of "the looming power." we are excited to have lawrence wright with us here and richard eng engel. much more straight ahead on "morning joe." [ male announcer ] what if we told you that cadillac

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>> what do you make of the dynamic that just happened here, the mention of the execution

drew applause. >> in the state of texas, our citizens made that decision and made it clear, they don't want you to commit those crimes against our citizens. if you do, you will face the ultimate justice. >> i'm from jersey, we don't want people killing us. in fact, i have the words ultimate and justice tattooed across my knuckles. i had to double up on some of the letters because of the knuckle to letter ratio doesn't work out real perfect. i can't promise you that justice is spelled 100% correctly. i stand by the sentiment. >> okay. 34 past the hour. time now for the must read opinion pages. we are going to start with "the new york times" and paul krugman. setting their hair on fire is the title. i was favorably surprised by the

obama plan. it's better than i expected. not nearly as bold as the plan that would give him an ideal world. if it became law, it would make a significant dent in unemployment. it's not likely to be law thanks to gop opposition or to do much to help the 14 million americans out of work. it's a tragedy and outrage. >> do you agree with paul krugman that the jobs bill would work? >> what do you mean by cig n significa significant, yes, it would make some difference. i think david brooks is closer to it. you can get slightly better. you are not going to see a big difference. in part because the psychology is so negative. firms are still not going to be hiring. they don't have confidence down the road. see what happens in europe. when the european situation

unravels, there's tremendous consequences here. it won't turn around even if it becomes law. >> that's "the new york times" on the left. let's hear what david brooks says. >> stimulus for skeptics. the mainstream view is we should combine stimulus with awe stairty. republicans won't touch spending and democrats won't touch reform. his tone was feisty and will please democrats t. country needs an insurance policy against a double dip, if we are not already there, right? >> mike barnicle, do you agree? >> there are a couple constituencies they have to address. one is consumer confidence. richard was just talking about that.

to get the economic engine growing, people have to have confidence. this president can work something out together to put the engine back on the tracks. last night was a start. it's going to depend on whether the republicans shut them down. do you agree with david brooks? >> oh, i do. there's no doubt. we have to do two things at once. we have to take care of long term debt issues, cut entitlement programs over the next 30 years to save entitlement programs. we have to change our foreign policy in a way that allows us to draw back in the foreign adventures, spend less money. let world markets know and let americans know that we are going to do the responsible thing over the long run. if we do that, that will give us the freedom for a short term stimulus program, a very targeted one. not the type pelosi and barack obama put together, but another one to stop a double dip.

if you are against deficits, you are against a double dip recession. you think the deficits are high right now, wait until we slide back down. they explode together. it's not like republicans can say i don't want higher deficits, so i'm not going to spend a dime. we have to stop 9% unemployment going to 10% unemployment. otherwise, everybody is in big trouble next year. >> 9% to 10% unemployment. if this continues, this drift, this polarization continues in washington, you keep hearing that huge corporations, their response to the lack of response in washington is going to be increased layoffs in their companies. unemployment is going to go up to maybe 10%. mark halperin, the president's

stimulus approach, the majority of it dealt with the tax cuts republicans supported in the past. >> they have a lot of spending in there. there's three debates that are going to occur. the short term debate is whether we can have stimulus tax cuts. intermediate debate is about tax reform. longer range is deficit reduction. the only one we are certain to have action on is deficit reduction because of the trigger. the other two are more important in the short term. the question is, can the president build off the debate he started last night about stimulus to get more cooperation rather than another big fight that causes the party to say we don't trust one another. we can't do tax reform or deficit reduction. >> we are going to talk to willie geist in lower manhattan. is he ready? i know you had to move him.

willie? what do you have soming up? >> the 9/11 memorial that's going to be dedicated. on that day, 343 new york city firefighters were killed. one firehouse lost more than in other, 15 guys. lenny joins me next on "morning joe."

what's it going to take? do we have to spell it out? can't republicans in congress get the message? instead, they protect tax breaks for big oil. tax breaks for billionaires. even tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas. republicans in congress have shown who they stand up for. voting to take care of the wealthy. not the middle class. it's time to bring jobs back to america. seiu cope is responsible for the content of this advertising.

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♪ it's not what we've done but how far we've come ♪ ♪ i know that we will recover [ male announcer ] here when you need us most. welcome back to "morning joe." you are looking at a live picture now of one world trade lit up in red, white and blue. we come up two days away from the tenth anniversary of the attack of september 11th. that day, 343 new york city

firefighters were killed as they rushed down here to try to put out the fire and save lives. one house, battalion 9, the pride of midtown lost more than any other fire house. 15 firefighters died that day. one of the survivors here, lenny. it's been interesting to sit here with you for a couple hours. we were across the street in another building. as we made our way back here, you pointed out different sights and memory that is jumped out to you that day. >> that morning, it was such a surreal thing. it was almost like a movie set. you were walking through a dust cloud. i got off the ferry, like i told ya and i didn't know what to expect. i didn't know if there were going to be peopling coming at me with broken arms or blood all over them. it was none of that. very quiet, like after a heavy

snowstorm, you walk outside and it's dead silence. >> you were in staton island, you finally got on the second one. by the time you got here, the damage was done. a bunch of your guys were there. >> i was on the ferry, the second tower came down. everybody on the boat was crying. everybody knew. i knew at that time my friends, you know, were inside. i feared the worst. we all did. >> what do you make on a day like this? these anniversaries. the tenth anniversary seems to have significance. how do you feel on a day like this? >> for us, it's no different. it was the ninth year, eighth year or the next year, the 11th year. still fresh. still, you know, other people want to make a big deal. it's not. it's every year is, you know, the same for us.

>> the families, we talked about this earlier. of the 15 guys who died, among them, 28 children left behind. how are the kids doing? >> i run into them. they come up to the firehouse. some more than others. some can handle coming back to see us more than others. you know, they are adjusting as best they can. you know, try to keep in touch with as many of them as you can. >> mike barnicle is back with us at 30 rock with a question. >> fire fighting is a unique family. today, ten years later, what is the level of concern or anger, perhaps among firefighters for the effects of what happened on september 11th? the fact so many firefighters died, respiratory diseases and things like that? >> you know, we understand that

the city or government tries to fight us on all of that. i mean the science might not be there to say exactly as these guys, their illnesses are because of what happened. it's obvious that, you know, if you were down here working on it after the fact that if you got cancer or whatever after, it's probably because of all the stuff that came out of the buildings. the buildings had so much terrible things in them. when it came down, it got mixed together. you were breathing it in. i went to a doctor, mike, and he told me i wouldn't know for ten to 15 years after what i got. so ten years now. hopefully i won't -- nothing will happen. but something probably will.

>> joe is there, too. >> yeah, i was just going to say, i was going to turn it over to mika for a second. mika has, as the attack happened, you ran from cbs all the way down. you didn't leave ground zero for seven or eight days. you said when you were down there you knew it was wrong. you knew the air was -- and you immediately started wrapping something around your mouth. >> yeah. >> we had people at the time saying nothing to worry about. nothing to worry about. >> i thought that was a complete joke. anyone down there knows that you were ingesting and breathing toxic chemicals that can hurt you. my husband is an investigative report reporter in new york city. he covered one of the people that died from what he breathed down there working in the pit.

it's insane that it's taken so long to get help to some of these people and they are still struggling. insane. >> willie, what are the plans for september 11th? what are they going to be doing personally? >> they are going to dedicate, joe, the national 9/11 memorial and museum. we talked to the architect on "morning joe" yesterday. the two beautiful pools surrounded by trees and the names of everyone who died here and washington and shanksville. first responders will be there. the families of many of the victims. there will be four, actually six different moments of silence as they do the annual ritual of reading off the names of the deceased. they will pause various moments when the planes hit the building and when the plane hit the pentagon and crashed in

shanksville, pennsylvania. lenny, thanks for being with us and thanks for all you do for this city. >> lenny, just today. just today. god bless you for everything you do. >> thank you guys. thank you. >> just for you, lenny, we put together something. we have talked so much about the post-9/11 world and how everything changed on that day. we wanted to pause for a moment at what was making news on the last day of the pre-9/11 world. september 10th, 2001. >> president bush tonight is under increasing pressure to do something about the troubles in the american economy. >> the military is already on a tight budget, seriously strapped for cash. >> today, we declare war on beaurocracy, not people.

this period of limited funds, we need every nickel, every good idea and effort to modernize and transform the military. >> he takes the fifth from investigating herbal antiageing products. >> expected to turn to the northeast tomorrow. that's what's going on in the country, here's what's happening in your neck of the woods. >> u.s. open. i was there. venus and ser rinna were there. >> single season home run record. >> this is hollywood. so the heavy metal urges, discover him, hire him, he becomes the name of this movie, "rock star". another shark attack. >> fashion week in new york city. you are looking at it here in rockefeller center. >> the cover story, how

president george w. bush became the president. >> the president later this afternoon going to fly to a leadership forum on education at jacksonville, florida elementary school. >> we know what happened next, president bush sitting in that school in jacksonville, florida getting word from his chief of staff that america was under attack. "morning joe" will be right back. [ male announcer ] a cooler, golf balls, and an at&t sharp fx plus. ok, does it itch? oh yeah, we're rashing. what? does he want to chew it?

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♪ you said the party is in danger of becoming antisinsz. who on the stage is antiscience? when you make comments that fly in the face of what is 98 out of 100 climate scientists say, all i'm saying is in order for the republican party to win we can't run from science. >> how can you deny the science

and evolution for instance with my science answer. you saw me evolve into someone with no chance of winning the nomination. they will never accept it. >> looking at monday, tom smiley will be on the set. sports radio personnel, the mad dog. >> excellent. >> we have a big hour coming up. the new yorkers david remnick. eugene robinson and lawrence wright. it's crazy. it's crazy. >> i'm still gloating. >> if you think that's a lot, we have obama's top economic adviser, gene sperling on "morning joe." hey, did you ever finish last month's invoices? sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation

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♪ >> i know there's a lot of skepticism of whether the politics of the moment will allow us to pass this jobs plan or any jobs plan. or the claims it's impossible to bridge our differences. if you think they are so great we can only balance them at the ballot box. know this, the next election is 14 months away. the people who sent us here, the people who hired us to work for them, they don't have the luxury of waiting 14 months.

>> welcome back to "morning joe." what a shot of new york city. mika, look. >> it's beautiful. gorgeous. >> we are coming over the east side, aren't we? over the east side. a great, great look of central park south. that's absolutely beautiful. the empire state building all the way down to ground zero where willie geist is. thank you for moving the chopper shot. i did need another shot of the hudson river. what's wrong with him? >> mark halperin is still with us. >> t.j. said let's go to jersey city. >> yeah. also joining the table, eugene robinson. we have the editor of the new yorker, david remnick. in washington, the moderator of

"meet the press," david gregory joining us. >> we have a lot to talk about. let's start in washington with david gregory. the president had a stiff challenge before him last night as we went before a hostile congress. how do you think he did? what did you take away? >> i really think he was a different kind of speaker, a different kind of president facing that body. all the trappings of the state of the union. he was forceful, aggressive in his tone. i couldn't help, as i was watching the speech saying wow, what if he would have given that speech in january, 2009. the view then was democrats had won and the stimulus could be passed through congress. here i have the impression that while the president was saying pass it or else, he was also gaining and trying to choose positions that could live on arrival, not die on arrival. >> let's talk about the purpose of it, david.

economists afterwards blogged, i was up reading it last night. the economists -- they are bloggers now. the economists blogged this was a successful first speech of the president's re-election campaign. is that a bit too cynical of a take or do you suspect that's what the white house had in mind? >> i think it's all mixed in together. there's no question that's what they had in mind. what was the underlying message of the speech? the president recognizes the electorate thinks both republicans and democrats have it wrong. they can't be trusted to actually get some kind of results. he goes to the house, challenges congress to get something done. in the back of that speech, you know, the fall back position is to say, i will campaign against you if you can't pass these

ideas, make no mistake about it. there was no question, it was part of his re-election campaign. he wants a bill, at the moment, more than he wants a fight. they wanted a fight last time over the debt ceiling. they got the fight. it didn't go well for anybody. >> david remnick the president is in a difficult position. he has base that is deflated. he wants to punch his opponents in the face. >> yeah. >> yet he's got a middle america. you look at every poll. they want washington to work and legislation to pass. how does -- >> they want him to show emotion. this is for the extra part of politics. last night, it looked like the president had an extra cup of coffee before he went on the air. he was more lit up than usual. i'm not sure i agree with the motion if he gave the speech way back when it would make a difference. the proposals themselves are not

outlandish. they are not. it has to do with tax cuts. this is a campaign speech. you can't decouple them. i think he was successful. the odds of passage of the entire package are slim. it's always interesting, whether at a state of the union or address like last night to watch the opposition speaker behind to see where the applause moments come and where they are. it looks like a long road ahead for the administration. >> but the proposals, for the most part, very mainstream. >> they are. a lot of tax cuts. >> they are. >> spending on infrastructure at a time we need spending on infrastructure. >> absolutely. >> there's no death panel set up. no reprogramming. no bizarre things out there. no marxist for free education. this is mainstream middle

america proposal. the part is what do you got? what do you got? >> seriously. >> everyone the romney plan that came out for jobs is fuzzy as you can get. you can't put your finger on what that -- >> a lot of people working it though. a lot of business sounding words in the romney plan. other than that -- >> gene, you have a column. can we read from it? >> yeah. this is what you and david gregory were talking about. obama jobs challenge the gop. president obama raised his game on thursday night as he had to do. at billet doux to sit around the campfire and sing kumbaya wouldn't cut it. not lay out the opening themes of his re-election campaign. he was able to do several things at once.

>> yeah. i agree that he would like to have a deal rather than a fight. they are clearly prepared for the fight. i was told by the white house before the speech in no uncertain terms, we are not that concerned about their initial reaction. we are sure they are going to say no. we're going to go from every corner of the country to sell this thing. he's going to be selling the plan. >> richmond, ohio. >> showing people that president obama is out there fighting for jobs, fighting for you and those do nothing republicans are standing in the way. >> david? >> joe, the other thing i heard last night that i thought was different for this president was a major campaign theme. that is government has a vital role to play in this economic downturn and getting out of this

economic downturn. government matters. what did we hear the night before in simi valley, california? to paraphrase, government should be as inconsequential in your life as possible. those are the fighting words. that's the theme here. what can government do as a solution versus as a problem. >> let me ask you, mark halperin. rick perry, you know, i haven't really spoken a lot about rick perry. maybe i should. >> what do you really feel? >> you should study a candidate, their positions, read their books before commenting. i'm not quite there yet. i will be. >> there's a book called "fed up." >> i wanted to ask you mark halperin because you have studied this man. before i give my opinion on him, i need more information.

i'm dead serious on this part. does rick perry believe when he called social security a ponzi scheme that it should be a bollished, done away with? he says it's a ponzi scheme right now. we have to change that. fine. we can all agree with that. but he never goes the next step. he says it's a scam. it's against american values and a ponzi scheme. he leaves the impression he wants it to go away. >> he made clear what he thinks of it now, a ponzi scheme. it's not outside the mainstream thinking. what he hasn't specified -- >> so we don't know. >> i'm surprised he hasn't done it. what does he think about it historically? did it well serve america for a decade? >> his book says, not that i have read all of his books, it does great violence to america's

greater values. >> the book suggests he thought it was a bad idea from the get go. it doesn't say what he wants to do with it. maybe states should do it. >> he does make a lot of sense. if you go state by state by state, david gregory, the treasury of all 50 states is a wash with cash. we are giving money away. this republican primary is being set upright now, is it not david gregory from what you have seen. i would love your take on what's happened before we go around the table. it's set up between the romney campaign and the rick perry campaign. romney seems to be the great defender of social security. >> and a great defender of the vast middle of the republican party. you know, i think the question has been what do you need in

this republican primary now? somebody who can own the right and own the tea party base and try to convince the middle he's okay or do it the other way around? romney is the other way around. he's able to say, he doesn't have to fight on the ground. he's saying hey, look, we're done. it's over. in november, if we go to this position about social security, kiss florida good-bye and the chances of the white house good-bye. if he makes that argument in the fall of 2011, it puts him in a good position. >> my mother who is so conservative and scared of little kids around the house, she is so conservative. my 79-year-old mother who is a widow, who saw social security carry my grandmom, saw social

security and railroad retirement sustain my grandmother, she needs that security. >> i think this is part of the case the president was trying to make last night. government is not some impersonal constantly screwing up in the south to squash everything. it is an extension of who we are. we can make it better or worse. things like social security, medicare and so on are things that need improvement and need reform. no matter what hard lying democrats say, there's no question it has to be part of our future financial package. >> what is your take on rick perry? >> i don't think he's thought it through. i think he's playing to the bleachers. part of the drama of his campaign and the book they are writing is whether this time around the republican party will

put forward somebody who is a true radical outlier. >> yeah. >> for the first candidate it would have been michele bachmann. i don't think they have thought it through. >> usually, if you would say, sometimes you would say somebody is a radical outlier and i would debate you on it. maybe by manhattan standards. everyone by middle american standards you are a radical outlier if you believe social security does violence to american values. if you believe united states senators should not be elected by the people. that is exactly what he believes. >> maybe your state would be better off seceded from the

union. >> romney has this in the bag. are you kidding me? if that's the case, this guy isn't going anywhere. as far as social security, he hasn't said it has to go. >> he says it does violence to americans. >> it's a ponzi scheme. we have to save it? we have to keep it? come on. >> firmer financial footing. i'm sure he's for individual savings accounts. >> how are you sure? >> reporting. >> david gregory, let's talk one more republican. michele bachmann, a month ago was at the top of the political world. he won the ames straw poll. a lot of people were saying it was going to be a romney-bachmann race. now it's a two-man race and

bachmann was not listed in there. this has been a bad two weeks for michele bachmann, hasn't it? >> it has. she's shown poise and skill and discipline. she's done interviews, tough interviews, taken tough questions. she's campaigned hard. i have been impressed watching a campaigner in terms of how she operated and how poised she's been. look, as she was scrutinized, she began to say in a state like iowa, she'll dedicate herself because there's room for two. an establishment candidate and somebody who has more of the populous tea party streak. at the moment, unless he suddenly fades, what you are analyzing this morning, maybe the recipe for rick perry not lasting as long as everybody thinks. maybe she can stay on and work

it in iowa and have a positive result. >> david gregory, thank you very much. >> let me ask really quick. is there a sense of panic around bachmann's campaign? do they sense it's over? >> they are really shifting toward iowa. she's got to raise money. perry is fund raising and that's the big story out there. >> david, of course we'll see you sunday during nbcs special coverage of "america remembers" from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. thank you. >> thank you david. appreciate you being on. coming up, richard engel will join us from ground zero with thoughts on nearly a decade of war following 9/11. tom brokaw and lawrence write joins us here. first, let's go to bill karins for a check on the forecast.

>> the pictures are coming from pennsylvania. this is in southern new york. this is the susquehanna river. the whole downtown was swallowed up. what we are dealing with, scattered showers. nothing too bad. the last thing we need is another tropical system. hurricane katia is moving away. nate is going to be mexico's problem. we made the deal with maria. here is the weekend forecast. today, just a chance of showers and storms around d.c. mostly dry in new england. saturday, lingering showers with storms in the east. it's not going to ruin your weekend. not like the rains we have been seeing. sunday, the country heats up with more hot and dry weather in texas. watch for wildfires once again. you are watching "morning joe." have a wonderful weekend, everyone. we are brewed by starbucks. uh, i'm in a timeout because apparently

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does it make it harder for you because the tenth anniversary would have been your 18th wedding anniversary. >> yeah. it's a really hard day. every anniversary is also the worst day of my life and the best day of my life. it's an odd disconnect. >> that was a clip from tom brok brokaw's "dateline" special, "9/11, america remembers." tom joins us along with lawrence wright "the looming tower." it's now out in paperback. it is an extraordinary book. david remnick is still here. i have heard more policy leaders on the left and on the right. i have heard people that loathe the bush administration and the top people in the bush administration talking about

this book, reading this book, understanding al qaeda so much better. if ten years after you have not read "the looming tower." you have to pick up this book if you want to understand what happened. i want to go ten years forward. at the end of this book, you had osama bin laden escaping out of afghanistan, believing he had been abandoned by muslim's across the world. bitter, fighting his last will and testament. is it fair to ask ten years later if he achieved all of his goals with an exhausted united states of america fighting wars across the globe? >> it's very fair. the goal was drawing into afghanistan. he hoped we would repeat what the soviets did. they withdrew.

the soviet union fell apart, in bin laden's mind. the way -- he didn't expect to defeat us militarily. he hoped to open a gushing financial ruin where we would reduce our ability to operate in the world. i think he made quite a lot of his dream come true. >> he didn't realize it would take as long as it did. at the end, when he was having to flee afghanistan like america wanted. now, here we are. it is ten years later. >> we helped the cause for him, from his point of view, too. coming from iraq and not finishing the job in afghanistan. now we have two wars. he couldn't have counted on that. >> i'm looking at "remembering 9/11." there are incredible ways that

family members still live with the tragedy. there's one soundbyte that comes to mind about a brick always in your pocket. i would like to roll that and talk about it. >> you know the wonderful old saying that time heals all wounds. does it? >> ah, no. there's a movie, rabbit hole, where a mother describes it as a brick in her pocket. it's always there, sometimes you don't notice it, but it's always in your pocket. >> these people are still living as if it were yesterday, for sure. >> it's what i was just talking about. i use her as an example of that. there are so many americas. these survivors and the people who went through that ordeal, it's what we ought to be doing. it was the most -- it was the worst day of their lives, obviously. to a man and woman i talked to,

they said i knew i had to get on with my life. i looked at it in a different way. they think they are better people now. as they look at life with a greater clarity about what their goals and values are, they reach out to each other in a fashion. so they weren't defeated by osama bin laden. in fact, they were strengthened by their ordeal. that's really the enduring lesson of what comes out of this two hours. these are people i met ten years ago in one form or another either as a journalist or going to the area to find out what was happening. i must say, it lifted me in a way that i didn't expect to. when we began to work on this broadcast. if you get a chance to see mr. wright, his performance of this book, he did a one-man show here in new york, it's absolutely riveting. it takes on a personal dimension to see him on a small stage in

an arena. >> i know we are all praising this book. let's get another viewpoint, david remnick says this is the worst book. >> i think the exact quote is on the back of this book. >> i'm afraid i was misquoted. i would say one thing, the contrast between the personal resilience of people recovering from a tragedy, it's impossible to recover if you are a spouse or child. to be this kind of thing is unthinkable. at the same time, osama bin laden destabilized this country in large measure for a long time. socially, politically disstorted

our policy. it became a huge question. i's always a question. on the other hand, i do want to say, in the larger picture, we are talking a period of ten years, things did not go his way globally or regionally. what we are witnessing now in the middle east and south asia are liberation movements not in the realm. in fact, many strands, i wouldn't say all liberal democracy or egypt or elsewhere. after the french revolution, more than a century to see a stable democratic france. watching what's happening in syria. the tendency there, the element of promise is in defiance with, not in concert with al qaeda. >> lawrence, this is something

you didn't predict in this book, but you gave evidence in this book, the bombing at luxor. you said al qaeda was stunned by the egyptian people's reaction. the slaughter of these innocent tourists. you said from that point forward, they lost egypt. i thought about that as the prodemocracy demonstrators came out. this has had to be very disconcerting for al qaeda to see, as you said, they get into the battle to save egypt. >> right. >> to save islam as well. >> islam and egypt. that was the focus. they lost egypt to what they hated the most, democracy. >> they lost their hole on the

definition of islam. they wanted to define it as a religion at war with nonbelievers. that nonbeliever category contained many muslims. the whole world was appalled by barberism. it didn't matter what moderate muslims said. they were drown out from the beheadings, stonings and burnings of girl schools. if you think about the american civil rights movement which our great nonviolent effort from a social justice, 40 people died in that. martin luther king, emmitt taylor, you know those names. 840 people died in the 18 days of the egyptian revolution. more than 220 people in syria. they are not walking into fire hoss and police batons. they are facing tanks. i don't think in the history of

mankind there has been a nonviolent movement that had to give up such sacrifice. they are recapturing the definition of islam. >> we were just showing a map of the arab awakening in different countries going through this transformation. it's incredible to note for sure. >> look at that map. >> absolutely positive turn out of what was a terrible day ten years ago this sunday. we do ask for results in this country. ten years later, are we stronger? are we safer? we still ask that question. then also -- >> we have a clear answer, no we're not. >> how much did 9/11 have to do with the economic struggles we are having in the world. >> tom, you do your broadcast on the morning of september 11th, 2001. measuring was probably as strong as any country since cesar

augusta ruled. ten years later, we have wasted a decade while the chinese have been making strategic partnerships across the globe economically. we have been spending trillions killing people. dropping bombs. >> looking at that map and what mr. wright and david have to say, we have to keep in mind, this is still a very complex situation we are talking act here. you cannot make great sweeping judgments in the middle east. it was striking to me the difference when you go from jordan back to iraq to saudi arabia. the attitudes were not just from the top down, but the ground up as well. there were lots of change going on there. i think in this country, one of the consequences of what happens is the united states externally militarized the mission around the world. made an enormous investment in

military resources. china was going to africa and south america and other places and extracting naxal resources, building relationships with countries in a way we were not because we were so invested in the middle east. that's a real consequence that not enough people are talking about. >> over the next 20, 30, 40 years what has happened. >> we tried to be aware of cartoons for all these places including china which is still mainly a poor country with money centers in beijing and shan hgh. >> they are antidemocratic. >> other countries are going to turn to that model because it's been successful. democracy doesn't appeal to everybody. >> not in the same form.

there are countries that talk about their democratic trends. look, remember this is coming out of the collapse of an old lineup. the united states versus the soviet union. we felt triumph from the '90s and felt it would go on forever with a tech boom. bill clinton's people said what did you like better, the prosperity or the peace? it's not just 9/11 that shattered the supreme si. trends around the world, india and china and our own economic arrogance and foolishness once it got to the 21st century. >> what was missing post-9/11 and it had a raid yent effect on this country, we didn't have a dialogue about where we wanted

to go from there and what it means to us. as we, you know, you can't measure history by decades or centuries. the punctuation mark of 9/11 happening was an opportunity to say what do we want? we are coming out of the american century. what is the 21st sentry going to mean to us. we had this attack. there's something called islamic rage out there. we are a global power. how do we deal with that? what do we cherish and what is the legacy? >> it is encouraging to see in the movements throughout the middle east that anti-americanism is not a flag. despite all the missteps and worse in the last ten years, whether it was going into iraq or all these violations, anti-americanism was not a banner in cairo, tripoli, in fact the opposite. >> you did not see israeli flags

and american flags burned. >> i think the difference in administrations is partly responsible for that. the tone and tenor between the bush administration and the obama administration is responsible for that. >> we didn't reflect properly ten years ago. i hope we reflect now on the ten-year anniversary on how we spent the past decade compared with china and others. we have to understand we cannot exhaust ourselves with ten more years of war. we are at a point where we are ramping up, firing drones in the countries where we haven't declared war. right now, today, we are in a perpetual state of war across the globe. that cannot be it. >> i think it's not going on in institutional ways but it is going on on main street.

it's not in a global kind of macro way, who are we. people are beginning to say because of pressure of the economics of the day. you know, where do we go from here and how do i secure the future for my family or my community. i honestly think that helps drive what we saw last night. i think both sides have seen after their food fight, the rest of the country rejected both sides. >> absolutely. >> maybe we better make a deal of some kind. >> no doubt about it. >> thank you so much. >> despite the hateful dments by david remnick, we thank you for being here. this is a book you need to read. >> we'll be right back. state farm. this is jessica.

hey, jessica, jerry neumann with a policy question. jerry, how are you doing? fine, i just got a little fender bender. oh, jerry, i'm so sorry. i would love to help but remember, you dropped us last month. yeah, you know it's funny. it only took 15 minutes to sign up for that new auto insurance company but it's taken a lot longer to hear back. is your car up a pole again? [ crying ] i miss you, jessica! jerry, are you crying? no, i just, i bit my tongue. [ male announcer ] get to a better state. state farm. [ male announcer ] get to a better state.

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41 past the hour. joining us now from the white house, the director of the national economic council and assistant of the president, gene sperling, thanks for being on the show. >> thanks for having me. >> a $447 billion plan, he's

asking the supercommittee to find ways to pay for it. has the president given them an impossible task? >> not at all. the president is asking everyone to raise their game. he believes, and i think most economists and most americans believe we have to be able to take bold action now to get jobs going, get growth going. you have to do that in a context where you pay for what you are doing and you bring the deficit down. so, we are going to put out the details of how we would do this and so this act could be passed on its own. everyone will know that the president is being very explicit, detailed about how to pay for it and how to bring the deficit down. yes, he's asking the supercommittee and congress to do this. we will be stepping up to the plate and giving the exact

choices to create significant jobs as well as putting ourselves on a long term sound fiscal path. >> a lot of people are saying this is just an extension of the last. people are generally unaware there was stimulus going on in their own community or their own states. are you going to try to raise the profile of this stimulus so people have a psychological attachment to it as well? >> well first of all, i don't think there's any question that we know now that what the president inherited was just unspeakably weak loss of growth in our economy. it's worse than we thought and we could have been on the brink of depression. what happens on the recovery act was essential and gave them a chance to rebound. what we also know, tom, when you

are coming back from the deepest recession since the great depression and one that is particularly a financial crisis where there's an overhang of housing inventory, it's tougher. you have to stay at it and stay at it. i think what's going to be the best thing for confidence, tom, is if people see we can work together to get something done. i think it's true for workers, average american families, small businesses. i think it's true at the larger global market level. they are worried our division in government means dysfunction. when you put a plan like this down, you have people like john mccain's former economic adviser says this could create $9.1 million, we have the capacity to give the economy a jump start and take risk of it stalling out. the only thing that is keeping us from doing that is the

inability of democrats and republicans to work together, compromise, get things done. >> the need for clarity. gene robinson. >> how many jobs do we get? >> well, you know, we have enough faith in the plan to put it out and see what independent forecasters say. john mccain's former economic adviser estimated it would be 1.9 million jobs for next year. very, very significant amount. over 150,000 additional each month. that's his projection. i saw economic advisers over 100,000. i saw closer to 300,000. you know, this is such a serious moment in our economy, we have to make sure this recovery takes hold. we cant take a risk that we have

any kind of deep moderation in our recovery. so, this is something we have to do. it's responsible for all of us. the downside of not acting, not just for growth, of course for growth, of course for jobs, but those who worry about the long term deficit, what could be more harmful to the long term deficit than this not to take hold. it's paid for in the long term. it's exactly the right recipe. >> joe scarborough here. let's say lightning strikes and this president can pass this entire package. some suggested, a moody's economist said it could take unemployment down to 8%. is that your belief? >> well, you know, we believe very much this plan is going to raise growth, have a dramatic impact on jobs and lower unemployment rates. as you said, the moody's economist you are talking about

was -- is someone who is independent who advised john mccain. i think that seems like a very sound estimate. the important thing is to move things in the right direction. if you get momentum, things can be better. if you lose momentum, they can be worse. >> gene sperling, thank you so much. >> thanks for having me. >> up next, richard engel joins willie next from ground zero. coffee doesn't have vitamins... unless you want it to.

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[ thunder rumbles ] what is the sign of a good decision? in the world of personal finance, it's massmutual. find strength and stability in a company that's owned by its policyholders. ask your advisor, or visit massmutual.com. what's it going to take? do we have to spell it out? can't republicans in congress get the message? instead, they protect tax breaks for big oil. tax breaks for billionaires. even tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas. republicans in congress have shown who they stand up for. voting to take care of the wealthy. not the middle class.

it's time to bring jobs back to america. seiu cope is responsible for the content of this advertising. welcome back to "morning joe." we're live down here at ground zero in lower manhattan. two days away from the tenth

anniversary of september 11, 2001. i'm joined by richard engel, nbc news. information coming in yesterday and overnight. we're told of credible threats against new york city and washington? >> specific credible, the key part, unconfirmed threat that officials in new york and homeland security officials are taking very seriously even though they haven't confirmed it. we know some vague details about the general threat. it says that perhaps three people from pakistan had been deployed by al qaeda to the united states. one or two potentially carrying u.s. passports with the mission of trying to blow up a car or truck bomb in new york or in washington to coincide with the ceremony and they're looking at records to see if any individuals did come from pakistan and to try and locate them, but so far those records

haven't turned up any positive match matches, and even this threat is, as i said, unconfirmed, but people are taking it very seriously because of the specific anniversary. >> we know there was information found in the raid at "alice in wonderlan wonderland"-of--of--of- -- osama bin laden house that suggested. >> in the documents found in bin laden's compound in pakistan a whole trevor trove of information. among those documents, aspirational writings, wouldn't it be great to have another attack to coincide with 9/11 but that according to u.s. officials, it never got into the specific planning stage. but when you have bin laden who is aspiring to do this and then this specific credible but unconfirmed report about three people coming from pakistan to try and do it, that, when you bring it together, gets people very concerned. >> and mayor bloomberg, new york city police, taking extra precautions in a place that's already locked down pretty tight for the anniversary.

>> very tight. i haven't been down here in a long time, but it is locked down very tight and these threats come through all the time. what's different now is, of course, the symbolic nature of this weekend. so i think people are taking it more seriously. other than that, you do hear threats of this kind of nature quite often. >> i want to ask you about the documentary tonight. day of destruction." three-hour special. you and rachel maddow. that you were sent around the world for a decade. >> when you think of it that way, what happened here changed the course of america history for a certain, and world history, to a degree, and after this happened, the u.s. spent a trillion perhaps several trillion on national security, two wars, one afghanistan, the other iraq, which had nothing to do with this and in this documentary, which aired in parts before, but this is the first time it's airing as a complete three-hour documentary,

we look at what happened. how did america change after this event, and not just the physical nature of what happened here on this day, but how our society, how our national security, how our sense of americans changed. >> and different because it doesn't focus on the sentimentality and horrors of the day and the decade of how they were changed. tonight "decade of war." 9:00 eastern. looking forward to it. thanks. >> appreciate it. we'll be right back with more on "morning joe." to make r look better and feel softer. ♪ how 'bout we start with the guaranteed low price on the carpet... the pad, and installation. let's get peace of mind for a lifetime. it all adds up to better carpet at a better price and a great-looking room, transformed. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot.

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so 9:00 tonight. >> all over weekend, on sunday, the whole thing and sunday morning i'm with the mormon tabernacle choir and orchestra, 9/11 memorial. >> wow. >> going to be amazing. >> mike might even sit up straight for this. >> i would. >> he would. >> tell me yesterday, stop slouching. >> he hasn't sat up straight for me in his life. in our next hour, joe will perform his original song "reason to believe." it's our tribute to 9/11 and a look at the ten years of war that has followed. you can download the song on

itunes and the donations go to those soldiers wounded in the war. >> and gene's going to sing, too. >> we will be right back. [ wind howling ] [ technician ] are you busy? management just sent over these new technical manuals. they need you to translate them into portuguese. by tomorrow. [ male announcer ] ducati knows it's better for xerox to manage their global publications. so they can focus on building amazing bikes. with xerox, you're ready for real business.

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now, as we approach the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attack, the nypd, fbi and entire intelligence community have been on heightened alert, because we

know that terrorists view the anniversary as an opportunity to strike again. now, the threat at this moment has not been corroborated. i want to stress that. it is credible, but it has not been corroborated. >> good morning. it is 8:00 on the east coast as you take a live look at lower manhattan in new york city. welcome back to "morning joe," and back with us on set, mike barnicle, mike halperin and richard haass. sunday marks the tenth anniversary of 9/11. >> and, of course, new yorkers waking up this morning to this headline of the news about a 9/11 terror threat. we're going to talk about that a little more, but obviously most of america looking at this headline this morning. the president delivered a speech last night. some say he was combative. others say he was just as forceful asneeded to be.

let me ask you, mark halperin, was he too hot? was he too cold? or was the president just like that coal bowl of porridge, just right. >> i don't see how it leads to big, quick action on the part of congress. >> what about you, richard haass? >> even if it did lead to quick action on the part of congress it would probably not lead to a manger change in the american economic picture. the package put forward was larger than people anticipated but given the scale of the problem i don't think enough even if it were enacted to make a major dent. >> we have the president in a difficult position. >> very. >> his base wants him to be combative. it seems that the middle and others want him to reach out more and strike a consensus. >> uh-huh. >> really, that's the only way he's going to get anything done in washington with this congress. how do you think he did? >> i think he came as close as he could have to doing everything you just said last

night and he really reached out but also said, come on now, come on now, the things i'm putting forward have been supported by republicans and democrats. let's get this done. it's up to republicans to respond in some maturity, in my opinion. >> what do you think? >> i think you are hearing from ordinary people mystified by -- the constant phrase you hear, inability to throw a punch. last night he threw one, i thought. he was quite strong. it was a terrific performance. he indicated he'd take this message to every corner of the country, which need be, which it probably will be. you know, you say, joe, that he's in a tough position. of course, he is in a tough position, but he's in no tougher a position than the 15 to 16% of the people in this country who are unemployed. >> oh, yeah. >> and the rest of us who fear for the future. >> right. >> all right. let's look at exactly what he said. the plan that he wants congress

to pass. the president spoke just over 30 minutes. he repeatedly, as i said, urged lawmakers to put asigh politidel rhetoric and approve a package called the american jobs act. >> the question is whether in the face of an ongoing national crisis we can stop the political circus and actually do something to help the economy. there should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation. everything in here is the kind of proposal that's been supported by both democrats and republicans. including many who sit here tonight. and everything in this bill will be paid for. everything. >> all right. some of the highlights from the president's plan include pay roll tax cuts, tax incentives for those hiring. spending for infrastructure projects and extended unemployment benefits. the white house says the jobs act won't add to the deficit. however, this tax falls largely

on the new congressional super committee. i don't know how they're going to do that. that committee is already tasked with finding $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction. mark halperin, is this realistic? >> you know, the speech yesterday focused on this deficit reduction, or this stimulus package, about the same size as the stimulus package democrats and the president passed early on. republicans repudiated and said he would lay out his own reduction plan. if the president in that speech lays out the entitlement reforms he and speaker baoehner talked about, that could change things. a way the president can get the whole country, including a lot -- and in some, tax reform. those are bigger for the economy in the short term to show washington can work than whatever can emerge from the stimulus provisions put out last

night. >> i am hopeful. >> oh, please. >> i am hopeful this president will step forward and do what you have been hopeful and believed and that we would do what was required on entitlement, and i am hopeful that -- >> for tactical reasons -- he didn't want to embrace the deficit reduction system. bowles-simpson. didn't want to put it in his budget. not in the context of negotiations with republicans previously. i don't see how he can avoid doing it now. >> you know what? when faced with -- after exalting all other options, politicians usually end up doing the right thing. >> additionally, president obama will release his own blueprint for reaching roughly $2 trillion in cuts by september 19th. last night he threatened to use the bully pulpit to hold congress to these goals. >> this isn't political grandstanding. this isn't class warfare. this is simple math.

these are real choices that we've got to make, and i'm pretty sure i know what most americans would choose. it's not even close, and it's time for us to do what's right for our future. this plan is the right thing to do right now. you should pass it, and i intend to take that message to every corner of this country. >> so he's going to richmond. >> yes. >> today. >> sell his plan. >> and he could end up -- you know what? maybe he gets a van, ends up going around like the grateful dead. just keeps going and going -- >> you know what? he did a very good job last night and you know it. >> i'm not -- i know. i think -- the president of the united states going around and selling his plan is a great idea. so, no. i'm not mocking him. i like the grateful dead. i had a v.w. van. okay? mike, why does she hate me so much? >> richard wants to speak. >> i'm trying to complement the president. >> you have a funny way of doing it. richard? richard.

>> all the things that popped up, you could camp in them. >> you're basically seeing the president doing the inside and outside game simultaneously. putting forth a bunch of proposals withins realm of possibility. on the other hand essentially telling congress, if you don't go along with this, i'm prepared to go over your heads to make this a defining issue to basically do his version of truman or some other president who essentially ran against congress. he heen given up trying to make it work with washington. part of his strategy, threaten them, he'll go above their heads and make this a political issue. >> truman is a wonderful analogy. harry truman, blueprint, 1947. complete and utter contempt by the republican congress. 1948. his own party didn't want him in there. they had no use for him. he went out. he ran against a do-nothing congress. nobody expected him to win. that was the famous tribute --

the famous chicago tribune, this may be barack obama's best chance to run against the do-nothing congress. >> awe know, the harry truman thing, obviously, is interesting, because harry truman represented a couple of things that the president is clearly trying to do now. fight back. throw a punch. stand up for what he believes, and yet the biggest difference in this -- this occurred to me last night, not for the first time watching the speech. had did so many people in public life, in congress, lose respect for the presidency? this idea of one side sits, the other side stands to applaud. it's ludicrous. they're like children. did it begin with bill clinton? did it start then? because reagan used to -- he'd get bipartisan support. >> richard nixon. i don't think the democrats treated richard nixon with the greatest of respect. >> and the democrat s certainly

didn't treat george w. bush with respect, either. >> i don't know when it began. i liked the last state of the union, where everybody sat together, and i think it made good sense, but you're right, though. this president in particular, is not being treated with a great amount of respect. i thought some of the republicans statements yesterday, where they weren't going to watch the street. michele bachmann hold her own press conference. by the way, a press conference, where you don't answer questions. congresswoman, with all due respect, that's not a press conference. >> okay now. speaker boehner had a very respectful statement. >> there was a lot of overreaching on the republicans' part yesterday. >> here it is. john boehner i thought had a good statement yesterday that -- that is self-correcting of some of the republican extreme statements earlier in the day. he said, the proposals the president outlined tonight merit consideration. we hope he gives serious consideration to our ideas as well. which is nice.

mark halperin, though, about this tour, it's -- you know, life is full of these funny coincidences. the president first is going to richmond. and then he's going to ohio. and if you just -- just close your eyes and through dart boards -- >> based on direct flights. >> first to eric cantor. the second to john boehner in ohio. >> last night, bridges that need fixed, mitch mcconnell's kentucky and john boehner's ohio. the problem, i think, for this tour is the country already agrees with the president about a lot of this stuff. if you look at public opinion polls. i think the republicans, i'd like to think they're acting solely because they see the crisis and want to help. they're clearly seeing the same focus groups and polling the presidency, which is the country wants washington to get along. they don't want just reflexive

bickering. i think that's driving john boehner's comments. no see how you get to more support in richmond, more support in columbus to john boehner and mitch mcconnell changing pos color. i don't see that denamic in the current way the world works. >> maybe not. if you don't see the change you're talking about it sets up a large national debate and essentially an election. >> and what the president said is intoller able. waiting 14 months to address unemployment. >> if he, on this tour, not right away, but begins saying, about the republicans, they would rather defeat me than help you, he'd be correct? >> i think he'd be correct about a lot of them, but that's why the republicans are saying, we want to work together. >> hmm. okay. >> we'll see. >> let's get to the other big story of the morning, mike. all right? did you really have something you needed to say that -- was extremely important? >> yeah. i wanted to ask joe what his perception was about boehner and

that, the republican party he seems to have trouble controlling. >> i think most question -- >> good question. >> -- most people in the republican congress right now are focused on two things. one, slashing the size of government, and, two, making sure that barack obama does not get re-elected. i think those are the two goals. >> and that does not fit with having a signing ceremony at the white house where john boehner and the president celebrate the president's great leadership in getting people back to work. >> and -- and -- >> it's hard. >> and these republican members who feel this way, feel this way because they believe, and you see it more and more on conservative blogs. they believe the only way you get the grand overhaul of government and make it significantly smaller is by having a republican president. a republican house and a republican senate. of course, given what happened the last time we had that and

had $155 billion surpluss that went up to a $1.5 trillion deficit, i'm skeptical, but that's what they're thinking right now. >> as you said, thinking about two things. defeating the president and cutting the size of government. that's leaving out the thing americans are thinking most about, which is job creation. >> right chblgt and the debate has moved in this country. we've moved quite a bit from this focus on the deficit to this focus on job, and it seems to me republicans haven't caught quite up with that shift. >> the political reality is it is the president of the united states, if people don't get back to work, if the deficits continue to go higher, in the election next year, it's the president that's going to be judged for that. if you're one of 435 people running in the house of representatives, you can go back and say, why doesn't washington work harder to take care of jobs, this, this -- so unfortunately, it may not seem fair, but those are the political reality.

it's just like we said with a government shutdown and the debt ceiling crisis. a republican congressman in the south or the midwest is going to be rewarded for saying, i will never vote to raise the debt ceiling. >> and the country hasn't totally shifted. the deficit reduction is system driving our politics more than creating jobs. >> okay. let's get to the other big headline now of the morning, which we need to turn to richard quickly on. new york on heightened alert for the anniversary of the world trade center attacks, there is news this morning the potential terrorist strike timed to coincide with that commemoration. the united states government officials say they have received "specific credible but unconfirmed intelligence" that al qaeda militants in pakistan may be pursuing an attack that targets new york city and washington, d.c. nbc news can report that the threat involves car or truck bombs. in light of the intelligence, again, it's unconfirmed at this point, but still deemed credibility, which i'm like to

sort of characterize more specifically with you, richard. security throughout the city has been stepped up. mayor bloomberg and the commissioner ray kelly increased baggage checkpoints, checkpoints on subways and closer review of bridges and tunnels. bloomberg said the best way to fight terror is not to be intimidated noting he plans to take the subway to work this morning as he always does. richard haass, explain the words they're using to describe them. clearly if they're going public with the threat, it's something worth worrying about, in a big way? >> sure. unconfirmed not corroborated means a lot of signals. ate of things in the intelligence area suggesting this is real. on the other hand, you don't have specific evidence that person a coming out of point a is going to do certain thing. you don't have that degree of specificity, but you have enough chatter and indications you've got to take 2 serioit seriously. this tells you two things. pakistan was, is and likely will remain the epicenter of world

terrorism. where the most powerful terrorism organizations are either tolerated on embedded by the establishment there. secondly, that you cannot defeat terrorism in the sense of eliminating it. it's like disease. it is out there. you can attack it. you can protect yourself. you can build resilience, but it's now part of our lives. tens years after 9/11, terrorism is part of the fabric. it doesn't define everything, but it's there, in the sense that israeli society is permanently in a position of having to be vigilant. we are now in a society we have to be vigilant. we can't eliminate it. wars will not do that. this is part and partial of modern life. sorry to have to say it, but that's the fact. we in society, particularly those in new york and washington have to understand that this is psychologically and politically the chosen principle target. so we are going to have to figure out ways or remain vigilant without turning our

economy over. without giving up our civil liberties. we're going to have to try to get that balance right, but this is again, life disease. it's not something you can get rid of. it's something you've got to live with. >> coming up next, best-selling author is here, writing in "new york" magazine about one of the mysterious of those missing from the 9/11 attack. also, how wall street will react to the president's jobs package. business before the bell looks at today's key trading friday day. first to bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? >> definitely turning the corner, mika. one natural disaster in our country after another for about a month. trying to jinx us i think that will happen. the latest devastation and destruction. this pictures from southern new york in the binghamton area. having a huge disaster. the water crested yesterday. it peaked last night and now is coming down. we'll find out and get more

pictures over the weekend as people return to homes to see how much damage is done. the latest estimates are thousands of people will not be able to re-enter their homes because of the damage. as far as rain, there are showers. over the weekend, on the coast, keep an eye on maria. this storm looks to become a hurricane just off the florida and georgia coastline by wednesday of next week. right now it looks it should take a track between north carolina and bermuda, somewhere like hur tain katia did. that will spare us. ar far as the weekend, not a lot of bad weather. just showers lingering in the atlantic region. you're rauching emergen iwa joe," everyone, brewed by starbucks. i want healthy skin for life. [ female announcer ] improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula improves skin's health in one day,

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welcome back to "morning joe." 24 past the hour. joining us now, best-selling author jay mcinnerney. re-released in paperback, privileged new yorkers forced to re-assess their lives in the wake of the 9/11 attack. >> he's a williams' guy. >> looks smart. >> so -- it's fascinating. your study of these socialites that, as you say, are sleepwalking through their lives, bouncing from one party to another with spouses they're not sure they really love. with jobs and lives that bore them. and then -- the jolt. >> well, it was a big jolt, i think, for all of us, and i

think in the immediate aftermath of september 11th, i don't know anyone who didn't re-evaluate their lives. who didn't consider changing careers. some people got divorced. some people got married. some people left new york. >> what did you do? >> well, in the immediate aftermath i went to work at a soup kitchen at ground zero. managed to find my way past the barricades and starting that thursday i worked for four or five weeks at a soup kitchen, and i -- at the time it never occurred to me that this might eventually lead to a novel, but, in fact, immediately after september 11th, like many novelists i felt that fiction seemed irrelevant. that is was somehow incommensurate to the demands of the moment to interpreting the big events of the world. >> but how did you find that

fiction actually could, when you got into this, connect some dots? if not in a case like this, perhaps nonfiction books we would be buying about 9/11 you just couldn't touch? >> i think it's inevitably the case. it would be foolish to assume that september 11th was somehow an event that was -- that was unlike the various wars we've lived through. the holocaust, which is, in the end, yielded to the interpretation of imaginative literature in many, many different occasions. and writers who ahave confronte and helped us grasp that tragedy. to me, there are ways in which fiction helps us to interpret these experiences. it creates missed narratives that go beyond daily journalism. >> part of the reality, talking about the weeks after, and has

you were doing. i want to read a part of a column you wrote about a missing person poster you saw in the days after 9/11. >> it haunted me. >> i saw the peeoster every day and used to wonder about her life. i hadn't actually known anyone who'd been in the towers so she became for me a kind of surrogate victim. those first few days it was possible to imagine dazed or unconscious survivors. as i fantasized she would walk up to our relief station disorienteded or intact. >> her name, dr. snaia ann philip. i have to admit, the poster grabbed me at first because she was a very beautiful woman. as young as she was, she was doctor. there was a curious detail at the -- remember those missing posters. curious pits of biography sprinkled, and one of the things that grabbed me about this one, it said last seen shopping at

century 21, which was the big discount store very close to ground zero. it sort of made me think she was some sort of brunette terry bradshaw looking for the perfect black dress or perfect pair of stilettos just before tragedy struck. the story came with me and became complicated, turned out she hadn't actually disappeared on september 11th. she was last seen on september 10th. she did not come home that night to her husband and her apartment near ground zero. when the police started looking into this case, because there was -- there was a lot of fraud. originally 9,000 people were listed as missing and the police had to sort through all the cases. they discovered some troubling aspects of her life, but that made her more representative. turned out there was perhaps marital trouble. she was staying away from home. drug and alcohol issues cited in her dismissal from her previous

job. and then suddenly she was denied official victim status in thorrthor earlier reviews of victims partly saying this behavior disqualified one from the hero list of victims. that intrigued me, too, because some some ways i thought she was an even more representative new yorker than -- >> right. >> you know. these times -- those wonderful times stories that came out for the months after september 11th. they weren't quite as vivid to me as this one was. it wasn't quite at whitewashed but seemed to me -- and i did have a fantasy, too, maybe she did walk from her life and we'd see her re-appear one day. to finish the story, in 2008 ruled an official victim of september 11th.

an image of a woman that could be her in her building, in her security video turning away, and walking out the door presumably in response to a noise or to the towers falling. and it seems she might have gone to help the victims as doctor. >> that is, you know, one element of that tragic day that has always intrigued me. walking around the area the thursday, the friday, the weekend after and the weeks that ensued immediately after the collapse of the towers. the posters everywhere. the missing. because of the way the mind works or these minds work at times, you wonder how much, perhaps a few, perhaps not any at all, people just went into the wind, because of the destruction in their lives prior to that. >> you know, what a great way to re-invent yourself. the ultimate reinvention to start your life over, and you know, i think that was initially

one of the theories with this particular woman. as it turns out, there was never any -- her credit cards never used, passport never used. simply no trace of her but an intriguing possibilities. >> in what way do you think a day in the life in the city has changed? >> i think it's changed in early ways. we had the earthquake last week and i think everybody immediately flashed back to something's happening. i think that anxiety is never far from surface. i think it's changed in good and bad ways. had i first came to new york in 1980. we have a sort of existential dread, looking over our shoulders. we were scared. the prosperity of the '90s, giuliani crackdown on crime, making new york so safe, it was almost ridiculous. then just when we ceased to fear the subways, as a source of sort

of home-grown crime, suddenly we're attacked, and suddenly life is scary again. on the other hand, though, one of the things we learned, i think, on that day. we started talking to strangers. noticing the people who rode in elevators with us and in some ways partly because they might be the ones to pull us out of the rubble and partly because they might be carrying a violent anthrax. suddenly i think new york became a more civil place. it became a place where we noticed our neighbors more. a place where it was no longer uncool to help a stranger on the street, as unnew york as that may seem. >> it has changed. >> people make eye contact in a way they never did before. >> on the subway. >> on the subway. >> i come back from other places, and over the past several years have found it strange that when i walk in the upper west side, people are kinder.

kinder here than in a lot of other major cities. it wasn't that way in 1989. >> 1989, we were literally stepping over bodies and proud of the fact we were jaded and we did not look up. and we did not look around, and that is simply different now. i think along with the, you know, 9/11 i think restored our sense of ex-eex-e -- siecivic p rube virtue. we were proud of the way we responded. >> the painbaperback is out. thank you so much. "the good life." business before the bell is coming up. later, joe will perform his song "reason to believe." his tribute, our tribute, right

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tough morning. front page "in tthe times picay" drew brees matching up. the defense seemed helpless to stop opposing offenses.

you would have thought the nfl's new kick offrule rads would remove -- take this. he even loses footing for a second, retains it and goes 108 yards. packers took an early lead. saints came marching back. >> that's impressive. >> time expired at the end of the game. packers made a goal line stand to set up a game-tying conversion. green bay wins the season opener. >> mark ingram, stopped at the goal line. >> yeah. >> aaron rogers looked great. >> so did drew brees, actually. >> what is the new kickoff rule? >> moved it up to the 35 yard line to cut back on injuries to kick return teams. >> basically kick it out of the end zone every time. >> thank you. we'll be right back. and here you go. we shall return.

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right now warren buffett ways a lower tax rate than his second. an outrage he has asked us to fix. we need a tax code where everyone gets a fair shake. and where everybody pays their fair share. >> president obama speaking last night in the joint address to congress. you're looking at a live picture of one world trade center. the building still under construction here at ground zero. expected to be completed sometime in the year 2013. we want to go down and look at market. melissa francis is standing by at cnbc headquarters. i'm struck sitting here at ground zero thinking about the day of september 11th, 2001. one of the handful only of times that the market stopped trading, and then again how quickly they opened that following monday,

september 17th. >> yeah. absolutely. that is one of the things that is really on traders' minds here today. i just spoke with the ceo of cantor fitzgerald and he was -- he lost 650 employees on that day and on that day pledged to deliver 25% of profits to the victims' families over the next five years. that turned out to be hundreds of millions of dollars. something traders are thinking about a lot today. also, of course, back to trading. we were on that monday. watching pictures opened slightly negative. heading towards now. a lot of reaction to the president's plan last night. economists are out already this morning evaluating it. we saw mark zandi from moody's saying it could cut 1% from unploem from nine in change to eight in change. if you hire someone to fix a broken window and the window is fixed, that's what we're hearing

the plan is temporary. looks like it could be a negative day here on wall street. back to you, willie. >> melissa francis, cnbc headquarters. the political reaction. from the president's speech. when we come back on "morning joe" a look back at the last day of the pre-9/11 war. we'll look at what was making news on september the 10th, 2001. be right back. [ agent ] so your policy looks good, is there anything else?

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welcome back to "morning joe" live above ground zero here this morning. you're going to hear a lot this weekend, today, about the post-9/11 world. a phrase we've become familiar with. we thought we'd pause and take a step back and look at the last day of the pre-9/11 world. here's what was making news on september the 10th, 2001. president bush tonight is under increasing pressure to do something about the troubles in the american economy. >> the military's already on a tight budget. seriously strapped for cash. >> today we declare war on bureaucracy, not people. in this period of limited funds we need every nickel. every good idea, every effort to help modernize and transform the

u.s. military. >> today glen braswell takes the fifth from a senate investigating herbal anti-aging products. >> 120 winds, north-northwest away from the northeast coast. that's what's going on around the coast. here's what's happening in your neck of the woods. >> i was there watching the williams' sisters play. serene no is a real -- and venus is a -- >> closing in on mark mcgwire's single season record. >> this is hollywood. discover him, hire him, and he becomes the name of this movie "rock star." >> another shark attack. >> fashion week here in new york city. you're looking at the tent right here in rockefeller center. >> the kov story. how president george w. bush became the xliii president. >> the president is going to fly for a forum at jacksonville,

florida, elementary school. >> and, of course, the next morning the president was at that florida elementary school. booker elementary in sarasota, florida, reading a book to second graders when he received word from andy card that america was under attack. we'll be right back with joe performing his new single "reason to believe" a tribute to 9/11, when "morning joe" returns.

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welcome back to "morning joe." it's 54 past the hour. shall i step into the light? there we go. >> you know, you stay around me long enough, you'll learn tv. >> thank you. i learn everything from you. all right. for the past couple of weeks news organizations have been trying to figure out what to do to remember 9/11, to honor the day, and to pay tribute to those who were lost and those who are still fighting. we decided here at "morning joe" to pay tribute in song. it's a song you wrote, joe, right after 9/11, but you updated it. >> more importantly, the video. because there are remarkable images out there and the "morning joe" team has put together a video that's so moving. but, no. i had written the song ten years ago. played it for nobody. people are suffering ten years later having to hear me actually

play it, but it was to remember, my way of remembering those lost to 9/11. ten years later, though, i've got so many friends and know so many people in the military who have been forgotten by middle america. not intentionally. just life has gone on. they suffered, they've sacrificed. i wanted that last verse to be for the moms and the dads, to husbands and wives, to children of the loved ones who miss their husbands, wives, fathers, sons, every night. >> proceeds of this song, which is available on itunes are going to "operation man." we're going to hear it now. those accompanying, and here is joe's "reason to believe." ♪ in the flash of an hour

watching dreams fall from towers ♪ all i want to came tumbling now ♪ now that face on the wall is a ghost in a hole of a place where he never comes around ♪ and what would you guess about a stranger's caress ♪ ♪ that reminds me of what we used to be ♪ at the end of the hour when i'm drained of all power ♪ ♪ i still find the resign to believe ♪ ♪ ♪ i could listen alone to that message on the phone

he said a prayer that hes wien whispered good-bye ♪ now that boy is a man and i call him when i can ♪ how i hope that he don't hear me cry ♪ and what would you guess about a stranger's caress that reminds me of what we used to be ♪ ♪ at the end of the hour when i'm drained of all power i still find the reason to believe ♪ ♪

♪ and still i cry underneath september skies ♪ ♪ my nightmare goes on in an endless war tell me, please, how many more ♪ have to die before my sweet boy comes home ♪ ♪ and what would you guess about a stranger's caress that reminds me of what we used to be ♪ at the end of the hour, when i'm drained of all power ♪ ♪ i still find the resign to believe ♪ ♪ ♪