good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. it is a tug-of-war on capitol hill with the newly minted super committee locked in the middle. house speaker john boehner says sorry, mr. president, no new taxes to help pay for the jobs bill. are we in storer another d.c. styles jobs bill. senator mark begich, you are one of 36 senators who called for a bipartisan approach that puts you in a special category. looking at what the speaker has said and what the president said, where do you see room to negotiate? >> i hope it's just a little bit of what you have described as washington gridlock. i call it washington show and tell so hopefully we'll get beyond that and honestly as we sat yesterday, 36 of us, bipartisan effort, one of the issues i was excited to talk about, the whole issue of the tax reform debate, if you washed and listened to each one of those democrats and republicans yesterday we got busy talking about how we can move forward on real tax reform that's necessary

to propel this country forward. there's a proposal about senator wy zn den, coates and myself put forward for a simplification of taxes, lower the corporate rate and get rid of the loopholes and make it easier for businesses to take advantage of the incentives out there. i'm like you and everyone in america, kind of fed up with the gridlock and the positioning that goes on to get a headline or a piece in the paper. i'm hopeful we can move forward and i believe the american people, a lot of the folks, senators and house members, got an earful when they were back in august. i know when i went back, it didn't matter where i went, personal time going to the grocery store, hardware store or out on official events people told me one thing, i don't care, democrat or republican, get something done, work together, and quit the politicizing and i

hope speaker boehner isn't into the politicizing again just because it sounds good for his caucus because we got business to do here and american people, alaskans are telling me get busy. >> in fact, bloomberg poll validates that, this shows the view of elected officials is really in the basement. 26% want to throw them all out, 28% think all you guys do is fight. 35% want compromise, only 8% believe that your colleagues are doing the best that they can. >> it's interesting when you said we're in the basement. if you have a basement that floods and the hole where the sump pump goes that's where we are. what you saw yesterday, 36 of us saying look here are some principles we can work forward to and work on or the tax reform legislation that i mentioned just a little bit ago that democrats and republicans sitting down and saying let's move forward. the challenge is, and it really is an ongoing neverending

election cycle is we're here to do business. we'll have some wins and we're going to have some losses in the sense of the way we do business around here. last night it wasn't super in the sense of the way i describe it. we passed a disaster relief bill, short term faa and short term transportation bill but those last two short terms to me, those could be long-term and you talk about creating jobs, you know, rebuilding our roads and water and sewer and infrastructure in this country creates thousands of jobs. instead we're nickel and diming ourselves to death and arguing over, you know, to be honest, petty politics and we have to compromise and compromise is not bad. it's okay, you know, it's kind of like you have to get some people to think that we're here not to just be so hard in our positions because when you're hard in your positions nothing gets done. i mean on both sides, democrats as well as republicans, if we're too extreme, nothing gets done,

we go backwards. look at that score you just talked about on the s.a.t. scores. we could argue why but we are not doing as good as we should be when it comes to education in this country compared to other countries, because we've been twiddling our thumbs and arguing amongst ourselves. my view is, i'm hopeful. i think a lot of members got some wake-up calls during their august work session back in their own home district. i'm going to work aggressively on issues like tax reform where i see bipartisan opportunity, jobs in this economy, i think there are huge opportunities, we met with veterans yesterday, a group of veteran organizations, there's a great bill that's available moving both in the senate and the house to help create an employment opportunity for our veterans which have some of the highest percentage of unemployment, so there are some pieces out here, we should grab them, create some opportunities and victories and at the same time put some folks to work and what a better group but our veterans who have sacrificed so much and there's no question as

a member of the veterans committee i've seen this bill we're working on now we've moved through, the house has moved through our companion bill it's a winner and we should move forward on these kinds of legislation. >> thank you so much, senator, for starting us off here today. appreciate it. >> thank you, have a great day an a great weekend. kelly o'donnell, nbc news capitol hill correspondent and david gregory, moderator of "meet the press." kelly i heard you say there were 36 senators. it's a start. >> it's hard to realize how unusual that is for democrats and republicans to stand shoulder to shoulder. senator begich is flying back to anchorage every weekend so he has a long flight ahead of him. he's one of the voices trying to bridge the gap. lisa murkowski wound up the news conference, she's a republican, trying to get people to think about something that is not so cool these days in washington, that's compromise, as he

mentioned it. >> david, the speaker's speech yesterday really set people back because it seemed to be saying to the president, who was trying for either, you know, for reasons of philosophy or politics or both to incorporate some republican tax proposals in his big speech, he was saying not so fast. >> republicans are saying the financing for it, the way he pays for it still goes back to an older play book for democrats which is to tax the rich. republicans don't want to do that. i think our head is snapping about how fast we got back to the debt debate and that's where we are but you know, in both cases, they want a bigger debate about where the economy should move forward where i think republicans and democrats both miss it is that inaction is not what the american people are looking for, whether it's compromise -- government doing something when people are out of work and the economy is not growing is what's so important. >> this is the speaker yesterday talking about the. 's jobs bill. let's watch.

>> tax increases i think are off the table and i don't think they're a viable option for the joint committee. it's a simple equation. tax increases destroy jobs and the joint committee is a jobs committee. its mission is to reduce the deficit that's threatening job creation in our country. >> one of the president's plemsz is that he's got a bunch of democrats running in the other direction. this was bob casey yesterday. >> the approach that he's taking to have one big bill i think unfortunately collides with the skepticism that a lot of americans have about big bills. in the last couple of years they've seen a lot of big bills in their lives haven't improved very much. >> that was your interview yesterday with bob casey. he and joe manchin and others are raising questions. >> the president is missing an opportunity to pin republicans down by being narrower in the issues. a smaller set of policy issues

makes it harder for someone to vote against given whatever the topic is. by chunking it up that might be more successful. the president wanted a big sweeping plan. you might get more traction from republicans by doing it in pieces and one of the things that's interesting about hearing democrats say that, the president is trying to bring about unity. he had top advisers over at the hill yesterday trying to twist some arms and listen to some concerns but to have them profess they're behind the president and we're seeing people like bob casey and others who are saying i like some of the ideas but certainly not a full throated support of what the president's doing. tactically as well as on the substance. >> talking about a cafeteria menu. >> yes. >> the problem is ultimately, what is it that washington can do right now about the economy? not a lot. but it can do some things. the problem is the president wants a big bill after having passed the stimulus bill and the politics are not there. he's setting himself up for the

larger argument and run against republicans which he's starting to do, pass this bill be and if they don't they're the do nothing congress. again it's tough in this climate when the american people just want something done but i think the government toolbox is a little bit bare at the moment. >> it's interesting for republicans who you would normally say any tax cut or tax credit they'd jump at it. different spin for them to say we don't want a one tax credit followed by regulationing that would sort of undercut the value of that so it's a more nuanced argument from republicans but it's interesting for them not to see them jumping up and down for the tax cut ideas. >> what are your guests on sunday? >> senator mitch mcconnell, terrible numbers this week about americans getting poorer. voters are not feeling they're better off and former president clinton, enough said. clinton global initiative, and

also democratic anxiety. what kelly is reporting on is one thing but we've seen this before, people are panicking about president obama's chances for re-election, president clinton knows a thing or two about that. >> he does indeed. >> we'll assess the republican field as well. >> great headliners. rick perry, can he persuade voters that mitt romney is just another barack obama? still ahead a new documentary on a jordanian wedding that became a terror nightmare. send me your thoughts on twitter @mitchellreports. follow the show online a at #mitchellreports. so you earn. according to research, everybody likes more cash. well, almost everybody... ♪ would you like 50% more cash? no! but it's more money. [ male announcer ] the new capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash.

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rick perry and mitt romney are stepping up attacks on one another in what is increasingly looking like a two-man race.

bob shrum is a democratic strategist, david winston a republican strategist and president of the winston group and both join us now. hi to both of you. thanks so much. david first to you. perry trying to lump romney in with obama and hammering him on romney care. is that a good strategy? >> you know, no. i understand what he's trying to do in terms of trying to make the comparison in terms of what romney did in massachusetts in terms of health care but the idea that somehow mitt romney will behave like barack obama is just a stretch, and i don't see that particularly working. i understand what he's trying to do policy wise trying to compare mitt romney to obama in terms of how they'd be president now. >> this was perry last night. jefferson, iowa. >> romney care is driven private insurance costs up by $4.3 billion in massachusetts. it's cost taxpayers in iowa and across this country nearly $4

billion in medicaid and medicare costs. this isn't just about the state of massachusetts and the cost of them directly. it's also costing you. >> and bob shrum, the latest rick perry is in today's wall street, the op. ed suggesting that president obama's mistakes have encouraged palestinians to try to exploit u.s./israel weakness. just take that on for a moment and we'll move on to democratic politics. >> first i don't think perry knows the first thing about the mideast or about foreign policy. i think he's been briefed. somebody clearly wrote the piece for him. i agree with david, by the way on the other thing. i don't think he's going to convince people mitt romney is barack obama. he's not. i think barack obama is a lot better. i think where the argument will cut for him is that there's a sense that romney when he says it's okay for states to do this but not the federal government

to do it may not be where the republican party is. i think the republican is against any individual mandate. they've already dumped the whole op book on perry. a lot of republicans don't want him. they're scared. after they dumped the opposition research he's still leading quite substantial in the republican primary polls. >> at the same time, the democrats as you point out in the week in your latest column, bob, the democrats are sort of going after each other on the president. you call it the "democrats self-defeating cry baby chorus." what is your advice to the democrats campaigning that the president is vulnerable? >> when george w. bush fell behind kerry in the summer of 20004, the bush rangers and all of the republicans didn't suddenly come up with a bunch of gimmicks saying fire everybody, get rid of cheney. democrats have to grow up. there's a lot at stake. polls show the president beating

romney by six and perry by eight. this is what i think will be the low point of his presidency but i don't think it's helpful, for example, for james carville, who is a friend of mine to suggest the president fire everybody who works for him. he's not going to do it, a, and b, i seem to recall in june or early july of 1992, bill clinton was running at 22% in the polls, third place, behind perot and bush, carville was running the campaign, he didn't panic and he didn't fire himself. >> carville is suggesting everybody else get fired. this was carville on cnn. >> you got to try to change direction here and looks like your same people are doing the same thing over and over again. some people have got to go. and it may be that they got to go unjustly or maybe they doing the best they can under the circumstances, doesn't matter. you got to give people a signal out there that something's not working and you're trying something else. >> so shrum categorized them as

the cry baby chorus. david winston talk about the jobs bill. you are perhaps an adviser to boehner, maybe once a week, maybe more, but what do you think is going into the speaker's thinking as he rejects the president's jobs plan pretty much from top to bottom? >> first off, most of what the president was offered was the equivalent of the original stimulus package and what he was talking about in terms of stimulus, too. >> there's a lot of tax cuts in there, a lot of republican options as well. >> but most of it is basically what he proposed before and then he tries to fund this whole thing by going back to eliminating the tax cuts for those making over $250,000, and here's what people need to understand where the speaker is at and where republicans are at. we view eliminating that particular tax break as increasing taxes on 89 had,000 small businesses and given that

particular point you're going to look at that, clearly a job crusher. so when the speaker says yesterday tax increases are off the table he's looking at it from that perspective. we don't want to increase taxes on 894,000 small businesses at this point. >> that doesn't mean there couldn't be compromise on some of the other aspects. >> no and he said clearly he wants to find areas of common ground, you've seen it, the free trade bill, the patent bill, a variety of things there are potential opportunities but when it comes to increasing taxes on small businesses, you're going to get a definite no from the republican majority in the house and republicans in the senate. >> to be continued. david winston, bob shrum, great to see you again. thanks for coming. from straight talk to top secret, what is it rick perry the public rather not see about his texas record? the politico briefing, next on "andrea mitchell reports."

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that he claims to be? critics say that during his decade as texas's governor he has run one of the most secretive states in the country. jim van dahl executive editor of the politico and joins us now. >> reporter: he's run a secretive mansion in texas especially compared to former governor george w. bush, when it comes to releasing e-mails, daily schedule, his deliberations on death penalty cases before him, responding to reporter requests under the freedom of information act inside the state, so it does not stack up well against bush, doesn't stack up that well against a lot of other governors and this has been a tug-of-war between the press and rick perry, as they try to get a better understanding of who he met with, and whose advice and council did he seek? >> there's this exchange where he was interviewed which evan

smith of "the texas tribune" on his e-mail policy, the policy of deleting e-mails after seven days. this was the exchange. >> reporter: your office has chosen and had an effect for some time and so did governor bush a policy where e-mails are described after seven days. why not have them stay around longer for the purpose of open records. >> how long? >> i don't know, you tell me. >> i'm asking you. i've already said it's seven days. >> governor do i get to pick? how about a month? >> no, you don't get to pick. >> well you asked me. >> well so i told you. >> that's the kind of rick perry governor perry that people are going to be taking a much closer look at as you have today in politico. >> think about it, if you were governor, you probably wouldn't want everyone looking at your e-mails and knowing what's going on in the decisions you're making, are you talking to donors, outside industry groups and that's been a real source of contention between him and the texas press corps but it extends beyond that, also who is sleeping over at the mansion, in

george w. bush, he did release those records, what was his daily schedule, george w. bush did release some of those records and i think as this campaign progresses, he'll be under intense pressure from the press corps and opponents to release more and more of those details and he has a long record, raised a lot of money, we saw it pop up in the last debate where it became an issue how much money he took from merck. he has a lot of money over the years and people are trying to dig in, did donors get favors from his administration and people are continuing to dig in, ken vogel, investigative reporters, that's their job. >> some of the records uncovered show that donors travel with him, they went to the bahamas, state money was used to rent scuba diving gear and there are loose rules in texas. >> very laxed ethics rules, donors can give unlimited sums in many cases to both the governor and to his family and that's why people want to know,

you want to piece together the decisions made because they're in the right interests of texas or were decisions made because they helped donors and every single presidential candidate goes under the same amount of scrutiny. governor romney went through it last time, will continue to this time. perry is new to the stage and he's next time. >> jim vandehei, thank you. up next the oscar nominated documentary that exposed a lot of terrorism in jordan. also the falling s.a.t. scores. [ kristy ] my mom is well...weird. she won't eat eggs without hot sauce. she has kind of funny looking toes. she's always touching my hair. and she does this dancing finger thing. [ male announcer ] with advanced technology from ge, now doctors can diagnose diseases like breast cancer

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continent. finance ministers from germany and austria criticize geithner's call for more advances in fiscal policy. geithner conceded the united states is not in a strong situation to lecture europe about its economic woes. a packaging era has led to a major drug company to issue a nationwide recall of its birth control pills. the company says the mistake obscures the expiration date and tablet orientation on many packages and could lead to incorrect dosages and unintended pregnancies. security concerns at pro football games has led to recommend patdowns at all checkpoints before stadium games. and for the first time nasa astronomers have spotted a planet that has two suns. they're calling the planet tatuoin after a fictional planet in "star wars." the supreme court delayed the execution of a texas inmate

dwayne buck while his case is reviewed. he was within hours of becoming the 236th person executed on rick perry's watch. >> in the state of texas, if you come into our state and you kill one of our children, you kill a police officer, you're involved with another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice in the state of texas, and that is you will be executed. >> what do you make of -- >> and the crowd applauded. pete williams is nbc's justice correspondent, that reaction certainly a striking one at that debate. what is this case about? because as i understand it, there isn't a real question as to the guilt or innocence of this death row inmate. the question is whether there was prejudicial information in front of the jury? >> during the sentencing phase, that's exactly right his lawyers are not arguing he isn't guilty.

they're saying the sentencing phase, sentencing trial was improperly influenced by testimony about the future dangerousness of people based on their race and they say that in similar cases about five or six other cases in texas that the state has taken the position that you're right, the jury should never have heard that testimony and in those cases a new sentencing hearing, his lawyers are saying this should be just like those others. the state of texas is saying no, this one's different, because the prosecution didn't call the psychologist. the defense did and that makes this different, andrea. >> pete williams, it's going to get a lot of attention because it's rick perry. thanks so much. >> you bet. a man thought it would be the happiest day of his life until a suicide bomber killed his wife and 26 of his guests.

what he found was documented in an hbo documentary called "killing in the name." >> if we just are going to sit there and listen of what's happening and we are not going to say anything about what we have felt or what we have been through, this terror will never end. >> we are joined by the film's executive producer, kyra mack and film's director jed rothstein. carrie first to you. we talked about it beforehand, you were inspired to want to make this film because of 9/11 and your own loss. >> my mother was murdered on september 11th, 2001, she was a passenger on the flight. i met ashraf in 2008. we often hear the voices of the terrorists and the survivors are left behind. we created global survivors

network, for terrorism survivors. if bin laden is going to make movies, why shouldn't we? >> when you met ashraf and started making the film what did you learn about the incident? i remember covering it and writing stories about it. amman, jordan, was such a safe place. >> ashraf was not expecting his wedding would be attacked, he had no particular reason to be a target of terrorists. that's so instructive about his story, terrorism can affect everyone. ashraf wanted to turn this tragedy into a positive, a force for good, a positive mission. i think the reason that his story is so compelling is because he rises from this tragedy without malice and really tries to start a very, very difficult and very important conversation and the process of him doing that is what i felt would be a compelling story and that's what we follow in the film.

>> one of the things, carrie, he goes to madras, one of the schools where students are taught that the bali, indonesian bombers, nightclub bombers were heroes. >> that's correct. the fact is they didn't realize that indonesians just like themselves, people who practice islam were killed alongside some of the westerners that day and so we were able to show them through video someone who looks like them, prays like them, talks like them, speaks their language, show them another side, wait a minute, what you're talking about here is killing innocent civilians, people who live close to you and look and sound just like you and they've never seen that before. >> ted, how does this message resonate? how do you reach out to -- jed, sorry. >> that's okay be. >> how does this message resonate throughout the musz limb community? >> the fact it's coming from asharaf, a muslim man, the fact he delivers it humbly. he listens to people. he doesn't just come in and

dictate to them. i think he's trying to start a conversation and it's a difficult one to start, but it's one that asharaf is effective at getting going. it's something that as we are seeing now across the middle east, things that people thought could never change sometimes can change. it just takes one person to broach a topic that seemed impossible before and that's what asharaf is doing and the fact that he is a survive himself, the fact he speaks from the heart does resonate with people. >> and let me just mention that there will be an encor arnz are airings on hbo2, september 18th, 9:00 a.m., september 25 at 5:00 a.m., september 30th at 5:15 a.m., 5:30 p.m., of the documentary, really powerful stuff, jed rothstein and carrie lamack. we're sorry for your loss

>> thank you. >> you are trying to turn it into something educational through the rest of the world. >> it's the best to honor my mom and ashraf's death and others killed by terrorists around the world. >> ashraf and nadia have had another child? >> that's right. >> and their new life together is on a happier plain. >> indeed it is. and in a little over a week we're back in the education nation world, nbc news all the networks of nbc, the second annual education nation, week-long examination of our country's education system, where have we improved in the last year and which areas do we need more work. michelle ree founder of students first, thanks so much for joining us. one of the things that was striking this week is the s.a.t. scores, the lowest that we've seen in both reading, the average down to 497, math 514.

we're talking about a real decline in s.a.t. scores. how important an indicator is this to you? >> it's a very important one, certainly not the end all be all. when you couple that with other statistics that have recently come out including the fact that college, going into college completion rates for the u.s. have dropped internationally as well it is cause for alarm and i think that there are, you know, some people out there saying the u.s. is doing just fine, we don't have anything to worry about. if you look at these indicators, and how we've fallen over the last two decades, it really is something that we need to be focused on as a nation. >> is there some argument that the s.a.t. is making their pushback from the college board that there is more diversity among the people taking the test, the kids taking the test? is that a good argument or reinforce the failures of our

primary education system, the secondary? >> it is certainly one thing to take into consideration but we should not be lowering expectations in any way because more kids are taking the s.a.t. that's aned admirable goal to wk towards, more kids are having access to college, but as we're giving more kids access, we have to make sure they're still meeting the same standards. >> the president was speaking about this across the river in virginia today. i want to play a little bit of his speech from this morning. >> and if we want companies to hire our workers, we need to make sure we give every american the skills and education that they need to compete. the reason that you guys are doing so well is you had a foundation very early on in math, in science, and language arts that allowed you to success even at a very young age.

>> michelle one of the things that you pointed out that last in, first out, some of the newest teachers who are typically in large minority communities are really bearing the brunt of getting fired because of these budget cuts. >> yeah that's absolutely right. we made a tremendous amount of progress over the last few months in fact the last legislative session, a number of states like florida and nevada, michigan, ohio, tennessee, indiana, actually change their state laws to ensure that last and first out policies were repealed and that teachers would be laid off by quality instead of seniority, but just yesterday i got an e-mail from a teacher relatively young teacher who said that she had just been given her pink slip and that she is no longer working but she found out she was nominated for teacher of the year in the district. these are the things that make

absolutely no sense to parents and students and the policies we have to make sure we're changing. >> amichelle rhee, thank you vey much. join us monday september 26th, live in new york with former secretary of state general rocon paul and wife alma powell on improving the well-being of our nation's children. that's a week from monday right here. coming up, the fight for libya, rebels under heavy fire today retreating from gadhafi's last remaining stronghold, we're live in tripoli next, on "andrea mitchell reports." new triple double oreo. ♪ yo stufy, come here! [ shoes squeaking ] looked better on paper. [ strike! ] down the hill? man: all right. we were actually thinking, maybe... we're going to hike up here, so we'll catch up with you guys.

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because we believe an educated world is a better world. [ male announcer ] university of phoenix is proud to sponsor education nation. ♪ ♪ ♪ when the things that you need ♪ ♪ come at just the right speed, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ medicine that can't wait legal briefs there by eight, ♪ ♪ that's logistics. ♪ ♪ freight for you, box for me box that keeps you healthy, ♪ ♪ that's logistics. ♪ ♪ saving time, cutting stress, when you use ups ♪ ♪ that's logistics. ♪ i'm richard lui in for tamron hall. coming up, is it a case similar to jaycee lee dugard. a 17-year-old boy tells new mexico police he is robbie romero, a boy who disappeared ten years ago. how credible is his story?

tens of thousands of angry bees attacking a man in a wheelchair putting him and three others as well as him in the hospital. officials are investigating whether it was a swarm of the so-called killer bees. and now to "hot spots." >> palestinian officials say they are going to ask the security council to accept them as a full member of the u.n. next week, setting up a showdown with the u.s. which has promilessed to veto that move. the palestinians did leave some wiggle room offering to listen to suggestions from u.s. envoys. in yemen thousands of protesters are demanding that president saleh's resignation after the u.s. state department indicated he was on the verge of signing a deal to transfer power. today a saudi official said saleh would not return to yemen but remain in saudi arabia where he's been since june. the u.n. general assembly has approved giving libya's u.n. seat to the transitional council

even as rebel forces try to break the backs of gadhafi supporters in their last major strongholds. nbc's mike taibbi is live in tripoli. mike? >> reporter: hello, andrea. how are you? if you hear gunfire in the course of this report it's celebratory gunfire in tripoli in martyr's square. in the city it's hard to tell there's a war going on but there is as you say in two significant fronts. [ gunfire ] in the city of bani walid and gadhafi's hometown of sirte, southeast along the coast of the mediterranean. in both of those places anti-gadhafi forces which used to be called rebel forces have been waiting for two weeks for the order to go in, hoping they can negotiate a surrender in both of the towns as has happened so easily on the march to tripoli in the last six months. it didn't happen and today in both towns the anti-gadhafi

forces tried to move in and they were sent back with significant sniper fire, heavy fire and in the town of sirte there was an ied, roadside explosive which blew up a bus carrying a number of anti-gadhafi fighters and 11 were killed. it's a bloody battle even though here in tripoli and most of the country you can't tell there's a war going on and as you know and reported yesterday, tripoli and benghazi have been so secure they hosted visits by british prime minister david cameron and french president nicolas sarkozy and erdogan. the war is far from concluded and there's been no declaration and won't be until the fighting is over a declaration of liberation, not by a long shot. >> mike taibbi and the u.n. ceding the libyan delegation

officially having that vote we're hearing from officials but an important reminder that the war still continues and gadhafi still on the loose. thank you so much, mike taibbi. a "new york times" photographer zawa silva lost both legs stepping on a land mine covering the war in afghanistan. yesterday he got his first assignment since being released from the walter reed medical center. silva standing on his prosthetic legs was greeted by president obama in the oval office before the ceremony. that can help lower cholesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. that's yours. lower cholesterol. lower cholesterol. i'm yummy. lower cholesterol. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste? honey nut cheerios. want whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. it's a win win. good? [ crunching, sipping ] be happy. be healthy.

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the latest web video to go viral. a senior couple trying to navigate the web posted with love by one of their grandchildren. >> i put it on capture.

i don't know how to do it. i just learned 20 things. she tried to teach me so much. >> the couple's video has had more than four million you tube hits. we don't know what they said to their grandchildren. post politics.com. chris joins us now. hey, chris. >> still trying to tell my dad how to set skype up so he can see my son. >> we have been there. >> exactly. we all fall in love with that. the worst week was probably someone connected to that queens democratic contest. >> you're right. we could have picked lots and lots of people. democrats generally. i went with anthony wiener and here's why.

he won it three times already. not a fourth time. he is going to be in the history books as the guy who is online and cost his party a seat. the bay held for 80 years. i can't emphasize that strongly enough. the whole ninth district was in the 1920s when f scott fitzgerald and zelda were running wild in the social scene. that tells you how long ago it was. it's a book mark or book end for anthony wiener. i don't think it did congress or congressman wiener any good. a tough loss at the worst possible time for democrats. a lot of nervousness already. >> this is a district in which president obama's approval rate suggest 43%. they are strong orthodox newish opposition to the president's

policy on israel and the democratic candidates's vote for gay marriages in new york. there were other factors. >> absolutely. let me say for the last six weeks or eight weeks given where president obama is in the polling and the data we have seen, he struggled with economic numbers and we have given it to him in past weeks. yes, not a get moment for the democratic party. we suggest there is unrest within their base. president obama won it by 11 points in 2008. if this district is competitive, we could be looking at a lot of districts we don't think of competitive being contested come 2012. >> it was a set back for democrats, but they say no national issue there. wait to see. >> we she shall see. >> thank you and have a great weekend. that does it for us. next week, we will be live in new york for the start of the un

general assembly and follow the show online with twitter. richard louie is in for tameron hall for news nation. hi, richard. >> thanks, again. s in next hour, the rush to save the life of a death row inmate. calls are growing to spare troy davis who is scheduled to die next week in georgia. the case against him is falling apart and there serious doubts she guilty. it's called an embarrassment for the white house. e-mail shows staffers warning the controversial decision to give a massive loan to a struggling company that it might look bad for the president. details ahead. a 50% annual bon! so you earn 50% more cash. according to research, everybody likes more cash. well, almost everybody... ♪ would you like 50% more cash? no! but it's more money. [ male announcer ] the new capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash.

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♪ my benjamin, he helped me with the countdown. "5 days, mom. 10 days, mom." i think after 30 days he got tired of counting! [ male announcer ] ask your doctor about chantix. over 7 million people have gotten a prescription. learn how you can save money and get terms and conditions at chantix.com. whose non-stop day starts with back pain... and a choice. take advil now and maybe up to four in a day. or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. way to go, coach. ♪ >> right now news nation, thousands set to rally for a georgia death row inmate scheduled to die in a few days as witnesses change their testimony. hundreds of thousands of people are making pleas to stop the execution of a man they say is innocent. is it robbie? the latest on tests to find out

if a teenager is telling the truth about being a missing new mexico boy who disappeared over a decade ago. the highest levels in 24 years end up becoming a new campaign problem for rick perry. sunrise, sunset. times two. the new planet discovered that has two suns. i'm richard louie. an intensifying record from executing a death row inmate who many believe is innocent of the murder he was convicted of. troy davis is scheduled to die by lethal injection next wednesday. he was convicted of the death of an off duty police officer. there was never any physical evidence linking him to the crime. seven of the nine