before -- border control. good day, i'm andrea mitchell live in new york at the education nation experience here on the plaza. the country has reached a critical moment, teachers and students trying to succeed in a school system facing unprecedented social and economic challenges. so who better to discuss the way forward for america's schools than two pioneers for reform. former secretary of state, general colin powell and alma powell. they are the founders of america's promise alliance, a partnership between corporations, nonprofits and advocacy groups to improve the lives of children in our country. welcome to you both. thank you so much. and i should point out that i have joined alma powell in her work since last year's education nation. >> most proudly on our board. we're happy to have you. >> part of the continuing commitment. so america's promise, grad nation, what are the critical problems that you're now trying to address? >> well, we with our campaign are focused on the cities and

schools that have the highest problems. we identified early on that there were 2,000 dropout factories in the country. that number has less than more like 1600 now. but in those cities, they'll be digging down to meet the needs of the children in those cities. >> general powell, how does it work? how do you and america's promise and mrs. powell attack the problem city by city and identify some of the top performing communities? and we're going to get into that in a minute. >> we work through partnerships. this has to be solved at the community level. it can't be solved in washington. it has to be active people coming into the school place, really. and we can't just look at teachers and schools. you have to look at the community. you have to look at the upbringing of a child. if a child has never been read to, doesn't know colors or numbers, that child is behind. the child doesn't know he or she is behind until about one year in. and then that child realizes,

i'm not getting along with these other kids. i'm not keeping up with them. and that child will start to act out. so it has to be a total educational environment from schools back to the home, back to the community, back to early childhood learning. >> and we tried to focus on that through our competition for the 100 best communities for young people. every year we run this competition. communities have to come together with their resources and show how they are providing children those five promises and working to make it a graduation nation. we will be announcing this year's winners in a few weeks. but there's some wonderful examples of things going on around the country that i'd like to share with you. >> and we're going to talk about that in just a moment. i want to ask you, general powell and mrs. powell also about no child left behind because some big decisions have just been made. the president's decided to basically gut the program because it was, he believes and arne duncan believes, it was actually leading states in order to kpeelt and avoid the ram

figur figures, they were lowering standards to avoid the penalties. do you agree with that decision? >> i think that change was appropriate. and i don't disagree with president obama and arne duncan have done. but at the same time, there is quite a record that no child left behind has accomplished a great deal. it has started the process of setting standards and has brought lots of children up to those standards. but at the same time, let's see if they're not modifications that can be made to make it more acceptable to the states and provide a way for the states to achieve higher standards. >> mrs. powell, when you talk about the whole community and general powell talked about all of the other environmental factors, poverty, american poverty numbers, the latest census numbers are just extraordinary, profound. the poverty rate overall is 15.1%, we're talking about 46 million people in poverty. but the poverty rate for minorities, for black americans, 27.4%. for hispanic americans, it's 26%. and it's only 5. -- excuse me,

9.9% for white americans. >> yep. >> so poverty is an overwhelming problem. obviously the recession has driven more people into poverty. but for minority communities, general powell, and that affects every schoolchild in america. >> it does. and that's why i think getting our economy moving again and getting the unemployment rate down is so vitally important. we need a strong economy not just to allow our children to have more hope in their lives, because their parents have jobs, but in order for america to remain viable in the world community, which is increasingly being driven by economic issues, not political issues or issues of war and peace. it's issues of who is creating wealth or who is not. in poverty, all sorts of bad things start to happen in that home and community. and the minority communities in america are bearing a greater burden of our unemployment and economic distress. >> and mrs. powell, one of the teachers who spoke to brian williams in our town hall meeting, teacher town hall

yesterday, talked about racism. this is a teacher speaking about racism and the impact on schools. >> when we look at the demographics and the dynamics going on in our schools, there is a legacy, a legacy of racism that is part of the design. that quite frankly our students and our teachers are being played. >> unfortunately, racism is a part of our culture. and in situations of poverty and people who are not in the upper levels of our society, there is a strong sense of being discriminated against and left behind. and so we have to be conscious of this when we're working with them. and no, the civil rights movement did not put racism to bed. >> at the same time, it's important for our youngsters to realize that they can't hide behind this as an excuse. if there's a school in their community, whether it's apparently segregated or not, it's still a school. get all the learning you can. alma and i grew up in environments where there was a

great deal more racism 50, 60 years ago. but our parents never let that hold us back. they kept telling us, you keep studying and going to school. you keep believing in yourself and believing that this country will change and things will get better. but we've got a long way to go in america before we remove this legacy of racism that has contaminated us for the last couple hundred years. >> but the fact is that there's a real achievement gap because white kids are twice as likely to graduate and go on to college. >> that's one thing that we have to look at. but it is being worked on. i'd like to mention charlotte, north carolina, a southern city. charlotte, north carolina, has done more over the past two years of narrowing that gap between poor kids and white kids. they've done marvelous things with their education system. and just last week won a prize for what they've done. 50% of their kids are on subsidized lunch.

charlotte, mecklinburg is one of our best communities and the business community has come together and put together a model to work on those areas where people are left behind. >> one of the big questions is teachers' pay. this is a teacher who talked to brian williams at the teacher town hall yesterday -- to tamron hall, excuse me, at the education town hall yesterday. >> but if we want to keep the people in the classrooms who teach the best and have the most passion, then we have to pay them commensurate with the passion that they inspire in our students. >> to say that an increased salary would make me a better teacher is not true. i'm a better teacher for my students. i'm a better teacher for my community, and what i want is a seat at the table to discuss issues that affect me and my students. >> that's true but at the same time you have to pay them a living wage, and you have to compete in the mark plaetplace teachers. therefore i think we should look at increasing their play to a level commensurate with the contribution they are making to

their community and to the future of this country. >> mrs. powell, you mentioned that america's promise has the 100 best communities, and that's, in fact, being demonstrated down on the plaza. let's talk about those communities because you've got already, i think, up on your website as well. >> yes, we have that up on our website. we have some who are continuous winners. we have not announced yet the winners for this year. but in alexandria, virginia, for example, which has been a winner for the past three or four years, they partner with churches and the urban league to provide mentoring for young black men. americorps works in the community, going into the housing projects with parenting classes and tutoring sessions for young people. that's one example of everybody working together. we brought to massachusetts the boys and girls club has a school on wheels that goes, takes school to homeless children. it's efforts like that in communities that will help to

make the difference. >> we're getting so much support from the business community increasingly, and we're very excited businesses realize they're investing in their own future. their future customers and future employees. we mention target, what a great job target is doing. >> well, target is one of our newest partners, and they have just announced that they will be pledging their services to us for $3 million over a three-year period. target is focusing on literacy among young people, that all children be reading on grade level by grade four because if they're not -- >> that's when they start sliding. >> that's just one example of all of the businesses starting to come forward. >> we're going to take a quick break and more from general and mrs. powell coming up next including what are the 100 best communities and how can they help guarantee a child's success? and still ahead, republicans wringing their hands over rick perry. party elites again pressing chris christie to jump in. plus to hell and back again. a haunting look at one marine's

struggles to survive long after leaving the battlefield. and send me your thoughts on twitter@mitchellreports and follow the show online. this is "andrea mitchell reports" live from education plaza only on msnbc. [ carrie ] i remember my very first year as a teacher, setting that goal to become a principal. but, i have to support my family, so how do i go back to school? university of phoenix made it doable. i wouldn't be where i am without that degree. my name is dr. carrie buck. i helped turn an at risk school into an award winning school, and i am a phoenix. [ male announcer ] university of phoenix is proud to sponsor education nation. because we believe an educated world is a better world.

and we're back live here on the plaza, talking about the state of education in our country with two experts, colin and alma powell, co-founders of america's promise alliance. let's talk about the best communities. you talked a bit about alexandria, virginia, and charlotte, income mnorth caroli. you not only have teachers and parents, but you also have the business community helping. >> and there's a very important role for the business community to play. what we have to -- and what the 100 best communities show is that it's a matter of all of us coming together in a community. it's not just one entity. it's not just the schools. it takes everybody, churches, businesses, parents, civic organizations, all working together and coming together around a common cause. just last week, i was down in a very rural community. it isn't one of the 100 best because they didn't even know we had the competition. but they initiated their promise ten years ago, and they invited me back to see what they have

done. everybody in that community works together for the future of the children there. and it was so heartwarming in this little rural community to see the sheriff and his men who have a part in this, the l librari librarians, the boys and girls clubs, the 4h group, the day-care center, all of them working to deliver these five promises. because with this education system, yes, we've got to reform the classrooms, but we have to be sure that children are ready and able to learn when they come. and america's promise has always been about providing those five basic things that let young people have success. >> let's repeat the five promises. >> the five promises are not rocket science. they're very simple. a caring adult in every child's life. a healthy start. safe places to learn and grow after school. a marketable skill through effective education and most

importantly, an opportunity to give back to the community that sustains them. >> general powell, in today's "washington post," a story that the local budget cuts in the city of washington means that there will no longer be sunday hours at any public library. so the mlk jr. library, the downtown library, was the last to have sunday hours where there were lines of people lined up to use computers, to see the redskins, to read to their kids now shut. when we have these kinds of budget cuts across the country, it's taking away all of the extra support system that our schools need. >> i think it's unfortunate that that happened. i know that library very well. it's happening across the country, cuts in schools, cuts in after-school programs, cuts in music and arts in order to focus on math and science and things like that, i think it's unfortunate. and as we go through these difficult economic times, i hope all political leaders and legislatures will understand that you don't want to short your future. you don't want to punish the

children, which is what you're doing with these kinds of cuts. you've got to find ways to save elsewhere that do not hostage the future of this country. >> and the disparity in middle schools, one middle school has a part-time two-day-a-week spanish teacher in washington, d.c. another middle school has a variety of foreign languages and all sorts of extracurricular activities including mandarin chinese. >> that's that educational gap. >> in one city. >> one of the things i find as i go around the country is that in the inner city, you find the economic difficulties and the lack of sufficient funding. but when you go to the suburbs outside where the families are intact, where everybody's a property owner, where the property taxes support the school system, the schools are beautiful. our entire school system is not broken. we know the problem. 1600 schools, district schools, that we have to focus on down from 2000. so we're making progress.

a lot has happened since 15 years ago. >> 15 years. >> next year 15 years. people are coming together. people understand the problem. and in the kind of communities that alma has been talking about, the best communities, it really takes leadership, political leadership and chamber of commerce-type leadership where people know the problem and are determined to do something about it, and they mobilize a community. people are waiting to be mobilized. >> general, that's a perfect segue into, i believe, an announcement that i read about leadership, the book. >> yes. >> tell me about your next book. >> i'm working on a book now. i just signed a contract with harper-collins this morning. and it's called "it worked for me: lessons in leadership and life." it's things i've discovered in the course of my life that caused me to have some success and which i think might be useful to share with others, and people will, i think, enjoy it, and it will be out next may. >> next may. i'm just thinking next may, the spring of 2012. >> right. >> any political aspects to

that? >> this is not -- no, absolutely not. there's a father's day aspect to it. it's going to be coming out to catch father's day. and it's going to be a book for young people, for not-so-young people, for corporations, for military units. i want it to be a book that people will enjoy, and it will be short chapters. pull out the chapter you like. don't read the chapter you don't like, but you'll like them all. >> i'll like them all, indeed. alma powell, so great to see you. general powell, thank you very much, both of you. america's promise and for everything that you're doing and thank you for your service. >> thank you, andrea. >> thank you. >> and be sure to logon to educationnati educationnati educationnation.com to join the conversation. there are live chats you can take part in online. coming up, the florida upset. with a protest vote against rick perry or all of the above. while florida raises cain, it's all about mitt romney in michigan. we'll talk to the michigan republican chair. courting chris christie. even "snl" is weighing in. >> that concludes tonight's

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surprising results in the florida straw poll this weekend have rick perry on the ropes, michele bachmann no longer in the running, and a surprise winner, former godfather's pizza ceo, herman cain. cain had his explanation this morning on "today." >> message is more powerful than money. rick perry and mitt romney, they both spent a considerable amount of money in order to try to influence that florida straw poll. the people are listening to the message. >> politico editor in chief john harris joins me now. this was something of an upset. do you think it was sort of a none of the above? you know, people -- >> i do think the message that mr. cain is right, message does

matter. particularly in contests like this. in this case i think the message many of the cain backers was trying to send was as you say, a message of discontent. we don't like these choices. we want a more robust conservative alternative, and we're not happy with the field as we see it. >> well, there is a new cnn poll today that still shows rick perry on top, in fact. so despite these debate performances, he still has some juice. and mary matalin was saying yesterday, on one of the sunday shows, i think it was on abc, saying debates around everything. do you think that rick perry as a retail campaigner can get past these debate performances and prove to the party leaders that he could be a credible opponent of barack obama? >> i really think he needs a good debate performance to end this narrative, andrea. i think the next one is october

10th, a bloomberg/"washington post" debate up in new hampshire. he's really got to be ready to play that. but i would say debate performances aren't everything. neither, andrea, are national polls. the presidency is won in individual locales and individual races, individual events, not national polls. at the equivalent time four years ago the polls would have shown rudy giuliani leading the republican pack. that proved perishable once we went to a national context to a state-by-state context. and by the time we reached florida, which is what giuliani was hoping would be a boost for his campaign, it was effectively dead because he nothing in iowa, nothing in new hampshire and meanwhile those national poll numbers collapsed. so the national poll numbers are interesting, but really nothing more than highlighting the possibility of perry. and he's got to make that possibility tangible and real by showing genuine organizational strength and poll strength in

specific states and specific events coming up. >> john harris, the day after the weekend of those polls, the straw polls. thank you very much. michigan republican party also held a straw poll this weekend on mackinaw island, and mitt romney played up his michigan roots to party activists in the state where his father was governor. >> there's only one theng michigan doesn't have, and that is there's never been a president of the united states that was born in michigan. and i'm hoping to rectify that. >> romney won the straw poll in michigan with 51% of the vote, beating rick perry by 34 points. robert is the chair of the michigan republican party. thanks so much for joining us. is mitt romney strong enough to be the nominee against barack obama despite all of the other state reactions to him, which you could argue is a home state of michigan, but other states and other activists saying that they still want somebody else into this race?

>> hello, andrea. thanks for having me. yeah, i think what governor romney is showing that not only his strength in michigan but that his message is beginning to permeate across the country. and look, we've got a great field out there on that debate floor. and i think as we look ahead, you'll see more definition, more vibrancy, more definition, and romney, you know, if he shows what he can do in michigan, he may likely be the nominee. >> what about all of the hankering after chris christie. how do you react to that? do you believe that chris christie could still get into the race at this late date? >> you know, i know folks are encouraging him. we hear that frequently. he's got a great message. he'd make a great candidate. but i think he's made his decision. it appears the time to come in would be now. and if he's going to do it, he should get in now. but, you know, that's between him and his family to decide. >> and what about rick perry? >> rick perry came in michigan. he gave a great speech.

the folks really reacted well. we had almost 2,000 attendees over the conference. all representatives every county in our state, all 83 counties. and his message was strong, and people reacted well to it. you know, in michigan, it's about jobs. we're ground zero for the impacts of the obama stimulus and the economy and all the implications of his governing. so i think that if rick perry campaigns in michigan and i hope herman cain will as well. he showed his strength in florida. we encourage him in michigan as well and open up the field and help to find the next president. >> richard, does the president get any credit for saving the automobile industry there? >> well, sure. i think you can't say that the dollars didn't help. of course, they helped. but the format of it, government-backed taxpayer money, there was a bankruptcy. there's a capital markets that deal with bankruptcies. there's financing for bankruptcies. it's called dip financing. it's one of the things governor

romney talked about early on is let the companies go through the normal course of bankruptcy, come to a good conclusion, deal with debtholders and shareholders and vendors and management and put the company back on track. so was it the best use of taxpayers' money? i'd say no. was the outcome acceptable? certainly. nobody can complain about that. >> robert schostak, thanks for joining us. and president obama tells black lawmakers to quit complaining. how's that going over? and to hell and back again. the new documentary that exposes the true cost of war. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" live from the education nation experience only on msnbc. [ woman ] my grocery bill isn't wasteful spending. [ woman ] my heart medication isn't some political game. [ man ] our retirement isn't a simple budget line item. [ man ] i worked hard. i paid into my medicare.

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cities over three days. this wooeekend the president ga a blunt pep talk to the black caucus which has been critical of the administration's strategy. >> stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop complaining. we are going to press on! we've got work to do! >> congresswoman maxine waters responded this morning on cbs. >> i'm not sure who the president was addressing. i found that language a bit curious because the president spoke to the hispanic caucus. he certainly didn't tell them to stop complaining. and he would never say that to the gay and lesbian community who really pushed him on don't ask, don't tell. >> chuck todd is nbc news chief white house correspondent. hey, chuck. >> hey there. >> so did the president go too far in firing up the black caucus? i saw some caucus members saying it was just fine, but maxine waters really did seem to be taking exception. >> well, there has been -- one

thing, since obama became a candidate for president in 2007, there has been a generational split among key african-american leaders. and we've seen this, and folks in maxine waters' generation has been one side of this. and to me i feel like in talking to african-american leaders, they come back to that all the time, that ultimately that's where the split is, and they get upset more because president obama doesn't pick up the phone enough. doesn't keep one-on-one contact enough particularly with the older generation of african-american leertd leader congress. >> frankly, i hear that from a member of members of congress and the senate. >> who are not alone. >> now let's talk about republicans. wow! the last couple of days. first of all that disastrous debate. but it was great fodder for "snl." this was brit hume's reaction on fox to the perry performance. >> perry really did throw up all

over himself in the debate at a time when he needed to raise his game. perry is about, you know, one half a step away from almost total collapse as a candidate. >> and here's the way "snl" treated it. >> now the conservative base needs to know that rick perry stands with them 110%. i believe we need to lower the corporate tax rate. i believe we need fewer regulations. i believe all 10-year-old girls should be vaccinated for hpv so they can enter into meaningful sexual relationships. try and get rick perry consistent, i believe social security is a ponzi scheme. i believe we need to build a fence to keep the illegals out. however, should any illegals get through and have children here, i think we should open our hearts and pay for their education. do-over. rick perry listens to two people, jesus christ and rachel maddow. no? >> chuck, i mean, alec baldwin, just pitch perfect.

really, what does rick perry have to do to fix his campaign? >> well, he's got to do a few things. number one, he's got to perform better at just one -- any debate. particularly the next one. they know that. you talk to the perry folks. they know a couple things. number one, they need to start laying out policy initiatives. he is better on the stump. he's better as a retail campaigner, so she need to showcase him where he is stronger. that is out campaigning doing those things. that's one. two, i think you're going to see them try to go on offense a little bit, try to do -- and they did it today. they released a video hitting romney on health care. but they need to be doing that more and trying to do it better than perry himself was able to do at the debate. he was incapable of delivering the flip-flop hit. they're going to try it more, i think you'll see that over the next couple of weeks, see him try to roll out some policy speeches, roll out a jobs plan. and then simply, as i had one aide say to me, at the end of the day, though, he's got to do better at these debates. they know it. he knows it.

and while they won't say what they're going to do to try to get better, it sounds to me like he's going to be doing a little more mock debating, bringing in more folks to try to help him out on this stuff because he didn't seem quick on his feet. we've got to remember, andrea, he's increased the total number of debates in his entire 26-year career by 50% in the last three weeks. >> we've seen the difference in mitt romney's debate skills just from the last campaign cycle. >> that's right. >> but i'm not sure how much time there is left for rick perry because there's a lot of republican leaders, as you know, you're hearing them talking about chris christie. that may be wishful thinking, but they really are really not persuaded that rick perry is up to a general election campaign against barack obama. >> well, we also need to remember, though, what this is ultimately about. this is about discomfort with mitt romney. why was there demand for rick perry to get in? discomfort with romney. why has there been demand with chris christie to get in? and that is something the perry

campaign believes at the end of the day is still on their side, which is they're not mitt romney. that's the whole reason why there was a vacuum. that's why he so easily filled it. frankly why if chris christie changed his mind, and he's certainly keeping a schedule like a national candidate for something with the big reagan library speech coming up this week, fund-raisers around the country and including a republican hotbed like missouri. so, you know, i know that christie is saying no, no, no, but i feel like he's doing this. keep calling. stop calling. >> right. >> keep calling, stop calling. so something -- sometimes you sit there and you're, like, well, something's going on here. but ultimately if i were the romney folks, this would be a flashing yellow light to me because they didn't come and vote for him at the straw poll. they voted for herman cain. >> you know, to your point about chris christie, if he wanted to just quiet this all down and put out the fires, he could hunker down in trent.

en down in trenton. >> you mean not give a speech at the reagan library? that's something about his re-election for governor of new jersey. >> well, and some people are suggesting that given the budget cuts and the problems in new jersey where he's got some controversial decisions that he's made, he might have a better shot at running and winning the white house than winning the election. >> that is an argument that i'm told has been put to him. like if you wanted to be totally politically cynical about it, for his own political future, waiting till 2016, if republicans don't defeat the president, or 2020, if they do, is a long way off. you may be only a one-terminal governor of new jersey, never be able to win re-election. you know, there's so many ifs. and i think chris matthews uses this line, the galloping horse of history. sometimes it just goes right by you. and if you don't jump on, you'll never -- it will never come by again.

>> exactly. we have a number of candidates or almost candidates who have experienced exactly that. chuck todd, thank you very much. >> you got it. >> thanks for being with us. and also topping the headlines today, some welcome relief for drivers. the national average for a gallon of gasoline has dropped more than 12 cents over the past two weeks. according to a new lundberg survey. the average is now $3.54 with the lowest prices in st. louis. get there. the nypd is ready to prevent another suicide mission from the air. police commissioner ray kelly revealed that the nypd has weapons powerful enough to blow planes right out of the sky if there were another 9/11-type attack. during a "60 minutes" interview, kelly explained how he geared up to fight terrorists in the last ten years with a local counterterrorism unit created after 9/11. and after 3 1/2 years and a lot of false starts, boeing has rolled out the first 787 dreamliner. nippon japan gets the first and

hopes to be in the air by november. it's made of a carbon composite plastic instead of aluminum. windows are larger and have electronic dimmers instead of pull-down shades. the jet is 20% more fuel efficient than older planes and will have a much lower cabin pressure, 6,000 as compared to 8,000 per square inch. the two american hikers freed from iran last week spoke out for the first time about the nightmare that they spent more than two years in an iranian jail. fattal and bauer landed in new york yesterday and spoke to reporters. >> they do not deserve undue credit for ending what they had no right and no justification to start in the first place. it may be hard to believe, but congress is once again on the brink of a shutdown. the second time in nine months. the heart of this fight, whether or not fema money for disaster victims has to be offset by other budget cuts. nbc's kelly o'donnell is live on capitol hill where there is a senate vote set for later this afternoon around 5:30, kelly. the house is out, so once the

senate votes, then what happens? >> reporter: well, and we expect that will not pass. what that means is the senate trying to do its own version of providing funding for disaster victims and the states that have been so hard hit and keeping the government running for about six weeks. that will likely come to a halt based on all of what we're hearing from both parties. and then it's sort of a question of how did they negotiate some kind of an agreement? the house passed its version. it was sort of dead on arrival here in the senate. the senate's version is likely to not go to the next step. so they only have a matter of days to come up with an answer. so leaders are talking to each other. we're told not much progress yet. so it's, again, one of these decisions that will be made in the heat of deadline pressure with a lot of scrutiny facing members of congress when so many people are just fed up with this inability to get things done. so we talked to fema today. they say they have about $114 million left in the bank. and they go through that very rapidly because of the enormous number of disasters that have been declared by the federal

government this year. and so they're really kind of running on fumes. and within a couple of days, they might be out of money. same thing with the federal government. only funded through friday. so there is, again, that sense of needing to have a crisis to actually accomplish something. and because there was this schedu scheduled recess, most people aren't here. and so we don't yet know what the end game will be. everyone says there won't be a government shutdown. they'll find a way to fix it. but we don't know exactly what that path is just yet. andrea? >> kelly, just reading -- there was a story in today's "new york times" about a pennsylvania family, a couple, who were completely wiped out by the floods. and for people like that, to see the shenanigans, you know, what's going on with the politicians in washington, it's just mind boggling and infuriating. >> reporter: exactly. >> one has to ask, don't they get it? and is there a way for the house to come back or for them to do some sort of voice vote and get this thing done this week before fema runs out of money? >> reporter: there are ways. and we do find that members whose home districts have been

particularly hard hit seem to be able to reflect that sense of panic and frustration of the real people in their districts who are suffering because they are seeing it. same thing with senators who have states that have been particularly hard hit. the big issues have been the same fights we've seen before. if you're going to pay for some piece of legislation like funding fema, how would republicans say you do that, you do it by cutting something else. democrats say not when it comes to disaster relief. don't look for cuts now. fund fema. so that's the debate. and there are ways, but we don't know how they'll put it together. so there is a sense of stress here about can it be done in time? andrea? >> kelly o'donnell, 5:30, that senate vote. we are here live in new york at the education nation experience talking with leaders about what the future holds for our nation's schools. logon to educationnation.com and join the conversation. this is "andrea mitchell reports on" only on msnbc. [ woman ] jog, you've been stuck in the garage,

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i'm tamron hall. coming up on "news nation" at 2:00 p.m. eastern time, in just 125 minu 15 minutes, president obama will host a town hall meeting hosted by linkedin. these are live pictures. the president will take questions about his new jobs plan and the country's unemployment crisis. over the weekend, president obama was fired up, calling on african-americans to, quote, stop complaining and put on your marching shoes. well, those words have not rested well with congresswoman maxine waters. she says that the president's comments were not appropriate and surprising. congresswoman waters will join me live. plus we'll have live coverage of the president's town hall that's just ahead for you on "news nation." one american is dead, another is wounded after the second major attack on the u.s. embassy in kabul in less than two weeks. officials say the alleged gunman was an employee of the u.s. government who opened fire in an area of the embassy used as headquarters for the cia. the gunman was shot and killed by afghan security.

embassy officials say they are still investigating the gunman's motive. the attack in kabul underscores the ongoing danger for u.s. forces in afghanistan as america's longest war nears the ten-year mark. in an effort to keep the military sacrifices from being overlooked, a new film, "hell and back again," follows u.s. marine sergeant thanathan harri into combat and then home again after he is shot and wounded in an attack. the film opens in theaters next week. sergeant harris is here along with the film's director. welcome to you both. first of all, sergeant harris, thank you for your service. >> thank you, ma'am. >> why did you want your story to be told? why was that important to you? >> i just felt like nobody really knew all the difficulties and what exactly was going on in the war. so i just looked forward to this being a really good opportunity for the film to show that. >> and doug, you were embedded with -- was it echo company?

and you hept been there very long before you were in a fierce firefight. >> yes. >> how did you get involved? >> i was embedded with echo company 2-8. in july 2009 4,000 marines were dropped behind enemy lines. this was the largest air assault and decisive operation that could swing the war one way or another. shortly after landing we were attacked on all sides. the fight focused on this pile of rubble that became known as machine gun hill. one marine was killed, another collapsed from exhaustion and almost all of us had run out of water. that's where sergeant harris handed me his last bottle of water and we first met. >> what kind of bond does that create? you're in a firefight together. you are sharing this precious commodity. your last bottle of water. with a photographer. >> yes, ma'am. it was just that we had been through intense fighting. mr. dennis had came up to basically the front lines of the

war. and everybody fought hard all day. and we were completely out of water. and so basically, we were just resupplying the very last bit that we had. and that's how i met him. >> and you were badly injured? >> yes, ma'am. >> your leg, your hip. and i assume medevac'd home. that, then, became the next part, the next crisis because it was the adjustment to coming home which was in many ways very, very difficult. >> yes, ma'am, it was. >> what was so hard about it? >> well, other than the just the medical conditions, just the hospitalization, getting to see family after not seeing them for so long and being in that type of severe care, hospitalized and needing so much support. >> and has it gotten better? >> it has. i've made tremendous strides in my care and in my individual

tasks that i can perform now. so i've came a long way. >> and that's all documented in "hell and back." how do you feel about the way he's told your story? >> there's so many different things. i like that the film gets to show the story. it documents a lot of the war stuff as well as documents everyday struggles. >> the readjustment. >> yes, ma'am. >> we thank you. we wish you well. we're so glad to see you healthily here today. >> thank you. >> and good luck with the film. and thank you for what you've done. >> thank you. >> it's a powerful story, and we know it's opening in new york and

which political stories will make headlines in the next 24 hours? chris joins us. i don't know about you, but i'm looking at chris christie out to the reagan library. that doesn't sound like he is uninterested in a national profile. >> here's the deal. yes, he said he is not interested a lot of times. i think we are going to get to a point if rick perry continues to stumble where he has to in a press release or an interview say no under any circumstances, but i'm not interested. he said it before, but we have reports all weekend that donors

are trying to get him back involved. he does have this travel schedule. he wants to be a player on the national landscape. whether he wants to be a candidate or not, he can say i'm flattered, but not interested. he is keeping it out there. i take him at his word that he doesn't want to run, but he's doing the kinds of things that will keep us talking. i know as odd as that sounds, but it's true. people reconsider. barack obama said he wouldn't run for president and told tim russert he changed his mind. i keep that in the back of my mind. >> never say never, especially with someone going to the reagan library in the next day or so and making speeches in key places. >> he would probably enter the race ahead of rick perry and mitt romney. would he have that opportunity

again? just saying. >> see you tomorrow and that does it for us on this edition. tomorrow on the show, our education nation series continues with arnie duncan. vicki phillips, director of education for the bill and melinda gates foundation. follow the show online and twitter. my colleague has a look at what's next. >> great to see you. any minute now, president obama will hold the town hall meeting by the professional networking site, linked in. he will make a pitch for the jobs plan from a live audience. the first time the president will hear from voters on what they think of the plan so far. he ramped up his rhetoric and calling on african-americans to stop complaining and join in the battle for jobs. i will talk with congress wmg maxine water who is calls the president's comments curious and inappropriate. "news nation" is minutes away. [ male announcer ] what is the future of fuel?

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>> i'm tamron hall. the "news nation" is following developing news. the president will start a town hall meeting in california. putting america back to work. it is hosted in conjunction with linkedin, a career-based networking website. we are 120 million employees and people look looking for jobs upped their profiles. it's part of a three-day west coast tour that includes seven fund-raisers where the president is expected to raise millions of dollars for reelection. today's town hall is set at the computer history museum in mountain view, california. that is where kristin well ker joins us. social networking and an opportunity for the first time for people to ask the president questions about his jobs plan live. >> that's right, tamron. it highlights the president's emphasis on technology and also will be a chance for him to talk to