>> i learned that lawrence has still got it, that flair for drama. >> that was pretty good timing. that does it for us. if it's way too early, it's "morning joe." now time for "the daily rundo " rundown." of course we're in washington tonight for the president's speech and the show will be live in d.c. tomorrow. have a great day, everybody. pre pressing the pause button on the syrian strike. the assad regime accepts russia's proposal to place syria's chemical weapons under international control. and as president obama prepares to address the nation to want, our brand-new "wall street journal" poll shows a war-weary public having their own red line on syria. and after opening the door to that plan b or is it plan c, secretary kerry will be back on capitol hill this morning where members of congress are hoping against hope for an escape hatch. good morning from cambridge, massachusetts. it's tuesday, september 10th,

2013. i'm chuck todd. this special edition of "the daily rundown" live from the crema cafe in harvard square. ambassador nick burns, harvard professor charles ogletree will be here, former kentucky secretary of state tray grayson and boston's own jim and marjorie, plugged into the political scene here like no one else. i'm here because it's a school i never could have gotten into but they invited me to speak anyway so why not make the most of it. my first reads of the morning. president obama doesn't just have an uphill battle tonight. he has a virtually impossible task, to convince the american public that right now at this moment the only course of action in syria is the u.s.-led military strike. as one of our pollsters describes it, the public's red line on syria appears to be stay out. does the president have a diplomatic escape hatch, though? the last 24 hours have been among the most turbulent in an already fast-moving debate. the next 12 will determine whether the president makes the case for military action tonight

or ends up informing the nation of a new timetable that puts the brakes on to see if the russians really can work with the syrians and the international community to secure and destroy syria's chemical weapons. early yesterday in london, secretary of state john kerry responding to a question. when he said that syrian president assad could have earned an attack, an ultimatum of sorts, by turning over his chemical weapons to the international community. at that moment there was an idea that the state department initially was totally dismissive of. >> we have no expectation that he'll do anything different than what he's done the last several months, which is ignore the will of the international community. the fact is we've tried diplomacy. >> he was speaking rhetorically about a situation we thought had very low probability of happening. >> but russia's foreign minister seized on the idea, appearing alongside his syrian counterpart in moscow, and by time the president spoke midday in a

series of network interviews he was saying the idea, quote, could potentially be a significant breakthrough. >> i think a famous american president once said trust but verify. you have to take it with a grain of salt initially, but between the statements that we saw from the russians, the statement today from the syrians, this represents a potentially positive development. we are going to run this to ground. >> though the origin and timing of the kerry proposal looked a little ham handled at the time, more like stumbling into a possible diplomatic solution that engineering one, the president clearly seized on it. >> the fact that the u.s. administration and i have said we are serious about this i think has prompted some interesting conversations. and these are conversations that i've had directly with mrmr. putin when i was at the g-20. we had some time to discuss this. >> this morning syria made a

show of publicly accepting the russian proposal to give up chemical weapons and win a reprieve from u.s. strikes. white house spokesman jay carney responded to that development this morning on "morning joe" just moments ago. >> there is ample reason to be skeptical, but there is no question, as they've explicitly said, that they're taking this action or at least responding this way because they want to deter u.s. military action. so it is the threat, the credible threat of action by the united states that has brought about this potential diplomatic breakthrough. >> france announced via its foreign minister that it will submit a draft resolution in the united nations today for syria to give up its chemical weapons or else face some strikes. now, there's every reason why everybody from members of congress to the white house to european allies are grasping on to this idea. they're all looking for a political escape hatch. and why? our new poll shows nearly 60% of americans say they want their member of congress to vote against the use of military

force in ear. -- syria. less than a quarter think military action is in the national interest interest. and support for u.s. involvement has decreased since the white house began waging an intense public campaign for congressional support. only 44% favor military action, even if it's limited to using cruise missiles launched from u.s. naval ships. that's actually down six points from our nbc news poll released less than two weeks ago. president acknowledged on monday he doesn't think the odds of approval in congress right now as the authorizations are written are very high. >> are you confident you're going to get the votes? >> i wouldn't say i'm confident. i'm confident that the members of congress are taking this issue very seriously. >> would you act without congress? the answer could be yes, no, or i haven't decided. >> yeah. i think it's fair to say that i haven't decided. i knew by bringing this to congress that there was a risk that the american people, you know, just could not arrive at a

consensus around even a limited strike, because if you ask somebody, you know, i read polls like everybody else, and if you ask somebody, if you ask michelle, do we want to be involved in another war, the answer is no. >> this afternoon, the president travels to capitol hill to make his case directly both to senate democrats and republicans and will do so in separate meetings. our whip count in the senate has just 22 senators saying will vote for this resolution authorizing syrian strikes and 22 are definitely opposed, 56 undecided. more undecided senators have come out in opposition to the syrian resolution in the last 124 hours, including some republicans facing 2014 primary challenges. late yesterday, harry reid put senate action on syria on hold. over in the house, just 24 lawmakers publicly support military action and just 36% would support the president using military action without congressional approval in our poll. so it's unlikely he would do that. another worry for the white

house, confidence in the president's ability to handle the situation in syria is down, not up, just 28% approve the president of how he's handled this situation. that's down seven points from just 35% in our poll at the end of august and only a third of americans believe the president has made a convincing case about the u.s. need to take military action. so will the president say anything tonight that actually changes people's minds? will he have something new to propose? joining me now, harvard university's nicholas kerns, former u.s. ambassador to nato and a senior affairs correspondent. and charles ogletree is the jesse clemento professor of law at harvard law school and the director of the charles hamilton race for justice and an expert on i remember law. ambassador burns, let me start with you. i the we're all following this debate so closely, have a bit of whiplash on here. everybody wants to grab onto this russian proposal.

if you were still working in the administration or any presidential administration, what would be your view of this proposal? >> i think the president's got to look at this seriously. it comes from russia. it's a way out of this conflict by a peaceful means. but he's going to have to ask a lot of tough questions, which is what he's doing. the french and the united states will introduce a security council resolution this afternoon which will challenge the syrians and russia. where will the weapons be transported? who will control them? on what timetable? and if a short, decisive timetable is not met, the french will want to write in that serious consequences should ensue, meaning the united states and france could take military action down the line. the key point the president made yesterday in all his interviews with you and others is that it was the threat of force that brought assad to his knees. >> it's clearly all of this has had an impact. professor ogletree, what's been interesting about this and one of the reasons why the president felt like he had to go to congress in the first place, which has led to frankly this very public hand wringing that's

been uncomfortable far lot of the washington establishment, is that there's been a legal question here about whether these strikes would have been legal internationally, and it's my understanding that there's a big question about that, that eve the white house has concerns about the legality of these strikes. what say you? you study this very closely. >> this is what i would say, that we have to look at the whole picture here. the president has seen photographs of children who have been victims of chemical weapons in syria. no question about that. if we look at the whole issue, the president has the authority and he can take the authority to do something. i think he's doing what's right now, talking to congress, talking about a solution, talking about resolving it in some way, and listening to the other people around the world. i think that a lot of people who are against going into syria for this very reason. this is another vietnam. when do we get in, how do we get out, how do we stop it, how many lives will we lose? we can bomb all we want to now but at some point this will be a

long proshgs tracted struggle and it's not in the best interests of americans at all and i think president is seeing that. >> did you see an international framework that the united states could have defended this action? >> what does the united nations say? they say no. the congress says no. what does the world leaders say? no. that's a pretty clear message that everybody's looked at this and said we don't think that armed forces going into syria is the answer. and i don't think president obama is going to pursue that on his own even though he can. i think it would be a bad mistake. >> ambassador, as it does appear congress desperately wants out of this mess. they know even ones that are supportive of this, they want out of it. ones that are opposing the authorization don't want to embarrass america on the world stage and we're looking far way out. so this is going to get rewritten. do you see the authorization being rewritten to match the u.n. authorization or trust -- how would you advise the

administration to push congress to rewrite them? >> congress has an opportunity now to support the president. if, in fact, the security council resolution is introduced, and it will be, and if the united states and france in effect test the credibility of the syrians and the truthfulness of the syrians, congress could pass a resolution that would eventually back the united states, challenge the syrians to give up all of their chemical weapons to an objective third party, not to the russians. >> who is this? the u.n. that would be -- nato? could nato be involved? >> taito could be. >> the russians wouldn't want that. >> the united nations is a safe common ground. but congress could say that the syrian government has to comply or else it will face serious consequences from the united states. president obama said yesterday something very important. he's got to leave the threat of force on the table in order to get this deal done. i think that's the most critical point. >> what does he say to the american people tonight? this is now -- we've had all this developing. yesterday it was he was preparing the nation the case of why he's got to strike today. tonight now all of a sudden that might not be the facts on the

ground, so now what does he say? >> i think he's going to talk about the facts. he's going to say the same thing that secretary john kerry said, that we've seen weapons, children have died, chemical weapons in syria, we have to stop assad, say all that, lay out the case for it because he's great in terms of giving these public addresses. but i think ultimately he's going to be bound by and listen to and learn from other people around the world saying that let's be careful, let's think of other solutions, and he'll show his strong hand what he thinks should be done but also his weaker hand saying i'm going to cooperate with other people. i think we'll see that tonight. >> why has this been so difficult for the administration? >> it's one of the worst situations for any administration because we're weary after two wars but yet we're still the world leader. assad crossed a red line. someone has to enforce the chemical weapons ban. but if you don't have congress behind you or the public or your closest ally, britain, the president was clearly isolated so he tried to make the best of a very bad situation.

there's still something that has to be done, chuck. even if the chemical weapons issue is resolved, you still have 100,000 people dead and several million homeless. so that syrian crisis continues, that's going to decommand american support hopefully for a cease-fire ahead. >> professor ogletree, the president brought up rwanda in sort of this way of, hey, a lot of people gave president clinton a hard time for not intervening in a humanitarian crisis, because ambassador burns brings up a good point. regardless of what happens here, if assad gives up his chemical weapons, he clearly was afraid of being crippled militarily. he's still going to have a military advantage and he's going to be slaughtering a lot of people. >> i think the reality is that -- i'm thinking about what jimmy carter went through when he tried to be presidential and get involved in some battles of lost lives. i'm thinking about bill clinton and the problem with rwanda, how much it affected his presidency. >> he regrets it now. >> absolutely. >> very public about it. >> i'm thinking of george bush

who did two great things. people thought the idea of responding to 9/11 was important and yet going in for these weapons of mass destruction turned out to be a failure. and i think right now president obama is saying i'm going to do what i need to do because i think it's the right thing to do, and i'll live with the consequences. i think that will be the alternative solution, that is, i'm going to stand back, i'm going to look at all the points of view. it's not that he's undecided. he know what is he wants to do. but for the first time an enormous amount of collaboration realizing that he says there's an international view on this, those people know, they'll live it, i don't want to be in a war for the rest of our life. he's going to step back i think and listen to the elders who are telling him there's another solution. >> you know, ambassador burns, one of the things that one of the other european allies said at the g-20 and was whispering to us reporters, trying to get some sense of what happened at that world leader meeting, was the sense the political will is not there to intervene. everybody knows what's going on. forget the united states. we know why the u.s. public is

skeptical. iraq is scarred. it's clear iraq has scarred everybody politically and all that stuff. but why is the world in such a different place today than it would have been 20 years ago on an issue like this? >> i'm not sure it is. the president has a coalition, the french government with him, the saudi government, the turkish government with him so, very important regional actors. >> but are those arab allies with him for the right reasons or because it's one side of a religious issue or the other? >> well, they're opponents of assad. the worrisome trend is in the united states. understandable the public would be weary of war. but our political leaders have a responsibility not to be neoice lacist and certainly in the tea party but the extreme left of the democratic party. what you see in this debate is come home -- >> total retreat. >> -- pull up the draw bridges and that's a recipe for failure in our foreign policy. we tear global leader. >> the thing is that the other

countries we share a global leadership stage with are more isolationist than the united states. >> exactly right. >> china will throw money around but never want to get involved in anything like this. >> chuck, twoef look back to 2002. president obama was not a senator. he was not a president. but he gave this speech in 2002 saying he didn't believe in dumb wars. makes sense. right? but this is beneath err dumb war, not a smart war, it's a complicated war. so he may not believe in it, but the reality is that something has to be done. innocent children are dying in syria. something has to be done even if it's a peace mission somewhere. i think he's going to act. tonight we'll hear him talk about that. >> it may be a few months before he acts but something's going to happen. >> i think the idea of caution makes sense and the idea of jumping before you know all the facts is very dangerous. >> all right. we begin our show here. ambassador burps, professor ogletree, thank you both. much more ahead. special edition of "the daily rundown."

we're expecting to see secretary kerry arriving on capitol hill shortly. that's just one of the big events on today's very busy politics planner. a super tuesday. new york city voters decide on the democratic and republican nominee for mayor. colorado is holding recall elections for new democratic state senator, jeb bush sort of involved in presenting a liberty medal to hillary clinton tonight. ♪

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well, clearly the alarms have finally come off. very busy here at the cafe. coming up on this special edition of "the daily rundown," more from our poll including how

party affiliation shapes the syrian debate. i know. shock. but first today's trivia question. how many times did president ronald reagan address the nation from the oval office? first person to tweet the correct answer will get the on-air shutout. more coming up on "the daily rundown" live from the crema cafe, the smell of baked goods and bacon in harvard square. elaine, tammy, and brian are a few of the small business owners in downtown bedford, pennsylvania, working with their main street manager, these entrepreneurs are trying to fill empty store fronts and bring in new customers. find out how they've helped revive downtown. building animatronics is all about getting things to work together.

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jc: you guys comfortable? it's best-in-class rear legroom. jim: do you work for volkswagen? jc: what? no. i work for... the company we all work for. the place we just left. you know j.d. power ranked passat the most appealing midsize car two years in a row? i bet uh dan here wishes someone found him most appealing two years in a row. ron: it's ron. jc: ron... exactly. back now from crema calf fi. there is no "the." they couldn't stand the progressive group back in the day so they dropped it. i'm here at the harvard square. deeper look inside our nbc/"wall street journal" poll numbers despite the president's dismal approval ratings on the syria issue, his overall job rating remains steady, if you want to call it that, at 45%. a majority, though, disapprove

of his performance, 50%. and for the third straight poll the president's approval rating among democrats is under 80%. that is sort of a yellow flag here for the white house. we'll get more into it in a minute. a third of americans, 30%, believe the country is headed in right direction. 6 2 persian say the nation is on the wrong track. he had to come to cambridge to find democratic pollster peter hart, one half of our polling team, a visiting lecturer at the harvard kennedy school of dwoft. mr. hart, this is the only way we could get you to show up. >> i'm honored and welcome. >> i can't wait. get to do a brown bag lunch then of course i have to rush home to find out what the president's going to say. you were kind, i thought, in your words when you said the president has a tall task in front of him tonight to convince the public. that makes someone -- makes folks believe that he actually has a chance. you do think he has a chance to turn around public opinion? >> well, it's going to be pretty

hard to turn around public opinion because the problem is he -- first of all, the public is looking inward versus looking outward at this stage of the game, worried about things at home. secondly, the thing that becomes terribly important is they can't see a national purpose. only 1 in 4 see that. and the difficulty putting those two things together is the coalition that usually gets behind -- >> not there. >> -- is not there. you don't have the conservatives. you don't have -- >> this coalition domestically. forget the coalition internationally. anyway, go ahead. >> that's the point. if you look at this, you don't have the blue collar, you don't have the males, you don't have the south, you don't have the conservatives. you take those four groups out of it, those are the ones he has to talk to, but they are also less convinced and less open to hearing the message. >> before i dig deeper into syria, i want to get at the president being under 80%, because i threw that out there this morning on twitter and people said, well, that's still

really high. but that is a significant marker why? >> well, our partner has traced this for a while, and it was the turning point for president bush. once he fell below 80% with republicans, the difficulty is it is hard to get back up to that 50% overall number. and for the president he's always had that strong base, president obama. in this case it's starting to drop off. for three polls in a row, a bad sign, a challenge to him. >> and it becomes a yellow flag. he's got a whole bunch of things ahead of him that he's got to keep democrats on his side or else -- and you know this as well, democrats will flee faster than republicans flee their president. right? >> up fortunately, it's true. >> i want to move on this role in the world question. we asked statement a, statement b, should america be promoting democracy and freedom around the world or actually pulling away a little bit, taking time to look at home. it's a question we asked back in

2005. we asked it today. what was interesting here is it's not a surprise to me that a large majority were saying focus at home, the economy is not doing well. but it was the flip among republicans that was so striking. when bush was president, 2005, the iraq war had become polarizing, republicans stood by him, and in a away kwe like this, a large majority of republicans said no, no, no, no. our job is to promote democracy around the world. i think the number was over 60%. now republicans are at 78% focus at home. >> guess what, we're in a partisan world. as my partner fred put it a lot of this is colored through the rose tint of party. and so even a general question like this finds republicans flipping and democrats flipping. he's my president. i want to support him in what he does. he's against me. i want to change. that's what's happening. >> we saw this -- tomorrow is's the 12th anniversary of 9/11. we asked if america is safer.

pretty much the numbers are steady overall. >> right. >> what was interesting is when bush was president democrats department feel as safe. >> right. >> now that obama's president, democrats feel safer, republicans feel less safe. >> exactly. same thing. but to me what was most interesting is the northeast is the area that felt the safest, and they were obviously the attack zone in both new york and boston. >> probably would be the attack zone again if something happened. >> exactly. and the rural areas are more conservative. >> and ththey're feeling less s. >> right. >> president's poll position going into the fall. can he stop a down slide that bush had same period of time, august '05, august '13. how does obama not become bush? >> that's easy, because he's not embroiled in a foreign war that's unpopular. >> not yet. >> yes. in terms of health care, i think in terms of immigration, but i think there's a lot working for

him and if the economy continues to climb i think he'll be fine. >> all right. peter hart had to come all the way to cambridge to find you. >> high five. >> all right, brother. good to see you. up next, politicians turn professors. i have former secretary of state in kentucky. [ male announcer ] when you have sinus pressure and pain, you feel...squeezed. congested. beat down. crushed. as if the weight of the world is resting on your face. but sudafed gives you maximum strength sinus pressure and pain relief. so you feel free. liberated. released. decongested. open for business. [ inhales, exhales ] [ male announcer ] powerful sinus relief from the #1 pharmacist recommended brand. sudafed. open up. we need a new recipe.

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[ male announcer ] some things are designed to draw crowds. ♪ ♪ others are designed to leave them behind. ♪ the all-new 2014 lexus is. it's your move. we are here in harvard, which has made a habit of recruiting political leaders from washington and across the country. the harvard institute of politics asks experienced politicians to pause their politicking and teach. my next guests are doing exactly that. joined by former massachusetts senator mo cowan and former secretary of state from kentucky tray grayson. he's currently the director of the iop as it's known here, the

harvard institute of politics. hello, both of you. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> we're all general ex gen xer. it's been interesting to watch the syrian debate, the skepticism of the country, but i have this theory it's being fueled in many way ls by this millennial generation. watching the fact there was no stomach for this in the country, not just with older americans but with younger american senators. >> i think it's true. we're an interesting inflection point in the country right now where there are more millennials than anyone else in the country, the largest generation. i think they're really committed to public service and tray and the folks at iop focused on this, but they don't see traditional politics as the way to have real effect in public service. when we're at a point like this, talking about engaging the nation in war, warlike activities, that lack of trust and confidence in our traditional political systems are ramped up significantly.

so when you talk to the millennial generation, they don't understand or get or frankly believe in the role that we've traditionally played in the world. >> you know, tray, it's easy for folks to say no, no, no, it's just lauciraq. i think iraq has had an impact on the politicians. that's clear. the millennials weren't following the iraq debate ten years ago. they were 10 years old then. they weren't really doing that. but they do have a deep skepticism of sort of washington and to watch -- and the question is, is washington going to figure that out? >> it's going to be a challenge. i mean, in the one respect you have a president who's won on the backs of millennials the last two elections. would not be president, wouldn't have won the iowa caucus in the begin without the support of millennials and he's still popular there. but his performance on issues and their views of his performance is where he's struggled. i think the trick for him is he's somebody they do have somewhat of a belief in, is to

get them engaged. part of his electoral coalition but not part of his governing coalition. some of this is they see the government not performing very well and they see us struggle abroad and they're really -- you know, they think government's not the solution. >> actually, there's a longtime aid to the president who's said this to me. one of the things, he said we have to remind ourselves in the white house, he thinks they've done a poor job of this, senator, was this idea that the president was elected by these millennials to shake up washington and instead too often he looks like he's part of the establishment. look at the syria thing. done in a very -- this is exactly the way -- the president himself has brought up grenada, brought up panama, brought up this is what the united states does. and suddenly the millennials go, but we don't want to do it the same way things have been done before. >> the millennials, they embrace disruptive things, whether it's technology, business initiative, and ideas, and i think they're looking at that from our political system but it's not there. it's interesting trey talked about the difference between campaigning and governing.

it's easier to be disruptive during a campaign, but when you govern you have to take and own what is there, and it's much harder, believe it or not, to sort of change things from the inside. although i think if we look ahead, whether it's 2014, 2016, i think for those who wish to capture that millennial vote, and i know that's not the topic today, but if they present themselves as a truly disruptive force not just on the campaign but when it comes to the issues, how they think they can change and influence policy in that disruptive manner, those candidates are going to have an advantage with this generation. >> interesting to me, trey, and i think cory booker has openly talked about he believes his job is to be a disrupter in the senate. >> yeah. >> rand paul, somebody i know you're familiar with. >> i know him pretty well. >> yeah. he has talked about this idea that what makes him popular with this same group of people who also like the president is that he's willing to be disruptive. and it does make the establishment uncomfortable. >> it does. on the right, millennials have this libertarian streak, so

somebody like senator paul can play right into that as well. so disruption is key. a great piece a couple weeks ago in the "national journal," one of the things hit upon was even though the public service nonprofit sector, a lot of millennials want start-ups rather than big start-up organizations. this is not something we're just seeing in politics and government, it's across the nonpublic sector. >> it had an impact on the syria debate. you've been in these cloak rooms, got a taste of it. but the political parties don't have -- if i would have told you ten years ago all of the congressional leaders are with the president on an action, everybody would have said, well, done deal, there's no debate. that is not the way congress works. congress is already a disruptive force. the leaders say one thing, and the members say, oh, yeah? >> well, i think there are disruptive forces within the congress, but i'm not sure institutionally it is at that point yet. the debate around syria has been over, obviously.

congressional leaders will continue to have significant influence. but if you look at what's happening during this debate right now, you'll see it whether it's senators manchin or others, there are disruptive forces taking shape. it won't just impact the syria dee bait, but as we go into the fall and look at the budget debate and if fiscal cliff debate, it will be interesting to see how the leaders manage that process. >> one word we haven't brought up that i always want to say to millennials, what about the word patience? they seem impatient, understandable, it's us from tracing, but technology doesn't reward -- >> no. we've seen attention spans shortening. we see movies come and go, video games come and go, i phones come and go. it is really -- our system, the founders set up a system that was going to move slowly. >> supposed to move slowly. >> supposed to. for a couple hundred years that's worked pretty well. the question is for the next

couple hundred years is that what we need? >> you two probably have the coolest job right now. >> it is a cool job. >> teaching here at harvard. moe cowan, trey grayson, good to see you. i look forward to the invitation. up next, thrive moscow where syria confirms they have accepted russia's proposal to put chemical weapons under international control. we'll see. today a long day at the white house. they might be eating a lot of soup. soup of the day, minestrone chicken sausage. that's called leftover central. here at crema cafe. no "the." they're serving up carrot ginger, tomato bisque and sweet potato chili. i think i'm getting that. with the spark miles card from capital one, bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his small business. take these bags to room 12 please. [ garth ] bjorn's small business earns double miles on every purchase every day. produce delivery. [ bjorn ] just put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less? ahh, oh!

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using data predictively to help power entire cities. so the turbines of today... will power us all... into the future. ♪ well, breaking news. new details directly from the syrians and the proposal to hand over its chemical weapons.

nbc's keir simmons spoke to syria's minister moments ago. what are they agreeing to? do they think they're turning them over the russians, the americans, or to an international body? >> reporter: hey, chuck. they clearly believe they are dealing with russians on this. i've just been with the syrian foreign minister, and he told me we accept the russian proposal which was offered to us yesterday and we are ready to follow it according to the plan between us and russia. he went on to say, chuck, wept on to criticize the west, saying that, saying unfortunately he's started to hear some voices in the west of people who believe only in war, you can put an end to the war. i went on, chuck, to ask him specifically how the west has faith they'll do this, and he talked about official procedures through the united nations. that is as much as he's prepared

the say. he is heading to the airport in moscow and heading back to syria to damascus. as he left, he was smiling, said praise be to god as he left. he was clearly in a good mood. the syrians appear to think that they have made some progress. of course the proof will be in exactly what the details are, and that appears to be the agreement between the syrians and the russians. and right now we don't know exactly what that agreement is. >> keir simmons in moscow, the syrians tentatively agreeing to the russian plan. of course the devil is in the details that the u.n. will be involved. a lot more facts to figure out on that one. keir, good work. trivia, we asked you ronald reagan, how many times did he address -- speak from the oval office? ready for this? it is a record 3 ti3 times that did during his two terms as president. congratulations to today's

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little breaking news here. our own casey hunt reports the following in the wake of the overture from russia. a group of u.s. senators, including john mccain and chuck schumer are working on an alternative authorization and resolution to deal with syria and its use of chemical weapons. this proposal would replace the limited authorization of force that the senate foreign relations committee approved last week. so instead this new resolution would say that the negotiations with the united nations would have to say the united nations should pass a resolution saying chemical weapons were used in syria. then the u.n. would go in and remove the chemical weapons from syria by a certain time. if those steps do not take place, this new senate

resolution then would authorize the president to use force. as we told you, this was a likely scenario of some form of this all being drawn up before the president speaks tonight. b the president speaks tonight. secretary of state kerry maybe off the cuff remark, maybe not, about syria, is gaining momentum, and is now the real option on the table. but the compromise could end up being an unintended kobs against for kerry. he's been come ampaigning for a strike while the president's been more careful. >> small kind of effort. >> the u.s. does not do pin pricks. >> you can turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week, turn it over, all of it. without delay. and allow a full and total accounting for that. but he isn't about to do it.

can't be done. >> between the statements that we saw from the russians, the statement today from the syrians, this represents a potentially positive development. we are going to run this to ground. >> boy, it does seem as if john kerry takes one step forward and the president ends up bringing him one step back. anyway, i've got a couple of people who have been listening to john kerry for a long time. the longtime columnist for the boston herald and jim brody, the host of "the broad side" on the new england network. they also host radio on wgbh. margery, first, you guys hear from the actual people rather than politicians blow harding all the time. the compromise is you get the sense there's going to be a sense of relief in the boston

community? >> absolutely. i think you find very few people who are in favor of even a limited military strike. i think this could be -- john kerry could emerge as the accidental hero here. he seemed to have made a mistake. with obama as you said pulling him back in. but if it ends up that we have this compromise and we have the chemical weapons taken out of syria and john kerry started it, gaffe or no gaffe, i think it's going to be great for him. >> you think it will be easy to sell to the public, an idea of, look, we may end up striking these folks, but we'll give them the ultimatum. >> i think the public wants a bye time as much as the secretary of state and the president. the sense of relief in boston pales compares to the sense of relief in the white house. my sense is, i know i'm in the minority, his head is into it, he's been doing this 24/7, but i still don't buy the notion that his heart is really in this whole thing. you harken back to the 27-year-old, the foreign relations committee. i think voting for the iraq resolution because his

consultant said you can't be president unless you do it. he's done the work but i don't get the sense the gut is there. >> margery, remember the speech he gave, the day before the president -- >> passion -- >> that was such the -- that was a passionate speech. >> well, we didn't -- we didn't really see that kind of passion coming out of john kerry when he was the senator of massachusetts on almost anything except for -- >> or presidential candidate. i'd argue, just in pure -- the craft of delivering the speech, maybe the best speech i'd seen. >> i think you're right. he seeped to be all in on this, which is so surprising to this, because you haven't seen him all in around here, you haven't seen him totally passionate, except anti-war talk. which is why this is a weird juxtaposition for john kerry to t the, not be pro war but pro strike. >> a guy who clearly has -- president obama has been

hand-wringing in public. john kerry's been hand-wringing in public over ideas of using force overseas for years, for decades here. shouldn't that have made it then -- made him a more credi e credible -- >> i know i'm the outlier in this thing. also, it made -- remember friday when -- i think it was a fligri when kerry gave the speech and then we hear the president being the ultimate no drama obama, i'm not talking about when he said we're going to congress, i'm saying kerry gave his initial speech at the state department. you seque to barack obama, who was sort of, yeah, we're going to do this kind of thing. on that day, i agree, kerry was the man. >> meanwhile, i have to ask you about the most odd, weird side bar development, the new junior senator from massachusetts. what was the present vote about? is this was -- he was trying not to embarrass kerry or was he embarrassing kerry? >> jim has a theory.

but whatever he was thinking, ed markey, it totally backfired. he was trashed by my newspaper, boston herald. >> wait, the boston herald trashed a democrat? shocking. >> but the globe, much more liberal paper, trashed john kerry -- >> ed markey -- >> ed masrkey, sorry. he was the guy who was supposed to be -- backed off. >> markey under the opinion they were taking attendance, which is why he said "present." my sense is he called john kerry, said he was going to vote no, kerry said, i endorsed you, i'm one the reasons you're a senator, take a walk for a week, but i have no idea what he was thinking. >> you have a lot of stuff to plug. >> i'm going to plug boston herald.com. >> i'm not going to plug myself. we have this huge get on the

radio. white house correspondent for nbc is going to be with us in ht 1:00 hour. >> figure out who that is? >> no. >> you guys have been great. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." we'll see you from washington on thursday. tomorrow morning, msnbc has special programming that commemorates the anniversary of 9/11. you can watch the "today" show as it aired starting at 8:57 in the morning. tonight, watch the president's address to the nation. at 9:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. special coverage will be anchored by racianchor ed by rachel maddow. coming up, chris jensen. bye-bye. no two people have the same financial goals. pnc investments works with you to understand yours and helps plan for your retirement.

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good morning. i'm chris janice ising. breaking within the last hour, syria accepted the proposal to turn over its chemical weapons. france will take the plan to the

u.n. all of it potentially providing a political exit for a situation that looks increasingly bad both for the president and for members of congress. just now, nbc has confirmed that a group of u.s. senators, including gop senator john mccain and democrat chuck schumer, are working on an alternative resolution to deal with syria and its use of chemical weapons. let's get straight to msnbc's kacie hunt who has more. >> fast-moving developments regarding syria. we've learned senators john mccain and chuck schumer, as you say, are working with a group of other senators to essentially rewrite the resolution the committee passed last week. that old resolution would have authorized the president to use force in syria. this new resolution focuses on a process in the united nations. it basically says if the u.n. were to pass a resolution saying chemical weapons were, in fact, used in syria, a