developing right now, we're awaiting president obama's arrival in brooklyn, new york, he touched down at jfk moemgts ab and choppering over the borough for an event already in view. he tries to move from the obama care exchange problems to the priorities that he detailed in his state of the union. remember that? yesterday was immigration and today it's education and preparing middle class students with job skills for the modern world. he'll speak in about 45 minutes. one of the schools he referenced during that february address. >> schools like ptech in brooklyn, a collaboration between new york public schools and city of university of new york and ibm, students will graduate with a high school diploma and associate's degree in computers or engineering. we need to give every american

student opportunities like this. >> later tonight the president headlines two fundraisers and will hit several as the party tries to capitalize on voter frustration over the shutdown. house democrats raised a record $8.4 million. the house gop raised just 5.3 million. we'll start the hour here with nbc's kristen welker at the white house. what should we expect at p tech and who is going to be there gathered around the president. >> reporter: good afternoon, we know mayor bloomberg will be there, a big proponent of education reform behind a number of reforms in new york, including this new school, which is just two years old. also, new york mayoral candidate bill de blasio and andrew cuomo. the school was started in 2011. you heard the president say it's a six-year program and when students graduate they have an

associate degree. because it's a partnership with ibm, they have a leg up when it comes to getting a job with that company. when it started in 2011, had just over 140 students, they are expecting by the start of the 2014 senior year it will have more than 400 students. the president really going to use this to talk about thinks larger budget priority as the budget conference prepares to meet next week. those recommendations do on december 13th. we learn that president obama spoke with a number of lawmakers including leaders reid and pelosi about the budget conference. he's going to map out his priorities including education to talk about the budget conference set to begin, overshadowing all of this, the glitches in the president's health care website. today jeffrey zienst set in charge of fixing the rocky rollout said it will be fixed by the end of november. i've been talking to political analysts who say if it's not fixed by then, what is already a

political problem will become really much more a disaster and threaten some of the president's larger priorities like immigration, like education reform. back to you. >> kristen welker, always great to see you, thanks so much. >> great to see you, thanks. being are comparing the healthcare.gov disaster to the medicare part d launch. it is widely considered a success now. my fellow utah former governor and close met romney executive, oversaw the medicare part d rollout and aca ahead of the launch you wrote an op-ed, and wrote about risks including the technical piece, your warning was spot on, avoiding a calamity will be a major test for the obama administration to succeed, they should learn from bush's medicare reform, what they did well and where they fell short,

being the last person to go through this on a national level, i'm assuming the administration reached out to you in a meaningful way for advice. >> abby, nice to see you. they did reach out to ask our advice. i gave them the best advice i could, which was, be ready. it's going to be a bit rocky at the front. it always is. you'll success ultimately will be judged by the end result and not necessarily by the first two or three weeks and those who are saying that they need to get it fixed, i think are right. if it's mixed, we'll forget about this and move on. if it isn't, it becomes a branding moment that will be difficult to overcome. >> governor, you say there's always problems at the beginning and there's numbers from the group that backed that up, for a large federal government projects, 94% of them have some major problems. 41% of them completely fail or are abandoned or restarted from

scratch. it seems like there's a larger issue of the way the major tech projects are undertaken at the federal government level. why do so many of these projects fail or have major issues? >> i think we can look at each of them individually and the one i'm most familiar with will be the one i led and also i studied this one closely. many of the problems that exist today can be attributed to the fact that there was quite a delay in creating the regulations that were required for the vendors to have in order to actually write the software. there was a lengthy delay during the election frankly when the administration i think chose for reasons that certainly seem understandable in terms of their perspective, they delayed the implementation, so they ran out of time and got to the end of preparation period and hadn't

adequately tested it. what really should have been a dress rehearsal ended up being opening night and they've had to work through -- they are working through very difficult and complex problems at a quite intense time. >> governor, i'm glad to hear you sober minded about this. there's always a rocky time at the start. the end result is what matters and not what happened within the first three weeks of implementation. a fundamental problem is the way that contractors are chosen. it's a very narrow pool. krystal has worked within them, not expecting greatest amount of evidence, one former columnist said the fed has mechanisms for creating soflt wear and that puts a lot of constraints on them. is this a key part of this problem? >> i'm actually not the best person to ask that question. i don't know the answer to that.

i will say, however, that as i've studied this one, i believe one of the things that the after action rosht will ultimately reveal, they would have been better off if they had included a couple of things. one was a federal -- an outside contractor to do the project management. i note that they have contracted with a subsidiary of united health care to do the project management. it would have been better if there was someone clearly in charge and not managing it internally to the federal government. those will prove to be quite significant learnings from this process. i would also say that generally speaking, the point that they have not adequately tested it will be viewed as the big echt learning and hopefully they can overcome that. if they don't, it will be quite serious problem, i think. >> and governor, i wanted to say i appreciated what you wrote,

while you actually opposed aspects of the affordable care act, you're not rooting for a train wreck. that would hurt ordinary people and you're more interested what we can do under federal law. with that in mind, speak to us a little bit about the enrollment time line you had under part d which you oversaw, we have a chart we can put on the screen that tells the story. at first only about 1% with a month out enrolling and by the end, at the end of open enrollment shot up to 10%. it's apples to oranges for aca, medicare part d at the policy level. talk to us about the timing, the notion that as time goes on, that's when we really test the full application of a policy. >> i don't think it's an appropriate measure of success to say if the first three weeks, how many people did you enroll? by nature, most people are going to do window shopping here. and they are going to decide they don't have to pay for it

until december. so they'll likely poke around. however, if they don't get the system fixed and they get into use the metaphor, the equivalent of christmas season, and literal terms here, and they can't create success, it's a bigger problem. i do think one of the lessons that should be learned here is not to go into a project like this, saying, oh, everything is going to be okay. it rarely is. and i think it's possible they are making the same mistake again, by saying absolutely guaranteeing -- i think the contractor they hired will be a competent project manager. they are good at it and hopefully find a solution, but, again, the real judgment on this is going to be march the 15th. if they've accomplished the mission, then people will forget this period. if they haven't, it's going to be a much rockier branding moment for the affordable care

act. >> absolutely. governor, of course, you have the job that kathleen sebelius has now. give us insight no how hands on you were with the medicare part d rollout. what you expect that her roll was in this rollout and how much of the blame is appropriate to place at her feet? >> abby, you and i are both utahans and you know about the olympics. as governor, it didn't matter what i did other than before or after if the olympics didn't come off well, my time as governor would be remembered by that. and i told my colleagues at hhs, we're doing a lot of good things here. if we don't have a success in the rollout of the prescription drug benefit, the people are going to remember that more than anything else. i think that's to a large extent the way not just secretary sebelius's situation but also the administration, so the stakes are high here. i became very heavily involved.

i spent months and months in -- over the year in advance literally traveling in city to city enrolling partners and telling the story. after we -- in june or july, i was -- i actually hired an outside organization to go in and look at the contractors to make certain we were making progress. i found we weren't making progress fast enough and we have a bit of a surge in the summer, just to be ready. once we launched and it became clear that the problems were there, i was on an airplane fast and went to 20 states in 13 days and my message was, we're going to find these problems. here's what they are. we know how to fix them. this is the timetable. these are the metrics that you can measure it by. this was a crisis by any measure. when you're the leader, you have to lead. >> governor, when you were implementing -- before you were implementing medicare part d, the polling was really not

supportive of it and they didn't like it. now people love it. same thing happening with the aca before. it wasn't popular, it's growing in popularity slowly even though we're having a difficult time right now. as a leader you can't let that sort of thing affect you, right? you've got to press forward because you know you have the right policy. >> well, kathleen sebelius has a job to do and that's really what she has to concentrate on right now. there are some differences in the way the aca -- the differences that people -- there are differences in the differences people have. and as it turned out, part d actually saved a lot of money. the worry about the affordable care act is it will do the opposite. we won't know that until time and history has played out. the history will ultimately judge the success of this implementation by where things stand on march the 15th, they

won't judge it in history on what happened the first three weeks. but again, if they don't get this fixed, march 15th is going to be an unhappy moment and that's why the pressure on and why they need to focus as intensely as they are. >> governor, for the republicans in congress, do you think they have hit the right back on their focus on affordable care act as well as the other issues facing the country? >> well, listen, members of congress in both parties have a job to do. and sometimes it's to ask the skeptical question, we had plenty of skeptical questions coming from the democrats during that period, this similar period in 2006 when we were rolling out part d. so members of congress will do their job and it's the job of history to judge the result. >> many people feeling uneasy and quite a little bit of a reassuring message, it's great to have you here. best to you and your family. thanks for joining us.

>> again, the president will speak in about 30 minutes at the high school over the bridge in brooklyn. we'll have those reports live on the cycle. up next, it's hard to believe but it has been almost one year since sandy slammed ashore did he have vas tating the northeast region. some scientists are saying don't even bother. the conversation as "the cycle" roll on for november 25th. [ woman #1 ] why do i cook? ♪ because an empty pan is a blank canvas. ♪ [ woman #2 ] to share a moment. ♪ [ man #1 ] to remember my grandmother. [ woman #3 ] to show my love. ♪ [ woman #4 ] because life needs flavor. ♪ [ woman #5 ] to travel the world without leaving home. [ male announcer ] whatever the reason. whatever the dish. make it delicious with swanson. [ woman #1 ] that's why i cook. make it delicious with swanson. (dad) just feather it out. (son) ok. feather it out. (dad) all right. that's ok. (dad) put it in second, put it in second.

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storm warning, a threat for millions along the coast.

>> you can see the path is going to be really critical. >> hurricane sandy is leaving the bahamas after cutting a destructive path through the caribbean. >> hurricane sandy, a sprawling system more than 800 miles wide. >> the largest tropical cyclone on record, the freak october storm. >> we're expecting a pretty significant storm here, that could lead to very significant flooding. >> the situation at battery park city. the water is up to night knees up to the park benches. >> ten states under a state of emergency, 60 million americans affected. life has ground to a halt because of this one storm. >> the storm devastated the coastline in new jersey, where it came ashore last night. >> the damage just overwhelming, houses shifted and moved and destroyed. >> we're a tough group of people. we will rebuild. we will get better after all of this. >> it's hard to believe that just one year ago we were here bracing for and dealing with the disaster brought on by hurricane sandy. the storm surge that broke a

50-plus year record in new york's battery park by 4 feet. more than 100 americans were kilds as a result of the storm, that caused damage in excess of $65 billion. damage still being sorted out today as many along the shore wait to get approval and funding as chris christie vowed the state would rebuild. should they? especially when we know this is going to happen again. that controversial question is one of tough ones tackled in an article in this month's outside magazine which explores the work of or ren, that people's refusal to respect the power of nature. the writer of that piece, david guessener, thanks for joining us. >> thanks, krystal. >> you interviewed a man you call a prophet, or ren pillky, and he was able to predict even up to the exact subway stop the extent of the damage that we would see from a super storm of

this size. how was he able to see this coming in advance? >> he wasn't alone among scientists seeing what's happening with the shores. we traveled four years ago up the coast and pointed out towns in jersey where it was flat as a bowling ing bowlingally, this is where the storm is going to come through, did the same thing in new york city, describing the subway steps as waterfalls. he wasn't alone and knew something like this was coming and points out it's probably coming again also. >> that's a scary realty as he points out in your piece, the storms will only get worse as the seas rise and grow hotter. this is a very scary reality but one we need to recognize. what can we expect to happen in the coming years and decades and how do we even begin to prepare for that? >> i think that one of the interesting results of the hurricane was there really has

been a groemg in consciousness of how beaches were and how the water warms. you don't hear a lot of climate deniers anymore. a really interesting thing, the weather channel, around late irene, early sandy, they started to admit such a thing as climate change exist, which was interesting. orrin has pointed out for a long time, what we do on our beaches is leading to the destruction of the beaches which are our defense against hurricanes. i was thinking this morning, i know you're young people on your panel there -- >> most of us. >> three of us are young. >> i'm older and i used to watch kung fu, religiously watched kung fu and big fan of kane and a beach reacts like kung fu, it pulses and takes in the storm.

the problem comes when you start arming and developing beaches and what you do is basically draw a line in the sand and destroy the slope and pulse of the beach. so it's even less able to defend itself in these coming larger storms. i do love the kung fu flicks and david carradine in particular. what do you say to people who want to live on the coast? >> one of the things interesting about the article, i'm one of those people. my interest came about when i moved to a beach town with a 3-month-old daughter and came interested in hurricanes. we lived in north carolina near the pier where the weather channel guy always comes and does his nar race. i started to learn more and more about it. i have great sympathy with individuals who want to live by the water. i think we love the ocean and love the drama of it and the excitement and change of it.

but orrin's point is a more kind of uber point, which is this is a dangerous thing we're doing. if you built on a train track you wouldn't be surprised when a train came. and that's what orrin is saying. he's saying for all of the sympathy for individuals and people who love beach houses, at some point, if we're spending 50 billion on one storm, at some point, we're going to have to think realistically about the possibility that some of these places are not viable places to live in a home and pretend its regular life in suburbia. >> it's not just you or people with super fancy beach houses, you point out in the article about 30% of americans are in these basically coastal areas. so it's got to go beyond individual decision-making, is there some sort of policy approach here? >> there really is. i think the big things are -- you know, i've been thinking kind of trying to think of the

whole country in terms of natural history, i see a parallel between the fires in the foot hills in colorado and sandy and cries to rebuild. you're never going to get a local place to agree to these bigger things, it's like the mayor in jaws, come back in, the water is fine. you're not going to get that to happen. you need a federal stance. we provide federal flood insurance, which basically says -- if you had a private insurer they would never insure these places but that it assures that you can re -- pay and rebuild and we automatically do these giant rescue bailout bills -- i understand why we do it and if you remember the uproar a year ago after the storm when we hesitated. at some point we have to think maybe the scientists know

something. >> time to think long term. >> maybe human beings aren't very good with it, we're dealing with jobs and everything, hard to think 12 years ahead. >> david, thanks for helping us think 20 years ahead. >> thanks. >> we're waiting on the president set to speak in a few minutes at a high school in brooklyn. we'll have the remarks as soon as it happens. the actor getting rave reviews and oscar buzz for his performance of 12 years a slave. joining us at the table straight ahead. 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.

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new developments in one of america's most notorious murders, jonbonet ramsey, court documents made public for first time reveal the grand jury indicted ramsey's parents for child abuse and acting as an

accessory to a crime, including murder. they did not whoever, say who killed jonbonet. the district attorney refused to prosecute and another prosecutor said that dna evidence cleared the parents. >> a funeral mass tore slain mass teacher colleen ritzer, will be held on monday. she asked chism to stay oof after class. he followed her into the bathroom aefrn used a box cutter to kill her. he is charged as an adult with first degree murder. >> turning to my specialty, sports, of course, game two of the world series last night started off feeling oddly familiar with big papi blasting a home run in the bottom of the

sixth. but what felt like minutes late every, momentum swung back towards the cardinals as a couple of walks and little league fielding allowed st. louis to regain the lead and eventually the win. series is tied 1-1 and heads to missouri for three games at bush stadium starting tomorrow night and that is your news cycle. now, about the film, the greatest ever made about american slavery, the true story of a back man in 1841 kidnapped and sold into slavery. >> get you with traveling. >> survival is not about certain death, it's about keeping your head down. >> days ago i was with my family.

and my home. now you tell me all is lost. don't know who i am, that's the way to survive? well, i don't want to survive. i want to live. >> 12 years of slave stars our next guest who many are saying could win the oscar for best actor, my honor to welcome you to the guest spot today. i'm so proud you did for the work you did making this film. this is extraordinary and moving and stays with you. but why did you even want to make this movie? >> i just, first of all, i knew steve mcqueen for a long time and thought he was an extraordinary film maker, amazing film maker. so i was very excited when he sent me the script. then as soon as he did, i was just -- i kind of -- it was an

extraordinary story, an amazing story, that i've never seen before or watched before. a story that was about an experience this man had and story that was from so deep within the slave experience. i've never seen that in a film. i felt the kind of sort of amazing quality of it, i think. >> talk to me about the acting challenge of inhabiting a slave and that pain that you had to go through with that. but then at the same time, endo youing dignity into this character. >> i actually -- when i was -- read the script and looked to the book, i just -- i was amazed by him. an extraordinary man, earn his experience really, there's a moment that kind of changed for me where i stopped reading the story as an objective observer reading the book and i became totally immersed in the experience. it sort of almost as if he was kind of just sort of taking me

through, guiding me through this amazing story. i felt that would be very powerful for an audience if they have the same experience that could sort of -- and incredible immersive quality of this tale. >> how tough emotionally was it to dive into this character and come back to reality to get back to normal life? how difficult was that? >> it was quite tough. we went -- it was an extraordinary cast and crew and we were working incredibly hard and passionate about this project and kind of a high pitch, you know, when we were working on it. and afterwards, you -- i actually, i came to brooklyn and in london i needed a place in between that that to sort of slowly return to myself. it took me a couple of months. we were very deep into the experience, i think.

it was extraordinary. >> let's take a look a little bit more from the film. >> didn't i tell you to get nails. >> so i did. >> god damned you, i thought you knowed something. >> if there's something wrong, it's wrong with the instruction. >> you just said this was a project you're very passionate about. when audiences watch the film, what are you hoping they sort of taking from it? >> primarily it's the story of this extraordinary person and solomon north, this real american hero, the strength is kind of -- human spirit and this kind of unbreakable will, both in body and mind to get through this experience. there's something about that and something by humanity. and about these ideas, these ideas of human respect and human

dignity and it's you know, sort of never too late to have that conversation. and to think about that, especially in the context of somebody who was able to go through this kind of remarkable experience. >> let's play one more clip that talks about a healing in due time. take a listen. >> take cover, in his own time, manage them all. an exam an example of a plan plantation. -- >> this is nice. >> you see there, some of the contrast, your character's contrast from freedom to slavery and the notion of what happens over time and as people are watching this they are being transported back in time to get some experience with slavery, which is something this country is not over yet.

speak to, well, any of that. >> it's -- i think the experience of watching the story and experience of reading it and the -- from me it was to talk, it's like a gift about the past, the fact the book wasn't well known but it should be really. it was and extraordinary first person narrative of this amazing time. it really -- you really able to see in a very three dimensional way the whole society and realize you're dealing with individuals, with human beings and you can see yourself in that and you can see yourself in all characters. you can reflect on yourself in terms of solomon and what he goes through. i think that that is the in a way the kind of crucial essence of what the book is talking about. i think it's -- i think it's something that we can always apply. we can always apply these sort of ideas, you know. i think that's what is

remarkable with the humility and the extraordinary dignity with which solomon wrote this book and the very fact that ultimately he doesn't hate. there's no hatred in the book. it's an extraordinary thing for something to go through an experience like that, realization is that hatred won't help him. he is somebody who is kind of leaned down into a very pure survival mode about his -- his physical and his mental strength. he takes exactly what he needs to do that and it's i think an extraordinary journey and way to view the world actually. >> something very beautiful about human nature and something very scary about human nature also in the film. thank you so much for joining us today. >> a real pleasure. thank you. we're waiting for the president to speak right across the bridge in new york city. this was the scene at the white house last night. the north portco lit up in pink for breast cancer awareness month. our cycle family wanted to do

our part, raised over $2,000 for the american cancer society when we competed in the new york city rock race, a giant obstacle course. [ laughter ] >> yes, it was ridiculous but it was all for a good cause. you can see more from our rock race experience and learn about the white house going pink on our website, thecycle.msnbc. avo: the volkswagen "sign then drive" sales event is back. which means it's never been easier to get a new passat, awarded j.d. power's most appealing midsize car, two years in a row. and right now you can drive one home for practically just your signature.

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of providing a free world-class education for anyone, anywhere. if you look at a khan academy video, they cover everything from basic arithmetic to calculus, trigonometry, finance. you can really just get what you need at your own pace. and so, bank of america came and reached out to us

and said, "we are really interested in making sure that everyone really understands personal finance." we're like, "well, we're already doing that." and so it was kind of a perfect match. as we ged ready for the

president's presence at the high school in brooklyn, the latest winner of "up against the clock", you guessed it steve cornacki. >> with 16 points, a record shattering 1600 points, you have survived and won, returning champion, already won. >> a record setter, con grats brian on topping our own krystal ball. i can't wait for the tournament of champions. i want you to know, i'm coming for you and i'm rested and ready and mother of two. pain does not scare me. >> it's on. it's on. i'll bring it to you. >> before we start talking presidential politics, let us tell you that tomorrow on "up against the clock" will be guest joe watkins and suzy kim. back to politics, it's been a

bit of a rough week for president obama, the problems with the obama care website, transformed the president to seemed to undergone a infusion of capital to a man pushed back on his heels. today he's talking education and fund raising, it seems he's doing his best to distance himself from thaffordable care act's online fee asco. >> he wasn't talking about the health care law and it seemed like a calculated effort to try to put the discussion about health care.gov to try to ignore that's what everybody in the political world is talking about. today i sort of feel a little differently about that. you see a few things happening. you had jeff zienst, the man tasked with managing the healthcare.gov cleanup effort saying we're get this sorted out

by the end of november. and some republicans starting to recognize that they are going to probably figure out this website thing. we need to have other avenues by which to attack the affordable care act. they want to return the conversation to certain people in states getting dropped off of their individual market coverage and things like that. in that light it seems like maybe the administration's confident that after this swell of stories about how bad things went at first, things will calm down and the website will get fixed and everybody who is making such a fuss about it in this week after the shutdown, will look a little bit ridiculous in hindsight and the discussion of immigration reform and talk in new york all about saying, we actually have this under control and i can focus on multiple things at once. >> brian, you had a great quote about this that you loved. you see republicans see this as the big chance to pour sugar into the vat of lemon juice that they have squeezed for themselves over the past few

weeks and it might have worked but for the gop's four-long fire house of bad faith with respect to all matters of health dare recare reform. >> i think there's a -- a lot of things that republicans are saying right now about healthcare.gov's rollout, the problems are real and they are a real threat to the viability to the program if they are not fixed. instead of confining the decr critique with that, they kind of extended it to this other stuff how democrats are flip flopping on the individual mandate, which isn't true. when nobody in the country i think except for the hard core conservatives who never liked the health care law, nobody hears republicans criticize gs how obama or democrats or affordable care act and things it's earnest or honest criticism. they think it's more har binger

of doom they've been doing for years. like these guys don't want the website to work, why should anybody listen to them. >> also they said the country would end, not that the website wouldn't work well. >> right, they are obsessed right? they are totally obsessed with obama care. it's hard to think of another federal precedent that has been this furiously contested for this long unless you go back to the sort of the right to choose and roe v. wade and those tiype things. i can't think of a law long after fought after it was long settled law. >> the irony is in the leadup to the launch and now that the launch is so plagued, the republican resistance to it has crescen crescendoed, if they fix it, then what? it's sort of like if people start enrolling by the thousands like they are in connecticut -- in kentucky and other states,

it's suddenly a benefit that is going to be rolling out to hundreds and thousands if not millions of people. and they are going to to like very quickly change the whole argument about obama care. if it works in january, february, march, and beyond, through 2014, it's going to be a much harder sell to run in the mid-terms on repealing or defunding obama care on the idea that this is such a terrible law. then you'll talk about taking a working health insurance system from hundreds of people and that's not going to be that popular. even those who oppose it who have friends and neighbors that benefit and suddenly they say, maybe this wasn't a great idea, but that doesn't mean we support repeal or defunding any longer. >> brian, some people might call it wanting to change the conversation. others might say, look, the president has to walk and chew gum, so when he wants to turn the conversation to immigration, it's not like don't look at

that. i have to move forward with something else and let's do that within this conversation. typically in american politics, business gets whatever it wants with -- especially the gop with immigration that whole equation gets thrown up in the air and the gop has been most gop s have been blocking immigration. next week we have business leaders clergymen, all usually with the gop coming to washington saying can you turn around on this thing? it seems from the business minds and economic minds said they should be behind this. the way they've been playing racial politics for 10, 15, 20 years makes it difficult for them to turn around and now support this. >> i think that's exactly right. you're seeing a dynamic taking shape that has existed with respect to immigration reform since president obama's been re-elected. the mirrors the dynamic that led to the shutdown. the difference is immigration reform doesn't pass, there's no

shutdown, you kind of get stuck with the sub optimal status quo. you have this project that the leadership and the republican party wants to get done. they want to pass an comprehensive immigration reform bill and get this off the table before there's another national election. and they run like a brick wall into the right flank of the party which kind of controls house speaker john boehner operates and he doesn't want to cross them because he doesn't necessarily want to lose his job. even though it's the sort of thing where this bill is sitting there in the house and it can pass if it was just put on the floor or something similar put on the floor, but there's -- a very powerful tail wagging that dog. it's just going to sit there unless somehow these constituencies you were talking about manage to change john boehner's mind about it. there's no sign that's going to happen. if anything, since the shutdown

it looks less and less likely. >> tour'e raises an important point here in terms of the political process, which is the president is still trying to lead on the agenda that he ran on, won on, presented in his constitutional that he's supposed to do once a year to lay out an agenda and while the congress has been waylaid on these symbolic fights and the shutdown, he's out there saying, a., immigration yesterday and b. today, as we're awaiting for him to come out here any moment and speak to education and other important agenda items. specifically this p-tech school, something very interesting, mayor bloomberg has worked with private business on and as we mentioned earlier in the broadcast, the president says is the road to the future, because not everyone is going to go to a four-year college, necessarily. but if you can get through, get a diploma, get support and also get some extra training, in this case the ibm version is sort of some computer skills, then you're better off and better able to enter the job market,

even if you don't ever get to go to college. >> i think -- and i think that the -- what's funny is the shutdown kind of obscured the fact, because it's about such sort of narrow issues, you know, or they're not narrow, they're important. but they don't really touch on, you know, the vast majority of the things the president wants to get done. which is about taxes and spending and they have been at logger heads over that for years. the parties have been at logger heads for that for decades, even. and now that there's you know, the government has reopened, the cycle of brinksmanship is at least in abeyance if not gone, you can start seeing like a window for president obama to start refocussing on some of those things. because, you fknow in the aftermath of the shutdown, republican approval ratings are in the toilet, basically. and you have this sort of budget negotiation -- >> bottom of the toilet. >> this budget negotiation is -- >> not even in the middle. all the way at the bottom. >> we don't have a graphic for

that. >> abby, you had a pie chart that showed which part -- >> of the toilet -- >> down in the sewer, where the drano goes, down there. >> i think we have worked that joke. >> ryan, appropriately, though, the president is about to speak at the brooklyn high school tech focus. it's a high school that president obama mentioned in his state of the union address as a forward-thinking, forward-looking model of education. and really, i mean, you have to think about these kids, how exciting it is for them to be near the president of the united states. and i mean, they really had to prepare. they had to clean out the classrooms, clean out their lock others, open their desks, hang artwork for the president. this 15-year-old said i'm going to wear a suit today. they are so excited. ryan, this really is a huge day for these kids. i can't imagine just how excited they are as they wait for him to aarrive and speak. >> it kind of makes me jealous. i grew up in a small town in california, just sort of, you know, 50 miles inland from los

angeles. and no president ever came, i don't think, within more than 50 miles of where i went to high school. and i think i would have been pretty jazzed if any of the presidents i grew up with came to give a talk at my high school, even if it meant having to clear out my cubby or whatever. so i guess i'm a little envious. >> well, while we've got a chance to look at one school and one the president has, you know, put a spotlight on, and maybe we'll go to toure on this. one of the reasons they have chosen this, this is a school open to all students. there are model schools in a lot of cities in the country, including in new york, that have tremendous records. but they only take people in on testing. right? p-tech is open to all students, has no admission tests whatsoever. and so each student can get in through a fair process, they can be paired with an ibm mentor. and that to me is interesting and different than some of these schools that do very well, but ultimately are only available, toure, to sometimes the students that are already the best

prepared in the city. >> no, you're absolutely right. and i also like the ibm connection, because a lot of times students, essentially young black students, don't actually see where is this going, how does this translate forward in my life. and when you have an ibm connection, and they can see very clearly -- very clearly where we're going with this, that's a very powerful thing. >> this is a opportunity introducing the president right now. >> 42.6 high school credits. all five regions passed. all five regions passed that are needed for graduation. and i'm currently enrolled in three college courses, including calculus.

this high school has many doors that will open for me. and i am going to continue to work hard until i earn that free associate's degree. my experiences here at p-tech can be sometimes bittersweet, for i have to give up things like hanging with friends, playing video games, traveling and more. because i need to invest in the person i want to become. and now, ladies and gentlemen, i am proud to introduce to you the president of the united states of america -- ♪

hello, brooklyn! how are you doing! well, it is good to be back in brooklyn. good to be in new york city. and it is good to see some friends who stick up for students and teachers and education every day. we've got your governor, andrew cuomo is in the house. give him a big round of applause. we've got your senator, chuck schumer. outstanding secretary of

education, arne duncan. we've got your outstanding congressional delegation is here. give them a big round of applause. we've got your public advocate and my friend, bill de blasio is here. we've got the outstanding leader of one of america's iconic companies, ibm's ceo, jenny ramati. and i want to give a special shoutout to a man who has been an extraordinary mayor for this city. he has been a leader throughout the country for the past 12 years, mr. michael bloomberg is here. and i want to thank your principal here at p-tech,

rashied davis, who i am pretty confident is the coolest-looking principal in america. rashid. i mean, there just are not that many principals with dreadlocks and yellow kicks. there aren't that many of them. i mean, there may be some, but there aren't that many. and i had a wonderful time visiting with one of your teachers, ms. syfulah. she was outstanding. she welcomed me into her classroom. she showed me around. i want to thank all of you for letting me spend some time here. in return, you got out of class

a little early on friday. which i know always gets a little applause. although in this school, maybe not. because you guys are enjoying learning so much. that's worth applauding, that you're enjoying learning so much. part of the reason i'm glad to be here is because i used to live in brooklyn. and i actually landed marine one in prospect park. i used to live across the street from prospect park. and -- but mainly i'm here because i want to talk -- i want to come here ever since i talked about you in my state of the union address. this year. because what's going on here at p-tech is outstanding. and i'm excited to see it for myself. i know brooklyn in general is blowing up right now. when i was living here, brooklyn was cool. but not this cool.

barclays center hadn't been built yet. i know the nets just picked up paul pierce and kevin garnett off season. which is a lesson to all the young people, old oh people can still play. we've still got some gas in the tank. but this whole borough is where generations of hopeful, striving immigrants came in search of opportunity. a chance to build better lives for themselves and for their kids. and that's been true for decades. and i'm here today to talk about what we need to do as a country to build the same kind of opportunity for your generation. for the next generation. and for your kids. and for future immigrants. this country should be doing everything in our power to give more kids the chance to go to schools just like this one. we should be doing everything we can to put college withi