with both parties. >> the mixed signals come on a day when president obama will be talking later with religious leaders about the need to overhaul the health care system. the 40-minute webcast of the president will include more than 30 denominations and religious organizations including protestants, jews and muslims. white house officials singing from different books how to deal with republicans, perhaps prayer is now a good thing for the administration. ann corn blum is a reporter for "the washington post." what is going on? how could they be in disagreement here so publicly? >> the way they're trying to reconcile what the two of them said is to say that the white house is prepared to move forward without republican support but hasn't definitively decided to. all of our independent reporting backs up some of what the times has said if after september 15th the senate finance committee has not been able to come up with a

bipartisan agreement. the we know the white house is considering that possibility. as rahm emanuel said, it seems like they might be heading in that direction. what robert gives is trying to say we're not there yet, it's not a fata compli. >> is the idea when the democrats do decide, they want the nation to know that the republicans were the ones who made it imupon possible for there to be any bipartisanship. >> exactly. it may seen some people in the white house may think the chief of staff's comments jumped the gun a little bit. if at the end of the day, they want this to be the republicans' fault, not the democrats and in particular, they don't want fissures within the democratic caucus to be blamed for it, they want this to be democrat versus republican. this wasn't supposed to come to the foreground till everyone was back from break. >> ann, thanks as always. we appreciate it. >> now, david the bigger picture. where is obama nation in all of

this? when barack obama was running for president, of course, he mobilize add army of grassroots activists that raised a record amount of money and helped get him elected to the white house. where are they now now that the president is trying to get support for his plan? tomorrow the president will be holding what the house white house is calling a live strategy meeting with grass-roots supporter. keith boykin is a democratic strategist and editor-in-chief of the daily voice. good to see you. these legions of grass-roots supporters, will they support the president on this. >> i think they already have been. the problem is they don't know where the president is or will be on the health care issue. they need to see some clear definitive statement he's going to stand by something, for example, the public option so they don't feel like their feet are being out from underneath them. >> and so then i wonder what can be gained by tomorrow's session if we've already heard that the president has not decided on for example, as you bring you, the public option something we believe is of great interest to

many of the grassroots activists. he's not going to decide that we hear for at least a month, what kind of message will the president bring to gather their support. >> i think what the president needs to do is reassure the liberal democratic progressive activityists he's still going to fight for health care. what people are sensing on the left is the president and white house are gun shy, not willing to take it to the republicans. but the republicans have been tighting them all along. the president to his credit has tried to work on compromise. he had two republicans. judd gregg backed out and attacked the president. he tried to put tax cuts in the stimulus to an peace the republicans. the republicans didn't vote for it. he tried to go away from a single pair system and approach a compromise proposal on health care and the republicans are still opposed to that and likely to be opposed to the co-op. >> democrats opposed to that, as well. >> exactly. i think what's happening is the democrats who are opposed are concerned they can't get republicans aboard. that's why you hear max bob cuss

saying they're concerned because they can't get the republicans going along. chuck grassley says they're not going to support the plan even if they come up on a proposal on their own. how do you negotiate with people who don't want to go along with what they're willing to negotiate. >> it did seem like rahm emanuel was tapping into that anger that progressives have about the republicans and statements they're make. how disspiriting is it for progressives to put it back and say now is not the time we're stepping away from the table and have gibbs say, we're still focused on working with republicans and don't even have a plan b right now. >> i think that's a good point. i read the article last night on the internet and i was thrilled to see the white house is fighting back. i was disappointed when i heard robert gibbs briefing. a lot are sensing that the administration has to fight from the perspective they won the election. the obama campaign won 67

million votes last year and 365 electoral votes and yet seem to be governing as if they barely won the election. that's not what democrats want. they see ronald reagan and george w. bush as examples. george w. bush barely won the election. he gompbds like he won a supermandate. the republicans have this ability to stay on message even when they're not right and the democrats want leadership from the white house willing to fight for what they believe in. that's what will get the grassroots mobilized a focused plan that they know is going to be there. nobody wants to fight for something they don't know the white house is going to be behind them. >> we'll seiche how much of that focus they get behind. david, it's interesting, i still wonder if there isn't something to the good cop, bad cop and gibbs and emmanuel aren't doing something intentional in terms of messaging they're putting out. >> if they are, they're several steps ahead of everybody else. hopefully they're calculating the good cop, bad cop routine.

what will it get us. it's certainly frustrating to a lot of the progressives who can't understand what the white house is waiting for and look up and see the republican attacks and don't see the white house getting anything for this talk about bipartisanship. >> true. >> we'll see. monica, we have breaking news. itn is now reporting abdel ali ma gra had i the person being held in scotland for so many years for the bombing of pan am flight 103 is going to be released overnight. scottish officials are notifying news organizations the decision will be made later. he will be released. so many americans were killed in december of 1988 when pan am flight 103 was blown out the sky and he was the only person essentially held accountable for it. joining us with reaction is kathleen flynn who's son died in the bombing. kathleen, first of all, it must be heart wrenching to hear this news. >> it's absolutely unbelievable. i mean, we're having a hard time

facing this reality. it does not seem possible that any country or any scottish minister would even consider releasing a murder ter of 270 people. i mean, he was accused, he was convicted. he had two to three appeals. i mean, and all of a sudden on i guess compassionate grounds or i'm not sure which it is, compassionate grounds or is it a prisoner exchange? i don't think there are any british prisoners in libya. however, the point is that this is such a miscarriage of justice. it's just immoral. it's, you know, incredibly upsetting to all the families who lost loved ones on that flight. >> it does seem like it's humanitarian grounds at least what's what the scottish officials are suggesting because ma gri had i is essentially

dying of prostate cancer ta they need to remove him in order to treat him. does that make any difference. >> sir, with all due respect, you know, we have not had any credible evidence about this severity of his case. my husband had prostate cancer ten years ago. it was treated and he has been, you know, on a perfect health since then. so you know, we don't know what to think of this whole thing. and you know, frankly, you know, i can't believe that the medical care is better in libya than it is in scotland. so i'm even having trouble understanding that because the scottish health care system is excellent. and you know, his family is lives there. so lives in scotland. i don't understand, you know, what this whole charade about going home except that he will be greeted as a hero and as a martyr at the same time. i guess that's what the whole

bottom line is that let's treat this you know, murderer this terrorist as a hero in libya. >> we certainly hope that's not the case but unfortunately, kathleen, i fear perhaps you may be correct. kathleen flynn whose son jp was among the 2 0 people who were killed when that man successfully carried out a terrorist attack on pan am flight 103 back in 1988. kathleen, thanks again for joining us. if you're just joining us, the news is that a scottish judge has decided that he should be freed on humanitarian grounds. we will see what sort of reaction he gets. >> certainly can understand miss flynn's frustration there. up next, tracking hurricane bill. the powerful category four storm picking up strength. what it means for millions of people on the east coast. >> and then reaching out to nascar dads. the politics behind president obama's big meet and greet today with racing's top drivers. >> but first, that's prettyny

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welcome back. hurricane bill is spinning stronger as it barrels through the atlantic. >> the system is a dangerous category 4 hurricane right now. bill is pushing west-northwest with winds as strong as 135 miles per hour. and it could get even more powerful. the most serious threat may be to bermuda. the storm is expected to pass the island in three or four

days. whattize ahead for the u.s. east coast? john morales is the chief meteorologist at station wtvj in miami, one of the top hurricane experts in the country. what's the track right now. >> right now, thankfully is over open ocean and it's passing about 380 miles to the northeast of the leeward islands, part of the lesser antilles. here's a look at that image. it's a very impressive hurricane this afternoon. it the eye itself is 30 mooild miles wide, a very large eye well defined tropical cyclone. here's another look at it as it barrels in towards the west-northwest between 16 and 18 miles an hour. highest sustained winds are 135 miles per hour. a category 4 hurricane. which is expected to, for now anyway, remain over open ocean. we're expecting the bermuda high to track it to the west-northwest and then a big upper level trough should mean that this system will turn and

then northeast over the colder waters of the north atlantic. if we are all very, very lucky, we'll have the system thread the needle between bermuda and the east coast without strike lands. the problem is the forecast track, well, it can't be that precise. you're looking at some of the computer models, they're in pretty good agreement of where it should go. but we're never really sure. so there is some possibilities, there may be a wobble to the left or right, so therefore, what this means for the rest kents of the northeast as well as the canadian maritimes and bermuda, everybody needs to be very, very aware of what's going on with bill over the next few days. if it does threaten that area we're talking about next web when we should see it crossing into that area of the north atlantic. >> john, while we have you here, david just want to ask you a quick question. we're getting breaking news in now as you were speaking. there are reports of a tornado in the minneapolis, st. paul area. there might be daniel to a

downtown church. what are you seeing on the radar? >> yeah, that is true. we've been tracking that this afternoon. the system across the central northern plains of the u.s. is a powerful one and very definitely we're looking at the possibility of seeing some damage there. as a matter of fact, they're going to hand me some information right now regarding that situation. trees down, damage to some roofs. hennepin, cottage grove, communities near minneapolis, st. paul. that is where that tornado might have touched down this afternoon and obviously, we'll have more on that dur the course of the afternoon here on msnbc. >> john, thank you very much. and again, we are, of course, as john pointed out trying to collect information from minneapolis to find out the damage. with hurricane bill, another report says even if it doesn't hit the united states, the storm surge and waves could be ten to 12 feet just because of the impact of what it's doing out on the ocean. >> absolutely. that's always the case in hurricane season. i'm watch the projection up on

the screen and you've got just that whole northeastern coast that could be hit in some way by this storm, david. >> interesting. so if you're going surfing, anybody, or you monica, watch out for big waves. >> you don't go during the hurricane. even when they're not that close. >> monica, coming up, mark sanford's apology tour continuous. what he said today about his political ambitions and his quest for forgiveness. my mother made the best toffee in the world. it's delicious. so now we've turned her toffee into a business.

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monica, there are a lot of things that could be considered news in this world. >> but there are only a few stories that make us say, no way! >> oh, and here's a good one. britney spears, she's putting herself back out there, folks. she appeared on the "late show" with david letterman last night in case you missed it unveiling her new figure, her first appearance on the show in nearly three years.

she she delivered a top ten list ways the country would be different if she were president. >> top ten ways the country would be different if britney spears were president. number nine. >> we would only invade fun places like cabo. >> the number one way the country would be different if britney spears were president. >> finally, the media would pay some attention to me. >> there you go. >> i'm sorry, was she dressed? did she have clothes on? >> vavavoom. well, i guess she's feeling better, right, monica. >> i guess so. somebody give that woman a bathrobe or something. >> whew. monica, take a look at it shot. kansas state guard dennis clement makes what seems like impossible shot in the offseason. the ball bounces off the scoreboard onto the floor and swoosh, nothing but net. the clip was posted on youtube a few weeks ago and generated nearly 4,000 hits since. i want to know how many takes, monica.

>> impressive stuff. wow. >> indeed. now, here's something controversial. controversy is brewing over the gender of a south african athlete. caster semenya is a favorite in today's 800 meter final in the world championships in berlin. an international athletics foundation asked that the 1-year-old undergo gender testing amidst the requirements she to compete as a woman. what's going on here? >> first of all, our hearts should go out to semenya that she has to deal with this. it exposes there is a twisted sexist racist and heteroenormative history that involves the way track and field and olympic officials understand gender. a lot of people don't know this, but 40, 50 years ago officials said african-american women shouldn't compete because they looked her maf tro dit tick. they would have women parade naked in front of olympic and

track officials to make sure that they were not men and lost in all of this discussion is any understanding of what are known as intersect athletes, people who may have male and female chromosomes. you have to be a man or a woman. it's very binary and at the end of the day, it sustains people who may not fall into one of their casual gender categories. >> one of the things that was so confusing is the daily mail in reporting on the story referred to sources notice track federation and it said the well-placed source said semenya would be subjected to a complex process of gender testing which could take several weeks. without the explanation. >> she's a teenager. >> without the explanation you just gave, most people would just say you just have a doctor examine the person in the privacy of a room and you know what gender they are. >> at the roughly one out of 1600 people born in the united states are what's known as intersex. they have both male and female form chrome moems. there are more in the united states than jews.

i say that as a jur issue person. roughly five times every day, a doctor performs a procedure at birth to try to clarify somebody's gender. when people grow up, their hormones express themselves in different ways and the olympic committee says you're either a man or woman. in the 21st century, it's more complicated than that. >> i'm just wondering. obviously this is not caster's first race. has she run into this issue before. >> no, these are about her enemies in the track and field world trying to exploit the fact that people in the international track federation have this twisted history regard to gender. this is the idea they have feared the idea that a woman is not a woman. gender should not be the main way we understand athletic excellence and somehow being a man means you're better. if i ran in that race, i guarantee you i would be

throwing up a kidney and i would come in last. being a man does not mean you're better at track and field. what matters is training, the facilities, the ability to have sneakers without holes does well for you when you're trying to be a track athlete. a big bioto the public committee and people who don't understand what it means that there may it be gender variance in the world. >> lots of cheers to jeff, sports writer for the nation explaining that it is a lot more complex than people think. monica, i learned something i did not know, that there were more people who have the chromosomes of both sexes than jewish people in the united states. that's amazing. >> who knew. >> yes. monica, still ahead, speaking of sports, president obama and nascar dads. >> the president hosting racing's top drivers right now at the white house. we will talk about the politics of it next. ♪ bicycle, what are we waiting for? the flowers are blooming.

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i'm amanda with your cnbc market wrap. the dow finishing up 61 points, the s&p 500 up six and the nasdaq up 13 points. the price of oil rose above the $70 mark today after the government reported a drop in inventory levels. the price of crude oil jumping nearly 5% to more than $72 a barrel. and swiss banking giant ubs has agreed to give the irs details about more than 4,000 accounts held by american customers to help the u.s. pursue comrints suspected of evading taxes. my space says it will acquire i like the largest music application for social networks. i like will remain head quartered in seattle and the management team will remain as it is. that's it for now. first in business worldwide, back to you at msnbc. >> welcome back. i'm david shoeser line of in

washington. >> i'm monica novotny live in new york. >> the breaking news continues at this hour. continuing to get reaction to the news from scotland that alma gra had i is going to be released tonight, according to scottish officials. 270 people were killed. 21 years ago when the pan am flight exploded, but meg ra had i has been in prison for almost 20 years and apparently suffered from prostate cancer and officials decided on humanitarian grounds he should be released. more than 100 american families lost somebody in this attack are outraged at this decision. furthermore, the u.s. state department told the scottish government not to order the release. a scottish judge has decided almagrahi will be released from a jail tonight in scotland. >> the big picture right now on msnbc, a meeting between numbers 44 and 4.

president obama and jimmie johnson the driver of the lowe's chefrlt are meeting right now. other top sprint cup drivers are also there as well as former nascar champions including richard petty, better known as king richard. this event was supposed to happen two weeks ago but postponed because of a rain delay. it was supposed to happen at pocono. nascar drivers have been invited to the white house every year since 2000. monica, now the bigger picture. president obama and the nascar vote. nascar drivers and their fans tend to vote republican but that hasn't stopped president obama and other democratic candidates from trying to make inroads with this key voting bloc. but it turns out a democratic president was the first to invite nascar drivers to the white house. president jimmy carter was a huge nascar fan. craig orderen is the white house editor for politico. is it realistic to think president obama can appear with nascar drivers as he has this afternoon and that will translate into votes of southern

white males. >> it's hard to picture that whole group of folks is going to start supporting barack obama because they didn't very much in the campaign. if you're the president of the united states, it never hurts. it's a way to show a little sign of respect to kind of a regional favorite as nascar is. this is a group of voters he's had a lot of trouble with dating back to the primaries that famous comment about bitter voter clinging to guns and religion. he was talking about nascar dads a lot in that sentence out in san francisco and i think he's tried to make amends ever since. why not? get about 20 of these guys to come to the white house, what could be bad about that. >> clearly there he is shaking hands with several nascar officials and nascar drivers. what goes through the minds you think? do you think nascar viewers would actually tune in to say there's the president with jimmie johnson or threw is with such and such? >> look, i happened to go to the daytona racetrack down in florida with rudy giuliani during the campaign. these are pretty rabid fans. they pay attention to everything

that moves. they have their favorite drivers. i'm sure most of them are on that stage at the white house today. i wouldn't be surprised it's kind of a fun august story. for obama to, me, it's a no lose situation. you get to rub elbows with guys very, very popular around the country, individual drivers and have fun doing it and you look like you're reaching out to people that might not normally be your constituency. it seems to me a win win all around. >> looking at a report over on espn.com, apparently if you look deep enough into nascar grounds, you can find their vp of public affairs was a deputy director over john kerry's presidential campaign and their number two pr specialist from the agency of jody powell, carter's old press secretary. a bit of a bipartisan group. perhaps not as conservative as we think today. >> even that phrase nascar dads implies a southern white man who goes to the track every weekend. there's a big nascar racetrack in new hampshire. so this is a sport that has a

lot of popularity around the country. i do think it is again kind of a regional emphasis down in the south. i think even we in the media world tend to pigeon hole these folks a lot. it's a popular sport. people like it. the president can be seen reach out to folks that normally he would not be seen hanging around with, why not. >> craig, thanks as always. we appreciate it. and you know, monica, it's hard to recognize those guys when they're not wearing their colorful racing outfits and numbers. it's hard to figure out who's who. >> i take it you're not watching every week, david. >> i every now and then tune in. if they walked by one of news a suit and tie, i would have no idea who they are. >> i met jeff gordon once, my claim to fame. >> nice guy. >> absolutely, very nice guy. >> good to hear. >> let's get back to some news. transportation secretary ray lahood is assuring car dealers they will be reimburses for the

popular cash for clunkers program responding to complaints over a backlog of rebate payments. he says dealers are partly to blame because of improperly filled out paperwork and also blames the sheer volume of the sales. dealers are not complaining about the fact that over 300,000 or 400,000 cars have been sold. they're going to get their money. >> okay. meantime, gm announced its ramping up end of the year production to meet demand fueled by the cash for clunkers program. the automaker says they'll add shifts and run some plants on overtime to increase production by 60,000 vehicles. >> monica, the story that just will never go away. south carolina governor mark sanford is on the road again asking for forgiveness and support. sanford spoke before a packed rotary club luncheon in summerville, south carolina today. republican governor apologized again for his affair with an argentinean woman. he said it ended his political ambitions. >> i think that the measure of

any of our lives is not ultimately recorded in whether or not we fall down in life. but in how we get back up. if there is anything that is abundantly clear, it is that my time in politics is over. i'm not run for president. i'm not running for something after that it is about the next 16 months. >> sanford continues to talk about the next 16 months and continues to apologize at each of these events, there remain several questions about his travel spending. state officials have asked for an ethics probe into the governor's use of state aircraft for things like haircuts to see ball games with his sons and sanford has refused to talk about any of that. so he's talking quite openly about feeling apologetic and his political career being over, but this is going to hang over him for the next 16 months, these investigations and his unanswered questions aren't making anything go away. >> can i make a prediction? >> dancing with the stars" one year from now.

>> oh, no. >> i'm just saying. >> wow. i hope not, monica. i hope not. just ahead, our face-off on health care. should the democrats go it alone if the republicans will not negotiate in good faith and what should be the message from the white house? and then uncle sam asking the public for help producing swine flu public service ads. the results? perhaps more entertaining than instructional. take a look. >> coming to town, that ugly flu bug's coming round. >> everybody seems to be sick at school. what can i do to prevent the flu? introducing one a day women's 2o.

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that's right, 105 meals absolutely free. plus, add our auto-delivery discount and free shipping for an even greater value. call or click now. guys, you can do this. just pick up the phone and call. you will lose weight. it's that time in today's face-off, is the right winning the health care war, or are their tactics beginning to backfire to the point where the white house realizes republicans will never support reform. >> monica, while town hall meet have been fairly smooth this week, there was this exchange last night with democratic congressman barney frank who stood up to a woman who compared president obama to hitler. >> why do you continue to support a nazi policy as obama has expressly supported this policy? why are you supporting it. >> when you ask me that question, i am going to revert to my ethnic heritage and answer

your question is a question. on what planet do you spend most of your time? ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. i have no interest in doing it. >> the white house meanwhile continues to insist they will try for bipartisanship, but consider the strong words from white house chief of staff rahm emanuel on this morning's new york times "the republican leadership has made a strategic decision that defeating president obama's health care proposal is more important for their political goals than solving the health insurance problems that americans face every day." here to face off matt, let's start with you. if somebody does believe president obama's policies are like adolph hitler, barney frank is right because they are like having an argument with a drmt table, right. >> no one out there believes that references to the nazis are appropriate. so anyone. >> that woman did.

>> well, look, i'm not going to sit here and respond to what one woman said at one meeting. i think more broadly speaking, the question is, is the white house prepared to go it alone on health care and the problem is that they're having problems with their own party. the blah dogs in the house appear to not support the public option and they're hearing it in town halls across the country. there is not the support in the senate as senator kent conrad said for a public option in the senate. so there's still a lot of hurdles here, even if the white house does decide to go it alone, there is absolutely no certainty they're going to get a bill this year based on where things sand right now. >> david goodfriend on that point, you see rahm emanuel possibly going it alone and a few hours later, there's robert gibz saying we don't have a backup plan to go it alone, we're still focused on bipartisanship. isn't that a problem when the democratic party can't get the

same mess and out to progressives looking for guidance? >> the differences between the democrats are much more narrow than that. it's a question of strategy and tactics and getting to a commonly held goal. i think the democratic president harry truman put it best when he said any jackass can tear down a barn but a skill tul full farmer is the only one who can build one. what they're doing in the republican party is marginalizing themselves, whether or not they're going to be a part of this deal becomes a political liability to them. don't forget, it was bill clinton without a single republican vote in chong got his economic package passed and suddenly the democratic party for the first time in a generation was more trusted by americans with the economy. that's what's going to happen here. the republicans are sidelining themselves, they're naysayers, they just say no and not part of the solution. we're going to get a bill passed. look at the budget reconciliation procedure that was put in place earlier this year. the democrats can get this out of the senate with 51 votes.

what that means is, we can do it without the republicans. we will do it without the republicans if we have to, and the republicans can explain why they thought that today's health care system was fine and they didn't have to do anything to help fix it. >> matt, does david have a point? are the republicans sidelining themselves? we had on a republican strategist who talked at this point, live it to the democrats. the republicans can just be the bystanders. what elected official wants to be a bystander? this is the most important issue out there right now. we want people from all sides in talking about it. >> look, bottom line, monica, is no republican is happy with the health care system that we have and thinks it cannot be improved. the problem david that you need to consider is, look at the nbc "wall street journal" poll released yesterday. only 36% of the people that were polled yesterday said over the last few days said they thought obama's plan was a good idea and only 24% less than one in four said it was going to improve care. in fact, 54% think the bill goes

too far. the problem is not with republicans in congress, the problem is with the majority of the american people that have deep concerns and reasonable questions about the plan ta we have in congress right now. >> with all due respect to the nbc poll, a lot of people would argue that the problem is with the polling and the question. i want to put up, here's element number two, the issue of the public option which a lot of republicans have justifiably said this just problems that the american public does not want the public option because only 43% aid they did, but what, in that in the nbc poll it, wasn't given as a choice. yet in other polls, the new york times cbs poll when the public option is described as a choice along with private insurance, the number goes up to 66%, 62% for quinnipiac, 56 for time, "the washington post" nabc news poll 54. >> the question that remains is can a politician support whatever bill gets through congress and win re-election. that is what individual members of congress are worried about.

they've been home for the last three weeks in august in their districts. some democrats are so scared they're not even holding public town hall meetings doing it over the phone or mailing it in. the real question is are they going to support a health care bill. there is not 218 votes in the house. >> 60%. you're leaving out a key fact, matt. 60% of the american people think that our current health care system is broken and must be fixed. you offer no answers. your party is rerest of any answers. we're offering some proposals. one of them's going to pass, matt. it might not be exactly the one that came out of the senate health committee. it may not be what came out of the house ways and means committee. we have multiple committees that reported on bills. there will be a vehicle put in front of the president for his signature and i hope for your sake that you guys have played a productive role because if you haven't, we're going to eat you for lunch in the mid terms. >> david and matt mccove yak, i'm going to pull up element

number three. i'll leave open the idea that both parties have a way tonism this. take a look at this map talking about insurance companies in nine states including senator grassley's iowa, there is one big insurance company that covers 70% or more of the entire population in 17 more states, it's 50% or more. so when people say, oh, no, the government's going to take away choice and competition, right now in a lot of states including iowa, there is no choice for competition. >> david in the top 40 metropolitan areas in the country, they each have at least eight insurance companies operating in the top 40 metropolitan areas in the country. >> in those same metropolitan areas, people express they like medicare more than they like their private insurance companies and medicare is government run. in any case, matt and david, we appreciate you both coming on today. monica, tomorrow president obama is going to sit down with radio host michael summer con nish to

talk about health care. it's an exclusive interview. if you want to e-mail any questions, any of our viewers want to e-mail questions, you can do it by logging on to tv.msnbc.com. and that should be quite an interview tomorrow. >> we'll be watching and have it covered. up next, some things we thought you should know. >> that's right. orly, remember her? she may run for office. and meghan mccain talks about sex and the gop? and then on "hardball," chris matthews will look at whether president obama needs to call in the clintons to help on health care. ♪ bicycle, what are we waiting for? the flowers are blooming. the air is sweet. and zyrtec® starts... relieving my allergies... 2 hours faster than claritin®. my worst symptoms feel better, indoors and outdoors. with zyrtec®, the fastest... 24-hour allergy medicine, i promise not to wait as long

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there's a lot going on today. here are a few more things we thought viewers should know. >> meghan mccain, daughters of senator john mccain is defining the gop in maybe a way that you haven't heard before. in a recent post on twitter, the 24-year-old tweets for me the republican party is like sex. even when it's bad, it's good. >> whoo. >> do you follow her on twiter. >> i think my only advice is use protection whether it's -- let's just not go there. in a strange twist, and this will be like a cold bath to i allot of people. the strange woman behind the birther movement says she has not ruled out her own future in politics. in an interview with an israeli newspaper, orly taitz says you know, i never ran for office but i would not exclude this as a possibility. taitz does however acknowledge and who could forget her from

this interview she could never run for president because she unlike president obama was not born in the united states. monica, if she's going to run, that's a race i want to cover because i think that would be a. >> are you going to have her on again if she runs? >> sure. >> orly, orly, orly. the department of health and human services is reviewing entries for flu public service announcement contests. connents had till monday night to submit a video how to prevent the spread of the h1n1 virus. here's a look at a few of them. >> hi there, folks. i'm rapping ray. i've got something important to say. there's bad news coming to town. that ugly flu bug's cominging around. >> i didn't know i could catch it on the playground. >> all i did was trade lunchables. >> every year, 2 million kids are infected with cooties. >> wash your hands, cover your

sneeze. the flu shot is something you'll need. >> will it make me sick. >> no, not one bit. >> i'm impressed people took the time to do that. a panel will select the finalists but you can vote. go to youtube and you can decide who wins. the winner gets 2500 bucks. that's not bad, david. >> i just hope that old guy wins. he looks like he could use the money. >> that -- oh, that one. all right. well those are the things we just thought you should know. meanwhile, shall we move on? yeah, before president obama departs on his week long vacation with his family, he'll continue to focus on health care reform in a not so ordinary way. >> mark murray is deputy public director for nbc news. what do you have for news. >> david, and monica, tomorrow president obama will participate in a radio interview with conservative talk radio host michael summer con nish from the

white house. smur con nish's entire broadcast will come from the white house tomorrow. right after that, president obama will rate in a strategy session by phone and also online with a lot of those grat roots supporters that helped elect president obama last year into office. and then finally, we have that afghanistan presidential election that takes place tomorrow and it comes amidst a significant amount of violence in that country. >> and mark, also, vice president biden going to be out tomorrow? >> yeah, he's again going to be out doing what he was doing today, promoting the stimulus out in florida. you know, biden actually will -- he was down on his own vacation over the past several days. but he's now out doing what he ends up doing best and promoting the stimulus and going out to the states across the country and there is some reporting now that biden's getting involved in this health care debate, particularly as it relates to the senate and as we any that biden had many, many years in the united states senate.

>> mark, you know, we talk about health care and there is this sort of serious element to swine flu and public awareness. i have two questions. first, could the swine flu become a political issue and the second is, would you like to do your psa to warn people about the swine flu. >> david, i'm probably going to defer on my own psa although if you give me more time, maybe i can come up with something as good as those cutie ones you guys were playing. the first question is a really good one because right now we're seeing in health care over the stimulus or even with the bank and auto bailout a really big debate in this country on the role in government. we might end up getting a taste of that with the h1n1 vaccines that are supposed to go out. if it seems that the government isn't doing a good job making those available to people, if the government falls down on the job, that could really raise questions to a lot that a lot of people have about the government. but if it does well, that can

bode very well for the white house. >> mark, make sure to check out first read every morning. log in to first read msnbc.com. we'll have michael smercon nish on tomorrow. >> tomorrow at 3:00. i'm monica novotny in for tamron hall. "hardball" is up next. >> time to close the deal. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. leading off tonight, the closer. barack obama knows how to win. he got into columbia he went to harvard law, made president of the law review, within a seat in the u.s. senate, won the democratic nomination for president and overtook john mccain to win the job. he closes well. and now it's time to start the kick for health care reform. the make or break test of his first year presidency. it's going to take a strong close for him to win, to claim

the kind of break-through that will make the history books, the way i see it, he's got three ways to go at this point. one, they can challenge the senate rules and ram through a bill with just 50 votes with the help of the vice president to break the tie. that's what today's lead in the new york times suggested they're threatening to do. number two, they can go for a moderate bill politically sellable to a few republicans and get the 60 senate votes needed for regular passage. three they can go back and build a dramatic rock 'em sock 'em liberal bill, stand ready to take the loss and blame the republicans for the failure. what all three option require is democratic unity of some kind. you can't even blame the republicans if the demonstrates don't hold together. today george steph no lis dropped this bomblet that president obama may deploy the clintons into the country to help him forge the democrats into a fighting force geico obama big push right up front tonight. plus, guns in the