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right now on andrea mitchell report, president obama goes back to school. did conservatives overreact by keeping their kid z home to protect them against the president's so-called social list agenda? you be the judge. >> i'm calling on each of you to set your own goals for he had case and doefrg you can to meet them. where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up. no one's written your destiny for you about that because here in america, you write your own destiny, you make your own future. >> congress is back in session. the senate finance committee produces a health care bill. will any republicans sign on? and after a disastrous august break, will the president's health care speech tomorrow night give him a much needed

restart? ? just a few hour, the president plans to reach agreement with his own team, a critical meeting with house speaker nancy pelosi who has been saying nothing can pass without a public option. and jay leno, the future of prime time. he is back monday nights with a brand new show. will it revolutionize tv? >> thank you for giving us another opportunity in september, thanks for your support for our new show. he came up with a million scenarios, how about cable, how about cse burbank, how about -- >> coming up, the funny man himself, jay leno right here. and good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. two big stories today at the white house. the president's back to school speech and the health care debate. savannah guthrie joinings us now. first the school speech. where was the edge, what was the controversy all about? here you had the president of the united states who has a very

interesting background himself telling kids to take responsibility for themselves. what's wrong with that message? >> i think the controversy over the education speech happened largely before anyone knew what the president was going to say. and, in fact, the white house released the text of this speech 24 hours ago to people could take a look at it, make sure it wasn't a political message that students would be receiving. this really started late last week when some folks on the right took issue with this saying basically the president was trying to in-dock friday natu in-dock friday nature students. and they had ammo in the form of a lesson plan. it had some language in it suggesting made that maybe students could write an essay saying how they would happy the president and some people thought that was too political. they changed the wording and arne duncan acknowledge that had could have been done better. but in terms of the speech itself, i think it speaks for

itself. people saw it. basically it was a stay in school, work hard, don't expect anybody else to do the hard work for you, a speech heavy on personal responsibility. and i can tell you aides here think their critics really overstepped their bounds and really overplayed their hand. they said, look, if you can't get a consensus around the idea that kid shoes stay in school and study hard, then that country's in a real bad state of affairs. >> let's take a little a. look at a little bit of the speech that was delivered. he went to virginia to deliver it at a loose out there and this is the speech that went out to the nation, to those school districts that took it, that is. >> i want to start with the responsibility that you have to yourself. every single one of you has something that you're good at. every single one of you has something to offer. and you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. that's the opportunity education can provide. >> of course the white house has

acknowledged and somebody in the education department did mess up in the lesson plan that they sent out. now that he's gotten past that, let's talk about the health care speech, the big action is, of course, the joint session much congress speech. he's trying to restart and he's meeting with nancy pelosi today, but over the weekend, the last thing that we heard from nancy pelosi was that we still need a public option. so you've got the president of the united states and all his advisers trying to pull back from the public option, and saying it's just one part of the overall agenda, and speaker of the house is still taking a hard line. what is that conversation going to be like this afternoon? >> if only we could be in that room. because the president will meet with speaker pelosi and also leader reid on the senate side. and in that room, you will really see the issues that are presented before this president with regard to the public option. as you mentioned, pelosi said no bill will pass the house without the public option, but in the senate the realities are it probably cannot pass the senate

if there is a public option. so this is a reason why you see the president walking the line of saying, looking i prefer a public option, but he will not say it's a deal breaker. it's a must. there's some movement today i think with some liberals in the house starting to hear that they may accept something sort of a public option if there's a trigger, that notion that, all right, you've passed the bill, it doesn't have a public option, but it ensures company if companies don't get their act together, a public option could be triggered. so maybe that's the way forward. >> compromise in the air. we'll see what comes out of the meeting. savannah, thanks so much. and a big change is coming to nbc's prime time lineup. jay leno starts his new show monday night. some are calling it the future of prime time tv.

joining us live is jay leno. great to see you again. how do you beat the advanced billing for your big new show? >> hey, the network's in fourth place. can't do any worse. that's pretty much just -- listening to the president's speech. hey, kids, stay in school and work hard. communism, it's communism, stay in school and study. it's communism. i'm as tounld that htounded tha become stories. go ahead. >> i was going to ask you about politics. how big a part will politics and political humor laor play in th show? how much do you all miss george w. bush?

>> you know something, sure, they took away bush, but by goalie, they gave used bien. that biden. one door open, one door closes. i think it's all the same.ien. biden. one door open, one door closes. i think it's all the same.en. biden. one door open, one door closes. i think it's all the same.n. biden. one door open, one door closes. i think it's all the same.. biden. one door open, one door closes. i think it's all the same.biden. one door open, one door closes. i think it's all the same.biden. one door open, one door closes. i think it's all the same. of course we have governor mark sanford. he's my new hero. honey, you're going for a hike, you're going to argentina! it's xwad enough we're outsourcing our manufacturing and our high-tech computer jobs. you can't find a mistress in the myrtle beach area, there's thought one, you have to go to another country is this i say sleep american. if you're going to sleep around, sleep american. and that should be the rallying cry for all these guys in washington. >> we need the union label on all of those mistresses. first of all, you've got big guests, week one, jerry seinfeld, kanye west, jay-z. tom cruise, my highly sigh recent.

who is this guy brian williams? >> brian will be great. you've been to these things where you see brian williams speak whether it's a charity event or hosting something. he's a very good comic. if he hasn't sadly gone into new, i think he could have been a wonderful comedian and he'll do a feature piece for us called stories thought good fluff for the "nightly news." and he's putting some together for us. so i think that will be fun. and i think this new show will be -- television now is about live events. the shows that do well, "american idol," danci"dancing the stars", they're shows happening right now. and that's when they go to tv, right now, and it's happening right now. this old model of taping shows and showing them six and eight week later i think is kind of dated. we'll be doing a fresh show every single night. when the csi shows and all the other shows are in rerun, we'll be having live programming every

single day talking about what's happening right now. and i think that's hopefully the key. or at least that's what i think the key is. >> we know you have political humor. we've seen you at the white house correspondents dinner. here's a clip. >> in the interest of full disclosure, let me say i work for the same company that owns msnbc, which is an amazing news station. how they happen to cram a half hour of news in to a 24 hour broadcast day, i don't know. >> so we can see that you can take shots at the home team, as well. when we talk about prime time on nbc, what are you going to be adding to prime time on nbc? maybe ratings? >> well, i mean, that would be nice. there has not been a successful 10:00 launch in about five or six years. all these dramatic show, all these police procedural shows, there's a sameness to them. it's not so say they're thought good show, but we're just going

to try something else different. nobody else is doing comedy at that time. one thing people always say to me is oh, i would stay up for your monologue and then i'd fall asleep. well, i think 11:30 -- 10:00 is kind of the new 11:30 in the sense of people get up earlier or they're car pooling or whatever. so when i was a kid, we all stayed up and watched the tomorrow show with tom snyder. i went to bed at 2:00 in the morning. that model doesn't seem to be working. so it's something new, it's something different. it's tv that will be happening right now right away. and we'll take a chance. we've even built a racetrack behind the studio, doing a celebrity green car challenge where we put celebrities in these green electric racing cars and we see who is the fastest one is. and if some celebrities crash and burn, there's your 11:00 story. >> how is it going to be different in other ways than the tonight show oig as we knew it, the jay leno tonight show?

>> the couch is gone, the desk is gone. there will be a lot more from the monologue mark. we'll have a lot more comedians enter argumenting constantly throughout the show. "the tonight show," you had 9 front load. did you all your comedy before 12 ofrk a:00 and then cow bacyo with the dope any actress and then you put the band and then you go bed. the new show i think is different, the music model will be different. we're taking music guests that don't normally work together line the first night kanye west, rihanna, jay-z, they'll be doing a number. that's not something you'd normally see neither a video or something. it's something you might see on the grammys or b.e.t. awards and we're putting together different celebrities and put them in different situations than what you would normally see. so we're mixing it up a little bit. >> will there still be political humor? >> oh, yeah. you got to have political humor. oh, yeah.

that's the real key. washington, that's the bethlehem of political humor. that's where it all comes from. i wouldn't have a show if it wasn't if ffor you guys. washington is show business for ugly people. >> you got it. thanks, jay. good luck next week. we'll all be watching. >> thank you. and this week america will pause to remember those lost in the 9/11 attacks. center joe lieberman, chairman of the homeland security committee joins us. he's warn thagt next terror attack is more likely to be biological and introducing new legislation. thanks so much for joining us. what will your legislation do that other pieces of legislation in homeland security have not in the past? >> thanks for having me on again. this legislation that i'm introducing with senator susan collin wlos is the ranking republican on the homeland

security committee of the senate that i'm privileged to chair grows out of warnings that our committee got just december of last year from the director of national intelligence, former director, mike mcconnell, who predicted that within the next five years, really by 2013, you now almost four years, there will be a weapons of mass destruction attack carried out by terrorists somewhere in the world and, of course, the united states is a prime target, that it would more likely be a biological attack because of the ease of getting -- relative ease of getting biological weapons in a nuclear attack. so what sthor collins and i are saying here in the week in which we are going commemorate the eighth anniversary of the attacks of 9/11, the terrorists are still out there, they're still plot, planning to attack us, biological attack is one devastating way they can hurt us, and we've got to do more

than we're doing now to prevent such an attack. that's what this legislation does. >> of course in thinking about 9/11 and thinking about al queda and the threat, big decisions coming up for the president on afghanistan. we've seen george will and others talking about we should not be committing these troops and, in fact, we should be withdrawing from afghanistan. where do you think the president should come down on the decision about what to do about afghanistan? >> this is an important national debate and i'm glad it's rising to this level because we have a lot at stake in afghanistan. we were attacked by al queda operating from afghanistan controlled by the taliban fanatics extremists. it's the taliban trying to come back and take over afghanistan. how could we possibly let that happen? president obama has been very strong about afghanistan in the time he's been president. he appointed a new leadership team there. he deployed more troops.

and we have developed a new strategy. to my way of thinking, it would be a terrible error if we backed away now. it would not only encourage the taliban, perhaps help them control afghanistan, but if they ever did that, pakistan would be destabilized and remember pakistan has nuclear weapons. so i hope that the president will increase american troops there to allow our new general, stand mcchrystal, to succeed there. that's the only way it's going to happen. and quickly. >> of course, senator, people are arguing what is the definition of success and why will more troops mean success when the british, the russians and others have all been failures in afghanistan because it's not a country, it's impossible to have a clean election there. >> well, it is a country with a proud history. and obviously they have ear survived a lot before the

difference between the british and russians an us is that the british and russians wanted to control afghanistan. we're there to to help stop the taliban from taking over their country again and our goal there is to help afghanistan become self-governing, self-defending, anti-terrorists. and we'll be happy to leave as quickly as we can help them achieve that result. and i was just there a month ago with a senate delegation. i'm convince that had d that we right people in leadership and the right plan now finally after too many years that we underresourced. i believe afghanistan is the central front on the war on terrorism. and i also agree with what the president said. we can't just muddle through in afghanistan.

now is the time to give our troops and the afghans the support we they need. and if we do, i think we'll put the taliban on the run. >> and in the speech tomorrow night, the speech on health care, how specific does the president have to be to get your support for what he is going to be proposing? >> i think he does have to get specific. i guess it depends on what he specifically says as to whether he gets my support or the support of others. but this debate is going in the wrong direction. there's a critical national need for health care, health insurance reform, and the question is are people going continue to fight for elements of that are not attainable, are they going to try to -- >> you mean the public option is not attainable. >> i mean a government-run health insurance plan. the public doesn't support it. they know that ultimately taxpayers will pay for it. they don't want us to add to the

debt. they feel that the existing system, private insurance, medicare, medicaid, does pretty well p. >> but a lot of people in your party, including nancy pelosi, say without a public option, there can be no health care bill. >> i hope the president before tomorrow night and after can convince speaker pelosi and others that this is a distraction and it's not the main event. a lot of the experts i've talked to said the question is not who pays for our health care, it's how much they're paying and what they're paying for. in other words, we've got to reform the way in which health care is delivered to save money and improve the quality. there's a broad consensus for what's necessary to do that. and incidentally, if people think that we need a government-run health insurance plan it to keep the insurance companies honest as they say, there are a lot of better ways, less expensive ways to do that. one is by tougher regulation and a second is by enforcement of

antitrust laws. if a given insurance company dominates a market so that people don't have a real choice. so this is a moment tomorrow night, a critical moment in the health care debate, but also in the presidency to lay out his priorities an really call on both parties to compromise to get something done because there really is a problem. >> senator joe lieberman, thanes so much. >> thank you. and in less than an hour, senator lieberman and the rest of the senate will officially return after a tumultuous summer break. with just one day until the president's speech to congress, senators may be on the verge of a break through. serious talk of a bipartisan health deal on the table from senate finance. we could find out anytime now what the senate republicans will support it. details coming up next. you've wanted to quit smoking so many times,

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the senate finance committee gang of six back at work today on what they hope will an bipartisan health care plan. pressure is on to broker a deal before the president's address tomorrow to a joints session of congress. but the entire committee has still to vote on the proposal a and, ron, between to see you. welcome back from the labor day break. will they come up with a deal,t to what max is talking about? according to veers reports from the new york times, "wall street journal," a cost less than $900 billion, definite set neutral, no public option, no player mandate. >> after the comments from grassley and during the break, i think it would be very surprising to see either of them be part of a coalition that could move this forward.

evening the democrats are now looking at the senate is reduced to snowe and collin, are the only two republican senators left from the 18 states that have voted democratic in each of the fast five elections. that really does clarify the issue for democrats. what you're looking at is very the meaningful republican support, which reduces the question to can the jord party bridge its differences enough to fulfill its core responsibility of governing. and i think we'll see whether democrats can come together to move forward the core agenda of their party. >> you've seen all sorts of hints. they could do tort reform, they could do something to sweeten it for conservative democrats. could they put together something or are there had just not enough numbers there and do they have to pare this down to something that can fit this severe restrictions of reconciliation? >> i think going the rec

connecticco conciliation route is not the preferred option. this process that max bachus went through did serve some function. there are ideas he's put out, for example, are youi iallowing people a plan that would save money and reduce the backlash from young people asked to contribute. there are good ideas in here and senator lieberman was right, there are other ways at getting at the problem besides a public plan. the challenge for democrats is we are within range on the bas majority of this. we mentioned tomorrow all meeting together to talk about common principles of reform. there's a lot more that unites rather than divides. and the question is whether they will allow the remaining issues to overcome that.

>> how does the president get that last 20%? >> first of all, if the president did deliver a speech to the country on health care half as compelling as his speech to students today, i think he will be very well served. that was a remarkably effective speech that i think making the critic looks present small partisan and trivial. and he has to find the same tone, which is, look, he spoke, he asked students to think about not only their personal interests, but the that goes al sps. there's a clear national interest in finding enough consensus to move together on this. that's why you see groups as diverse as the drug manufacturers, the ser have i employ years union. people have never been together on an issue like this finding enough common ground to say we can move forward. the president has to do this and say it's important to move this forward. and that has to be a core part of the message. >> and the fear that they have is that doing nothing is what

happened in 1994 and would lead to defeat. >> and that's how you get the last 20%. they've been through door number one and it's more delight thing than almost anything behind door number two. and the weelgbeeltss are ba a brand new box set that's intended to make the fans feel they're actually in the recording studio. it took engineers 4 1/2 years to remaster and now fans can hear musical subtitles as never before. mean time the beatles get released for the first time as a video game. they collaborated together on this project it to create the hyper real version of being at a beatles concert. if

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in afghanistan, four american troops were killed after an attack in the eastern part of that country. one official describes the attack as sophisticated and complex. the three marines and one sailor were killed while part of a training team embedded with afghan security forces. and there are more allegations of fraud in the election in

afghanistan. it is leading to a recount. a senior fellow in foreign policy, michael, good to see you. first of all, the recount. we're hearing widespread fraud allegations. how can the karzai team claim victory, which they are claiming, one of the institutions there claiming victory given how widespread this fraud is? >> you're right, he should not be claiming fraud and he should, frankly, be embarrassed for what his partisans are trying to do to win the election. but the good side of this is that it's afghans themselves who are country covering all the cases of fraud and dealing with them and they have independent agencies empowered to throw away ballots and ghabd recounts and i'm encouraged to see some of that. we, the international community, we're not the ones finding these irregular da irregulari irregularities. they're standing up and

insisting that their government respect proper rules. so that's the encouraging side of it, but you're right, the karzai piece is discouraging. if he does wind up winning, we'll have to recognize we're dealing with a person who needs to improve some aspect of his governance to put it mildly. >> we read over the weekend that there were all these stricts th districts were held but elections were never opened. so how could could there be any confidence with the same man in charge? >> you're right about that. there are only some things that can be fixed before a runoff. there's one broadly reassuring point here, which is that in all the polling which was done before the election, karzai was 15 to 20 points ahead. and so this is one of those elections where, frankly, if he does wind up winning in the first or second round, it probably will more or less be the will of the people. i don't want to in any way excuse any of these irregularities, but that's the one broad reassuring point i

would make. some of the specific allegations of fraud are going to be hard to address, but we do have this structural problem, as well, that karzai's strongest base of support is in a part of the country that's too danger troou vote in. so to some extent his people were trying to compensate for that with some of these cheating. i realize i'm talking around your question because i don't know how to fix this. but the broad point is if he does win that will probably reflect the will of the people nonetheless. >> and meanwhile on the battle front, the "washington post," whenever you have to have a debate over how much more investment may be needed, you're saying you're failing. but if you're failing, how do you give people hope that you will succeed? the war debate that is at a turning point with the president's decisions may be the end of this had week really does involve committing this country

to as much as a 10 ten or a dozen more years of a hugely expensive vinestment and what is the likely outcome of that investment? >> it's a conundrum as you say. i think what you have to do is you have to talk about local pockets of progress and hopefulness instead of just painting a picture of continued deterioration. admiral mullen who i greatly respect, he said something two weeks ago which is basically the situation continues to deteriorate. americans will have to wonder why any additional time or any additional resources would make a difference. so they have to talk about pockets of progress in the context of a broad situation that's still quite poor. >> michael, thank you very much. and as a divided house, democrats are returning to work on capitol hill, a new gallup

poll shows most americans are on which divided on health care reform. 39% say that they would encourage their congress member to vote against reform, 37% want their member to vote in favor of it. talk about an even divide. melanie barnes is a director of the white house domestic policy council. thanks for joining us. the country's divided. i don't know how you solve this problem. the president has a speech tomorrow night, it could in the be more important. i think perhaps an overstatement in the newspapers yesterday. they talked about the struggling obama presidency. is the presidency of this young new administration on the line with this one speech? >> no, but the president sees this as a wonderful opportunity to talk to congress and to talk to the american people. he views this as a new phase in the health care debate. summer is over. he wants to come back and talk to the american people and talk to his colleagues in the

congress about where he wants to go next in this health care debate. it's clear from the american public and what members heard when they were at home in august that the status quo is not acceptable. so the president wants to talk about security and stability. i think he'll be very clear about this need to drive down costs, the need to end of kind of discrimination that keeps people with pre-existing conditions from getting held care, the kinds of problems we saw this in the front page of the "washington post" this morning, people when they get sick, actually lose their health care insurance when they need it the most. so he'll have that conversation with the congress tomorrow evening. >> there's talk that max bachus will produce something. will it be bipartisan or will democrats have to go it alone? >> we're obviously very interested and eager to see what senator bachus does and how the senate finance xletity moves. it's really quite an important

moment. we they that three committees in the house have already moved. one committee in the is that the. there's 80% agreement among those pieces of legislation already. so despite the back and forth and the bickering, there's already quite a bit of agreement. if the senate finance committee is able to move forward, i think there's an important step in getting this health care bill in front of the pld before the end of the year. >> bill clinton is quoted as saying don't even worry about the republicans, let them figure out what they're going to stand for, because as long as they're standing around waiting for us to mess up, at tthey don't have chance. is that good or bad advice is this. >> the president has always said that he wants to extend a happened, he wants to work with the republicans. he's been having conversations with people for many months, but he start this had debate with his own principles. and he talked to the people and he will again tomorrow thit about the critical need to drive down costs, but the importance of moving against the status

quo, and that's what he's looking and got his eye on, as well as what is going on in the senate finance committee. i think that this could really move forward to the benefit of all americans. >> so should we take our cues from what david axelrod said when he talked about the public option as just an important tool? is that what the president will say to nancy pelosi, that she has to back off of insisting that without a public option there can be to bill? >> the president has always said that he believes in competition and he believes in a choice for the american people. and he thinks that the public option is a critical tool, an important tool in achieving those kinds of goals. we railroaded know that if you live in a state like alabama or north dakota, you may have one insurer that's controlling 90% of the market. that is no kind of competition. that isn't a choice. and if you're in an individual trying to purchase insurance or if you're in a small group, a small business and you're trying to purchase insurance, that's leaving you at a deficit. so what he's going to say, what he's going to continue to talk

about, are the kinds of tools that are necessary to drive competition and drive costs to the benefit of the american people. >> how does the president's school speech become so controversial? and i should point out that back when george herbert walker bush made a similar kind of appeal back in 1991, democrats got so exercised, they it actually had a general accounting office investigation, they called lamar alexander the education secretary up to the hill and held hearings on this had terrible thing of a president going into the schools. it does sound insane to even be saying that the president of the united states cannot give a speech trying forget kids to believe in themselves and to believe that they can do anything that they want to do if they stick to it. >> absolutely. and evening flynn that sanyone president's speech would agree that all of the debate, all of the nashing of teeth and

wringing of hands was really just a waste of time, that, in fact, the president spoke to students and encouraged them to work hard. he talked to them about what it would mean to stay in school, his own personal experience, how that can lead -- thousand led to his success and how it can lead to their very own success. so i think that all of the concerns that were expressed before have certainly been overcome and, indeed, before the president even spoke, we had lamar alexander saying that he thought it was a good speech, the "wall street journal" editorial page, newt gingrich. so i think everybody can calm down and recognize that it is important for the president, a president that is so inspired to our youth today, to talk to them about those goals and principles that we really all share. >> let me ask you finally about van jones. could you have found a better time to bury the news of his resignation than midnight on saturday night of labor day weekend? how did he get past the vetting?

>> well, andrea, i wasn't involved in that process. i think as david axelrod and others have said, that van decided to resign because he wanted this president to be able to go out and talk about issues like health care, to be able to talk about issues like education, and this eat most important thing, that's what's facing us right now. >> melanie barnes, a lot on your plate. thanks for taking time to join us today. and you can watch the president's address tomorrow night at 8:00 eastern. i never thought it could happen to me... a heart attack at 53. i had felt fine. but turns out... my cholesterol and other risk factors... increased my chance of a heart attack. i should've done something.

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it is the start of a fall congressional season and the house officially back in session with health care dominating the agen agenda. chairman of the house republican conference, good to see you. let's talk about health care. what account president say tomorrow that will persuade any

house republicans that they should join in a bipartisan effort? >> well, i think it's important to state emphatically that after a tumultuous five week of august town hall meetings by republicans and democrats across the country, that the american people don't want another speech on health care. they want another plan on health care. and i think the challenge the president has tomorrow night, not only among members of congress but among the american people is to demonstrate this he's been listening to the american people who don't want a government takeover, they don't want $800 billion in higher taxes, but they do want health care reform, they'll lower the cost of health insurance and lower the cost of health care for americans in the future. >> let's listen into what the president had to say at the labor day association yesterday. he's putting it right back on you republicans. let's watch. >> i have a question for all these folks who say we're going

to pull the plug on grandma and this is all about illegal immigran immigrants. you've heard all the lies. i've got a question for all those folks. what are you going to do? what's your solution? and you know what? they don't have one. >> does he make a fair point? you're talking about a government takeover. he's talking about a public option being on one part of the overall solution. that hardly sounds like a government takeover. >> what the president actually said there was republicans and practically every american who opposes a government-run insurance plan have no solutions. the administration knows that's just factually untrue. our republicans have a broad

range of proposals, including a number of individual bills in the house and the senate that would address issues like allowing americans to buy health insurance across state lines. it would address medical malpractice reform, portability, preexisting conditions. it is -- yesterday's speech was certainly not helpful precursor to an outreach by the president to republicans in the house and senate. but, look, you know, the speeches on the stump notwithstanding, if the president will confront his own party and say, okay, look. the american people don't want a government-run insurance plan that is going to cost tens of millions of americans to lose health insurance they have today as their employers cancel their health insurance and send them to the new government plan, if the president will tell his own party the american people don't want the pub loings and take

that off the table, then i think there's an awful lot we can get done going forward. hot speeches on labor day notwithstanding. >> speaking of hot speeches, the speech that was given to the schools today endorsed by newt gingrich after he read it, first lady laura bush and others, do you think that people were too quick to jump on the president? >> well, look. i think it was a teachable moment for this administration. clearly, the department of education erred in their overly aggressive lesson plan. i think the question that was alarming to many americans was the one that invited students until they changed it, invited students to write about how they could help the president. look, i'm in a classroom in my congressional district every two weeks, andrea. i think it's important for men and women in public life at every level to speak to our children about civics and about their own responsibility and about the importance of education. so i commend the president for his speech today. i didn't hear all of it, but i understand it was a wonderful

and an inspiring speech for the kids. and -- but i suspect the administration has learned its lesson not to go too far and be too aggressive on these lesson plans. and precursor, just let the president talk to our kids about education and the future. and that's what he did today. >> all right. back to school for everybody. thank you so much, mike pence. >> thank you, andrea. coming up, remembering ted kennedy at the capitol. tylenol pm quiets the pain that keeps you awake. and helps you sleep, in a non-habit forming way. if you get sick, or change jobs. eight ways reform matters to you. a cap on deductibles and out-of-pocket costs. no annual or lifetime limits on coverage. preventive care. covered. pre-existing conditions. covered. no higher rates due to gender.

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just moments from now the senate will pay tribute to senator ted kennedy. when the senate reconvenes in just a few minutes, there will be a moment of silence for the late senator. the desk that senator kennedy occupied in the chamber for nearly half a century remains draped in black and covered with flowers as it has since just hours after his death. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. that does it for me this hour.

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