starting with the economy and the election topping the news cycle. the spin is on over the new breaking news numbers about what jobs are doing in the country right now, positive news, though, in that the unemployment number dropped 15 straight months of job growth and this may be huge because it may be the first report in which the white house can claim that they've created net positive jobs. if that's true, it means the president's economy has added back all of the 5 million jobs lost to the bush/cheney recession. here are the hard numbers out of all this. employers added just 115,000 jobs in april. that's far fewer than the 163,000 that economists had expected. but the nation's unemployment rate did drop a tenth of a point to a three-year low of 8.1%. joining me now cnbc contributor ron insana, also former chief economist for vice president joe biden, jared bernstein who is now an msnbc contributor. gentlemen, it's good to have you here. ron, i want to start with you, because the white house says it's further evidence that the economy is healing, but we know

that this economy must create at least 125,000 jobs a month just to keep pace with population growth. what are the silver linings that are coming out today and where are the faults in all this? >> i don't know, tom, it's a weaker number than expected. one would hope, you know, that events overseas wouldn't as they have in the last two years slow down the momentum of an economy that started the year on a strong note, three months in a row of better than 200,000 job gains. the unemployment rate fell because more people left the labor force than came in, that's not good news, and the unemployment rate participation rate is the lowest level we've seen since 1981. it's a disappointing number, it's not strong enough to anybody who wanted to see the economy reaccelerate after a soft number in march. >> it's anemic to the forecasts. and republicans are taking no times at lashing out at the numbers, take a listen, mitt romney earlier today after the report came out. >> this is way, way, way off in

what should happen in a normal recovery. we seem to be slowing down and not speeding up. this is not progress. >> jared, the republicans will say the economy not growing fast enough. not enough jobs being created right now. how isn't that a problem for this president, for this white house, and especially for his re-election chances? >> well, you're going to hear democrats and the president say almost exactly the same thing. they're going to say moving in the right direction but not quickly enough and they've got a point. i think as ron and i would agree and most others who have looked at the report, it's not just that you're not moving in the direction fast enough, it's that there appears to be a bit of a deceleration. last month we were talking about this, i said we had a disappointing report for march. one bad month does not a trend make. >> sure. >> now we have two disappointments here. the ironic thing and i think the thing linking the economic analysis to the politics, it's largely because of the blocking of policies that twould help right now and largely by

republicans and conservatives. if you look at the state and local sector, that's where so many jobs have been shed month after month, and the republicans have stood firmly against the help and the president has been advocating that kind of thing. if we can shift back to a policy discussion that is good economics and good politics for the president as well. >> so, ron, when we talk about the job growth for march that was revised to a different number, upward to 154, but growth over the past couple months now combined about what we're seeing for april it's still far below december and what we saw through february when employers were able to add 252,000 jobs. here go again, though, getting ready to enter into another hiring season of spring and summertime, mainly summertime. but do you think that there is worry that this stalled job growth will continue through the next quarter? >> yeah, thomas, look, i think there's always worry and i think, you know, even federal reserve chairman ben bernanke said some of the data that were so strong in the first part of the year might have been weather

related because we effectively didn't have a winter, so adjusting the employment numbers are difficult under those circumstances, but i'm fairly optimistic and i travel a lot around the country and most cities to be honest with you are humming. there are certain pockets of weakness still in the u.s. economy, energy is booming, manufacturing is booming, technology is booming and i think that is good news. i think we're less vulnerable to the shocks from overseas than we have been in the last two years where we suffered rather dramatically in spring, summerer, early fall in 2010, 2011, but if we get another number like this next month expect the fed to do more to stimulate the economy i think that will be the topic of conversation over the weekend. >> as we look at things right now, what are the predictions leading up to the fall and the general? >> well, the predictions are kind of in two camps. one that the unemployment rate basically stays where it is and another is that things slowly immoi impro improve, so there's one forecast that had the unemployment rate

with a handle of 7% at the end of the year, something like that, that depends on things reaccelerating. as ron just said if we stay on the path we're on, really hard to imagine the unemployment rate comes down any more. as he suggested the tentth of a point we got in april was not a function of adding more jobs, it was a function of fewer people looking for work. that's not the way you want to drive the unemployment rate down. my personal forecast we'll stay where we are for a few months and that's kind of a tough call, but that's the way i see it. >> gentlemen, thanks for your time this morning, i appreciate it. >> thank you. virginia has been called the mother of presidents. the two men hoping to be elected president in november are converging their campaigns on that swing state. last two days for mitt romney have included three stops in the commonwealth. president obama has been in virginia for the next two days, or the next two, that is, with stops planned in arlington and richmond. their love for the old dominion coming as a new poll shows voters there have little more love for the president. a solid seven-point lead for

president obama making virginia right now look a little more blue than red. joining me for today's political power panel our former white house deputy press secretary for president obama jen shockey, senior communications strategist with new media strategies, j.p. blair and mika henderson, a political reporter for "the washington post." it's great to see all three of you this morning. >> good morning. >> let's dive in. jen, not only is the president ahead overall he's also leading with independents, leading by ten points there. the president's campaign and the romney super pac they made the ad buys in virginia this week. jen, why is virginia such a high priority pride for both campaigns right now? let's remind everybody it did go to the president back in 2008. >> it did. and the president won virginia. he was the first democrat to win virginia in four decades, but it continues to be a real opportunity for the president. not only is he doing -- he's winning overall in the polls, but as you mentioned among women, among young people, among african-americans and a latinos and this is a place where his message is really resonating.

it's also interesting that, you know, mitt romney was there campaigning yesterday and the person he chose to stand with was governor bob mcdonald, somebody who has been a champion of many right wing issues and many issues that are far out of the mainstream, so this is a place where president obama will definitely be competing. and we'll see what the romney camp strategy is for the fall. >> j.p., let's look at history a little more because virginia is one of the nine states that voted republican in '04 but then we said went to president obama, the democrats, in '08, if you're inside the romney camp how many of these states do you realistically have to flip and how do you do it? >> my earpiece kind of went out, but i assume you are asking me if obama can take up the bunch of western states that it's probably a bit of a toss-up. and what i'll say in a lot of these states especially if you're talking about virginia, bob mcdonald won in 2009 because a lot of people were really upset about the health care bill. he's got a long way to go to win over independents and people that are generally concerned about the growth of government during this recession. >> i feel like the verizon guy.

can you hear me now? can you hear me now? j.p., can you hear me? >> i can barely hear you. >> we'll work on your audio. the romney camp has had a gender gap and the president has an 18-point lead with women in the state of virginia, that state has been a lightning rod as jen brought up recent conversation about women's rights. do you think at least some of what we're seeing with women in virginia is kickback? >> i think so. at that event yesterday when he was on stage with representative bachmann as well as mcdonald, you had protesters outside talking about this issue of women's rights, of abortion and this bill that he signed into law that mandated that women would have to see an ultrasound before they got abortion so, yes, democrats certainly want to play on that ground when it comes to the economy and to women's rights. they want to focus on the ways in which they think the republicans are really chip in to some of these rights around abortion and you saw that in that video that they released

yesterday, the life of julia. they also know that their bread and butter when it comes to women's voters, unmarried women. in 2010 you saw a lot of unmarried women switch to republicans and also stay home, and that is the way in which republicans were able to win. they essentially won the women's vote in 2010 and took back the house. so, they know, democrats know, that those are the women that they have to target to really maintain this gender gap, and mitt romney's got a lot of work to do. i'm not sure that representative bachmann is the sort of surrogate that he's going to need to give those time of women voters to support him. >> we bring this to the next question with congresswoman bachmann yesterday giving mitt romney her full endorsement, one of his first rivals to do so. take a listen. >> i'm honored here not only to introduce governor bob mcdonald a fabulous governor of the state of virginia but to also lend my voice and my endorsement to mitt romney as our president.

>> all right, so, michele bachmann there giving that endorsement, mitt romney literally surrounded by women yesterday. his wife there as well, and sometimes we see new hampshire senator kelly ayotte with him. can michele bachmann help romney make inroads with republican women, with independents? >> what's really important to keep in mind about michele bachmann, what is great to point out, she represents a wide variety of women. he's actually surrounded by a wide variety of women. they're stay-at-home moms and politically involved women and he's relied on female advisers as well like bess miller. so, to say that romney really does have this woman problem is something that's sort of just brought about by the obama campaign to just talk about, well, look at what obama's doing. the life of julia is a ham fisted way to reach out to women they are hoping to get a headline that obama continues outreach to women just to show

he think it's important. but that video itself was really terrible. >> as we see the primary coming to an end in all of this, the overwhelming message has been from romney's former rivals is he's not president obama and newt gingrich and rick perry have been singing that tune, take a listen to this. >> i'm a heck of a lot more comfortable with him than barack obama and that's going to be our choice. >> i'm asked sometimes is mitt romney conservative enough, and my answer's simple -- compared to barack obama? you know, this is not a choice between mitt romney and ronald reagan. >> all right, jen, let's say the sights are set for president obama, not so much that these are huge, ringing endorsements for mitt romney, but at least they are defining and recognizing what they know the end prize is, which is to take back the white house. do you think that there's too much bad blood from this primary season and everybody loves to bring up the fact that it was such a hard race between hillary clinton and barack obama, and they were able to coalesce, even

work together now. >> well, thomas, there's a huge difference between today and four years ago. barack obama and hillary clinton brought hundreds of thousands of people into the political process who weren't previously excited about participating. the problem mitt romney is that he has two conflicting issues, the conservative right can't get comfortable with him. these endorsements are more like dead fish handshakes than they are rousing endorsements or rousing rally cries. and, two, a lot of these people have extreme positions that are out of the mainstream and aren't helping him with independent voters. i do have to quickly touch on something j.p. said, it's completely missing the point to say surrounding yourself with women solves your outreach to women or your support for women. it's about what you stand for and what you're fighting for. it's not about how many women who are around you and personally michele bachmann's positions on women's issues are just as bad or worse than mitt romney romney's. >> i want to talk to you guys about the endorsement of newt gingrich to romney, take a

listen to what he had to say last night when he was confronted about this -- >> do you really believe mitt romney is a liar? >> i still believe the romney campaign said things are not true. >> is mitt romney is liar? >> the governor said some things at times that were not true. >> so the answer's yes. >> compared to barack obama, i would trust mitt romney 100 times over. >> i'll let you have the last word just from your opinion and expertise with covering politics, do you think if you're in the obama campaign newt gingrich is your best friend right now? >> in some ways, yes. these endorsements, i think ultimately endorsements don't matter that much, but these very tepid, grudging half endor endorsements certainly don't do mitt romney any good in trying to come out as the head of the republican party. as the nominee. so, i think in some ways you see not only newt gingrich but santorum still being frenemies of mitt romney. i think one of the things this will come down to is these guys have a lot of debt and you saw

that happen with barack obama and hillary clinton in 2008. one of the reasons they came together was hillary clinton had a ton of debt, and she needed barack obama to help her alleviate some of that debt and i think in some waifs it will come down to that and these guys will have to get down to that. >> thanks to all three of you for your time and this morning. >> thank you. >> and the president once again will urge congress to take action on student loan interest rates from washington lehigh school in arlington, virginia, he'll talk with high school juniors and graduating seniors and their parents as well coming up at 11:50 a.m. and you of course watch it on msnbc. heather smith from rock the vote joins me coming up. u.s. and china reach a diplomatic detail on how a blind dissident how he can come back to the u.s. and do so with his family. plus, mark zuckerberg, the $96 billion man, what facebook might be worth.

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a deal reached this morning for the blind chinese activist seeking asylum in the united states, the chinese government said that chen guangcheng has the same right to travel aboard as any other citizen of china. chen has been offered a fellowship to study at an american university and government officials say they will accept that travel application. this story has provided heated political fodder for republicans who blasted the obama administration's handling of that case. mitt romney has called the events surrounding chen's release, quote, a dark day for freedom. but secretary of state, hillary clinton, is painting a very different picture. >> progress has been made to

help him have the future that he wants. and we will be staying in touch with him as this process moves forward. we have been very clear and very committed. >> nbc's kristen welker joins me now from the white house with more. do we know how long it will take for this application to come to the u.s. to be processed, and does that defuse any of the republican criticisms? >> reporter: well, thomas, on your first point, a bit of a question mark right now. chinese officials are saying that mr. chen can go through the normal channels to have his travel documents processed. but state department officials are urging china to expedite that process, they, of course, would like to have this whole episode over with as quickly as possible. as you point out there has been some political fallout. the obama administration has gotten some criticism from mitt

romney as well as some other republican lawmakers and, remember, this is a week when the obama administration had hoped that at least its foreign policy discussion would be focused on the anniversary of the killing of osama bin laden, so this is really sidetracking that discussion and opening the administration up to some criticism. so, they want to see this get resolved as quickly as possible and then, of course, the other part of the timing of this is the that the secretary of state and treasury secretary are in china right now for diplomatic discussions, so by all accounts they're trying to get it resolved as quickly as possible. >> it's a roller-coaster ride of diplomatic circles here, i do want to get your take, though, because i understand there are new developments in the secret service sex scandal, another one of the prostitutes allegedly involved is now breaking her silence. what can you tell us on that front? >> reporter: that's right. the woman who has identified herself as the escort at the center of all of this, the woman who said she had a fight with a secret service agent about money gave an interview today to a

radio station in colombia. she said she's currently in dubai with a friend there. a couple of interesting points from the interview, thomas, one, she says that she didn't know that these were secret service agents. she said there was a discussion about money the night before and then she says everything changed that next morning when the agent she was with woke up and realized exactly what had happened. and interestingly, she also paints a very sort of human portrait of what's going on right now. she says she's very afraid and very concerned about her mother and her son. she has a 9-year-old son and she really is sort of terrified about retaliation. i want to read you a little bit of the translation, thomas. it says, i am sad but i have resigned myself to enduring what's happening, to doing interviews about this. i don't care anymore, i only care about my life and my son, my life in colombia has been wrecked, that is her perspective and that's an transportation of an interview she gave in spanish. >> kristen welker, for us in the white house this morning, thank you. the city of sanford, florida, introduces a new

interim police chief just as we're hearing a different account of the night that george zimmerman shot and killed trayvon martin. plus, it's more like a soap opera than a criminal trial at the heart of john edwards corruption an heiress named bunny who funded his campaign or helped to hide his pregnant mistress. ♪ ♪

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chief phil lee tried to officially step down last month but city commissioners rejected that resignation, and i'm joined now by msnbc contributor and editor of thegrio.com, joy read. phil lee remains on the payroll while all of this goes on so there's technically two people paid for the one job. >> bill lee technically is on paid leave, the former police chief and that's because the city commission rejected not his resignation but really the deal that was worked out between him and the city manager which would have paid him severance and approximately five months of his salary because that superceded his actual agreement. they needed to approve the money. since they didn't approve the money he's technically not gone. so, the former police chief is still drawing about a $10,000 a month salary and the interim police chief richard myers is now drawing about a $10,000 a month salary. >> meanwhile, they are waiting until the department of justice

finishes its complete review to make any decisions on bill lee and technically that could take a lot longer than five months which would have been the original severance package that they refused to pay out. >> right. and technically the one word that i would change in what you just said is complete. they're waiting for them to start it. what's happened is the city of sanford has asked the justice department -- >> you have to start to complete. >> they haven't started it. they are waiting to hear back from the department of justice civil rights division if they will conduct this investigation of the sanford police department. >> the new interim police chief myers, what do we know about him? what's the reaction? >> we know he has more than 30 years law enforcement experience, he's led police forces in michigan and wisconsin. most recently he was the police chief in colorado springs, colorado, where he was cycled out when a new mayor same in and when he spoke with the new mayor, the new mayor made it clear he wanted someone new, so he left that position. >> let's talk about george zimmerman and the new revelation what he's describing the night trayvon martin was shot and

killed. what is it about trayvon martin allegedly circling zimmerman's sca car? >> it's a completely new story, the varying accounts and slightly different out of zimmerman's family mens. according to the "orlando sentinel" zimmerman se feared trayvon martin because he was circling his car. there was never any indication from george zimmerman that he was calling from within his car. you can hear him huffing and puffing as he's obviously walking to follow trayvon martin, so this is another new story. >> joy-ann reid, always great to see you. thanks so much. a powow, mitt romney and rick santorum meet for the first time since santorum dropped out. and plus donateding to science, junior seau's family will let researchers study his brain for evidence of concussion damage. i'll talk with former green bay packer player about his lawsuit against the nfl claiming the league hid dangers from him and

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it's very clear that he'll be the republican nominee and i'm going for the republican nominee and we're going to do everything we can to defeat barack obama. >> that was rick santorum last tuesday struggling to say nice things, give that full endorsement about mitt romney. now can the two bitter campaign rivals become best frenemies for the good of the grand old party? as we speak mitt romney and rick santorum are meeting face to face in pittsburgh for the first time since rick santorum bowed out of the race. >> governor, i don't mean to interrupt you -- >> i don't think we have plans for an endorsement today, but i think all republicans will come together in the final analysis and support my candidacy. >> joining me this morning is alice stewart, campaign press secretary for rick santorum's presidential campaign. alice, it's nice to see you this morning.

what is the expectation, then, if there is not a full fledged endorsement at least for mitt romney saying that on fox news, what is the expectation of rick santorum after this meeting with mitt romney? >> well, thank you for having me on, thomas. the expectations, we'll see what comes out of this meeting. the romney campaign asked rick for this meeting and he was happy to do it. and rick has a few things that he wanted to get on the table and express to governor romney, a couple of them being he wanted to make sure that the issues and the views and values of social conservatives and tea party conservatives and the true -- the blue collar conservatives will be included in part of the romney campaign. he's going there as a voice of these people since he's suspended the campaign he's been hearing from a lot of folks that wanted to make sure that the things that they stood behind rick for, that he championed their views and values, that that will be folded into the romney campaign and that's what he wants to talk to the governor about. >> has there been enough time and space passed for what people would perceive to be a bitter

rivalry for two men that may have differences about how they were trying to achieve this nomination? but has there been enough time and space for them actually to get together and develop a time of political working relationship that behooves each one of them? >> well, this meeting that's going on right now is a great start. and both of them have a tremendous amount of respect for each other. sure, it was a hard-fought primary. that's what primaries are all about. and this didn't do anything to divide the party. this made us stronger. this prepared us for what's going to be a very difficult general election. and the two of them are meeting now. i'm sure it's going to be a very respectful meeting. and we don't anticipate an endorsement out of this meeting. that wasn't what it was called for. but they both agree now is the time for conservatives and republicans to rally together to defeat barack obama. this is a critical election year. we need someone to get in and repeal and replace obama care, because what we're seeing now

this election is critical because the last 3 1/2 years, 4 years have been nothing but broken promises by barack obama. this is going to be a referendum on his record in the white house. right now we have job numbers that came out today, another dismal report. we've had above 8% unemployment for the longest time in recorded history. we have 23 million americans out of work. we have the median household income has dropped $4,000. this is a terrible economic record. and as governor romney says, this is still about the economy and the american people are not stupid, and they're going to go to the polls in november looking at this barack obama's record and they're going to vote for mitt romney because they know and they have -- polls have shown that they trust him to handle the economy better than the current president. >> alice, real quickly, i want to get you and your take, your old boss, michele bachmann threw her weight behind mitt romney on the trail, what is the importance of her endorsement and how does she ultimately help mitt romney? >> i spoke to michele after her

meeting, and all the folks respect each other and have good rapport behind the scenes, but her main focus in the campaign was to repeal and replace obama care, as she said during the campaign this is the last exit ramp, there were concerns throughout the campaign that governor romney would issue waivers on obama care, but he's reassured her that his first and foremost top priority will be to repeal and replace obama care and she -- once she heard that and she knew that the cornerstone of her campaign was in good hands with governor romney, she was more than happy to extend her endorsement. >> alice stewart, great to see you this morning. thank you. >> thanks, thomas. here's a look at other stories topping the news. day ten in the criminal trial of former presidential candidate john edwards is under way right now. an interior designer who funneled secret checks from a wealthy ha heiress forwarded thm

to andrew young, edwards' former aide. edwards is accused of using the money to hide his pregnant mistress rielle hunter. drew peterson is in an illinois courtroom this morning for a hearing on his upcoming murder trial. he's accused of killing his third wife in 2004 and remains under investigation for the 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife. this marks the first time peterson has appeared before a judge since 2010. khalid shaikh mohammed the self-professed mastermind of the september 11th terror attacks will be arraigned for the second time in guantanamo bay, as prosecutors look to convict him and four others of the worst terrorist attack on american soil. a trial may be at least a year away. and the new york yankees suffered a major blow when their ace closer suffered what may be a career-ended injury. as he usually does mariano rivera was shagging fly balls before last night's game in

kansas city when his right knee buckled. he crashed into the wall and falling into the ground in pain, and he was diagnosed with a torn acl, he's expected to be out for the rest of the season and that may means he may be done for good. facebook has set a price for its eagerly awaited ipo which comes later this month, the social networking site plans to sell shares from $28 to $35 and it plans to over 337 million of those shares and that would value the company at as much as $96 billion by far a record for an internet ipo. and get ready for a show in the skies come saturday night. that's when the full moon will be closer to earth than anytime in the past year. astronomers call it a supermoon. they say the moon will be 30% brighter and as much as 14% bigger than other full moons with no harmful effects, of course. all right. an overnight hit that's an understatement for disney and marvel studios, "the avengers"

was rolled out to wild crowds in some u.s. cities last night. already that film unites the hulk, captain america, and thor and they've amassed a record breaking $281 million in the foreign box office in just a week. maybe it's the superheroes that draw all the crowds. maybe it's the story line. could be a cameo? by yours truly? yeah, i got to be in this movie, it's real quick at the end. pay attention, don't blink or you'll miss it. it's 2 and 23 minutes. the king of pop is now the king of soda pop. michael jackson's image will be printed on a billion cans of pepsi, it's being released for the 25th anniversary of his multiplatinum "bad" album, but apparent-the thrill is gone at least in the uk. adele's chart topping album "21" passed "thriller" on the best selling list taking the number five slot. but worldwide "thriller" wins out by huge, huge margins.

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welcome back, everybody. the family of junior seau says that will allow researchers to examine the veteran nfl's player's brain for signs of concussion-related damage. seau died wednesday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest and his case raises more questions about the long-term impact of concussions on former pro football players. just last year you'll remember former chicago bears safety dave duerson killed himself just like seau. researchers later determined that he suffered from a neu neurodegenerative disease linked to concussion. dorsey levens is a former green bay players, and he's suing the league over the way the league has handled concussions. it's good to see you this morning. after seeing and hearing what happened to seau, i'm sure there's grief throughout the football community as there is the sports world, but in terms of the case that you're a part of and understanding that you

can't legally talk about certain particulars of this lawsuit, explain why you wanted to be a part of it. what is your medical reason of what's going on in your life that you felt you needed to be a part of it? >> well, i am suffering from some symptoms of, you know, concussions over the years. but really the main purpose of me joining this lawsuit was for awareness, especially for kids at the lower levels from youth all the way up to high school football something called second impact syndrome where a kid has one concussion and returns back to the field to play before the concussion is totally healed and they get a second concussion and these kids are dying and if they're not dying, they are completely different kids, you don't recognize who they are anymore. that's the first reason. the second reason is to get long-term or lifetime health care for all the guys who have played. i'm filming a documentary called "bell rung" that we started f m filming a year ago and there are so many problems, so many guys are facing issues that can't get help, you know, junior seau's

death i think brings it to the forefront more so, but it's been a problem for a very, very long time. >> you bring up a great point about the film you are making, in your private life you run a production company after you retired from football. let's show a clip from "bell rung." >> i remember, like, lights and stars, like, okay, i got my bell rung. >> i was out. i got snooked. it ain't funny now. i was sleeping on the job. >> everything went blank. everything. >> dorsey, what do you say to people who listen to former pro football players talk about the impact of the game and they say, do you know what, you got paid a lot of money. you knew the risks going in. you knew that this was dangerous. do you think that'slous for people to react to it or do you think that's a way for people to react for people claiming that the injuries will

be with them for the rest of their lives? >> i do understand it, and everyone has a right to their own opinion. but they don't understand. we're in the middle of this thing, i talked to guys in their early 40s who have already been diagnosed with dementia. you know, i talk to their wives, their kids. these people are human beings and people lose sight of that as athletes because you make so much money. one of the questions i posed on my documentary to all the players i interviewed was how much money makes you immortal, there's a certain amount of money that people assume if you make this amount of money you are immune to any injuries. which is ridiculous to my minds mindset. i joined this lawsuit to help the former players across the country and some of the younger players who will inevitably fails the situations down the road to get the long-term health care they need, although junior seau's death was shocking, it's not going to be the last time. there are so many guys struggling. there will be more guys so we got to pay attention and make sure the guys get help. >> dorsey, hindsight being 20/20, would you change anything about your pro football career?

would you change having been on the field for so long? >> you know, knowing what we know now about concussions, you know, initially we thought having a concussion meant you were unconscious, but we know talking to experts across the country every time you get a bell rung or dinger, that's an actual concussion which is shocking to me when i talked to the doctor for me it happened two or three times a game and earlier in my career when i played fullback, four or five times a practice twice a day, we're talking eight to ten times, you know, practice, so i think one of the things i would have changed and knowing what i know now is all the bravado kind of went out the door as opposed to as a running back you break out in the open and you see a small either small linebacker or defensive back or safety and my mindset was i'm going to punish this guy so he knows next time not to try to come to tackle me, i think if i knew back then what i know now, i would have been a little mess matless macho than o prove i'm tougher than the next guy. >> former green bay packers

dorsey levens, thank you for being here. happy cinco de mayo. it's never too early to pour a glass of sangria or if you are running for re-election never too early to step out to hispanics voters and make your case. the 5th of may, why not the 3rd. >> i am honored to welcome you to cinco de mayo at the white house. even though it's only tres de mayo. we like to get the fiesta started early around here. the party is just getting started for president obama when you consider his upcoming dinner with george clooney is expected to collect a record $12 million according to the "hollywood reporter" if comes in as predicted, it will be the biggest fund-raiser in campaign history. this morning on "today" the host of comedy central's "colbert report" he talked to

david gregby about the super pac he decided to start on his own. >> you said david koch, and you said because of the finance laws you don't know it's a joke. >> he could have given me the money or maybe not, but because i would run it through my 501-ch. >> which has more than ron paul's super pack. sarah palin's daughter will have a little half sister. and levi johnston's girlfriend got pregnant, and herta. we thought we would turn up the theme song for you. take a listen ♪ if you can't do the time don't do it ♪ ♪ and keep your eye on the sparrow ♪ whoooa i'm in a river.

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>> welcome back. want to give you a quick look at the architects today. red arrows across the board. the dow jones down by 165 points on a day where the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1% for the april jobs numbers showing oo people in mick growth. president obama is taking his economic message on the road. we are expecting his first comments in arlington, virginia, since those new unemployment numbers came out. the president will be speaking minutes from now. we were going to show you a live shot from the school where he was going to speak but a storm just went through and knocked down the shot. we're working to get that back for you. he will be speaking with juniors and seniors that are going to be graduating washington lee high school about student loans and his push to prevent interest rates from doubling coming up on july 1st. i'm joined by heather smith, president of rock the vote. we can tell there is a major storm brewing over washington, d.c. in and around virginia right now looking at the skyline behind you.

let's talk about the reason the president is trying to tract the youth back to his campaign for re-election. explain though how young voters are reacting to the president's message about student loans and the worries that so many students have around this country about the mounting debt that it takes to get educated. >> yeah, it's true. thanks, thomas. young people today as we look to the 2012 election are huge in number and can have a major impact on the outcome. the one in four eligible voters is under the age of 30. the president knows as does governor romney in order to win this november, they need the youth vote. it's i guess telling that the very first issue as the general election campaign is beginning that's being taken up by both campaigns is the student loan issue. if it's not addressed by july 1st by congress, the students loan interest rates for young people today will double. this will affect 7.5 million young people who are taking out those student loans, including those high school students that

the president is speaking to today who will be taking out those loans this morning if they're going on to college. >> real quickly, how important is it for the president to convince kids getting out of college they're going to be able to find jobs? >> yeah, the jobs and economic issues are top of mind nor young people. he's doing the right thing, go out and speak to them, suggest proposals and solutions to these issues, but the number one issue for young people today is the mounting student loan debt and finding a job in today's economy. >> rock the vote president heather smith. thanks for your time. that's going to wrap things up for me. i'm going to see you back here on monday 11:00 a.m. eastern time. follow me on twitter @ thomas a. roberts. "now with alex wagner" is coming up next. i could see in that shot there with heather smith that storm over washington, d.c. right now. i'm not sure we're going to get to see the president speaking to those kids. >> i will be drawing illustrations of him speaking. >> we'll break out the tell straighter. >> i know no bounds. we'll bring you the president by hook or crook.

while we wait for the president's remarks, we'll examine what may be an even larger drag on the economy, debt. author and journalist timothy noaa lsts discuss the great divergence. meanwhile,he president is speaking now. we'll go to him live now speaking in virginia. >> after you graduate. and the unemployment rate ticked down again so after the worst economic crisis since the great depression, our businesses have now created more than 4.2 million new jobs over the last 26 months. more than million jobs in the last six months alone. so that's the good news. but there's still a lot of folks

out of work which means that we've got to do more. if we're going to recover all the jobs that were lost during the recession, and if we're going to build a secure economy that strengthens the middle class, then we're going to have to do more. that's why next week i'm going to urge congress as they start getting back to work to take some actions on some common sense ideas right now that can accelerator even more job growth. that's what we need, and my message to congress is going to be just saying no to ideas that will create new jobs is not an option. there's too much at stake for us not to all be rowing in the same direction. and that's true for you and that's true for your parents. now, that's in the short term, but in the long run, the most important thing we can do for our economy is to give all of

you and all americans the best education possible. that's the most important thing we can do. [ applause ] that he means helping our schools hire and reward the best teachers. and you've got some great teachers here. [ applause ] that means stepping up our focus on math and science, something i tell malia and sasha every day. you're solid on math? okay, i like to hear that. that means giving more americans the chance to learn the skills that businesses are looking for right now. and in the 21st country, it also means higher education cannot be a luxury. it is as economic imperative that every american should be able to afford.

now, my grandfather had a chance to go to college because this country decided that every returning veteran of world war ii should be able to afford it. and on a bipartisan basis, the gi bill was created that allowed him to go to college. my mother was able to raise two kids by herself because she was also able to get grants and loans to work her way through school. michele and i are only where we are because scholarships and student loans gave us a shot at a great education. we didn't come from a wealthy background. but this country gave us a chance at a good education. this country has always made a commitment to put a good education within the reach of everybody who's willing to work for it. that's what makes us