dionne from "the washington post" and rich lowry, editor of "national review." captions paid for by nbc-universal television >>> good morning. president obama will spend next week talking up his proposals to improve the economy and lower the 9.6 jobless rate. "the new york times" reporting this morning that on wednesday in cleveland he will ask congress to extend a corporate tax credit for research and development. with the election season officially under way this labor day, the president must convince voters that democrats will offer the best prescription for turning the economy around and creating jobs. with us now from his home state of south carolina, republican senator lindsey graham. senator, welcome back to "meet the press." >> thank you. good morning. >> i want to start on the economy. the president reacting to the latest jobs numbers in the rose garden on friday offered this assessment of where things stand. let's show that. >> the key point i'm making right now is that the economy is moving in a positive direction. jobs are being created. they're just

joining me editor of the "national review" and fox news contributor, rich lowry, e.j.from "the washington post," charlie cook from "the cook political report" and erin burnett. welcome. you heard senator graham say he could support the president with a tax credit for corporation. is this what the business community wants to hear more from the administration? >> they do. that tax credit is very popular. likely to go through. it has a big price tag to it. they like it. they of course want to hear more. some of them along the lines of we can create more jobs if we have more tax breaks for business. it looks like the research credit is something that will be popular and get support on both sides of the aisle for that but that's as far as he'll go. >> big picture, the president maintains in response to the job numbers, we're going in the right direction here. we're part of the solution and not part of the problem. but as i suggested to david plouffe, there's an economic record there that's tough to run on. >> very tough to run on. he's right. i call it the tortoise economy.

rich lowry and i were having a tweet back and forth conversation last night, and he said, what we sawre evidence that the republican presidential primary took a step to the right and we're probably going to see more courting of jim demint, not just sarah palin, but jim deminute and the tea party express in a way that may be haley barbour and mitt romney thought they could sort of stay above. >> absolutely. i think there's no question about it. i think you guys were right last night and you're right today. this shows that there's an energized core in the party. they'll be looking for a different kind of candidate, not somebody with washington credentials or insider experience, but somebody who can talk about overthrowing the whole political system. >> very quickly, dan balz, jim demint or mitch mcconnell, who's got more influence inside the senate republican caucus these days? >> well, i would say, at this moment, you would sort of try to bet on jim demint, but mitch mcconnell is a seclude insihrew player. but he's a more nervous person than he was a few weeks ago. >> stu rothenberg, t

the lowry short freeway definitely a rough ride today. interstate 580 is also another hot spot.up early this morning at a truck accident. 3:00 a.m. hour did truck lost some of its fuel they had to keep the lane closed for several hours well that spill was cleaned up. that's why that commute is so slow. much better than yesterday or the day before 4680 southbound leading down to signal. i way for continues to build up its mostly the ride on 242 southbound approaching 680 that is heavy because we already had an accident in walnut creek had north main just passed in the southbound direction. the rest of the westbound 24 ride still looking good. finally i looked at san jose 101 northbound getting heavier moving past the guadalupe parkway there is the report of a broken its sprinkler head up the road. if you get off at 1 01 on to to 37 there may be water in the lane. this morning there was water in the road way but that was borne entirely different reason. we started off the morning with a bit of a drizzle. >> folks have gotten use of their windshield wipers this morning. the fog pro