for more now, let's bring in political analyst larry gerston who usually joins us in studio but today, joins us live from washington, d.c. thank you very much, larry. >> good morning. >> did the president's move come as a surprise to you as well? >> look, here's the surprise part. his words were incredibly sharp, very direct. we must act now, but what's interesting to me is he did this major announcement on a saturday afternoon. usually when president wants to galvanize things, get the country behind them, they do it at an appropriate moment, an evening address suggesting the seriousness, but instead, it was almost a casual event, and that's what's puzzling. on the one hand, strong language. on the other hand, the timing seemed to be off. >> it seems he said specifically, i don't need congressional approval, but i'm asking for it. what do you make of it? >> a couple things. we have the war powers act. that enables the president to send troops abroad up to 90 days informing the congress after that. he's decided not to do that. he doesn't want to be in this alone. he's got himself in a

larry gerston joins us now for more on the tense mome ntsz. great to see you in washington as the president said he would seek congressional approval, what can we expect from this speech from the president on tuesday? >> we talked about this last week. we said he had to do something like this. by golly, he will. it's the president's best opportunity to show why after two long wars, the united states must strike at syria over its use of chemical weapons. but it's critical to others and in other ways, too. it's critical for the relationship between the president and congress. obama opened the door by asking congress to approve the strike. the stakes are large because he asked congress to participate. either way, congress responds something will happen. finally it's critical for public opinion. why? by speaking to the nation tuesday night, obama will be kind of a prosecutoring attorney, laying out his case for the jury, only this time the jury is the public. without movement on this front, not the public saying do something, it will be hard for c

>> nbc bay area's political analyst larry gerston is here with the details of what it could look like. >> with the so-called government shutdown the armed forces are going to be in place, people are going to get their social security checks. the mail is going to be delivered. in short, the government is going to go on in most respects. that's for sure. it's not quite as complete as people might think. >> okay. political posturing, maybe hot air in there. what are we going to experience? >> there are some things that are going to happen though, raj. federally insured mortgage applications not going to be processed. nobody home. there will be massesive delays in passports and visa processing causing a stir in everything from air travel to tourism. national parks shut down. social security applications as well as applications for any other federal program that needs a federal employee will not be processed. most of all, a shutdown in all likelihood will lead to a market selloff which will effect people's retirement portfolios and that includes a lot of people. so you add it all up, there

nbc's political analyst larry gerston is here to explain. >> calling it taking care of business or looking out for your own needs or whatever, but california has passed all kinds of legislation that placed the state clearly at odds with the federal government. it's very interesting and any time the state does that kind of things the partnership has caused lots of ripples. >> and can you see that with school testing. >> that's one example. we can begin with the revised school testing which has led states to scrap the federal government's no child left behind testing requirement, and why, because the state says we don't need double testing. as a result the u.s. department secretary arony duncan has threatened to withhold as much as $7 billion in federal funds if california carries that through. we'll see what happens and then the immigration reform issue. while dong dithers on this session, they have allowed bills to allow undocumented immigrants to get driver's licenses and practice law. call it immigration reform california style, and if we go to the energy front the state passed a bill to

nbc bay area political analyst larry gerston is here to explain what is going on. what's going on? >> you know, we don't think about these things. traditionally citizenship means some sort of loyalty between an individual and his or her country. okay. people born here are automatically citizens. you're born here, i'm born here, we're automatically citizens, no questions asked, no tests given. all that stuff. others who come here, of course, may apply for citizenship. you know that story. they take a loyalty pledge, if you will, after passing a test on citizenship. fine. still, the simple fact is that most native-born americans just give little thought to something so important. it's amazing. >> unless an amendment was passed to the u.s. constitution recently to change that, that hasn't changed. if it hasn't changed on the federal level which you think is where the changes would be made, why are we having this discussion? >> welcome to california, otherwise known as the canary in the mine, right? this past session the state legislature awarded key elements of i would call them citiz