pastor lawrence white joined us from texas.is the senior pastor of the savior lutheran church in houston. he delivers sermons regularly on this topic. the author of a new book, no, he's not the author of a new book. my next guest is. he is in the audience, ralph reid. he is the chairman of the faith and freedom coalition. he is the author of a great new book called "the confirmation." we will talk to him. i asked him to come because he's the boogie man. the left goes ralph reed -- [ gasping ] i want to talk to him about that. i want to talk about this. this is a story that broke on the 22nd on blaze.com. which is my new website for news and information. obama asks religious leaders to preach gospel of healthcare reform. we talk about this in a second and have the audience participate. first, go to kitty. may i call you kitty? >> yes. >> glenn: kitty, you moved over here to america. how old were you when you got here? >> about 22. >> glenn: okay. you lived under hitler and then you lived under stalin. correct? >> yes. >> glenn:

lawrence summers will leave the white house at the end of the year. he's returning to a teaching position at harvard university. summers is the third key member of the president's economic team to leave in recent months. >>> the job picture has gotten worse for more than half of the country. labor department says 27 states posted higher unemployment rates in august, even as the national jobless rate remained at 9.6%. nevada, michigan and california have consistently racked up rates above 12%. here at home d.c. came at 9.9% new mexico --- at 7.3% and virginia at 7%. we lost jobs in the washington area in august but at least their picture is better than the rest of the country. >> for more link smart headlines log onto our website, wusa9.com. click on the link smart tab on our front page. >>> the early morning commute to our north is about to get a little complicated and doctors unveil a new surgery they say can do away with the need for reading glasses. it's 4:41 here's howard. >> a lot warmer this morning and if you think you need the sweaters because

. >>> lawrence summers is leaving his white house post and going back to harvard. >>> the midterm elections are important to the president. a familiar face is taking to the road. >> reporter: the white house is about to unleash one of the biggest stars unto the campaign trail. next month, michelle obama will head line at least 9 democratic fundraisers in six states. she'll raise money for a handful of candidates. among them, a wisconsin senator, and a california senator. >> i think she'll go out and make a forceful and positive case for what this administration has done. the white house insists she's eager to hit the road and democrats are as eager to have her. she's more popular than her husband. >> even if you're not a fan of barack obama, a lot of people still like michelle obama as a person and a mother and role mold. >> reporter: she's scored points with america and liberals believe that could shrink the enthusist gap among voters. >>> she has enormous power in energizing the base where that's necessary. >> come november, democrats hope she'll live up to the same nickname she earned du

the white house says lawrence summers will return to harvard university at the end of the year.ture could give the administration a chance to revamp its economic team after the november elections. two other members of the president's original economic team have already quit. >>> governor schwarzenegger has called for a budget meeting with legislative leaders. unfortunately, he continues to fight a cold. he asked for democratic and republican leaders of the senate assembly to meet closer to his home in los angeles today. they will discuss a nearly $19 billion shortfall. a spokesman says the governor has not been to the capital in recent days and that his illness likely stems from his week-long trade mission to asia. >>> 5:38. eight current and former leaders in the southern california city of bell will be in court this morning. they were arrested in connection with that scandal tied to their large salaries including that man, a former city manager who was making almost $800,000 a year. also arrested, his assistant the woman you just saw, who was making $376,000 as well as the may

. >>> the white house has announced that president obama's top economic adviser plans to leave his post by the end of the year. lawrence summers is stepping down as director of the national economic council to return to a teaching job at harvard university. summers had initially agreed to the white house role for at least one year. president obama thanked summers for his service during what he called a time of great peril to the country. now only timothy geithner remains from the president's original top economic team. >>> today, president obama heads to new york to address the general assembly where administration officials say he'll walk a fine line regarding iran in a broad based foreign policy speech. yesterday, mahmoud ahmadinejad warned it could spark a war that would have no limits. president obama plans to leave the door open to talks with iran. ahmadinejad told reporters yesterday u.s. sanctions have damaged the chance for relations. >>> new video shows a growing problem in san antonio. violence breaking out in city buses. in the case, a woman who had a newborn strapped to her chest is seen taking a swing at a

. >>> top white house economic adviser lawrence sum letters -- s summers will step down. w he plans to return to harvard university. >>> another economic indicator has exceeded expectations, a jump in new home construction has some optimistic that the economy will not fall back into a double-dip recession. nbc's chris clackum reports. >> reporter: figures for housing starts last month were expected to go up, but not like this. construction on new homes soared 10.5%, an obvious good sign for those who follow the real estate market. >> we think the bad nous ews is for house, into the it will get better quickly, but we think we are putting a bottom in housing now. >> reporter: much of the dramatic increase was in multifamily construction like condos and apartments instead of single-family homes. the news on housing -- on the hope the economy may still heal itself. >> ultimately, they set the backdrop in terms of financial conditions positive for growth. we have seen an improvement in the labor market. it has been disappointing relative past recoveries but seen positive job g

the white house says economic advisor lawrence summers is stepping down at the end of the year to return to harvard, the administration has come under fire for the slow pace of the economic recovery. >>> and eight current and former city officials in bell, california, are facing charges of bilking taxpayers out of millions of dollars, a prosecutor called the case corruption on steroids. today the u.n. is announcing a global health care campaign aimed at saving the lives of 16 million mothers and children worldwide over the next fife years. worldwide every year, an estimated 8 million children die before their fifth birthday. >>> today congress is holding a hearing on the recent salmonella outbreak linked to two farms in iowa. the heads of those two farms are expected to apologize for the outbreak. >>> this morning, paris hilton is thrown out of japan. she was denied entry two days after she pleaded guilty to a drug charge in las vegas. japan has strict immigration laws that bar those convicted of drug offenses. before leaving, paris tweeted that she's disappointed to be missing her fans.

last night on nbc "the last word with lawrence o'donnell" he asked him to wie in on what the white house has called a deliberative approach the president has taken in afghanistan. >> this is the conflict within obama, quite frankly. he's commander in chief. he knows and he committed himself in the campaign to make this the war we were going to pay attention to. but intellectually, he looks at the data, the intelligence on the afghan war and there's a lot of dreary, negative news. in fact, just back in may he came out of one of the monthly reviews, the top secret kind of assessments they make in the situation room of the white house and said, given this definition of the problem, i don't know how we come up with a solution. so this is a war that hangs in the balance. it's not clear where it's going. and this is the portrait of him unvarnished, unspun, detail after detail meeting db there are thousands of words where he's talking, where he's asking questions. you're absolutely right, it's different from bush. bush's meetings were essentially, my gut tells me we should invade iraq, how are

the white house said today his topped advisor, lawrence summers, will leave at the end of the year. this follows the departure of budget director peter orszag and christina romer, head of the council of economic advisors. still ahead on the "cbs evening news"... do you think situation in this country would be different if your wife had been elected instead? but up next, giving teachers report cards and posting them online. they don't like it one bit. seventh leading cause of death and affects more than 5 million americans. the alzheimer's association is taking action, and has been a part of every major advancement. but we won't rest until we have a cure. you have dreams... help the alzheimer's association protect them. act now, go to alz.org. >> couric: it's the start of a new school year, and the pressure is on to do well-- not just the students but teachers, too. the obama administration in its race to the top program has already handed out $4 billion to states that allow student test scores to be used to judge how well their teachers are doing. in los angeles, evaluations of teac

. >>> coming up on "the last word" lawrence interviews david axelrod as the white house asserts itselfy must be refreshed with crayons. coloring book time is nearly here. it is a doozie tonight. please stay tuned. we'll come back from recess in just a moment. lord of the carry-on. sovereign of the security line. you never take an upgrade for granted. and you rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go. you can even take a full-size or above. and still pay the mid-size price. i deserve this. [ male announcer ] you do, business pro. you do. go national. go like a pro. >>> when i was a kid, coloring books included coloring a unicorn and crossword puzzles. i was born a few generations too soon, it seems, because today's coloring books are better, in that they allow for the possibility that the federal government is tyrannical and should be removed. ng he likes me than cheese is more cheese. and now kraft's got cheddar explosion. i really want to try it. fat chance that's gonna happen. [ male announcer ] kraft cheddar explosion. you know you love i

lawrence summers, the president's top economic adviser plans to leave the white house at the end of the year and return to harvard university. he's the third top-level economic advise arer to the president to leave since july. >>> meanwhile, following his policy-making meeting yesterday, the federal reserve made clear it is prepared to take further steps to jump-start the economy. fed fashsials said that means purchasing mortgage bonds and tresh reap notes and the fed said it will likely keep its benchmark interest rate near zero for an extended period of time. >>> while the economic recovery struggles, the global airline industry is doing better than expected. profits for this year could add up to nearly $9 billion. that's more than triple the earlier estimates. it's a big rebound from last year, when the industry lost nearly $10 billion. >>> and caldwell banker out with its annual list of the most expensive and most affordable american housing markets. the most costly city is newport beach, california, while the least expensive is detroit. now, a four-bedroom, two-bath home in newport

. >>> coming up on "the last word" lawrence interviews david axelrod as the white house asserts itselft thon show the tree of liberty must be refreshed with crayons. coloring book time is nearly here. it is a doozie tonight. please stay tuned. we'll come back from recess in just a moment. i used to see the puddles, but now i see the splash. ♪ i wanted love, i needed love ♪ ♪ most of all, most of all... ♪ >>> when i was a kid, coloring books included coloring a unicorn and crossword puzzles. i was born a few generations too soon, it seems, because today's coloring books are better, in that they allow for the possibility that the federal government is tyrannical and should be removed. i wanted skim. come on, get your head in the game, stufy! thanks, stufy. man, i love that cookie. with so many it's hard to see the difference. but this is the way most dentists choose. fact is, more dentists use an oral-b toothbrush than any other brush. trust the brush more dentists use. oral-b. >>> remember when president obama spoke to schoolkids at the start of the school year last year. he gave his wo

when you're running the white house. lawrence, seriously, right? ite house book. i just think that they're never looked at in context when they come out. people take this little sentence here and say, oh, ratiner is whacking them. generally if you consume the whole thing, there's a different effect. >> that's true. there is a difference. i'm not sure how steve was thinking. i was thinking i want to capture history. i think steve was probably thinking, i want to capture what happened as we saved these auto companies. >> his is more minute to minute. you are the one that definitely has a historical feel to it for the reader as you're reading it. but then, i mean, back in that, you know, day in the life of president kennedy which kind of started us in that inside the white house minute to minute style, that's what i think you see in his books is that feeling of i'm going to give you the sensation of these minutes. >> staffer once said what history needs more of is first-person testimony. everybody should write. >> all right. >>> coming up, we have oliv

white house officials announced today that lawrence summers will step down as chair of the national economic council after the november election. in a statement, president obama said summers helped guide the nation from the depths of recession to renewed growth. he said, "we are on a better path, thanks in no small measure to larry's wise counsel." earlier, white house spokesman robert gibbs dismissed talk that the president is dissatisfied with summers and treasury secretary timothy geithner. >> the president is enormously pleased with the efforts of each of them in what has been... in what have been very trying times. the last two years have been at a remarkable pace, far more hectic than a campaign in which, i think, many of us thought, "boy, is it going to get... could it get any crazier than this?" and, you know, many days around here, the answer is "absolutely." >> sreenivasan: earlier this month, christina romer stepped down as head of the president's council of economic advisers. on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average gained more than seven points to close at 10,761.

interview on the premiere of "the last word with lawrence o'donnell" addressing for the first time the picture painted in bob woodward's book over a white fighting on what to do in afghanistan. >>> when we come back here, we'll huddle around the water cooler to watch sarah palin's front-row visit to "dancing with the stars" last night. was she really booed by the audience when she was audience or are the blogs stirring up trouble this morning? we'll play the clip and let you decide when "way too early" comes right back. ?)?)?)?)?)?)?)) >>> what we've got to do is to look at the success of these schools, find out how do we duplicate them and make sure that we are still holding charter schools accountable, the same way we are all the schools. >>> president obama weighing in on the impact of charter public schools during an exclusive interview yesterday with matt lauer. those schools which get public money along with private donations have succeeded in many places where traditional public schools failed, not always but in most cases. the number of students enrolled in charter schooled nearly quadrupled from '99 to 2008. this is according t

brought in ruben then to be his treasury secretary who was followed by lawrence smors who's nowheop economics advisor in the obama whiteouse. and in addition to the bill that reversed, he did something more significant for our current crisis. he, after sommers push it through, congress signed off on the commodity futures odd yearnization act of 2000. he was already a lame duck president. it was in the closing weeks of his administration. and this is the source of our whole problem, really in terms of the housing meltdown. because we hadhese suspect derivives that sensible peoplen the admistration had warned against. no one knew what these toxic investments were all about, the bundling of mortgages, which is what encouraged all the of the of the wild subprime and at-a financing because they were then going to be packaged together, made into securities and then backed by credit default swaps. and all of the stuff that didn exist, certainly didn't exist in adam smith's capitalism, but didn't even exist in ronald reagan's capitalism. these gimmicks that were developed and spiraled wildly out of control were made possible b

. >> white house senior adviser david axelrod, thanks for your time today. >> thanks for having me on, lawrence. >>> how will tea party candidates fit in on capitol hill. are tea party members racist? >>> and in an audience-demanded follow-up to levi johnston's appearance last night, we will compare his answers to sarah palin's answers to the same questions. my doctor said most calcium supplements... aren't absorbed properly unless taken with food. he recommended citracal. it's different -- it's calcium citrate, so it can be absorbed with or without food. also available in small, easy-to-swallow petites. citracal. >>> can the tea party survive? matt taibbi takes us inside the movement to see what is really motivating supporters. bob woodward will be here for his inside look at the obama white house. >>> and an exclusive preview of how the writers at funny or die.com are handling the don't ask don't tell debate. much for department store makeup when there's an amazing anti-aging makeup from covergirl and olay. simply ageless. this advanced formula with olay regenerist serum won't glob up in line

. >> lawrence summers, the director of the national economic council at the white house leaving.his is not unexpected. there's an expectation that the white house will look to wall street, corporate america for a replacement. who are the names on the short list you're hearing? who do you think is up to the job? >> you know, i think it is smart of the administration to talk about someone with a business background. yesterday it was all over the blog and a lot of rumor mongering about the former ceo of xerox. she's got a great business background. did turn around xerox, actually. got to the company when it was at the worst and people were talking about bankruptcy. and, in fact, she was able to see that through. and actually take the company to a new level. i don't know. i don't know if the administration -- obviously you guys no better -- will go for a business person. you know the criticism for so long, there's no one in the administration that has any business background. and i think in order to sort so far unite these two worlds, we need a little positive rhetoric. >> and they h

lawrence talks with levi johnston. yes, that levi next on this show, white supremacist football.and one crazy new york congressional election. and how. bake it, in the oven. well kraft corporation, i'm on to you. going after the grown ups and trying to muscle me out but i'm not going anywhere. [ male announcer ] kraft macaroni & cheese. you know you love it. you struggle to control your blood sugar. you exercise and eat right, but your blood sugar may still be high, and you need extra help. ask your doctor about onglyza, a once daily medicine used with diet and exercise to control high blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. adding onglyza to your current oral medicine may help reduce after meal blood sugar spikes and may help reduce high morning blood sugar. [ male announcer ] onglyza should not be used to treat type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. tell your doctor if you have a history or risk of diabetic ketoacidosis. onglyza has not been studied with insulin. using onglyza with medicines such as sulfonylureas may cause low blood sugar. some symptoms of low blood suga

white breakfast sandwiches. hurry in and try one in delicious veggie or turkey sausage. [ cheers and applause ] >>> thank you, thank you. thank you. welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to the "lawrenceelk show" tribute to mo's

the white house that the president's top at an economic adviser lawrence summers plans to leave the administrationeturned to harvard university. also this morning current economic concerns are creating uncertainty as the nation's top a three day summit to push global leaders team meet you and callsu.s. and goalsn goals. president mombasa talmudic democratic lawmakers they would be proud to campaign on historic health care legislation six months later the on the democrats running ads about it are the ones who voted now with tricia midterm elections the white house is for guarantees the six month anniversary to be introduced into skeptical burgers. those changes include the coverage for preventive care and even adults and a ban on canceling for someone has fallen in all. it kicks into our eyes a patient's bill of rights. eight companies would testify before congress for the recent seminar at and hit break. they'll testify before the committee. they've asked man to come prepared to discuss the that the conditions there found that their firms. fact and i area santa's girth as it is extending a ban the

. >> white house senior adviser david axelrod, thanks for your time today. >> thanks for having me on, lawrence. >>> how will tea party candidates fit in on capitol hill. are tea party members racist? >>> and in an audience-demanded follow-up to levi johnston's appearance last night, we will compare his answers to sarah palin's answers to the same questions. maybe you want to rebuild homes for those in need? or, maybe you want to help improve our schools? whatever you want to do, members project from american express can help you take the first step. vote, volunteer or donate for the causes you believe in at membersproject.com. take charge of making a difference. with pringles cracker stix. ♪ crackers turned into tasty, crunchy sticks! ♪ pringles cracker stix. ♪ so delicious... your mouth will be strangely attracted to them. ♪ everything pops with pringles cracker stix. >>> can the tea party survive? matt taibbi takes us inside the movement to see what is really motivating supporters. bob woodward will be here for his inside look at the obama white house. >>> and an exclusive preview of how the

white house. >>> it's now ten minutes past the hour. >>> lawrence o'donnell is the host of "last word" with lawrence o'donnell. five weeks before the midterm election, just how much trouble is the democrats in? >> in 1994 when we had that huge shift and the democrats lost the house and the senate. at this point in the process, no one knew that that would happen, there were no polling indications that that would happen, no pundits predicted. this is the worst shape the democrats have ever been in. >> so the president's team is now putting him on college campuses in a series of appearances to too toy bring in those surge voters from 2008, would you characterize that as a hail mary pass. >> what it really is a move back to things that worked in the past. we have seen the president go into the town hall venue, didn' work so well, having people ask him questions, so now they're putting him back on stage in that celebrity mode. remember what obama's problem was? he was a celebrity, that's when he was the most popular, so now they're going to put him back in that giant arena with all these fans and try to

white house. first let's get reaction to the address from those in iraq. cnn pentagon correspondent chris lawrence is at camp victory and cnn's arwa damon who is in baghdad. chris, 50,000 troops are still there. what is their role? >> reporter: larry, they are going to be officially called advise and assist troops. they've already started to pretty much transition in a that role for some time. it basically means the roles have flip-flopped so whereas before u.s. troops would roll out of the wire, they would stage these operations, they would kick down these doors, they would conduct the raids, the iraqis would be hanging back. now that role has flip-flopped. now it's the iraqis planning the raids. now it's the iraqis going in. the u.s. would be more in a support role coaching them, advising them, being there if needed. if iraqis were conducting an operation the u.s. might be providing air support, capability on the ground. it's sort of the roles have now flip-flopped from leader to follower. >> larry: arwa, you've been in e iraq for years. what are you hearing from the iraqis now that the combat m

. >>> lawrence summers is now the third high level member of the white house economic team to step downho should replace summers once he return to harvard? harvard economist jeffrey myron worked with summers and he knows him well and joins us from boston with his thoughts on this. welcome. nice to have you here. >> thank you for having me. >> uma: what do you read in the resignation? is it that his departure and other member of the economic team that the president failed in his attempts to turn the economy around so far? >> no, i don't think, i certainly don't think they would regard it as a mission of failure. on the one hand, they believe the economy is in better shape than it would have been had they not enacted the bail-out and stimulus and cash for clunkers and other policies. i happen to disagree with that, but i think they feel they did a good job given a very bad situation. there is room for reasonable disagreement about that. i think that the stated reason given is larry wants to spend more time with his family. he doesn't want to sort of take the chance of not getting reappoin

also up is down, black is white, hippos are skinny, and blanche lincoln is going to win reelection this year. joining us now is msnbc's own lawrence o'donnell. the last word with lawrence o'donnell premiers monday night at 10:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc about which we are all very, very excited. lawrence, thank you so much. >> but you excite so easily. >> i do. i'm excitable. it's nerves, you know. have i the nerves. what happened today? republicans said they wanted to introduce amendments. harry reid said he wasn't opposed to that, and then republicans voted against it anyway. what really happened? >> well, you know, each one of them is citing a different senate tradition and protocol to support their position. they're is a tradition of unlimited amendments in the senate. but the way the senate actually works is the leaders on each side make an agreement. let's limit the agreements to this, this many. sometimes limit it to 100. it doesn't have to be some tiny little thing. but let's understand what the road map is when we take this bill out here. even if one party is opposed to it, they're going to allow the bill to go to the floor,

of white house deep background source to tell you holbrooke's not the most popular guy inside the administration some days. >> the president's economic team is about to look very different. lawrence summers says he is stepping down and year's end. he is the third member to allowance their resignation since june. john harwood joins us now. we have reported this is something in the works for months, so not a surprise inside the west wing but perhaps the timing of the announcement. who might the president pick to replace larry summers? >> boy, that's a mystery, savannah. they have thought about this for some time. when i've run various names in the rumor mill by senior white house officials like mulkey, the former ser ox executive, we'll see what happens there. this is the timing of which was influenced by the president's remarks at the town hall the other day when i asked about whether geithner would be staying. i'm told that summers didn't want the speculation to stay in there. he had planned to do this for some time. i don't think it represents a change in policy. i think the administration remains comfortable with the track we're on and larry summers remains in tune with preside

white house dysfunction. a new book by bob woodward claims to expose serious problems between president obama's top players in the war in afghanistan. lawrencell talk about it. >>> will it work? the president tries before the midterms to convince voters the health care law was the right thing to do six months after it became law. >>> and check this out. wild chase. not one, not two, but three suspects take police on a cross-country pursuit in south florida. we'll show you how all of it ended. >>> plus, they complained about their hotel room online and got kicked out. but did the hotel cross the line? we'll talk about it. >>> and is it a bombshell that will fuel the heated debate over the war in afghanistan? today, the white house is downplaying accounts in a new book by bob woodward "obama's wars." it portrays

. >> secretary gates is down playing the stories of white house infighting over war strategy saying conflict sells. chris lawrences live at the pentagon. i mean, a healthy bit of debate, people would think is a good thing. what the concern was is everybody onboard? does everybody within the administration believe afghanistan's winnable? >> yeah, that's right. and he said that. he said there was a healthy debate going on. obviously it was a very, you know, boisterous debate with a lot of disagreement. but i had a very much more basic question for the secretary was that, you know, following what happened with general stanley mcchrystal's interview with the "rolling stone." i wanted to know why he agreed to even sit down and speak with bob woodward. i asked him that yesterday. >> we didn't get into any specifics about issues or anything like that. and i -- i had his questions in advance, and they were sort of at the 40,000-foot level about tone and atmosphere and the role of the president in this process. these were issues i'd spoken to publicly. and so i felt comfortable responding. >> so interesting that he said h

lawrence o'donnell" is on at 10:00 p.m. eastern time on msnbc. back to matt at the white house. >>> a scarey scene at jfk airport over the weekend when the crew of a delta connection flight was forced to make an emergency landing after the landing gear on that plane failed to deploy properly. now some passengers aboard the plane actually used their cell phone cameras to capture the tense moments. tom costello covers aviation for us, tom, good morning to you. >> good morning, the crew was getting an awful lot of credit for keeping their cool and making it very clear what the passengers should do as they came in for a very dicey emergency landing without all the plane's landing gear. >> reporter: from inside a regional jet saturday night, final harrowing moments as the pilot tells passengers to prepare for an emergency landing. >> brace for impact. >> reporter: and the warning from a deadly serious flight attendant. >> heads down! stay down! >> one lady in front of me is in tears. another lady is panicking. >> reporter: among the 60 passengers on board, chase and alsondra r

white house called the comments offensive. >>> defense secretary gates says that the situation on the front lines in afghanistan is looking better. gates marking progress in the war against the taliban. cnn's chris lawrences at the pentagon. chris, tell us about his assessment. >> reporter: kyra, he says the closer you get to the front lines the better the war actually looks and pretty blunt in assessing the big picture. he said, look, back in 2001, 2002, kicking out the taliban, girls started going to school in afghanistan, he said, we won that phase of the war and then said we took the eye off the ball and districted in iraq. he said afghanistan wurnd underfunded and made a strong point to say in the nine years this war is going on, he said it's only in the last year and a half that he feels they have the resources to really make a change. >> i would say since the beginning of 2009 with the president's first decision to add another 21,000 troops and then decision in january to add another 30,000 and the increase in civilians that we have begun and i would say a tripling of the foreign -- of our partners' troops that we have actually got the resources in afghanistan to partner with the afghans and have