my colleague is melissa harris perry who is an associate of professor of politics and as well as a cnbc contributor. she joins us from new orleans. always good to speak to you. >> nice to talk to you. >> and we are seeing the new details coming out of the white house and the administration of the plans to kill osama bin laden, and talk to us a bit about what the process reveals about president obama, and do you think in your opinion, does this operation showcase the president in an entirely new light? >> well, you know, it is interesting in part, because we have found out the timing about when he was making these decisions. which means that as he was standing there at the white house press club, sort of making these jokes and being light and funny about the anxieties around the birth certificate question for example, we now know that he understood that there was an entire p operation afoot around bin laden, and that tells us something about the president's ability to multitask and do two things at once and to effectively be protecting the country at the the sasame time trying to operate

melissa harris-perry, thank you for coming on from my hometown of baltimore. >> it is a great city. >. >>> president obama may have quieted critics of the foreign policy credentials but falling short with americans with jobs and the economy. the same "the new york times" poll that saw the president's approval rise reported a dip of handling of the economy. it's a number the white house wants to see change in a big way before the general election gets under way. atoko rich joins me this morning, a writer for "the new york times." the jobs report is coming out tomorrow and seen the numbers move in the right direction over the past few months but it's obvious that it's not at the pace a majority of americans would like to see, especially the millions who are still feeling how hard it is because they're out of work and struggling the find that next job. >> absolutely. last year, we would have said that it was agonizingly slow. we have had a couple of decent months but looking at the numbers they're not much higher than the number simply to accommodate new people entering the work force. c