nbc's mike viqueira is covering it all for us and joins us from

. >> i'm joined live from washington by mike viqueira. good saturday morning to you. >> good morning. >> a new report from the treasury department. can you tell us about that? >> it's a challenge the white house faced. when the debate first began at the summer's outset, the emphasis was on the out set of americans without health insurance. there was walking inside the beltway and bending it down, reducing costs in the health industry that's become a big part of the gross domestic product. that just wasn't speaking to people. today, a new effort from the treasury department comes a report intended to demonstrate how vulnerable we are. they might not be as comfortable as they are. here are the statistics. 15% of americans go without insurance in a given year. 48% of americans are uninsured over a ten-year span. 57% of americans under age 21 are uninsured under a ten-year span. critics say it's self-serving, but there are statistics. the president has a big rally in minneapolis at the target center before 20,000 people. we can expect him to

nbc's mike viqueira has that part of the story from the white house. good evening, mike. >> reporter: good evening, amy. after hearing shouted objections and cat calls from republicans in his address to congress this past week, today president obama got a decidedly different reception at his first health care rally since the speech. >> and i have to say i can already see this crowd is a lot more fun. >> reporter: hardly a jeer to be heard in minnesota where mr. obama was greeted by supporters of his health care plan. >> we got to do something. >> reporter: outside on the street, a difference of opinion. but inside it was a campaign-style event with the president appealing for support from those who already have insurance warning that without reforms, nothing is certain. >> nearly half of all americans under 65 will lose their health coverage at some point over the next ten years. more than one-third will go without coverage for longer than one year. >> reporter: but most republicans aren't swayed, and today one gop leader accused the pr president of tur

>> mike viqueira tonight. thank you. for more on the story we turn to cnbc's chief washington correspondent john harwood. john, we've seen this president absorbed by the economy and health care,omestic issues, now suddenly the iue of whether to introduce more troops into afghanistan and this growing iranian crisis. are we seeing a new level of test for this new young administration? >> reporter: there's no question about it. over the next couple months this iran situation is going to be kind of a rolling 3:00 a.m. phone call for him, lester. it's a challenge. a lot of pressure on this new young president to show he can handle the situation, but also an opportunity. if he's able to either get iran to back down or to lead the world in imposing tougher sanctions than we've seen so far, he'll get credit that his advisers, i talked to one senior official, who said we may get some political capital. >> it looked like and extraordinary show of solidarity seeing these three leaders coming out hard against iran. what does it say

nbc's mike viqueira is covering it all for us and joins us from the white house. good evening, mike. >> reporter: good evening. with passions running high on both sides of the health care reform debate, at least one white house aide is dismissing some of the anger we've seen at these protests, like the one we saw in washington yesterday, as misguided. senate democrats say they're going to push forward with a bill with or without republicans. >> and, you know -- >> reporter: at a town hall today in south carolina, more resistance to president obama and his plan to reform health care. >> there is nobody in this country could withstand compete with the federal government when they get in your backyard. let me tell you -- territory comes on the heels of a summer of discontent. and the day after tens of thousands marched on the capitol. galvanized in opposition to the president's policies. white house officials were unfazed by the protests. >> i don't think we ought to be distracted by that. my message to them is, they're wrong. >> reporter: democrats have a new found c

i'm joined live from washington by mike viqueira. od morning to you, mike. >> reporter: good morning, alex. >> let's go through it. what will we see from the snth. >> reporter: you are absolutely right. just like a campaign rally at this point. yesterday he spoke to an arena full of supporters in minneapolis, minnesota. largely reprized what he saw on wednesday night but with cheering. it was really quite a sight. contrast that with the tens of thousands of people who protested his policies back here in washington yesterday on the steps of the capitol but the president, you are right, has other events planned trying to keep the pressure on and momentum up and it's democrats trying to keep unified in congress. earlier in the week, he's going to head out to pennsylvania to do a fund-raiser for newly-minted democrat arlen specter and then speaking at a convention expected to talk about health care and later in the week with the university of maryland here in college park on the board we are the district of columbia with a rally there to

i'm joined now live from the white house by nbc's mike viqueira. mike, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, alex. >> let's talk about the president, what he's hoping to accomplish here this weekend. >> reporter: it's almost ironic for the president, perhaps a bitter irony. they're talking about the public option, they're talking about the employer mandate, individual mandates, they're talking about bending the cost curve. they're talking about insuring the uninsured. all of the points that they're trying to bring home and emphasize over the course of the last several weeks, beginning with that speech to a joint session of congress, continuing on through rallies and now almost an unprecedented five appearances on the sunday talk shows. but instead, they're talking about those comments from former president jimmy carter. it was one of the questions that almost all five of them, as far as we know, all five of these chosen hosts asked the president yesterday. david gregory, of course, "meet the press," and that's the only show you really need

let's go to washington and nbc's mike viqueira at the white house now. what does this do? how did this set the stage for the talks? seeing the united states and other countries going into with iran on thursday. >> reporter: well, i think the question, contessa, are they doing it for domestic consumption or provoke international reaction? there are a lot of -- probably going to be a lot of speculation i dare say that because mahmoud ahmadinejad, the president of iran, is on such a weak political footing there and because this revelation by president obama, gordon bron and nicholas sar cozy and caught them off guard that they had to do something to rally domestic support. the problem is it may backfire on them because the international community including cli that and russia who in the past are reluctant to get tough with iran are all on board and trying to sit iran down and get them to walk back the nuclear ambitions. that meeting is going to take place on thursday, of course. iran will be on one side of the table. this was a previously-scheduled meeting. the united states,

mike viqueira is outside the white house. what is the process for white house on deciding do we accede to the general's requests? >> reporter: the stakes couldn't be higher as attention turns to the future afghanistan and the future of the united states military mission there. it's the longest war in american history, of course american troops have been there since the days following 9/11. and of course the insurgency renewed in past years, bringing talk of more troops for afghanistan. the president during the campaign had pledged to reduce the number of troops in iraq. he says he wants to send them to afghanistan. that's where the taliban was. but the same taliban that harbored al qaeda and the people who came here on 9/11. the trouble is now in the democratic party, political problems. nancy pelosi said not a lot of support in congress for more troops in afghanistan. and now we learn that general mcchrystal has formally submitted his report to the pentagon asking for some 40,000 new troops. the debate continues here and one

nbc's mike viqueira live at white house for us. good morning, mike. >> reporter: good morning, alex. >> the president says the international community is more united than ever on iran, correct? >> reporter: well, it appears that way. the u.s. president and u.s. allies says the intelligence is solid and so is their resolve as they try to face iran now, demanding they give up their nuclear weapons program or face the consequences. iran caught red-handed, a secret, underground nuclear plant suddenly revealed by president obama. >> the size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program. iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow. >> reporter: u.s. officials say they have known that iran was building the plant for some time, but it wasn't until early this week, after signs that iran had realized their secret was out, that mr. obama began to huddle with allies. both at the united nations and then at the g-20 economic summit in pittsburgh. together, the leaders decided to go public. >> confronted by th

mike viqueira. for your dose of politics, you can log on to first read.msnbc.com. >>> and new word on the swine flu vaccine. shots that could now be available sooner than expected. that's according to health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius. on a talk show this morning she said the shots could be available as early as the first week of october. previously the rollout was set for mid october. >>> well, a surprise finish for serena williams at the u.s. open. the defending champ is out after a spat with judges. she was called for a rare double penalty, a foot fault leaving her one point away from losing the match and she flipped out on the judge, screaming, cursing and threatening to shove the tennis ball down her throat. let's watch. >> i didn't say i would kill you. are you serious? are you serious? i didn't say that. >> karen hunter is a publisher and teaches journalism at hunter college. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> this was a terrible call at a terrible point in the match

i'm joined now live from washington by nbc news mike viqueira.e president's agenda this week. what's on it? >> reporter: health care, health care and health care. >> okay. >> reporter: tomorrow, actually, travels to pennsylvania. perhaps a little change of pace speaking in pittsburgh to the annual afl-cio. on labor day he attended an afl-cio picnic in cincinnati. the speech is expected to touch on health care and has a fund-raiser for arlen specter as long as he is in the keystone state and then looking ahead to thursday, heads to nearby college park, maryland, speaking at the university of maryland to a rally much like the one we saw yesterday out in minneapolis. at the target center in downtown. it was very interesting, alex. there were tens of thousands of protesters on the west front of the capitol to protest president obama's policies, not just health care but a lot of people having anxiety and anger, frankly, over the amount of money the zboft spending, bailouts and the rest. you know the story. but back in minneapolis, the president spoke

. >> and congressional correspondent mike viqueira joins us now. ey arguing about? >> gentlemen, please. >> yeah. >> they're basically arguing about a point that senator kyl was trying to make. most of the discussion in the morning was about medicare and cuts to medicare that democrats say will streamline or cut out of the all waste. they can find almost $400 billion over the next 10 years in savings to medicare. the republican argument is simply that's hogwash. congress never cuts medicare. it's politically untenable. every time this comes up, we're not going to be able to do it. second of all, you can't say you're going to cut medicare and not say you're going to cut benefits for beneficiaries. that's essentially what's going on here. there was a lot of talk about the medicare advantage program as well. what's really gotten under max baucus' skin. he's the chairman of this committee. he said publicly he wants this markup as we call it on capitol hill, this procedure to end by the end of the week. it doesn't look like that's going to happen and man

nbc's mike viqueira is live at the white house. there have been a lot of these ceremonies over the years. anything particularly different about how to obama white house handled it today? >> well, the weather befitted the somber tone. it is his first observance. 8:46 a.m., the time when the first plane struck the world trade center. both mr. and mrs. obama appeared on the south lawn of the white house. the weather held up long enough for them to issue, to observe a moment of silence. they were joined by many of the white house staff. all of them donning their caps and standing in reverence for those who were lost on that day. then the president, a little later, got in his motorcade, made the trip across the river to the pentagon. you heard what he had to say at least in part there on the steps of the pentagon. he came back here. he was drenched incidentally when he went into the crowd and shook the hands of many of the men and women in uniform who were there observing that moment. he came back to the white house and then the preside

nbc's mike viqueira is live at the white house.alancing act i suppose for the president when he is in front of this crowd today. are we expect to go hear details how the president is going to finesse things today? >> you're right, david. afl and cio and the rest of labor very strong supporters of president obama and the afl-cio insisting on that public option you described it being included in any final package that were to ultimately reach the president's desk. that is still very much up in the air, and we might add the president supports that public option and expected to do that again today when he speaks to the annual picnic in cincinnati of the afl-cio and again on wednesday night when he takes the biggest stage of all, a joint session of congress and a prime time audience around the nation. but the question is will he insist on it? is it a make or break piece of legislation, a provision within that legislation? indications are now, if you listen to what the white house aides have been saying and again on yesterday on the sund

. >> nbc's white house reporter mike viqueira is live there for us on the lawn. mike, another good saturday morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, alex. >> let's get more on iran's reaction to this. what do you know? >> reporter: the trouble is, iran's been confronted with these allegations before. just a few years ago, when it was discovered they had another nuclear enrichment facility in an area called natons in iran, but this time, says president obama and the allies he dramatically appeared with yesterday morning in pittsburgh to reveal the existence of this new nuclear reactor, this time they say it's going to be different because they have the backing of, they hope, russia and china, two members with seats on the security council that could really put some sanctions with teeth in it, as the president said yesterday in response to a question. so, a unified front as they head into these meetings that were previously scheduled between the permanent five, plus germany and iran. they're going to meet in geneva on october 1st next week to discuss iran's nuclea

let's go to mike viqueira. we didn't see much in the sunday talk shows. what about tonight? expecting a big news break? >> reporter: probably not. one of the tenets is repetition and consistency, joint speech to congress weeks ago, contessa, rally since then and all the appearances yesterday there were some contentious months, when he was cornered on the idea of the so-called tack and the affordability issue within health care, the statistic out there now, a family of four making $66,000 a year, chose not to have health care because of the so-called individual mandate, they could be fined as much as $3800. that is in the baucus bill you can the much-awaited baucus bill. for the most part into the a lot of new ground broke. you are right, the president is going to make that detour while in new york city on his way to the general assembly and all very important high-level, bilateral and trilateral meetings with world leaders. the david letterman shock the ed sullivan theater, i think, contessa, we can expect to hear more of the same in terms of his promotion of health care. >>

. >>> mike viqueira has the story on the president's health plan. >> this crowd is a lot more fun. >> reporter: hardly a jeer to be heard in minnesota, and obama was greeted by supporters of the health care plan. >> we have to do something. >> reporter: outside on the streets, a difference of opinion. but inside, it was a campaign-style event. the president was appealing for support from those that already have insurance, warning without reform, nothing something certain. >> nearly half of all americans under 65 will lose their health care coverage at some point over the next ten years, and more than one third will go without coverage longer than one year. >> reporter: today one gop leader accused the president of turning his back onheir ideas. >> instead of tauging the president and congressional democrats should spend a little more time listening. >> more fallout from wilson's outburst. he raised more than $750,000 in the last three days from sympathetic supporters. but now democrats issued him a ultimate, apologize or have a fallout. the president's plan would requireliviro pde pro

. >> i'm joined live in washington by msnbc's mike viqueira. good morning to you, mike. let's talk about health care and what else the president will be hammering out this weekend. what's behind health care on the agenda? >> reporter: well the football metaphors abound this fall season, the president, they say is flooding the zone with a media blitz, trying to go all out on promoting his health care agenda which faces a very dicey future in the months ahead in the united states congress. of course the president is appearing as you mentioned on five sunday talk shows, tieing a record set by monica lewinsky's lawyer way back in the late '90s during that scandal. he also will appear on david letterman this coming monday, he'll be attending the united nations general assembly opening, but he'll appear on letterman all in the name of health care. michelle obama, of course the first lady, appeared next door to the white house in the old executive office building to talk about what health care reform means to women and mothers. a lot of push going on here, a lot of criticism fr

mike viqueira is live at the white house. mike, the president's speech today is that going to preview what we hear wednesday night? >> reporter: it should do just that. he heads to cincinnati to speak to the union. it's unclear if the white house and the president will insist on the public option when congress gets to putting this in legislation and voting in both the floor of the house and the senate. robert gibbs intemated the president will strongly support the idea of a public option. as you saw in the open, david axelrod and gibbs said it's not going to be necessary to be in the bill for the president to sign it. that is sure to upset those on the left of the party that have votes in congress as well as allies outside of washington like the afclio, monica. >>> and the controversial environmental aide, van jones, resigning in the middle of the night saturday. do we know what happened here? is the white house commenting? >> reporter: he was a so-called green color jobs advisor. he wrote a book about a best-seller. he got a

mike viqueira joins us with more. >> hello, mr. shuster.starting tomorrow, much anticipated talks in geneva between the p 5 plus 1, the first of permanent five members of the security council and germany. the plus 1 will be on one side of the table. on the other side of the table, iran. these were previously scheduled talks, obviously taking on more urgency since the test firing in the last several days by iran of the short range and intermediate-range missiles. all coming friday -- after friday's revolution, of course, about the secret nuclear underground facility they had been constructing. ben bernanke makes a trip up to the hill. remember, a couple of weeks ago the chairman of the federal reserve said the recession is likely over. a lot of people want to hear more about that. also a lot of people, especially republicans going to want to hear more on the jobs front and not to get ahead of ourselves on "next read," but friday morning is when the september jobs numbers come out. the administration is trying to set the bar high, still sayin

so, i'm joined now live from washington by nbc's mike viqueira, at his post at the white house. >> reporter: good morning, alex. >> let's talk about the points e

mike viqueira is live at the white house. the largest union federation, and they are saying the public option is not going to be able to left out. >> reporter: key allies in this fight, and the question is what will the president say about the public option, the government-run health care plan that they want to see involved in the legislation, and the only problem is people are counting the votes. they are unclear whether they can get the through. that's bound to disappoint labor and liberals who insist it must be part of the package. all ears will be on the president when he makes the speech. >> mike, the white house releasing the full statement -- or the full speech for tomorrow's school children. it's available for parents and teachers to read. david axelrod said he is bewillered over the issue. let's play a clip. >> some parents are going to keep their kids at home. >> yeah, that's silly. they can go to school and not watch. that doesn't make sense. it's about personal responsibility, and it's about being accountable. doe

nbc's mike viqueira is at the white house with more. g, mike. >> reporter: good morning, norah. it's been a raucous summer for that health care reform debate. infighting in congress, sinking poll numbers for president. but after that wednesday speech, democrats have taken heart. they find it to be very encouraging. notwithstanding divisions that still remain within the party on that government option, a public option, a government-run entity that would give consumers a plan to choose from that's run by the government, of course. republicans almost unified in opposition to that. now the question is will the president be able to talk those on the left of his party into going along to get things passed through congress. meanwhile, the president keeping the public relations on. his internet address this morning spoke to health care once again. and this afternoon he travels to minneapolis, minnesota, where he will address a rally of some 20,000 strong at the target cent center. and then later next week going to nearby college park, maryland,

>> mike viqueira, thanks. >>> u.s. secretary of labor hil hilda solise will travel with the president to cincinnati. happy labor day to you. for a lot of people out there, it is not such a happy labor day. as you know, 216,000 people lost their jobs last month and the nation's unemployment rate now stands at 9.7%, that's a high in the last 26 years. what do these numbers indicate to you about the state of the recession? >> well, i look back at where we started from in january and i do see a stabilization occurring. we do see that our job loss has actually gone down this last month from 216,000, where we were this month, to january where it was well above 700,000. it's certainly not somewhere where we need to be right now. we need to keep improving and i think that everything we're doing, everything in our tool box that we can utilize to help put people back to work to give them job training or unemployment insurance are items that we're going to be providing them as we work through this. >> of course, not included in t

mike viqueira has more from the white house. >> reporter: good morning. the president and the allies say the intelligence is solid and so is their resolve. united as never before in demanding iran give up its nuclear weapons program or face the consequences. iran caught red-handed, a secret underground nuclear plant. >> the size and operation of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program. iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow. >> reporter: u.s. officials say they have known that iran was building the plan for some time, but it wasn't until early this week, after signs that iran had realized their secret was out, that mr. obama began to huddle with allies. >> to the united nations. >> reporter: both at the united nations and then at the g-20 economic summit in pittsburgh. together, the leaders decided to go public. >> confronted by the serial deception of many years, the international community has no choice today but to draw a line in the sand. >> reporter: u.s. officials say the plant was close to becoming operational and could h

. >> i'm joined by mike viqueira at the white house today. how does the white house see these announcements and how does it set the stage, make, for this week's nuclear talks? >> reporter: of course the bad news is that iran had south to covertly develop the facility under this mountainous terrain and tunnels, a facility they say can only be used to convert weapons grade material t. good news is that it came as such a shock and the fact that iran was caught red handed that allies normally reluctant or powers normally reluctant to come down hard on iran are now on board heading into these key meetings that begin on thursday. on one side you have iran, on the other side you'll have the united states, france, great britain, germany, but you also have china and russia the countries that have been reluctant in the past to really impose sanctions that bite in the words of president obama the other day. so heading into that and two days after the revelation, i think a lot of this is going to be viewed this missile firing is going to be viewed for do

mike viqueira is covering it up a.sit troy, new york, since dwight eisenhow eisenhower? >> i didn't know that. >> i didn't either. why troy? >> the hudson valley community college is there and he wants to talk about his innovation agenda and after he speaks there, he is going down to new york city and before he makes speeches and has important meetings with many of the world's leaders, he is going near times square to the ed sullivan theater and tape the david letterman show and appear on that tonight and part of that flooding the zone the media strategy that started when he gave that speech to a joint session of congress and other rallies and, of course, yesterday where he flooded the zone on five sunday morning public affair shows we've been talking about so much this morning. there is a full plate here. the president is trying to push his health care agenda while other issues are happening on the periphery. >> and speaking of other issues, something of interest to a lot of new yorkers, although it actually is more t

. >> mike viqueira, thanks. we appreciate it. check out "first read" every morning, updated throughout the day. log on to firstread.msnbc.com. >> i'm tamron hall. >> i'm david shuster. up next, "hardball" with chris matthews. a big show in story. "hardball" with chris matthews starts right now. >>> council of war. let's play "hardball." >>> good evening, i'm chris matthews. in boston. leading off tonight, in the war room. president obama's top commander in afghanistan has said if we don't send more troops there we risk failure. today the president held his first big strategy session to weigh that request. what the ultimate goal of our afghanistan policy should be. the key people from the military, diplomatic and political corners of this administration were in the room including vice president biden, secretary of state hillary clinton, defense secretary robert gates, cia director panetta and chief of staff emanuel. the most important questions they have to answer is how many troops can we send there how long are they willing to s

mike viqueira joins us more.treet. >> reporter: the president has his own package, something he sent to congress last june. the president making this trip to new york to take it right to the heart of wall street and speak to the financial community one year after the collapse of lehman brothers. there were bailouts for other firms on wall street. but it was lehman brothers that hank paulson and the bush administration allowed to go under. many felt that that contributed to the financial crisis that ensued. there's a lot of debate back and forth about what happened. what's not under debate as far as the administration is concerned is the need for more financial regulation. and the president's package is on capitol hill. i have to tell you, it's sort of being picked apart at this point. initially, it drew criticism from republicans and democrats. it was giving the federal reserve in their view too much power. alterations have been made. there's still a lot of other things going on on capitol hill. you may have hear

let's bring in mike viqueira. we heard chuck schumer say the ball is in the republicans' court. the democrats control both houses of congress. how is the ball in the republicans' court? >> reporter: i'm glad you brought that up because it raise ad red flag for me. i came from the house of representatives where lynn woolsey is the head of the progressive caucus in the house of representatives and remember they famously wrote the letter to president obama last thursday saying we have to have a robust -- adjective of the week here -- robust public option or they cannot support any bill that would ultimately end up on the president's desk if it passed congress to begin with. she said the ball is now in our court, the progressives. the president last night voiced strong support for the idea of a public option but no question about it and left themselves wiggle room saying that's the goals and admonished the left and right to come together in the context of this debate of which to come the threshold question should there be a government-run plan for consumers can go and get their heal

it's all good, mike viqueira, thank you very much. tomorrow on "meet the press," david gregory sits down with president obama to talk about health care reform. that airs on "meet the press" tomorrow morning on nbc. you can check your local listings for the times. >>> fbi agents in denver are expected to question again today a colorado man right at the center of a high-profile terrorism investigation. officials say najibullah zazi denies planning attacks in the u.s. but that he has admitted to attending a terror training camp in pakistan and that he had contact there with associates of al qaeda. jonathan dienst is an investigative reporter with nbc's -- wnbc's station here in new york, and jonathan joins me again on the phone about this. jonathan, where do they stand this morning in the case? is mr. zazi expected to come back for questioning? >> reporter: he is going to go back for questioning again, a fourth day. as we learned yesterday, he had made statements, according to sources familiar with his debriefing, that he attended a terr

mike viqueira is live at the white house. they are insisting the public option be part of reform. what are we expect to go hear from president obama to that audience today? >> you're certainly right and many of president obama's key constituencies both in congress and in labor all want to see a robust, is the word they are using, a robust public option. but the question is will the president insist on that being part of the bill? essentially, they are facing a choice. two choices if you really look at it. they can try to appease moderates and leave it out of a final bill or try to appease the base democrats and their party and put it in a final bill. the other choice may be between passing a bill and not passing a bill and many people who are looking at the math, counting noses on the hill have a feel what is going on saying something with a public option cannot pass and why we saw hedging yesterday on the sunday talk shows yesterday from david axelrod and robert gibbs, two highly ranked white house advisers who say the public option, yes, is a valuable tool to keep costs down and

msnbc congressional correspondent mike viqueira is following the back and forth for us on a busy dayof republican opposition of what he wants to do with health care reform. as far as the democrats are concerned, he is going to see a divided democratic party, of course, his own party. beyond that, through the camera lens he will see a public roughly divided between pro and conbut a lot of people who are confused about exactly what it is that is involved in this plan. obviously, all of the misinformation didn't help over the course of august but it's complicated to begin with. we reduced it to the easiest to grasp thing, the most make or break issue, the most contentious issue emerged the past couple of months and whether there will be that public option but a million differents in and outs of this thing that stands to effect the way each and every american get their health care. obviously, opponents to this have capitalized on this confusion. they sought to so doubt and they've capitalized on the ignorance that is out there as a matter of fact, about what is going on with health care

mike viqueira is at the white house.the weekend if he wants to create some momentum here? >> which in itself is a repeat at what he said at two rallies recently and joint session of congress. you can burn the candle at both ends but what didn't he talk about yesterday? the war in afghanistan, taxes, jobs, health care, a.c.o.r.n. just about everything. here, let's get to the matchup you were talking about. let's play a little of the sound we heard from the president yesterday in those five interviews. >> my focus is on some core principles. i have to have a plan that is good for middle class families. this isn't a radical plan. this isn't grafting a single payer model out to the united states. it's simply trying to deal with what everybody acknowledges is a big problem. what i'm trying to do is explain the facts, which are if we don't do anything, a lot of americans are going to be much worse off, and, over time, the federal budget just can't sustain it. >> on yesterday "meet the press" senator lindsey graham the republic