with us today, howard fineman, nia-malika henderson, andrea mitchell and michael duffy. first off today, the switch boards led up this work with protests over grid look. at the polls. the most motivated republican voters are not fallen to house republican tactics. 73% of voters blame president obama, not the house republicans. and republicans think that debt cash will help them defeat the president. here is how they'll play the president's failure to win the day. bargain on thecc1: they'll claim the president showed weak leadership, that he was not the post-partisan compromiser, he that is still a big spender and probably most crucial, they'll tie this crisis to the jobs crisis.cc1: howard, right now there is a lot of heat all over the place, a lot of it against the right, the tea party people. come next year, how will the conservatives and the republicans use this whole deal over the debt against the cc president? >> well, thecc1: president's gr vulnerability is that he is somehow irrelevant. really s weak and notcc1: dealings the finalcc1: on the budget crisis, that ti

. >> i'm joined by nia malika henderson and ben smith. minnesota nice certainly fell by the wayside last night. there have been a lot of talk, nia malika, before the debate that tim pawlenty had to have a strong showing. how did he do? >> he did have a strong showing going after bachmann. those were some of the most exciting and engaging parts of the debate, came near the middle and he did have a chance again to go after mitt romney. in some ways i think he backed off a little bit going after romney. it wasn't with the aggression that he went after bachmann. one of the questions for pawlenty who entered this race thinking that he was going to position himself being the alternative to romney, now he finds himself in the position where he's trying to argue for a position where he's the alternative to bachmann. the question there is if he's diminishing himself by going toe-to-toe with a woman who he has dismissed as someone who doesn't have a long record of legislative accomplishments other than the light bulb bill she proposed in congress. >

nia malika henderson, political reporter for "the washington post."can strategist john feehery. mitt romney, where has he been? he's only appeared publicly 24 times. he was the invisible man throughout the debt debate. john, is this any way to show leadership? >> well, it's working for him, in first place in all the primary polls, and i think it is working for him. there's no reason to get in the middle of this fight in washington, d.c. where people are splattering mud on one another. i think he picket exactly the right strategy, doing exactly what he needs to do, talking to people in their hometowns, not getting -- not creating a lot of controversy. i think he's doing the right thing. >> and that was john feehery, and i'm al that were ton and i approved his message. you just did a great commercial for the democrats. he should be president of the united states, but he shouldn't, dr. dyson, get involved in this messy stuff like debt reduction and preventing the nation from default? >> it is pretty remarkable. he seems to be in re-mitch-sion. he want to

. >> rick, thank you so much richard wolffe and nia-malika henderson.his weekend. >> you too. >> up next, staying safe in the storm. what 65 million americans need to know as hurricane irene closes in. >>> and how this storm reminds us about our priorities as a nation. we'll be right back. chronologically i'm sixty years old. is it the new forty, i don't know. i probably feel about thirty. how is it that we don't act our age? [ marcie ] you keep us young. [ kurt ] we were having too much fun we weren't thinking about a will at that time. we have responsibilities to the kids and ourselves. we're the vargos and we created our wills on legalzoom. finally. [ laughter ] [ shapiro ] we created legalzoom to help you take care of the ones you love. go to legalzoom.com today and complete your will in minutes. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. [ mom ] my husband -- he thinks it's a 3-sheeter. i say 1-sheeter. [ female announcer ] in this lab demo, 1 sheet of bounty leaves this surface as clean as 2 sheets of the bargain brand. super absorbent. super c