i'm joined by democratic strategist jaime carville, mary matalin, and peggy noonan, and tavis smiley.evision host. and let me begin with peggy. this was a surprise from the president. all the signals were he was not going to the congress. apparently he made the decision mostly on his own. is it the sign of strength that the president says it is? >> i think everybody pretty much views it as the president blinked. he was in a difficult position. he'd painted himself into a bit of a line with the red line comments. i think he saw the polls and realized he didn't have the people. i think he was hearing congress start to complain and say excuse us, you have to consult with us. so in a way, he turned the tables at the end and he said, okay, congress, you want us to consult, we'll consult with you. so he's sort of going to co-share a certain amount perhaps of the responsibility or the blame. i think that's what's happening. >> right after that, his former adviser dav er david axlerod pu tweet, this is a big move. consistent with the principles. congress is now the dog that caught the car. he

tina brown, an aunt ann coulter, henry and nancy kissinger, peggy noonan, , etc., etc.. why were you specific about using the word allele in that dedication? >> in this sort of crisis that i went through with the onslaught against me, people went out of their way to be supportive and some a few defected in became antagonistic so i wanted to show those recognition to those that were conspicuously supportive because the way the system works not just the in the united states come in with that degree of official attention is focused on a person there is the intent of those targeting him to ostracize and isolate him so all of those seven is writing about the united states i thought i would focus on americans but those that resisted that temptation and many of those came to visit me when i was aghast of the american people including henry kissinger i thought it was the least i could do and i was proud to do. i have many american friends and i am grateful to all of them. >> host: what is your next project? >> guest: the history of canada for any viewers that interested in canad

then we'll get analysis from peggy noonan of the "wall street journal." susan page of "usa today." michael gerson of the "washington post," and harvard university's david gergen. it's all ahead because this is "face the nation." captioning sponsored by cbs from cbs news in washington, "face the nation" with bob schieffer. >> schieffer: and good morning again. well, the big news this weekend, the united states and the russians have agreed on a deal to get chemical weapons out of syrian hands. inspector this agreement, the syrians have one week to detail their entire chemical weapons stockpile, weapons inspectors will go to syria in november with the goal of destroying all the weapons by the middle of next year. the agreement will be backed up by a u.n. resolution that will leave the option of using force against syria if they fail to comply. our cbs news state department correspondent margaret brennan is traveling with secretary of state kerry. she joins us now from tel aviv. margaret, he is there there to tell the israelis what this agreement means and so on. how is this going? >>

jenna: peggy noonan wrote a column in the "wall street journal", same pages of your paper. she takes completely opposite view. here is what she had to say. there is issue of u.s. credibility. if we bomb syria will the world say oh how credible the u.s. is or will they say we just bomb people because they have to prove they're credible. we don't have to bow to the claim that if we don't attack syria we are over as a great power. sometimes it shows strength to hold your fire. if we in the world don't know we are powerful by now, we and they will never know it. >> well i think one of the problems in that statement, jenna, is that it shares the kind of view a lot of people have about this, which is what is at stake here is nothing more than a country called syria. and that's not the case. it is about much more than syria. even as the president himself said, if in the best part of that press conference, we're talking about the destabilization of the entire middle east. this is centrifugal problem. it is touching turkey already, jordan. the iranians are every day supporting syria

peggy noonan is a no. a scorecard. follow your favorite columnist as america debates war.y congress about their support, we tally pundits and their support of the war as well. is that good and normal and way discourse should happen or too much emphasis on what bill crystal thinks or what national journal scorecard says? >> besides the fact that these aren't people who have the daily intelligence to be able to know what's going on on the ground, just the idea that you can break down something like this into a complete yes or no situation, that's what we're set up to ask the question. yes or no. yes or no. it's actually a much -- the universe of ideas about this is much larger than should we go or shouldn't we and in fact surprisingly the person that made us realize that this past week was vladimir putin when he came forward with something we weren't considering. >> emily, you have been covering foreign policy for a while. not everybody on capitol hill who are taking these tallies of what congress people want to do with regards to syria know as much about syria as perhaps yo

the republicans who have started to have to make it all about obama personally, you've got peggy noonans that obama doesn't look like a war president. harry truman looked like a war president. you've got charles kroutenhammer says he's leaning against going in because obama doesn't know what he's talking about. and then senator jeff sessions says if george bush warned assad, assad wouldn't have used chemical weapons. there's so many things coming out about obama and the obama derangement syndrome by groups on the right. >> as an independent, what do you think about how so many groups seem to be opposing. and people said, you know, are you pushing to go to war, don? it's just a question. so what do you -- what do you make of so many democrats being against the president? >> well, first of all, our whole political style now is when somebody asks you a question you don't like or advocates something that you don't agree, you go after them or imply that there's something about the way they're asking it. that's our whole 21st century political style. secondly, i'm really not surprised with th

then we'll get analysis from peggy noonan of the "wall street

. >> i think peggy noonan actually captured a good part of this in her column this week.country has been engaged in the middle east seriously since october of 1979. we are tired of being a region where everybody wants to kill each other. it's very un-american. and as this whole -- because we're a country that wants a solution. tell me what the end game is. well, the middle east, the end game may just not be not killed. israel has survived. >> here's the problem. to me -- and i'm as cynical as anybody when it comes to political motivation. and i think about half of the republican opposition here is the political opposition. but i think a good 50% of it is not. i think about 75% of the opposition of the democratic party is rational and principled and may be about 25% of it is politics. i don't think it's as political as you think on this. i think there is -- but what does this look like on day four? the president, denis mcdonough, what does it look like day four? >> go ahead. >> that's what the president hasn't answered. >> first of all, the word "un-american" makes me crin

did he make a better argument than president obama did in his speech which is what peggy noonan says, hardly shocking that this former kgb operator would take several verbal shots at least at the history of american intervention in the middle east over the last 12 years. as far as a better argument, it seems to me that putin has the administration in a box to some degree. he can be provocative this was basically sort of pompous propaganda, taking shots at obama policy but right now president obama needs vladmir putin because he offered an escape hatch by coming forward with this plan to inspect and confiscate the syrian chemical weapons at a time when our president could not get much public support or support on capitol hill for his plan for airstrikes against syria. gregg: i want your reaction to how the media has been reported this story and in particular, you know, the op-eds, the editorials and so forth. they have been highly critical of president obama calling his syrian policy, i took some notes here, inept, accidental, calling the president himself confused, indecisive, vacill

peggy noonan has a great editorial in the pages of the "wall street journal."rian: because she's from massapequa. >>steve: the item is why america is saying no to syria and obama. wrong time, wrong place, wrong plan, wrong man. >>gretchen: coming up, for on syrian i can't with dennis kucinich. >>brian: there is a lot to worry about on a job interview like what to say and what to wear. but how about how to act when the world seems to be coming to an end? ♪ ♪ ♪ before mike could see his banking and investing accounts on one page... before he could easily transfer funds between the two in real time... before he could even think about planning for his daughters' future... mike opened a merrill edge investment account and linked it to his bank of america bank account to help free up plenty of time for the here and now. that's the wonder of streamlined connections. that's merrill edge and bank of america. ugh! actually progresso's soup has pretty bold flavor. i love bold flavors! i'd love it if you'd open the chute! [ male announcer ] progresso. surprisingly bold fla

. >> gretchen: peggy noonan said it to me the best way.situation. >> if we fail to act, the assad regime will see no reason to stop using chemical weapons. as the ban against these weapons erodes, other tyrants will have no reason to think twice about acquiring poison gas and using them. over time, our troops would again face the prospect of chemical warfare on the battlefield and it could be easier for terrorist organizations to obtain these weapons and to use them to attack civilians. i have therefore asked the leaders of congress to postpone a vote to authorize the use of force while we pursue this diplomatic path. >> brian: all right. so vote and don't vote. and he also goes on to say he's going to i guess postpone his incredibly small military operation. >> steve: unbelievably. >> brian: just keep in mind, we hauled like 200 tomahawk missiles into libya and they didn't budge for months. what is a day and a half going to do in the best scenario? >> gretchen: the sad thing to me is if americans were not paying attention to this whole sy