chip reid is our chief white house correspondent. good evening, chip. >> reporter: good evening, maggie. after three meetings with his war council, the president appears to be getting ready to settle on a war strategy and it's already drawing fire. white house officials say the focus of the president's strategy will be on defeating al qaeda in pakistan while downplaying the need to completely eliminate the taliban in afghanistan. the taliban, the white house argues, simply does not threaten u.s. security the way al qaeda does. >> the taliban are, obviously, exceedingly bad people that have done awful things. their capability is somewhat different, though. >> reporter: the strategy would turn the remote mountains of pakistan into the center of the war. the white house says while there are only about 100 al qaeda in afghanistan, there are thousands in pakistan. including osama bin laden and his top deputies. using special forces, pilotless drones, and a more aggressive effort from the pakistani army, the strategy has recently led to a

"hannity" is not a white house approved. -- is not white house approved. sean: they want us to shut up and get in line. they do not want us asking the tough questions. >> just put that out there, as opposed to doing an interview with a reporter. sean: maybe it is because they do not get any good reporters? they do not want anyone questioning about afghanistan. while they are preoccupied with the war against the fox news channel, they do not seem to be in any hurry to fight that war against our nation's real enemies. it has been many days since general mcchrystal gave the recommendation on how to win the war in afghanistan, 52 days, and in the meantime, the president has flown to copenhagen to get embarrassed by the olympic committee. he even found time for a party of dancing at the white house. 52 days is a long time. it took general washington less time to lay siege and to essentially and the american revolution with cornwallis. it took 52 days for general ulysses s. grant to march from washington to petersburg, va., and begin the siege that would eventua

that's what i'm afraid the white house will do. jim: charles on half measures, one of the things is we have tried to get the afghans to go along with us. we have made certain commitments. the historian bernard lewis said a few years ago when we were talking about withdrawing from iraq that the u.s. risked being seen as harmless as an enemy and treacherous as a friend. is that the kind of judgment that is hanging in the balance here? >> look, if you're -- the war in afghanistan ends on which way the people go. the enemy has very low support and public opinion, around 6%. they don't want to return to the bad old days. however, if you're a peasant who is not political either way, all you want to know is who is going to be here next week after the americans leave, if the americans leave? if the americans leave, i'm going to get slaughtered. if the americans stay, i join the americans, i fight. it all hinges on that. they don't want to be left behind the way they were in southeast asia or the south vietnamese who supported us, and it's

does the white house have a good handle on the inside game?ind the doors game in washington? i think months ago i said on this show that the president has to begin to channel his inner lbj. he really does have to get there. >> i'll have to remember that. >> with individual lawmakers. and basically, find out what they need in order to get their vote. and then begin to cut the deal. and i think if you look historically, the fact that he's gotten with the strategy that he's had, he's gotten to the point where he's almost to the point of having a floor debate on health care. this will be historic. so it's hard to criticize what he's done since he's gotten this far but there's a lot left to be done, and he -- obama likes to be above the battle and doesn't like to draw lines in the sand and now he's got really get to the point where he's got to back people up against the wall and find out what it will take and see if he can cut those deals and it is not going to be pre y pretty. >> no. erin, if democrats control everything, what is the hold-up? why

nbc news chief white house correspondent chuck todd is joining us live from the white house. and chuck, you and i spoke earlier, you probably have had a better chance to gauge the temperature of the white house at this point. how disappointed are they? >> reporter: you know, look, they are -- they are disappointed because there is a lot of chicagoans in this white house, you got to remember that so, there is a little bit of that personal pride. there's -- you know, you put your political hat on here at the white house and they sit there and say, yeah this is a little bit -- they get this is a stomach punch today that this doesn't add to what is already truly a pretty tough couple of weeks for the president. frankly, a tough couple of months. you know, these guys would like a get a victory on something, whether it is health care. this, while not nearly as important as the economy, a iran, what's going on there i think that clearly there is a -- you know, just sort of a deflation, you can just see it in the eyes but you know, they are trying to make lemonade. take a listen to d

white cars. we weren't told about a white car. there's somebody... is there somebody out there? back up a little bit. i see people. there's people moving out there. yeah, see? somebody's outside. they are going back in, right now. this is it. we got no other shot. we got to do this. i don't think there's any choices here. [knock on door] man: who is it? anderson: we're with court tv. we wanted to speak with mr. harre. oh. uh, he-- he's not here right now. mr. harre? yes. ron harre. yeah. he's not here now. what time do you expect him? he should be here later this evening when he gets off work, about 5:00. about 5:00? yes. ok. thank you. thanks. anderson: did he sound like-- huh? he sounded like an old guy. i don't know. ron harre? he's in his fifties. [seat belt bell dinging] wait, wait. [dinging stops] we should go there and, um... what do you think? talk to him maybe one more time, just so we can get him to open the door? yeah. [knocks] man: yeah? it's us again. can we just talk to you for a second? no, my wife's in here with me. we don't want to be bothered. ok, would you min

the white house is watching that very careful, obviously. but interesting message wise you saw the president with a bunch of doctors from all 50 states all around the country. they're still trying to grow support out in the country for this, but no question the cbo thing is a worry and a concern to them, if it does not come back deficit neutral. >> thank you very much. >>> and the pressure is on the president to decide whether to send more troops to afghanistan. insurgents killed 17 u.s. troops in the first four days of this month alone and just yesterday as we were reporting eight americans killed on the pakistani border. adrian, good to see you. can you tell us more about this attack and the latest from the president's strategy from the point of view of what the president is about to decide. how is it viewed from kabul? >> good afternoon, andrea. well, the u.s. military here described the attack which took place early saturday morning as well coordinated and directed at two small combat outposts on the border between afghanistan and pakist

make, i disagree with mike murphy that valley jarrett is running the white house but the white house got played. they were told you bring the president to copenhagen, you get the olympics. >> you have to separate from everyone i've spoken to that knows anything about this selection process, you have to separate the chicago political people from the u.s. olympic committee. one of the truly incompetent organizations in the world. >> that's the first part of the question. did the white house not know that the u.s. olympic committee, which is horrible as everyone said they are -- >> clearly no. there was poor staff work. they bought into the u.s. olympic committee's line that it is close. get him over here. they don't even make the cut to the first three. >> chief of staffs have been taken to the wood shed for far less than that. how would rahm emanuel supposedly the tough chicago political street fighter, the vote counter, how could rahm let his president fly across the atlantic ocean and then be embarrassed in front of the world? how did he not know that? >> the only excuse that you ca

white house correspondent chuck todd.it's a shock for us here in the studio with so much momentum having built around barack and michelle obama going there and you add oprah to the mix and it seemed golden. what do you think happened? >> well, it's hard to predict. alan is the expert on this stuff and he had been warning us for weeks, you know, you don't know these folks, they very unpredictable and it's like predict who is the next pope whenever you've had one of those elections. nobody knows what goes on inside that room, inside their heads. and so clearly it wasn't a business decision. if it was a business decision, i think you would see chicago still around and chicago end up with these games. it was not a business decision on that front and, you know, alan brought up two points. he had brought this up and written some great stuff about this. he had noted that the former head of the international olympic committee is a spaniard and he was going to have more influence than any of us understood. then the emotional argum

we are now hearing that all white coats that they were wearing were handed out by the white house?me of these doctors did not know what to expect from the event. jillian: the 2016 olympics? pack your bulletproof vest, our live report from rio de janeiro, just ahead. bill: an elderly woman, she needed skin grafts to recover from being attacked byw raccoonsattackedho ken -- attacked by raccoons. who knew? >> i was shocked. she was covered in blood. >> her achilles' tendon was hanging off of her leg. there were scratches on her back in her chest. jillian: bad news for brides, after 70 years "gourmet magazine" is stopping publication. it is not the only magazine saying farewell. this is shocking. "cookie" magazine and "modern bride" as well as "elegant bride" are coming to an end. bill: what are we going to read? [laughter] jillian: need to know about cookies? bill: every week. lots of white coats on the white house lawn yesterday as the president invited doctors to promote his health-care plan. >> every one of you here today took an oath when you entered the medical profession. not an

first, here's steele and then the white house reaction. watch. >> i think while it is a noble idea for the president to want to pitch his home city, chi town for the olympics, the goal should be creating you know, not job opportunities seven years from now but job opportunities today. >> who's he rooting for? hoping to hop a men to brazil and catch the olympics in rio? >> so, is michael steele's freelancing helping or hurting the republican party, the way some of the congressional leaders subject. here to make their case, a political reporter for the daily beast.com and a blogger for the conservative.com. brian, let's start with you, it's your party, is michael steele helping or hurting you guys? >> oh, i think michael steele is helping a little bit of this back and forth is understandable. he hasn't been chairman all that long, a number of months. this is going to happen sometimes and happened with his counterpart, tim keane. the rnc has twice as much money to spend as the democratic counterparts, leading races in virginia and new jer sap

so i think that's something that is sinking in at the white house right now. >> i spoke with senior white house aide, the adviser, david axelrod earlier, and i said is this a referendum on president obama? ? a referendum on how americans are viewed globally? and he said absolutely not. do you agree? >> i agree. i think mayor daley would have hoped the international popularity of president obama would have trans laid to more votes but this was an unusual electorate. mostly white older european males with distinct ties to various other constituencies. it would be tough. i looked at michelle obama and you look in the crowd. what? 14 women, i think, out of about 106 voters? so this was not a necessarily a referendum on obama and all along, i just thought that rio was going to be the winner. madrid was probably a close second. remember the last time it had the most votes the first round against london. so i think for folks to beat up on obama for this failure, you can just as well say, hey, why didn't you show up two or three days earlier rather than just come for a couple hours and look like

things other than cap stone to his time in the white house.hould have made it less perm and more about the country as a whole. juan: karl, let me help you out because i want to advance your argument. while he is overseas we get the unemployment rate skyrockets to 9.5%. this is the highest in years. people say he was distracted while he was off making the pitch for his hometown we got this going home at home. it seems damaging to his credibility for the people that have to vote for him in 2012. am i right? >> you are right. i have been monitoring this. the unemployment rate is not the key impact on president obama's job approval. but his handling of the economy is. so, if people think he is disengaged. if they think the answers that he has provided like the stimulus where he overpromised and under delivered. that's really damaging to him. if you take a look at the job approval line for obama this year, it matches the approval for his handling the economy, which is even worse. remember, we had 263,000 jobs last -- lost last month. far more than

how is the white house reactd? >> reporter: katie, the last thing the white house would tkofr is admit the president has been weakened or taken a big hit to his power and prestige so the way they're spinning it here at the white house is they're saying it's a sign of strength. it shows he's not afraid to take big risk if it's good a good cause. still, though, there is huge disappointment here at the white house and certainly president himself is deeply disappointed and a lot of people here say they are stunned that not only did chicago lose but came in dead last. of the four cities. and if that wasn't enough to ruin the day here at the white house, there was another big dose of bad news, a new jobs report that was worse than expected that shows tune employment rate now going up to 9.8%. the president spoke about that shortly after returning from copenhagen. >> today's job report is a sobering reminder that progress comes in fits and starts. and that we're going to need to grind out this recovery step by step. >> re

shepard: major garrett, live at the white house. thanks. now to the new details about the letterman extortion plot. the host revealed he had sex with co-workers, and a cbs producer threatens to go public with it unless he was paid $2 million. producers say that robert halderman warned letterman that "his world was about to collapse around him." david letterman made the confession to viewers in his own way. listen. >> that is a decision for them to make, if they want to come public and talk about the relationships. if i want to talk about them. what you do not what is the guy saying, "i know you have sex with women, so i want to million dollars or i'm going to make trouble for you. shepard: it is important to note that the david letterman announced his marriage to his longtime girlfriend earlier this year. it is not clear when the russian ships -- the relationships with staff members occurred. iraq has more details live in the newsroom. -- rick has more details live in the newsroom. >> it is interesting. fans of david letterman have heard hi

some white houses do a much better job of that than others. and what we're lrning about this white house is, they're not able to keep these things quiet. >> at some point, he has to win something. and accomplish something. the economy's failed. >> there are a lot of independent analysts who say it would be worse. >> he hasn't accomplished health care reform. the afghanistan situation has only gotten worse since he's been president of the united states. all of these things, whether or not he's truly a leader that people respond to, he has to accomplish something. >> the advantage to that, everybody knows that he has to accomplish something. and that means democrats in congress will give him a health care bill. he's raised the stakes for accomplishing something. september jobs numbers were worse than august. look at the cash for clunkers, what we now know about that. general motors sales down 45%. the interesting thing, all we did with cash for clunkers, was cannibalize future sales. what about to happen now, $1 for dishwashers. you're laughing.

i think the white house has been trying to spread. i know i'm speaking on behalf of myself, not on behalf of the party when i say that. >> sure. >> i don't think the republicans are interested in compromising or interested in working with them. i wish the white house would recognize that, and try to push through what they can. but i think that one of the issues the republicans have been very vocal about in terms of international policy is true in terms of domestic policy. that is, it is better to be feared sometimes than to be loved. and i think domestically, i'm not so sure the president is feared by the opposition. i think -- or even by someone in his own party. i think it would be better if he were feared, if he were more aggressive, and less bipartisan. >> all right. keith boykin, thank you very much. and the genius of the "saturday night live" clip, when they talk about politics, you wonder if they really are speaking from the dinner table of folks at home, if they hit the nail on the head about some of the things people are talk

and they were not invited to the white house today. >> having 50 doctors at the white house again is a good photo on. those doctors are not going to be in a situation where they are actually going to challenge the president's thinking or reasoning on the health care design that's wants. shepard: a recent poll showed 63% do support the public option, a government-run insurance plan to compete with the private companies and, therefore, according to supporters, lower costs. but republicans point out medical groups representing more than 40,000 doctors sent a letter to congress this summer in opposition of the government option. we have team fox coverage tonight. carl cameron on the hill where democrats face a big decision about that public option. first to major garrett at the white house. some of the doctors in the rose garden today actually campaigned for president obama. >> they most certainly did u shepard. let's go to the video. white lab coats arraigned on every one of the doctors there. president said those are spiffy coats. they were provided by a group called doctors for americ

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it a white house briefing.he interesting thing is that you start to see this pattern happening where you basically have these artists and what they're terming as creative organizers, otherwise called political activists, and they get the same messages from the white house, you know, we want you guys to think about the arts , within healthcare and within the environment, and they also actually launched the idea of calling art a service, actually calling art as a service. the so the key thing is in legislation that was passed a couple months before that, but the group gets together after this meeting and creates this specific issue, strategy session, and one of the strategy sessions that dealt with healthcare was led by the seiu and the whole idea was -- glenn: hold it just a second. >> sure. glenn: seiu, the service employees international union, right? >> yes, yes. glenn: the service employees. what do they have to do with artists? >> exactly. this is the thing. they bring together these artistic groups with th

the no slip white strips. [captioning made possible by fox news channel] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- greta: 150 doctors make a house call, not just any house call, a white house call. 150 doctors, all in white coats, one from every state. and it was an overwhelmingly friendly crowd. some doctors join me now. doctor, if you had your choice, what would you like to fix or change most in this system? >> i think if i had a magic wand, it would be that everybody would have health-care coverage. greta: how would you pay for it? >> they could go to their primary-care doctor rather than going to the emergency room. greta: so are you for a public option? >> i am not sure i am for a public option until i understand, but i think i am for some type of mixed public option. greta: doctor, what are you going to change? >> i sent you have to talk about cost containment, and you cannot -- i think you have to talk about cost containment, and you cannot talk about cost containment has until y

women of color suffer from significantly higher death rates after diagnoses than white women.the american cancer society reports that delays in receiving care after breast cancer diagnosis are greater for african-american women than for white women. african-american women with breast cancer are less likely to receive standard therapy than white women. african-american and hispanic patients are significantly more likely than white patients to be diagnosed at a more advanced stage of breast cancer. and regardless of insurance status, african-american women are almost two times more likely to be diagnosed with an advanced stage of breast cancer than white women, and hispanic women are about 1.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with an advanced stage of breast cancer than white women. african-american women are 10% more likely not to receive tests to determine if breast cancer has spread to axillary underarm lymph nodes. this screening is essential. health insurance status, race, income and educational background are directly linked to irregularity in administering this vital scr

i believe he's a white supremist. so she's chosen him and she's the biggest name in republican politics. i do think the right needs to sort of answer for what's happened to con serve tichl. -- conservatism. >> that's guilt by association. that's the cable stuff. that's the problem. she's a lot of things but she's a white supremist. >> when you can pick anybody, why would she pick somebody who's associated with the league of the south. americans are revolted by the idea of having a black sister-in-law. this is who she picked to write her book. why would you do that? >> that guilt by associate stuff, i don't know. >> it's not important to the central questions of the country right now. >> the governor may win over a republican primary because he talked about secession. you haven't had someone win on a secession since 1858. it's not guilt by association. >> that one line which you're deducing a complete definition is not the reason he's going to win. >> the debate will go on. thank you all very much. we're going to conti

they are clearly white power movements. what they don't like about the president is that he's black. >> yeah. here is the problem now. i relate this to the grayson thing we talked about where the democrat who said on the house floor that republicans want people to die quickly. we need facts here, people. okay? don't just go on and spew rhetoric, whether you're on the house floor or on bill maher's show. give us facts and evidence. if you're going to spew hatred, have something. not just go talk about these tea party people. >> remember she was invited to go to some of these tea parties and she's never gone. she's been invited to go to a number of them. she was invited to go in texas and never been. >> she's been invite to do come on this show as well. >> as i said, i don't believe she actually leased her apartment because if she did, she might meet a republican. here is more she said that's more offensive. >> this has been going on since the founding of this country, that white power movements have tried to establish themse

the white house is responding to him. think beck won this particular face-off, to be honest. >> harold? >> i happen to agree with pat. whether beck was right or not, whenever you give him more face time, if you believe he's not on the level of the white house, which he's not, you give him a win. two, the real responses probably should come when opponents of health care and opponents of the president's plan with regard to iran or opponents of his plan regarding financial reform, those are the kinds of issues that need to be corrected right away and response needs to be given. i appreciate some ire being raised at the white house about glenn beck, but glenn beck is irrelevant when it comes to policy making. straighten the facts out. >> if you're talking about something big, if you're talking about iran or something like that, maybe you've got to go out and correct somebody. to correct him on the fact that he mentioned vancouver rather than calgary, for heaven's sakes -- >> but there may be some subversive usefulness there -

a heavyset man in a green and white-striped shirt. he walked very casually, and he is now undoubtedly being thoroughly questioned. they have not told us that they have stopped the search. they may still be looking for additional potential suspects in this case, so at this point, it looked like the arrest happen in that bus staging area where all of the student buses parked together, the students who take their trips off campus at the end of the day. it looked like it came from that area. the first report saying armed intruder in the main library, and about half an hour later, a second report said no armed intruder spotted -- the second report said no, armed intruder spotted near the buses. they found at least one person they were looking for. he is now under arrest. it appears nobody has been heard at this point, but what we do not know is whether or not this is the only person campus police are still looking for. shepard: here is what i can tell you -- we know from the top pitchers from the nbc affiliate there in the tampa area -- fr

the gai day i'll get concerned is when we have a president in the white house that retuesday fuses to fight for the united states because he's concerned about pundits or political criticism. >> finally, talking about the united nations, the body where you are now serving as or ambassador, recently during the u.n. general assembly meeting in new york, the americans saw the parade of anti-americanism. you see chavez of venezuela, iran, and ka dauf fee who may soon be speaking as far as we know, you once said that the u.n. is i am perfect but also indispensable. when you look at that showing, what is the indecibel start? >> david, there are 192 kouchbt trees in the united nations you picked out bar room drama. the united nations is critically important to our national security because it's one place where we are marshal with the force of law to do things that we need to protect our security. for example, when we got the security council last june to pass the toughest sanctions on the books today against any country in the word, north korea, we got something much more powerful than anythi

where's the white house going to go on this, for sure? where is the white house going? are they ready to tell max baucus, max, you're on the wrong side of this? >> well, you know, ed, there's a process that's going on now. first of all, the senate finance committee, which has put in the longest period of drafting a bill that is built on the president's principles, took them, you know, more than 15 days, you know, to work this through. they haven't voted yet. they still have to vote on what is going to be in their bill. then senator reid who is the leader of the senate, is going to pull together the committee bill from the health committee, senator harkin's committee, this senator baucus' committee, put the common elements together. there is tremendous agreement among all of the bills. they're all built on the president's principles. lowering cost, expanding coverage, deficit neutral, protecting you against unfair insurance practices. every one of these bills has got these components in it. they're going to merge the bills and vote sometime in the middle of the month. >>

for a favor from this white house any time soon. in many ways it was a very ham handed way that chicago pushed the president in to going into this thing. so, yes, i think a lot of people view this that he went in somewhat of a defensive posture. that said, look, david axelrod said on our air, the president is not going to apologize for trying to promote america around the world and that's how they're doing this and sometimes you take risks when you're promoting america and that's, that's the official line. but you're, look, a little bit of the shine is going to wear off today. it's a stomach punch. but we'll see, there will be plenty of people that will write on a lead to their column, boy, on a day the hometown went up, he couldn't bring it home. is this guy -- you could see how that storyline could shape itself. the president could use a victory here some time soon, that's for sure. >> well, it's a good thing he did well in the diplomatic talks with iran, but that's another whole subject. >> that's a serious subject, to be honest.

. >>> plus, the growing divide between the white house and military brass. last week, general stanley mcchrystal campaigned publicly for more troops. while the president was weighing a smaller counterterrorism strategy. well, the president's national security advisor rebuked mcchrystal yesterday on television. two retired generals join us to talk about this open fight now between the uniformed leaders and the civilians. >>> and if you've been thinking that president obama needs a win one of these days, you're not alone. check out "saturday night live's" devastating opening skit. >> it's very clear what i've done so far. and that is -- nothing. nada. >> why the president needs a win, and quick. later in the show. >>> also, is general david petraeus really thinking about running for president in 2012, could he beat someone as exciting as mit romney or deep as sarah palin? check out politics tonight for that big question. and do you remember the famous mccaca remark? we may have heard another one, another mccaca moment in virginia. on the "hardball" sideshow to

the white house doctor photo op exposed. all of that plus dana perino and the new york giants. >> we will reveal what happens when the stock market tanks. >> a global meltdown. >> the government fails. >> by spending just a few million dollars to purchase convert -- congress, wall street was given billions. >> there has got to be a rebellion between the people that have nothing in the people who have it all. >> everything was being handled by goldman sachs. this was like an intelligence operation. >> this is straight up capitalism. sean: that is one of the scenes from michael moore's new movie, open " capitalism: a love story." believe it or not the writer and producer of that movie, director, michael moore is here. how long has it been? >> it has been a while. the last -- sean: the last time that i interviewed you we had a bet. i want. >> this was on your radio show, right? in 2002. i happened to be on your show when matt drudge texted you. you were sitting there, you said you were getting a message. i said geez, this is ha

those are the doubts that are being aired right now, that we hear coming out of the white house. military, admiral mullin, the joint chiefs of staff, general mcchrystal, are pretty o unified in support of this gates is in the middle. i also think that politically, they have to air the a tomorrow let the liberal democratic base of the party know that they are not just rush nothing rubber stamp the general. >> we are talking about difficult things for the white house right now. do they feel like they are getting any traction on iran and the negotiations that have been going on and the concessions that iran appears to have made? >> one of the things sort of overlooked this week, i mean, with the olympics and with the -- the meeting with the general mcchrystal, but they think that they have on their path to doing a good thing here, what president obama after all, during the presidential campaign, he was criticized for but he pledged to dork sort of open up a dialogue with the regime, so i think the white house is pretty cautiously optimistic. is anything going to come from this? cert

the white house or the top commanders on the ground? a fair and balanced debate on what you need to know about afghanistan. @=h trace: we have a brand new information on three stories. israel deployed thousands of police officers in jerusalem the old city. mike tobin is in jerusalem. >> police officers are out there ready following aim week of stone throwing and the building tension. coinciding with the end of the jewish holiday, rumors circulated that jews would damage the holy site, so muslims came to protect the holy sanctuary, and that is where they clash. trace: thank you. a homicide bomber in baghdad killing six people. we are live in baghdad appeare. >> also today, the iraqi parliament met to discuss a crucial election law. part of that is a longstanding agreement, a security agreement, between the u.s. and iraq. the iraqi parliament need to decide whether or not to hold a referendum on that agreement. trace: there is breaking news from the white house. another key meeting concerning afghanistan. mike emanuel, what do you know?

as you look at the list, and it is a white variety, which strikes you? >> there is a big important list. i mentioned the big campaign finance case that. has more attention among supreme court watchers than anything else, because if they decide it in the way they seem poised to decide it after an oral argument a couple of weeks ago, they would -- it would be a big new decision striking down a big chunk of the feingold campaign finance reform law, and liberating corporations to spend money in elections more freely than ever before. there would be a -- there is a law that is more than 50 years old that they're considering whether to strike down. there is a big gun control case. will their decision striking down a d.c. gun control law, a very strict one, will they apply that to other cities that are under state law, and there is a complicated doctrine there. probably they will. that could open some important doors. i don't think it will lead to wholesales striking down gun control laws, but then there is a list of other things, dogfighting videos, are they p

>> i think the white house's is listening, but i am not convinced congress is -- i think the white house is listening. if you compare it to the air with the clintons, where the doctors were fiercely opposed -- if you compare it to the era with the clintons, where the doctors were fiercely opposed, you have got 80% of doctors saying, "fix this. this is not working for my patients." i think that is remarkable. the white house, whether president obama is listening -- i know that a colleague and friend of his from the university of chicago has influence -- i am not sure what congress is doing right now. there is so many bills, so much action. greta: i think everybody agrees there is a problem, but nobody knows what to do with it, and the president talks about it being a deficit neutral. you guys save lives, but everyone else looks at the numbers -- talks about it being a deficit neutral -- being deficit neutral. >> you know, one of the things that they have tried to do over the last 20 years is they have tried to save a nickel a year or a nickel there, and what they ended up doing -- to save

because the white house is clearly engaged at this point. whereas before, they had a hands-off approach. now that we're at the final leg of this jigsaw puzzle, this senate finance committee, the white house will be working side by side with reid, baucus, dodd, to produce a leadership bill to meet all of the goals that the president stated from day one. to make it deficit-neutral, to bring down the costs. more choice in competition. if you like what you have, you can keep it. if you don't have anything you'll have more options. now, that said, i do believe that this issue of reducing the overall costs of the medicare expenditure that is a contentious issue. should we tax the cadillac players? should we get more the tax credits to the middle class so they can afford health insurance. these issues will be resolved. >> donna, congress has been required by law to cut medicare since 2003. always puts it off. what makes you think they're going to cut it now? >> i do believe this administration working with congress, it's on the table. >> i want to

. >>> developing at the white house. president obama is putting his focus back on health care this week. he is expected to speak any minute now from the rose garden rallying doctors as his health care overhaul plan heads for a critical vote in the senate finance committee this week. let's get into it with chuck todd. i understand 50 doctors with the president. what is the big goal here? >> one from every state. as you know, doctors, you know, when people talk about their health care, the average american, the person they trust the most is their own doctor. so that the hope here by the white house is if you have doctors sort of the most trustworthy group in the health care debate, more so than insurance companies and more so than politicians, that it can help the credibility for the president to sell his plan. let's be realistic. the big news today on health care is not going to come from this event with doctors. it's the number that's going to come out of the congressional budget office, because that's what this white ho

now, that is really near the edge of pressure on the white house.ow, mcchrystal may or may not have had a hand in the leak of the original report, but what he said today is a challenge. now, newsweek reports that he has said that if he is given a different strategy, he will not resign. i'm not sure i believe that. i understand why he would say it, if he were to say otherwise today, it would look like a threat and a kind of a blackmail, but i can not imagine that if his plan is rejected and if he is given to proceed on a plan which he has said now in public in london cannot succeed, how, in good honor he could send his troops into battle with a plan saying and knowing it would fail. i think he would resign, and that would be a crisis for the obama administration. bret: steve, in london, he also was asked what about speaking out as much as he has, and so forthrightly and openly about all of this in public, and he said "i haven't been told differently, but sometime i might get crushed later." joking, but it is pretty remarkable for a general to have no

is the white house actively pushing? >> the president of the group tells me, after talking to the senate leadership, right now you have publicly members of the finance committee who have yet to publicly commit to voting for the bill. the white house has got to get them on board, probably doing something along the lines of a public option. negotiations are continuing. jon: the white house is optimistic that something will get passed? >> yes, indeed. they say they still feel very good at the prospects of getting this bill through committee. carlisle relying very much on max baucus to deliver a bill by the end of the week -- they are relying very much on max baucus to deliver a bill by the end of the week. the house is going to wait and see what the senate does. everything happening today is a crucial stage leading to the next stage of the bill, where they will be closer to the president's desk. jon: major, thank you. jane: the debate on whether to send more troops to afghanistan is heating up. two roadside bombs, taliban f

. >> all i got to say is white america, wake up. i'm talking about all the white folks who refuse to vote for a black man. i got news for you. he's not black. he's half black. he barely passes the brown paper bag test. >> what kind of studying do you have to do to pass that test? >> it's very simple. brown paper bag next to the skin. yes. >> you know, comedians have trouble -- white comedians are having trouble making jokes about obama. do you think that they're scared that they're going to be construed as racist? >> i think for a while they were. definitely when i was doing "chocolate news." because you know, that was during the primary leading up to the election, and i know "the daily news," "snl," a lot of people were afraid to really say any jokes about him for fear of being branded racist. it seems to have loosened up now. >> he wasn't doing anything wrong. when george bush was in office, it was a bonanza. he was so -- he didn't read. he talked crazy. sarah palin is a bonanza for comedians. obama is not that funny, frankly. >>

the head of the white house office of health reform, a number of other white house advisers, a coupleicians that work for president obama, have been working with congress all the way through this process in a very low key, behind the scenes way. i think that now, though, we're entering that phase where president obama and also let's not forget vice president biden, they're going to start talking one-on-one to their former colleagues in the senate trying to see exactly where the votes are. they want the 60 votes. >> here's the bottom line question. if democrats control everything, why has it been so hard to push this through? >> well, i could tell you that on the substance of it, health care is not only complicated, but it's 1/6 of the nation's economy. it affects all of us very directly and very personally. and for that reason, lawmakers have some very strong opinions about what they're willing to do or not do to our health care system. the other reason is that while democrats control the congress, not every democrat is exactly alike, not every democrat is from the same state or the s

the white house handed out white coats for those who forgot them. many, tell me why you don't wear a white coat. >> it's full of bacteria. they tell me to tut down infection. hospital infections. isn't that what you are supposed to do. we are not supposed to be wearing white coats. it has a lot of bugs in it. i didn't want to get you infected this morning. steve: i'm happy to hear that. had you been invited to the white house and, of course, you weren't. because you have other opinions in addition to, you know, how this would all work out. what would you have told the president. manny, i know that one of your main concerns is not necessarily about doctors but about lawyers. >> absolutely. i'm an obgyn i deliver babies. the obstetrician the whole idea of tort reform. one of the things the president said is look i'm going to try to do something about tort reform. have you heard that in the last three or four weeks? never again. are there any specific plans? no even the things that he said which had to do with creating, perhaps, pilot programs, nothing

let's hope the white house hasn't guaranteed the fix is in.to be to slow global warming or reform wall street, not to make sure the 2016 triathalon champion whips his medal in illinois." what do you think about that? >> yeah, i love gail collins, but i think that's kind of falderoll. he is going, john boehner, deet facto mayor of chicago. he is representing the country and representing the country which -- in a bid which really was very much a long shot. don't forget that rio and madrid were the early very much odds on favorites for many reasons. chicago is a city that may be a wonderful place, may rank up there with other international cities substantively but suffers from a very low profile. i think one of their problems, pat ryan, the head of the committee is telling a lot of these ioc guys, sophisticated as they are, a little bit about chicago. when you have the prime minister of tokyo, of japan, the king and kwaen of spain, the president of brazil showing, you know, i don't think it's necessarily fighting fire with fire just to have oprah