this literally just in, in the battle of september 7, presidential speech versus gop debate, it appears the republicans have won. the white house press secretary saying in a statement tonight that president obama will be giving his speech before a joint session of congress on september 8, thursday, instead of wednesday september 7 like he'd originally requested. yes, that is on the same night as the first nfl game of the season. here at msnbc we're starting to feel more confident that we can plan out next week's coverage in ink instead of pencil. there's that.