the white house. reporter: the folks aren t comparing the two presidents. they say both reached the conclusion that the republican party has gone adrift. the evidence today a hundred years after roosevelt is the fight on extending the payroll tax cut, most republicans refusing the democrat s attempt to raise taxes on millionaires to pay for it. the white house says that is an example of misplaced priorities. roosevelt gave his square deal speech a hundred years ago. he was actually out of office when he went there but the town of 4600 can t get too many presidential visits. jay carney says mr. obama wants to make a point about fairness. the point that the president is making about speaking in the same location, is that the ideas that president roosevelt put forward about the need for americans of all kinds to get a fair shot and a fair shake are very much at issue today.
karen, do you think that is going to resonate with female voters? what does the white house do with that? this is very much an inside the beltway story but it is not a food story. and if you talk to folks cloture close to the white house, folks aren t happy right now. you have carville out there saying people should be fired which, of course, is ridiculous. there is no one left to be fired. there has been so much turnover in this administration over the past two are years who would you fire? geithner and valerie jarrett are the only senior advisors there from the beginning. what it creates is a story about an administration that seems not to really be on its game. and as david ploufe the senior campaign advisor said, there is not a lot of margin for error right now. shannon: and more than a year out from the presidential election, debbie.
for moammar gadhafi has spread way down south into this cluster of outposts in the sahara desert. what you see right there, bombs. those are bombs going off at an airport seized by the rebel are s. libyan rebels are taking on hard-line gadhafi loyalists hundreds of miles south of tripoli. this fire fight, you see and hear it, ben wedeman found himself right in the middle of it it. ben is live for us now. as i said, hundreds of miles south of tripoli, way out in this desert, just after 9:00 p.m. local time. ben, before we get to that fire fight, just tell me where you are and tell us why the rebels are there so far into ethe desert. reporter: we re about 450 miles south of tripoli. we re on this air base that just two nights ago was taken over by the rebels. now, the reason why this is important is that we re about let me think in miles 16 miles to the north of sabah, the biggest city in southern libya, a city traditionally very loyal to moammar gadhafi. in fact, rebel c
sears was offering that deal yesterday. today, they re offering an apology. the big mistake that had people thinking they had gotten the bargain of the year. but let s now turn to the 405 freeway. the infamous 405 in los angeles. it is shut down this weekend. and you might be thinking, if you re not familiar with the area, big deal, freeway s shut down for construction. but think, folks, what if you are in new york and they shut down the brooklyn queens expressway? what if you re in chicago and they shut down the dan ryan? what if you re in atlanta, they shut down 75/85. you re in the bay area and they shut down highway 80 over the bay bridge? that s what we re talking about. this is how important 405 is. 500,000 drivers go on to the 405 every single weekend, but this weekend,s is not an option. the construction work is supposed to be done by monday morning. there will be hefty fines if it is not done in time. giving you an idea of the 405 here, a map of the area. but right
flooding a consequence of the tornadoes or is this after separate crisis? there s been unprecedented rainfall. so these are separate crises you re dealing with right now? the mississippi river is fed by a lot of different tribute tears throughout the middle part of the country. then snow melt in the upper midwest to record rainfalls. think of the mississippi river as the great collector river for the middle part of the country. there s a huge flood back in 1937 that s still kind of, still history around here. and the river is about to crest on that same level. have you had enough warn on the flooding side so the folks aren t caught? there s a certain preparedness i would assume that lets people get away from the rising tide and protect their properties as best you can. i think there is. the caution that i always and that s why i appreciate folks like you giving us this