and the lead economic adviser. and then mark sandy to tell us whether a deal with save the u.s. credit rating, and finally presidential politics. candy crowley in iowa with candidate, tim pawlenty. you can be both strong and pleasant and nice. those are not contradictory things. i am gloria borger in for candy crowley, and this is st e state of the union. mitch mcconnell yesterday demanded that president obama get personally involved in the debt talks and he soon got his wish, and now there are reports this morning a plan is near. mitch mcconnell, thank you for being with us. let me get to it. can you announce this morning that a plan has been reached and there s a deal? we are very close. we had a good day yesterday, both the president and vice president called me and the president talked to the speaker as well, and they understand with a republican majority in the house and a republican in the senate, and we made progress in that direction since april when the admin