shelling of the island of yeonpyeong. a state of emergency in parts of southern nevada. here s something you don t hear. some roads are unpassable because of floodwaters. communities working with emergency crews to protect vulnerable areas around the virgin river expected to crest today. just over an hour president obama is scheduled to sign the repeal of don t ask, don t tell, the military s ban on openly gay soldiers and then all eyes on the senate with a vote on an arms agreement with the russians. first, repealing don t ask, don t tell. for president obama, it is a campaign promise kept even if it took him two years. dan lothian live at the white house this morning, and dan, dare we say it, the president appears to have the mojo back in the last couple of weeks? reporter: that s right. as you pointed out, this president, this was part of his 2008 campaign agenda talking about he wanted to make sure that this was repealed.
take control of the house, when they have many more seats in the senate. and that s, in many ways, what this is about. and we ve obviously been talking about president obama, but the person we also should be talking about is harry reid, who is the senate majority leader. he is somebody who has had trouble, a lot of trouble, getting republicans on board with some things, but he realized, just as the white house did, it s now or never on the don t ask, don t tell bill. it was maybe now or never on the s.t.a.r.t. treaty in terms of just the basic numbers that democrats had. and that combined with the calendar, the fact that they really pushed and made clear to republicans, we mean it, we re going to do it, and that helped to bring republicans on board. and he did express a lot of frustration, and deep disappointment, david gergen, that he could not get the congress to approve what was called the dream act, that would allow young children whose parents came here illegally to serve in the
compromise, the don t ask, don t tell repeal, in the words of senator lindsey graham, a republican to me just in the hallway a few moments ago, when people say president obama had a great two weeks, they re absolutely right. very impressive, what he s managed to accomplish during this lame-duck session. john, there was low expectations after the republican victory november 2nd. people thought the lame-duck session probably wouldn t do much. but there have been a series of accomplishments, legislative achievements. you remember, what did he call it? we called it on election night and the president himself called it a day after, a shellacking. what happened? he had a december to remember. and he s got a number of great achievements here. and the interesting question, wolf, is this a down payment on a new washington, where grown p grown-ups actually have conversations, work out their differences and govern, or is this a temporary lull. lindsey graham gives the president credit, he gav
okay. so this is carol, dan. i was just wondering, the president s supposed to go to hawaii, but there s a no-fly zone going into effect over oahu. what does that mean? what it means is it s possible the president could leave some time today. i was talking with white house spokesman robert gibbs this morning. and he hopes they ll be able to leave today and hopes the president will be able to also hold a press conference. we heard that earlier in the week that that was something he wanted to do to talk about all he accomplished. we ll look forward to the next session, as well, where he ll be dealing with a different make-up in the house at least. so yes, the president will be signing don t ask, don t tell later this morning. then he hopes to hop on to air force one and go out to hawaii to join the rest of his family, which by the way, has been out there for the last few days or so. nice when you have your own little jet you can hop on you don t have to have that reservation, d
are 99 and so on and there have been now, at least a dozen who have pledged their support either on the senate floor or in statements. republicans from all over the country, who have in the last couple of days, really, expressed their willingness to go forward, as there have been a whole series of back door discussions, that continue at this hour. and, the ratification should come early this afternoon, perhaps, as soon as noon. and is tied up with a lot of other talks about the 9/11 responders health compensation and we expect to have the president, who signed the don t ask, don t tell repeal into law, perhaps to talk about it later and it is a big accomplishment for him and getting the start treaty ratified was the singular, most important foreign policy thing on his agenda and for the white house and the democrats and republicans, it is a big happening, and, all of the