some feelings and progress but what gephardt did say was this is really hard because people are going to lose their seats if they vote for this and that, when you that kind of self-preservation it s very difficult and the public needs to get on board and support any kind of deal, not their preferred deal, but any kind of deal to help the leaders get there. i want to ask all of you, ari and susan and chris, about the cabinet decisions. we re told the president s still not decided about susan rice versus john kerry, and now there are a number of other players because this is a domino bit of business, where if susan rice goes to the senate department instead of john kerry, it would mean that someone else, probably tom donna lin will remain as chief of as national security adviser. it would open up the u.n. ambassador s job for samantha power. look at some of the players in play here. you have a team being weighed and balanced.
michelle obama as she arrives in iowa before the election. that s a great picture. just the anticipation. you know, andrea, too, with that one, i think what s fascinating about it is both their relationship, which i think really did help frankly president obama in this election from his wife s speech at the xwengs all the way to the fact people liked him even if they didn t like his policies, they liked him as a husband and father. iowa is a place with an emotional hold for the obamas. that was the place where his campaign first won the iowa caucuses and began it all. this next picture is superstorm sandy. the president with mike bloomberg and janet napolitano touring the damage. you can just imagine how grim that tom donlon i m not sure if tom is also in the picture. you can see what they re looking at. right. you know, the one that he s
the president told a virginia family on thursday he won t back down on taxing the rich. just to be clear, i m not going to sign any package that somehow prevents the top rate from going up for folks at the top 2%. but i do remain optimistic that we can get something done that is good for families like this one. the rebels gain on assad raising fears he might use chemical weapons. that was enough to frighten the russians into talking with hillary clinton about a political transition. the united states stands with the syrian people in insisting that any transition process re result in a unified democratic syria in which all citizens are represented. the future of this kind cannot possibly include assad. a tragic turn of events in london. the nurse that first transferred that prank call to duchess catherine is found dead. david axelrod shaves it all off on morning joe. joe scarborough. are your friends at the white house watching? laughing, i m sure. laughi
president and congress face in the next couple months the president will have to remake his foreign policy team. needs a new secretary of state, needs a new treasury secretary which has a big foreign policy component and a question of tom donna lin whether he might become white house chief of staff or stay in his job. if general petraeus does go that s another big piece. implications in congress. more votes in the senate makes confirmation for new people easier but the choices the president has, we don t know, i don t know anyone who knows for sure what his choices were preelection or instincts, but he has to fill big jobs and that has implications for him between business and congress, and a second term agenda. we ve seen second term foreign policy is a big ticket item for a president. brian williams, when we talk about the new team and this will be, you know, the next as mark halperin just pointed out, the next big play, who will be the cabinet officials, some people
the fiscal cliff. without a deal, the congressional budget office now projects that if the tax cuts expire and the budget cuts kick in, unemployment would jump to 9.1% by the end of next year and the nation s economy could slide into another recession. joining me for our daily fix, special panel, chris cizilla, msnbc contributor and managing editor of post politics.com, mark halperin, senior political analyst for time and msnbc. greg, u.s. economics editor for the economist and new york times andrew ross sorkin, co-host of squawk box on cnbc. welcome all. first chris cizilla and mark halperin, the political side of this, chris, your reporting so far, we ve seen speaker boehner today, what chuck schumer had to say, the president s expected to announce that he is inviting all of the leaders to the white house to discuss the fiscal cliff. right. i think what we ve seen broadly is marking out of territory, with a strong emphasis on willing to work across the aisle. i do