preview tonight's g.o.p. presidential debate with political editor david chalian. >> ifill: then, ray suarez updates the battle to contain the texas wildfires that have taken four lives and destroyed more than 1,000 homes. >> woodruff: our coverage of the tenth anniversary of 9-11 continues with a report from n.p.r.'s daniel zwerdling about an effort to spot terrorists in an unlikely place, one of the nation's biggest shopping centers. >> i think our name, first of all, mall of america, is attractive to people that want to hurt america. unfortunately the world has changed, and we're doing the best we can to keep this building safe. >> ifill: and we ask white house counter terrorism chief john brennan about balancing national security and civil liberty in a post-9/11 world. >> we need do our job the best that we can, but we have to make sure we recognize the limits of the law and also that american citizens and persons have these rights and liberties that we need to respect. >> woodruff: plus, jeffrey brown has the story of a recently discovered exploding star, a supernova visible to the naked eye. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> i mean, where would we be without small businesses? >> we need small businesses. >> they're the ones that help drive growth. >> like electricians, mechanics, carpenters. >> they strengthen our communities. >> every year, chevron spends billions with small businesses. that goes right to the heart of local communities, providing jobs, keeping people at work. they depend on us. >> the economy depends on them. >> and we depend on them. and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: president obama addresses congress and the nation tomorrow night, hoping to reinvigorate his economic policy and his public standing. today, there was already talk of what's in his plan. "newshour" congressional correspondent kwame holman has that story. >> reporter: as the president and his white house team put the final touches on his jobs plan, details began trickling out today. the price tag was widely estimated to be $300 billion, in tax cuts and spending initiatives. the two largest components would be a one-year extension of the payroll tax cut for workers and an extension of unemployment/jobless benefits, together totaling about $170 billion. the plan would seek higher tax revenues in later years to offset the cost of those short- term measures. there also could be a tax credit for businesses that hire the unemployed and new public works spending. white house spokesman jay carney would not confirm the cost or the details, but he insisted the president will show he's doing his part. >> you will see in the proposals that the president puts forward that he is very serious about taking measures that are responsible, that have enjoyed bipartisan support and are the kinds that have direct and quick impact on the economy and on jobs. but you all will be able to judge whether or not the kinds of things the president is proposing, which all will be paid for are the right answers and are the kinds of things that, if congress were serious about taking action, congress would act on. >> reporter: congress will hear the details from mr. obama tomorrow night, in a nationally televised joint session. white house officials made clear today they hope to win republican support for tax cuts, but already, there are questions about the plan's prospects. republican leaders in the house and senate have signaled opposition to new spending. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell made that point today. >> i think what we'll hear tomorrow night is some additional spending items recommended by the president, the only thing i would say with regard to that: if government spending were the answer, we'd be in the middle of a boom right now. we certainly intend to listen politely to the recommendations the president has, but i think i can pretty confidently say what everybody in the republican conference in the senate thinks: we need to quit doing what we're doing. >> reporter: on the democratic side, senate majority whip dick durbin warned that if republicans oppose the president's ideas, they'll have a hard time explaining why. >> it is interesting to me, the president will propose to extend the payroll tax cut for working families across america, it accounts for 2% of income, that to me is sensible. the criticism from the republican side of the aisle is, no, you shouldn't allow a tax cut for middle and lower income families and those in lower income categories unless you pay for it. interestingly enough, that's exactly the opposite position from what they took when they were talking about tax cuts for the wealthiest americans. >> reporter: just the same, several republicans said they will skip the speech altogether, and party leaders decided not to give an official televised response. >> woodruff: still to come on the "newshour": the g.o.p. faceoff later tonight at the reagan library; the wildfires raging in texas; the lookout for terrorists in a mall; the nation's counter terrorism chief and an up-close look at an exploding star. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: wall street shot back up today after reassuring news from europe. a german court upheld germany's role in bailing out other countries and investors reacted with a buying binge. on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained nearly 276 points to close at 11,414. the nasdaq rose 75 points to close near 2,549. benchmark stock indexes across europe were sharply higher as well, in the wake of the news from germany. the country's high court rejected challenges to using taxpayer money for an emergency rescue fund. at the same time, it warned the decision was not a blank check for future bailouts. but chancellor angela merkel said the court absolutely confirmed her government's policies and its commitment to the 17-nation euro system. >> ( translated ): the euro is a guarantor of a united europe or, to put it another way: if the euro collapses, europe collapses. and, because the europe of freedom and democracy is our motherland, the euro cannot and will not fail. >> sreenivasan: also today, the government of italian premier silvio berlusconi survived a no- confidence vote, and it won approval of austerity measures in the upper house of parliament. and in france, the national assembly endorsed key budget changes to save money and support the bailout of greece. at least 43 people died today when a russian passenger jet crashed shortly after takeoff. the plane went down after leaving an airport near yaroslavl, 150 miles northeast of moscow. only two people survived. we have a report narrated by nina nannar of "independent television news." >> reporter: all that remains is burning on the banks of the volga river. the aircraft, a yak 42 which was carrying one of russia's champion ice hockey teams had barely taken off the from yaroslavl northeast of moscow when it started listing and crashed, killing nearly everyone on board. "the plane was taking off and there was some noise" said this witness. "then it fell down and there was a cloud of smoke and another explosion and the plane broke in two parts. locomotive yaroslavl here have won russia's league three times. amongst the international lineup there are olympic gold medalists. the team was en route to minsk for the start of the new season. only one member of the team on board has survived. in a country which is passionate about the sport, news of the crash brought this match elsewhere to a halt. many in the crowd clearly stunned. russia already has a poor air safety record. this is the second plane crash in just three months. the last one killed 47. the country's aging soviet-built planes are being taken out of service from next year. for now, rescue workers are combing the waters for bodies and the country is dealing with the loss of some of its most adored sports stars. >> sreenivasan: there was no immediate word on what caused the crash. the weather was sunny and clear at the time. twin suicide bombings in southwest pakistan today killed at least 22 people. the target was the home of a top army officer in quetta. the first attacker detonated a car bomb near the house. the second stormed the place and once inside, blew himself up. more than 80 people were wounded. the taliban claimed responsibility. in india, a bomb exploded outside the high court building in new delhi, killing at least 11 people. police quickly cordoned off the area, and emergency crews tended to the 76 wounded. the attack was the worst in the indian capital in nearly three years and prime minister manmohan singh condemned it. >> this is a cowardly act of a terrorist nature. we will deal with it. we will never succumb to pressure of terrorism and this is a long war in which all political parties, all the people of india, have to stand united so that the scourge of terrorism is crushed. >> sreenivasan: a group linked to al-qaeda claimed responsibility, and indian police began scouring the city for two suspects. security forces in syria blasted the city of homs today, and activists reported at least 11 people were killed. amateur video showed deserted streets as residents stayed indoors. a barrage of gunfire from troops and tanks echoed in the background. a network of protest groups claimed some army units in homs had defected and were battling pro-government troops. top officials across the obama administration are now denying they've decided to keep 3,000 u.s. troops in iraq next year to train iraqi forces. leaders at the pentagon and the start department insisted today that no decision has been made. any such plan would violate president obama's promise to withdraw all forces from iraq by the end of this year. and, the iraqis would have to agree to let the troops stay longer. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to gwen. >> ifill: before the president presents his policy prescriptions tomorrow night, eight republicans seeking to replace him get their turn tonight. the setting will be a debate staged at the reagan presidential library in simi valley, california. for a preview of tonight's faceoff, we turn to "newshour" political editor david chalian. david, we're looking at eight people on the stage but we're really only paying attention tonight to two. >> that's right, mitt romney who was the front-runner and is no longer and rick perry, the governor of texas, who now is the front-runner in this race, has only been in this race for about three and a half weeks, gwen. and the race is shaping up into this two-man race. even michele bachmann's former campaign manager said as such. he's no longer the campaign manager after saying that. but it is true that this dynamic i am so fascinated to watch how romney responds to rick perry as a new front-runner because mitt romney is in a very new role tonight. >> ifill: yeah, because mitt romney has been the front-runner until this week's clutch of poll which is show rick perry vaunting over him. so what does he do with that different role? >> well, the way he had been handling it was to play sort of that rogue strategy that a front-runner likes to play. stay above the fray. he's been keeping his focus very much on president obama, not really engaging his republican opponents so much. that's not going to work anymore. this is an opportunity tonight for nirpl start contrasting himself with rick perry. but you have to remember, rick perry is still not wildly known. i know he's been governor of one of our largest states in texas for ten years, but there's still a lot of people across the country who don't yet know him. so while rick perry is going to be trying to introduce himself to a larger public, he's got mitt romney and six others on the stage who are going to be throwing their slings and arrows all towards him because he's the one wearing the big target. >> ifill: have we seen enough studies like this that we know kind of debater rick perry would be? we know what kind of stump speaker he is but this is a different situation. >> we know he's an aggressive conditioned date, whether in previous debates during his texas gubernatorial campaigns or as you said, out on the stump. this is not somebody who shies away from a punch. his campaign yesterday when mitt romney delivered his jobs plan in nevada issued a very aggressive statement cutting down the plan. so i don't think this is somebody who's going to shy away from drawing contrast with his other opponents. his campaign, of course, is try log lower expectations, that's the name of the game for these debates and they're trying to say "he hasn't had so many debates, he's been in a big national debate like this," but this guy has been governor of texas and knows what this kind of forum is like. >> ifill: you mentioned mitt romney's economic speech yesterday. jon huntsman gave one last week and we're expecting the president's tomorrow. are we expecting to hear any of that topic tonight? is that going to be the main top snick >> there's no doubt all of the candidates on the stage tonight are aware that the president's speech the is tomorrow night and see this as an opportunity to call on the president to enact policies that, of course, the president's not interested in enacting. this is a republican debate. i do think that we're not going to see reason deliver tonight on the debate stage his economic plan. the he is brand new to the race, he has not been speaking in specifics at all on the campaign trail. it's been much more sort of broad philosophical differences he has with the president. so i don't think you should expect to see that you can contrast everything said tonight with the president's plan tomorrow night but i do think you're going do see some candidates try to,... for instance, jon huntsman. he is going to draw out a more moderate position here. reach out to the independent voters, show why he could go toe to toe... why he thinks he can go toe to toe with barack obama in a general election. >> ifill: it wasn't that long ago that michele bachmann had her big breakout moment when she announced from the stage of a debate that she was in the race. then she went on to win the iowa straw poll. now this week's poll shows her pulling up a distant third. what does she to do tonight? >> not just a distant third, gwen. her support has been cut in half. in july she was at 16%, she's at 8% now. all of that support fled to rick perry. she's in real trouble because she has to find a way to reignite that tea party support she had. all those tea party supporters have gone the way of rick perry. she needs to prove relevance tonight is what her mission is. fill frill there non-team voters who any of them are trying to get tonight. they're all fighting over the same poll of voters, a little pool of voters when it comes to the most conservative members of the republican party, but what about everybody else? >> that's a fantastic question and it comes down to general election viability and electability. this is the one number in the recent polls that i think has mitt romney most concerned. abc news/"washington post" poll when asked among republican voters who do you think has the best chance to beat barack obama in november 2012, 30% of them say rick perry now. 20% say mitt romney. that is the number that mitt romney needs to change. his deal tonight, his task ahead of him is to try to talk to a broad swath of republican voters not just the tea party, to say that he's the most electable come november, 2012. >> ifill: and the reason me needs to do that is because the president looks truly vulnerable toll this group. so we've mean? past debates in which they all agree that obama has to go. do they start... will they be taking shots at each other instead and leave the president to go above the fray? >> i don't think the president ever gets to be above the fray in a republican debate. i think that especially one sitting at 38%, 39%, 40% in the polls he's an easy target. that's partisan red meat they need to dangle out there to their most part sart supporters. but we're in a post-labor day phase now, it's a higher level of engagement, there is a new front-runner in the race and we're going see each of these republican candidates start differentiating on their records on their past statements and not just hitting the president. >> ifill: david chalian, i know what you'll be doing tonight, i'll be doing it, too. see you later. >> okay. >> woodruff: now, the latest on the wildfires in texas. it's part of the worst fire season in state history. more than 1,000 homes have burned in just a week and four lives have been lost. ray suarez has the story. >> suarez: hard-pressed fire crews in texas finally seemed to catch a break today. in the last week, they've battled more than 170 fires, fed by drought and whipped by winds from tropical storm lee. the largest was the bastrop fire southeast of austin-- 24 miles long and 20 miles wide. but the wind has finally died back some, and bastrop county's emergency coordinator mike fisher said today the big blaze is now 30% contained. >> we're making pretty good progress around perimeter. we're hoping that by the end of shift today that we can say we're comfortable fire won't get any larger. >> suarez: in all, fires have spread across much of eastern texas in recent weeks, scorching about 3.5 million acres-- an area the size of connecticut. firefighters have managed to come near containing many of them. and improving conditions mean crews can set backburns to rob the flames of fuel and stop them from spreading. but the damage is done. the bastrop fire has already devoured nearly 800 homes out of more than 1,000 lost across the state. one belonged to charles billingsly. >> it was just ashes. it's almost like every other home. it was just like the winds were erratic. >> suarez: and while some residents know what's happened to their homes, others, like mitzi carrara, were among 5,000 evacuees still waiting for news. >> it's tough to think about what we're going to see and if we see anything. is it going to be from the news we've seen. you know it could be just a foundation with a bunch of debris over it. >> suarez: even with progress on containing many of the fires, tinder-dry texas is not out of the woods yet. the state forest service says it responded to 19 new fires just today. we get more on the fires now from kate galbraith, a reporter for the "texas tribune" in austin, texas. well, kate, you've been in the area that's burning. give us a sense of what it's like to smell it, to see it, to feel it on your skin. >> that's right. well, i drove down earlier this week and, you know, driving into bastrop was just like driving into a volcano. i mean, huge amounts of billowing smoke. and the governor at a press conference on monday, governor perry, said that it was... he'd seen a lot of wildfires but it was about the meanest looking he'd ever seen. and, indeed, we have been experiencing some smoke here in austin this morning from some of the fires in the area, very smokey air. >> suarez: what are these landscapes like? it's kind of hard to know from television exactly what kind of land we're talking about. 34,000 acres sounds like an awful lot of area. is it heavily woodd? is it farm sfland is it residential areas? what's on fire? >> well, one of the areas that's substantially burnd is bastrop state park, which is an unusual area in central texas. it's a lot of pine trees which have