rick perry a top tier candidate. he's drawn a line in the sand in south carolina, going after iowa with the three-day tour there. what does a perry campaign mean immediately for bachmann and romney? >> obviously, it's shaken up this race and pretty tremendous way. he's instantly a front-runner, if not the front-runner once the polls come out. he can clearly compete in south carolina, make a big play in eye. not clear he can sell his brand of conservatism in northern states in places linew hampshir. he's going to raise a ton of money. people sometimes forget how much of the big republican donor base comes to texas. one of the secrets to bush's success, one of the reasons outside groups affiliated with karl rove do so well. >> especially from -- let's talk about the fundraising that you brought up. perry getting into the race. will that mean that donors that he will take, will those donors have to come from candidates in the race already in. >> no, there's been a bunch of big bundlers, big donors that have not affiliated with any candidate to date. i think he can draw from them. there's a base of texas donors he can draw from them. there are other conservatives who want to get into the game who have not aligned themselves with anybody yet. there's enough money and he has an elaborate fund-raising plan. i don't think money's the big issue for governor perry. if you look at the different candidates and how he handled their first five or ten days getting into the race he probably did more impressively than anybody else. his speeches were sharp and on point where he needed be in the race. he was able to upstage bachmann and others in iowa over the weekend. as a politician, he's develop skilled. it remains to be seen, a, whether he can sell himself in northern states and how much there is there. he's a good campaigner but substantively is he ready for the gruel and grind of a campaign. >> you mentioned michele bachmann, she was on "meet the press" yesterday. take a listen to what she said and talk about it on the other side. take a listen. >> the markets need to see a signal. what's going to come out of washington? the only signal they've seen so far is that it's going to mean more spending, spending money that we don't have and more taxing. >> there's candidate bachmann talking about the economy. is that going to be her strong suit? is she going to be able to position herself as someone who has credibility on fiscal issues or is she going to stay in her wheelhouse, the social issues? >> she darn well better be able to do that if she wants to emerge as a nominee at some point. the economy's the only issue that matters this this campaign and i think it's the only issue that will matter come 2012. right now her sweet spot is evangelical christians, clearly in iowa she's able to get the base fired up behind her. and the big question with michele bachmann is, again, the same thing with pairry, how much there is there? once you get them out of a controlled environment, they're both great performers, very strong on stage, but once they're in, improvizationle settings how good are they in? how much depth and breadth do they have went it comes to policy? it's a great unknown. there's a great piece this morning looking at contrasting styles of bachmann and perry in eye. just yesterday, she lives in a bubble, she has a security team, very controlled, goes in, comes out, knows exactly what she's going to say. she's very, very good in that setting. that can't carry you that far especially in places like iowa, you have to get in there, mix it up, do town halls, you have to be able to talk about different issues, ones that aren't in your comfort zone and that's where she has to prove herself. they're both abled politicians. can they take it to the next level? >> with so many social conservatives battling in iowa, bachmann, perry, rick santorum, ron paul, with pawlenty out, might we see romney reconsider iowa and make a stronger push in the hawkeye state? >> i think the campaign clearly is trying to debate that right now. it's not his -- it's not his safe place. new hampshire is his safe place. also getting into places like michigan and florida, down the road are his safer places. so i don't see a big push to recalibrate the strategy on the romney side. think about romney as a candidate, he, too, has run an impressive campaign and that he's kept his head low, raised a lot of money, picking his spots. there is pressure, you saw a lot of it over the weekend for him to engage more forcefully, one of the big criticisms you hear, he's been so tepid, assuming he'll become the general election nominee for the republican party and you can't assume that. and he has to be quite scared by perry. the presence that he has on stage, the excitement that he's creating with conservatives. the fact there's a potential that perry could bring together those two wings of the party, the conservative evangelical wing and the economic wing by talking about his record in texas, which again that record, i think, deserves and will get a tremendous amount of scrutiny. but if he can survive that scrutiny, bring those two wings together, politic is not rocket science, a plus b equals victory for republicans and he might be the one to pull it together, maybe. >> he won't have trouble raising money. jim, thanks so much. >> have a good day. nbc news, politico, teaming fo for a gop debate from the reagan library september 7th here on msnbc. in the wake of ames, president obama launches a new politicking counteroffensive this week. kicking off a five-city bus tour of minnesota, iowa, and illinois, the trip is attempt to counter a slew of attack business gop hopefuls this weekend. also it's aimed at re-establishing the president's presence in the midwest. but the president is up against a growing anti-incumbent, according to a new gallup poll, president obama's approval rating recently hit a new low. it's at 39%. let's bring in nbc chief white house correspondent, host of "the daily rundown," chuck todd, traveling with the president, live in can an falls, minnesota. start with 39%. put that in perspective for us. how bad is that? >> reporter: it's a psychological barrier. i'm hesitant when it comes to the gallup's daily tracking poll because that thing gyrates a lot on a daily basis. bettor look at on a weekly or monthly average. but it cracked 40. the fact is it's the same direction we've seen a lot of polling numbers. the president has seen them. the only thing that gives them some hope is that congressional republican approval is even worse. and so it's clear this debt ceiling debate, and back and forth, and the inability of congress to do something big but to do this convoluted deal they ended up doing did not cast washington in a good light. and at the end of the day, the president's in charge of washington. the s&p downgrade, throw all of that together, uncertainty, you're starting to see it go down. craig, one other thing to think about with 39%, that means there are people who support the president for re-election who disapprove of his job. this is starting to come away from democrats. >> let's talk about where you are, cannon falls, minnesota. what do the states and cities that the president will be visiting over the next few days, what do the states and citis all have in common? >> reporter: midwest, unemployment rate in all of these places actually below the national average. that's not the issue. it's more the geographic part of this trip that matters more than anything. the idea that these guys aren't countering what we're seeing in iowa is kind of laughable. the mid west is the president's base. it was during the primaries. look up and down the mississippi river during the primaries and during the general election and it was the heart of the president's success. but this is a swing area and he's seen his numbers dip here. there's perhaps no more important region in the country than the president's re-election than the midwest. the only thing about this trip that surprises me we're stopping in illinois. the president's home state. this isn't something they have to be worried about. hoy thought we would be starting in illinois, going through iowa, minnesota and ending in wisconsin. my guess is we'll be back. >> quickly, over the weekend, we saw bachmann emerge in iowa. do we think at this point that we'll see any owe republican get into the fray? >> reporter: well, i know that there are still some big money people established republicans that are not quite sure that rick perry's the answer at this point. and if he falters early, the calls to chris christie could get -- that we know he's getting them, we know he picks up the phone and he still says no. and by the way, sarah palin is acting like somebody who would like to at least dip her toe in for a little while longer but the fact of the matter is, craig, time is running out. >> chuck todd with the president in cannon falls, minnesota, for us on monday. chuck, thank you. >> reporter: welcome aboard. >> thank you. appreciate it. thanks for having me. >> reporter: all right. let's turn to the markets. markets on the rise, erasing most of last week's losses. a shot of the live dow big board. companies announcing more than $19 billion of takeovers, mote notably google's announcement to buy motorola today. sign of a healthy economy, good things to come. you can see up about close to 131 points so far. the indiana state fair is reopening today on a somber note, after a wind storm caused some terrifying damage. it caused a concert stage to collapse there. five people killed, dozens more injured saturday when tons of steel rigging came down crashing down on the crowd. ron mott live in indianapolis for us. what can you tell us about the latest on the investigation there? >> reporter: hey, craig. good morning it you. you can see the stage behind me, we'll pan up and let you get a better look at scaffolding and rigging that came down saturday during that major windstorm that was forecast to have gusts. unfortunately you're not able to pinpoint where gusts were going to be. they estimate this one that hit here on saturday night between 60 and 70 miles per hour and a lot of folks could not get out of the way. there was a mosh pit for lack of a better term around the stage, vip folks, special guest of the band sugarland assembled on the ground here. they were the ones in the line of fire, if you will, when that stage collapses here saturday night, about 8:50 or so. a lot of questions now about that construction of that rig. it's the same stage use here for fair grounds over and over. a lot of people are beginning to ask, was something missed? was something overlooked? we'll have more about that in a moment. first this morning there was a prayer service to open the day to remember those folks who lost their lives here over the weekend. five people, as you mentioned, who died here in this collapse on saturday night. governor mitch daniels was one of the speakers this morning. he responsed to some questions people are beginning to ask if there's any blame to be assigned. listen. >> our first instinct is not look for scapegoats and try to find somebody to lay the blame on. later on, at the appropriate time, we try to learn lessons, maybe do little better the next time. >> reporter: now this is one of the more popular state fairs around the country. still some pretty big musical acts scheduled to perform here this week. janet jackson wednesday, maroon 5, train, and lady antebellum later in the week. officials will make some announcement where those shows will be held. more than likely not held here. eveni engineers have been working here trying to pinpoint what might have caused the rigging to collapse as it did. as we mentions, five people lost their lives, many others injured. quite a within here as the fair resumes, there's definite pall in the zblafr 18 people in the hospital today we understand. thanks. appreciate that. president obama leaving a message on the economy, what will that message be. a. stressing differences between himself and the gop or the pragmatic way, pushing ideas that can pass congress though me may not have much of an economic may not have much of an economic impact.uched. that's why there's brita, to make the water we drink, taste a little more, perfect. reduce lead and other impurities with the advanced filtration system of brita. excuse me? 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[ woman announcing ] new beneful healthy fiesta. another healthful, flavorful beneful. as the president takes to the road to battle a sinking approval rating, white house aides are considering a more aggressive approach to talk about economic issue. the new strategy would highlight differences between president obama's policy and that of congressional republicans. could this approach help the president win back supporters, or is it too little too late? joining me from washington, former chief economist and economic adviser to vice president biden, msnbc contributor jared bernstein. jared, 39%, that's the approval rating right now for the president. an all-time low for him. why has the white house waited so long to consider taking a more combative approach? >> because they were stuck in a spiral of self-inflicted wounds around debt ceilings, deficit reduction, budget baselines, all of the stuff that people out there, outside of the beltway, really put way down on their list of major concerns. but i think what you're going to start seeing the president doing, you can see it already is a flip. instead of talking about budget deficits and getting to jobs in the second half of the speech, you're going to see that turned around. i think the president is going to begin to articulate a real jobs vision, a real jobs program that may well be followed up by legislation in weeks or months working with congressional democrats. >> bold ideas like another stimulus package that many economists suggested would help this economy in the short term, ideas like that won't pass the house. so short of a grand idea like that, what can the president even push through? what's politically feasible here? >> first of all i doubt you're going to see something like a stimulus package, anything that's in the hundreds of billions with tons of moving parts like the recovery act. what i do think you'll see, what i think has a chance of meeting the criteria you correctly laid out, craig, is a renewal of the payroll tax holiday. i think the probability of that is above 50%, even with this congress, maybe renewal of exextends unemployment benefits. unemployment above 9%, we need that. then you get into you can't be sure whether he'll have the legislative oomph to do more. i like an idea featured in "the new york times" today called fast, fix american schools today. a great national infrastructure. put a ton of construction workers back to work. much beyond that pretty tough. >> the president could introduce those things but will the house even take up any of the things that you just mentioned? >> so here's your question, hardball or compromise? i think the president is moving into a hardball territory where if the house refuses to move on that, he's not going to kick back and in budget debate mode say i'll give you this and you give me that. i think he's going to tell america who's standing between them and their economic opportunities. the living standards for them and their families and, frankly, it's the right move if he wants to boost the approval rating. >> you think we'll see the president become a fighter? >> i think he's going to fight hard if congress blocks him on the jobs agenda and house republicans almost surely will. >> jared, thank you so much. a new twist in the search for a missing 3-year-old girl in missouri. a neighbor arrested and charged with murder. police have not found the body. what's going on? we'll talk about that to dr. cornell west, shaping up to be a major thorn in the president's side. could his criticism cost the president key african-american votes in 2012? 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