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(announcer) pepcid® complete doesn't make you choose. it neutralizes acid in seconds and controls heartburn all day or all night. pepcid® complete , works now and works later. this hour on the big picture, president obama on the road is trying to keep his new momentum going. >> we are fighting for an america where no american should have to worry about going without health insurance or feel that one illness could cost them everything they had. >> meanwhile, democratic senator max baucus is putting the final touches on his committee bill, critics call it a giveaway to the for profit insurance companies. >> more republicans coming out in support of congressman joe wilson as democrats move closer to their own verbal smack down. >> i will not be muscled. >> whether he's muzzled or not, can there be a winner in this lingering back and forth? plus words from michael steele directed at house speaker nancy pelosi. >> later, remember him? >> major combat operations in iraq have ended. >> despite his own slumps, bush 43 according to a former speechwriter often ridiculed other politicians on both sides of the aisles. wait until you hear what he allegedly said about barack obama and hillary clinton. >> the journalist who threw his shoes at president bush said he would do it all again. >> a town hall exchange for the ages. >> don't feel my leg and tell me it's raining. >> thank you. i wouldn't dignify you by peeing on your leg. >> all that and more this hour on msnbc. >> good afternoon. i'm tamron hall live in new york. >> aemds david shuster live in washington. key democrats have pointed to this day, september 15th, as the deadline for crucial bipartisan senate panel working on health care reform. in the big picture, the intriguing silence from the gang of six and the full throated passions of the obama administration. first to pittsburgh, just a short time ago the president addressed the afl-cio convention about his efforts to reform the health care system. it was a fiery campaign-like speech and mr. obama told the crowd that reform cannot wait any longer. >> when are we going to stop it? when are we going to say enough is enough? how many more workers have to lose their coverage? how many more families have to go into the red for sick loved ones? how much longer are we going to have to wait? it can't wait. >> meanwhile, back here in washington, today white house senior advisor david axelrod pictured from the campaign here conducted a series of crucial meetings on capitol hill with key house and senate democrats but at least one democrat says the white house approach is making negotiations harder right now, at least in the house chamber. congressman charlie rangel, democratic chairman of the weighs and means committee said, quote, the restrictions the president has given in his speeches and the proposed does discussions in the senate have caused us more problems. senate finance committee chairman max baucus had given members of a bipartisan panel until today to join him on his specific reform proposals. baucus will unveil his proposal tomorrow and it's not clear if a single republican will be on board. it is clear, though, that at least one democrat on the overall committee will not be on board with baucus, senator jay rockefeller, supporter of the public option said he will oppose the baucus proposal because the baucus proposal leaves the public option out. chuck todd is nbc's chief white house correspondent. chuck, what is the latest from the white house as they watch what's happening on capitol hill today? >> one thing i can tell you is there are no absolutes here. you got to read everybody's threats and words very carefully and read between the lines. for instance, on senator rockefeller, he said he is not going to support the baucus plan as it is proposed, but let's remember, when senator baucus introduces this in the committee, we're going to start seeing amendments. and you bring up a very good point in your introduction to this, and that is this, will any republicans, when senator baucus proposes this, he's going to portray it as a bipartisan negotiated plan. but will any republicans put their name on it? obviously the most likely republican to do this would be olympia snowe from maine, but, you know, it may be -- it would surprise a lot of folks if she puts her name on it immediately. instead, maybe wait to see how the amendment process plays itself out and then you've got to start watching key votes within that process on the committee. for instance, on the public option, i mean, obviously, you will see somebody introduce that. then, what about if it's introduced as the so-called trigger? this idea that there would be sort of a threat of a public option and a private insurance didn't meet certain standards or certain markers they would have to meet, then the government would kick in a public option. who then -- how do things line up there? would olympia snowe vote for that? that's an idea that she was one of the first to trumpet. i think we got to remember here, all of this is a little bit -- is a little bit blurry at this point. there are no absolutes here. >> clear, chuck, the white house is now fully on board and in this thing? the president said yesterday again he will use his office, however he can, to get this done. david axelrod on the hill, fair to say the white house is now involved in the details? >> not only involved in the details. i talked to one democratic senator who came and visited here last week, who said the white house said specifically look, you know, you have my word. whatever -- i will be, you know, involved in the negotiations on this front. in many ways, you know, nothing's going to get approved or through the senate or through the house without getting approval of the white house. so in many ways he could end up becoming the dealmaker say between an olympia snowe and some of those blue dog senate democrats and blue dog house democrats and the senate and house leadership. >> so intriguing. nbc's chuck todd at the white house, thank you. we appreciate it as always. >> you got it. >> the bigger picture the president's all-out campaign for health care reform. on thursday the president will be holding a rally for reform at the university of maryland. on friday he will be taping interviews to air on the sunday morning shows on nbc, abc, cbs, cnn and univision. the most ever by the way for a president. that's not all, on monday president obama goes on late night television with david letterman. but is president obama's pr blitz working? jonathan altser is a senior editor and columnist for "newsweek" and nbc analyst. thanks for joining us. seven-month mark, president obama, 114 interviews, george w. bush, 37. bill clinton, 41. >> amazing figure. >> that is amazing. these are amazing times certainly and lots of messages you need to get out. what is the goal? is this all about health care at this point? >> right now it is. he is all-in. he is spending whatever political capital it takes to get this through because he knows that if it's not, as senator demint said, it's his waterloo. the good news for him, it's on track and they have a number of different options for getting it through. what's going to be very interesting in the next few days, to see whether any republicans sign on. if they don't, as expected, or maybe they just get olympia snowe, then you're going to see the bill change considerably democratic family, then they don't have to do some of the reaching out and some of the compromising that was expected. so, what's not clear is exactly what he's selling other than the larger idea. what's happening now is it's like all of us have gone in with our cameras into this sausage vactry, right, we're seeing the pig's snout being put in the sausage, this spice being kept out of the sauce saage. it's a moving target and we have to be careful about coming to conclusions about any particular parts of this legislation. >> we're watching president obama to step to the podium at an event for senator arlen specter, they're in philadelphia. the president starting out with his thank yous. before we listen in, jonathan, will any of this be a game changer? they said the speech is going to be a game changer last week. these interviews over the weekend, do they anticipate they're game changers or is it just -- >> no. >> about putting the face out there? >> this is about building more support, trying to light a fire with the democratic base, going to labor and other democratic constituency groups to create some energy behind this bill. the game changer was the speech the other night. >> and is this about pulling those democrats in? i mean we've heard this statement already from senator rockefeller, that he is not prepared to support this bill without the public option. it sounds as if the republicans have tried to say he has a problem with the democrats than with the republicans. >> jay rockefeller does not have his feet set in concrete. he said he is not going to support the baucus bill. he hasn't said that on final passage of the bill. >> the finance committee. >> any commitment. all of this is in flux right now, and it's fascinating because it's very infrequent that the public pays attention to a lot of these legislative details. it's like sports once you get into it. very complicated but also very interesting. >> jonathan, as far as teammates using the analogy, we're not taking president obama because he's doing the thank yous, talk about the relationship between the president, arlen specter, almost unprecedented, isn't it, for this president to get involved in terms of a primary fight and to say, look, i'm supporting specter, the other guy so be it. explain the dynamics there. >> he's making good on an iou. when arlen specter agreed to leave the republican party, come over to the democrats he did it with a promise from president obama he would support him in the democratic primary in pennsylvania. he's got a very tough race there, a veteran joe sestack in the house, running against him in the democratic primary and doing pretty well in the polls. it's not clear arlen specter will be returned to the senate. >> thank you very much, jonathan. we'll let our audience listen into the president. i think he's done with his thank yous. an intriguing moment to have the president there in philadelphia and that race should be certainly interesting. let's listen in. >> i'll never forget that in the height of this recession, when we had just been sworn in, you remember, there's some selective memory going on out there -- you remember what it was like. we thought we might be tipping into a great depression, losing 700 jobs per month. financial system on the verge of collapse. we had to act boldly, we had to act swiftly and arlen specter cast the deciding vote in favor of a recovery act that has helped pull us back from the brink. a recovery act that's already making a difference in the lives of millions of pennsylvanians. since the recovery act was signed, nearly 5 million pennsylvanians are seeing a tax cut in their paycheck. think about that, 5 million people getting tax cuts, as i promised during the campaign. we provided relief to 2.5 million seniors and veterans and other struggling americans. this puts money in their pockets. that means they're spending it at small businesses and circulating within the economy. we've extended unemployment benefits for over 800,000 pennsylvanians who have born the brunt of this recession. we've approved over 700 loans to small businesses throughout pennsylvania. you talk to your governor, ed rendell, about the kinds of drastic cuts and layoffs that would have had to occur had it not been for the recovery act. tens of thousands of state workers potentially laid off. at the time, this was not an easy vote for arlen to take. you can imagine the pressure he was under. from the other side. but arlen knew that it was more important to answer to the people who sent him to washington, than to the party he belonged to. and that's why you should send him back to washington for six more years, because you know he's going to fight for you, regardless of what the politics are. for the same reason that arlen's been fighting for health insurance reform, for him this is not an issue of politics or party. this is personal. this is a man who has seen the health care system up close, the good, and the bad. >> president obama giving the endorsement to arlen specter arlen specter had been wanting. it's worth pointing out arlen specter does support the public option, he's to the left of some of the regular democrats on health care reform. the president promised he would help campaign and fund raise for arlen speblgtser, a democrat after being a republican for so many years. we are seeing the evidence. but as the president sort of goes to his standard lines about the economy and health care now, we want to turn to some developments, this hour on the house floor, that is the uproar over congressman joe wilson's outburst during the president's address to congress last week. we are awaiting a house vote on a resolution of disapproval against wilson. the debate will start at any moment. the south carolina republican apologized to president obama over the phone, at least to his chief of staff for shouting "you lie" at the president but wilson refused to apologize on the house floor. you are looking at video earlier this week and did not apologize. some democrats want wilson to be formerly criticized. an hour ago the congressman posted this video on his twitter page. >> we're now awaiting, there's a democratic conference on what actions they're going to take against me. i'm very grateful that actually today it was reported several democrats feel like, correctly, that we should be discussing health insurance reform and not playing politics. >> here is the resolution that will be voted on. whereas the conduct of the representative from south carolina was a breach of decorum, degraded the proceedings of the joint session to the discredit of the house, therefore be it resolved the house of representatives disaproves of the behavior of the representative from south carolina mr. wilson during the joint session of congress held on september 9th, 2009. again that will be voted on in the next 30 to 40 minutes and again, there will be a few democrats as wilson pointed out who don't believe the house should be chasing or criticizing or being the police of people who are jerks in the words of barney frank. there will somebody democrats who will peel off and vote against but may be somep are republicans who support the democrats in the sense they feel the outburst was bad form to says least. we'll keep you posted. still ahead, president obama speaking at a fund-raiser for newly minted democratic senator arlen specter. about the president wading into the thick primary fight within the party. >> also, david, we've got breaking news on the murder of that yale medical school student. what police are saying now about a possible arrest. you're watching the big picture on msnbc. 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