commander in afghanistan, who participated by video conference last night and general petraeus was here in person. we are hold told a week from today likely the president in a speech, not necessarily a speech before the congress will announce finally what his decision is to the nation. >> the number of troops we know the president is focused on the cost of whatever escalation will exist and the plan. what is the objective in afghanistan? >> right. there has been a lot of back and forth about that. some folks who wanted to go on the low end of the troops in term of troop withdrawal and have a drone attack and surveillance kind of approach to keep the taliban and al qaeda at bay in afghanistan and tribal regions of pakistan as well. others say no. you've got to be among the people and work with tribal elders and you need boots on the ground. the forced posture is another issue how many advisers will there be to develop the afghani army and how many american combat troops and all of these questions are going to be answered when the president finally does roll it out. also an interesting note. you mentioned the budget. peter orsgag was at the table last night. a concern how much this is going to cost. american troops be withdrawn from iraq. a thought there would be ultimately a cost savings now on both of these wars but now that is being called into question. >> nbc's mike viqueira. the president will be speaking shortly after meeting with india's prime minister and on their agenda is, of course, afghanistan and pakistan and we will bring that to you. perspective from the ground, we are joined by jim live in kabul, afghanistan. jim, as the president now makes his decision and we wait to hear it finally, publicly announced, what kind of impact will it have on the troops? are they waiting for this decision the way we are here at home? >> well, we were out at a camp today and we were talking with several troops out there. it is in kabul next to the nato headquarters. and they are very careful about what they say at this time. it's a very sensitive time politically but you could read between the lines. i got to tell you their attitude is pretty much one of excitement. there is a sense now that things are going to change radically, that the military, the u.s. military is going to enter into a second phase and that phase is going to be a counterinsurgence. as mike suggested low end or high end -- if it is high en, if it is the 30,000 to 35,000 troops that we've heard, the sense is that the boots on the ground will make an impact quite quickly and the reason for that is that it will probably follow the same type of path that we saw in iraq in the surge in 2007. going out into populated areas and protecting those people and interacting in a daily way, very closely with the indigenous population and that created quickly, in a matter of a couple of months, a sense of a perception of safety and security. and everything seemed to spill out from that, that major change in the thinking of the local population. we may see that quite quickly. >> jim, i'm wonder, we've heard the last few weeks an emphasis from the administration the fact the president is not only focused on a number of troops but end game on what we need to do to get those troops eventually out. did you sense -- do the troops get the gist there? are they hearing that the president is thinking about that and potentially end game on the table here for them? >> i think all of them want an end game. it's not now more than before. i mean, these troops come in here, they spend from 6 to 12 months and some of them are on three or four deployments. they do hope there is an end game and a couple of days they will be celebrating thanksgiving. they've been coming here not a lot of them, but some of them three or four thanksgivings now the past if five or six years and they want to see an end game, but most of them tell us that it cannot happen militarily alone. that's the main theme that they can provide security, that they can make a change and it has been to be nonmilitary change that happens in this country ultimately. >> jim maceda, live for us in kabul, thank you so much. this hour president obama and prime minister singh will hold a joint news conference. that is ahead. set to start at 11:35 eastern time and we will have it for you live here on msnbc. dick cheney is yet again challenging president obama's leadership and his decision making when it comes to the war strategy in afghanistan. cheney, again, repeating his earlier accusation that the president has, quote, dithered when it comes to that strategy but he is also questioning the experience level of the president and his cabinet. here is what the former vp said on the scott hanen radio show just yesterday. >> he was given a strategy that was pretty well put together at the end of our administration, just recommendations. he adopted many of them, announced the strategy in march, reinforced it in august before the speech to the vfw and then in the fall, when it's time to decide, based on mcchrystal's recommendations, he has dithered. >> we're getting word the top u.s. general in afghanistan and the u.s. ambassador to that country are expected to testify before congress. that is set to happen as early as next week. general mcchrystal is the top u.s. and nato commander in afghanistan. he is asked for 40,000 more troops to stem the resurgence of the taliban and retired ambassador karl eikenberry opposes adding more troops until the afghan deal with rampant corruption. army psychiatrist accused of gunning down 13 people at ft. hood may make a plea of insanity. his attorney says his client will plead not guilty and could also enter insanity defense. hasan's attorney tells the associated press because the allegations contradict his military lifestyle. now to the biggest crib recall in u.s. history. the government is recalling more than 2.1 million drop-side cribs after at least four children sufficient owe indicated to death after they became trapped in the crib. the consumer product safety commission says people should stop using stork craft drop-side cribs immediately because infants could get wedged between the mattress and that crib wall. the cribs were sold at major retailers between january 1993 and october 2009. thanksgiving travelers listen up. you have company. 38 million americans will hit the roads, the rails and the skies to get their turkey this year. the weather channel jim cantore is at chicago's o'hare airport. i see some lines behind you alrea already. >> a little bit but we're in terminal 3 and not that bad. check it out. walk in through here and i'll let you see some of the security lines. travel this year down 7%. 62% since 2000. but you can see, i mean, waep not each at full capacity with the security lines. i think this afternoon and certainly on into tomorrow travel will ramp up but so far from what we've seen it has not been all that bad. more people traveling by car. let's check out the forecast on what you're going to deal with. we go from wednesday into thursday, it gets a little tricky for the midwest. because we're going to transition not only into more wet weather but also a chance for some snow. some of you may very well have a white christmas. for the macy's thanksgiving day parade you deal with the eastern fringes of this system. warm and 50 and slight chance of shower. all in all, i think we're doing good as far as travel is concerned but i don't think we've hit the big rush that and that may come as early as tonight. this morning for the first time ever the department of transportation has fined an airline for stranding passengers on the plane. continental and express jet airlines will pay $100,000 fine over an august 8th incident in rochester, minnesota, where passengers stuck on a commuter jet for nearly six hours after it landed. in addition, the airline running the ground crew has been ordered to pay $75,000. transportation secretary ray look hood hopes the fine sends a signal to the entire airline industry to respect the rights of travelers. >> all of the people on the plane should be able to get that money. >> right. 24 million people worldwide are infected by the aids virus. that figure is up from 33 million two years ago. aids has killed 25 million people worldwide. but new infections are slowing. the report says that people are living longer due to the availability of those hiv drugs. another week before senators begin the floor debate on health care bill but many are predicting the demise of the public option. senators lincoln and landrieu and nelson and lieberman say they will not vote for the bill that includes any kind of public option even though they have agreed to move the debate forward they are warning they might not support a final bill. perry bacon joins us now. it's interesting. we were talking about those senators because of the power they held and still do, but you've got people like senator burris of illinois who won't vote if the public option is not inside it and will not support it if you have no public option. >> i think the focus has been on these four senators because i think people, most people in washington assume that roland burris represents a very liberal state and will end up voting for a bill if it has some nod to a public option is going to modify public option or not one at all. you saw in a house vote a few weeks ago and threatened not to vote for the bill unless a public option wasn't in there and voted for the bill anyway. the focus on the four the more conservative side because people think they might not vote for the bill and all 60 democrats need to vote for the bill for it to pass and some of the more -- not to vote for it. >> speaking of living up to threats you've got some groups that are going after blanche lincoln, mary landrieu saying they are willing, these are liberal and progressive organizations, they are willing to come after these senators and, in fact, look for challengers for them. >> the challenge, they've talked about that and trying to push them in that direction. the challenge there is that lincoln is a pretty moderate conservative democrat but it's not clear that there is enough sort of more rib liberal democrats to elect her in a primary. not like lieberman losing a primary a couple of years ago but they are threatening and making that as loud as possible to push her in a certain direction. >> let's talk about something howard dean said on "morning meeting" just yesterday. regarding reconciliation. he is pushing for that and harry reid said it is not an option but interesting you have the option but not the willingness from the democrats. >> yes. so far, what we've seen is there's a lot of groups on the left, howard dean among them, who is talking about this reconciliation but not a lot of talk on the white house or capitol hill. it affects how the legislation would work and the legislation is not as binding if you used the process. part of the reason why and part of the sense i think they want to push the bill through with 60 votes if they can do it, you get a bigger majority behind it that way. >> we'll see what happens. thank you very much. >> thank you. executives at the center of the financial meltdown cashed in big time as their firms imploded. will they face consequences. this week marks the kickoff of the holiday shopping season but will people spend special in this economy? over 10% unemployed right now is black friday as we have come to know as black friday, is it coming to an end? we will talk about it ahead on msnbc. here goes the good old steam. 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[ steam hisses ] why use more when you can use less? bring it. with bounty. the thick quicker picker-upper. and try bounty napkins. now with new prints. to stand behind all who serve. ♪ to deliver the technologies... vital to freedom. ♪ to help carry hope to those in need. ♪ around the globe, the people of boeing... are working together -- for what matters most. that's why we're here. ♪ more than a year later the nation is still cleaning up the mess from the financial meltdown. it's a major wrert banks. most notely is the fall of lehman brothers and bear stearns and thousands of people laid off and banks all over the world trembled, but new report out today shos that executives at lehman brothers and bear stearns still walked away with millions. nbc lisa myers is here to talk more about this. critics say they were richly rewarded for failure. is that really true? >> i think that's an understatement, monica. this study by experts at harvard law school is appropriately titled wages of failure. it examined the pay of the top five executives at bear stearns and lehman brothers in the years before their firms imploded and it found that since 2000, the top executives at the two firms had received staggering amounts of cash bonuses and it sold mountains of stock. top bear stearns executives cashed out at about $1.4 million and top executives of lehman brothers cashed out about a billion dollars. dripped these during this period they were increasing the firm's leverage and making decisions which later turned out to be catastrophic. >> wow. that is shocking. is there going to be any fallout here? >> well, there really is not a lot that can be done. the stockholders are suing and -- but the ceos say, look. when the companies collapsed, we lost about 900 million dollars worth of stock each, but even counting these losses, the study says that these ceos still came out well ahead of the game. overall, james cain of bear stearns walked away with $388 million and richard fuld cashed out $541 million. neither cayne or fuld have had any comment about these study and both deny wrong doing and say their firms were swept under by a financial tsunami. >> fascinating. lisa myers, thank you so much. >> thank you. interesting news regarding the housing market. according to a new report, more than 1 in 4 homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth. nearly 10.7 million households had negative equity in their homes in the third quarter and so-called underwater mortgages could hurt the housing recovery since the properties are more likely to fall into bank foreclosure. this weekend an estimated 134 million shoppers will hit the stores to buy. key word is buy. that is up nearly 5% from last year. but many are looking for big bargains with rising unemployment and struggling economy, they actually hit the check out counter or a lot of browsing? howard is the chairman of the national retail consulting and investment banking firm. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> we said a lot of people out there but the key word is buy. what will they be buying? >> they be buying what is cheap because unemployment is exploding compared to last year. consumers are saving this year, as opposed to last year, they spent 6% more than they made and have 8 trillion negative effect wealth from housing the consumer's biggest asset. the consumers are train-wrecked and have no income growth. it's a bad situation for the american consumer. >> if it's a bad situation for the consumer it's a bad situation for retailers and the people they employ. >> oh, yes. >> traditionally the black friday was the day you'd see lines. some of the discount stores folks running in just to get their hands on a television set that had been discounted. >> we're going to have lines, of course. there is going to be fewer bags but lots of lines. the name of the game is going to be price. the biggest down trading effect in the history of american retail. the epi 12r with a price war are flat screen tvs but the bottom line people want what is cheap and why family -- that is why 99 cent stores are winning and why starbucks closes stores and mcdonald is winning mccafe. people want what is cheap. >> i'll bring up one name, american girl. a high-end retailer but the kids love it. a lot of the holiday shopping season is born and made for the kids. will we see that kind of spending or walmart is promoting toys for under 10 bucks. >> first of all, an excellent question. if you look at the whole toy industry, it's going to do less than 20 billion and we will have a poor toy season. toys "r" us are doing poorly. price is ruling the game. walmart has 28% of the toy market. versus toys "r" us 16% and down to 16. if you're an american girl and that was your example that is a fabulous example, they are going to win but they only have five stores! i mean, people fly. they take four days off to go to this american girl. it's incredible. they make appointments! american girl is very different but the bottom line is how is the toy business going to do? lousy. and that is why a lot of the toy stocks are down and that is why toys "r" us has strongly negati negative sales. >> we should make it black and blue friday? >> the consumer is dead in the water. food stamps are at record levels. what do you want them to do? >> well, howard, for the sake of the people who work at these stores, hopefully, there will be some silver lining but you are here to present the facts and right now those are the facts about what we might see. thank you very much. >> thank you. 38 million americans are expected to travel this week. those numbers are um from last year, but so is the cost of getting where you are going or would like to go. plus two holiday birds hamming it up and getting 15 minutes of fame today. one lucky and one not so much. details are next. ♪ come on and take a free ride ♪ (male announcer) if you've had a heart attack caused by a completely blocked artery, another heart attack could be lurking, waiting to strike. a heart attack caused by a clot, one that could be fatal. plavix, taken with other heart medicines goes beyond what other heart medicines do alone to provide greater protection against heart attack or stroke and even death by helping to keep blood platelets from sticking together and forming clots. ask your doctor about plavix, protection that helps save lives. 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(male announcer) if you take plavix with other heart medicines continuing to do so will help increase protection against a future heart attack or stroke. feeling better doesn't mean not at risk. stay with plavix. ordinary brushes have straight bristles, like this; which leaves plaque plenty of places to hide. but when you come at it with angles, there is almost no escape. that's why the oral-b crossaction pro-health has angled bristles that fit teeth better than straight bristles to remove up to 99% of hard-to-reach plaque. clean in ways straight bristles don't. oral-b crossaction brushes. the sparkly flakes. the honey-baked bunches! the magic's in the mix. my favorite part? eating it. honey bunches of oats. taste the joy we put in every spoonful. honey bunches of oats. we call the bunches in honey bunches of oats the prize in the box. well, now there's a prize inside the prize. pecans! pecans! baked into crunchy oat bunches. taste the delicious surprise in every spoonful. new honey bunches of oats with pecan bunches. beautiful. oh, boy. so here is an unusual holiday safety tip we'd like to share. look out for the flying ham. and we mean it. celebrity chef paula deen learned this the hard way at an event for worthy cause that was meant to feed the homeless. look at this. >> all of a sudden, this ham that weighed 200 pounds! hit me full on into the face and about knocked me cuckoo but i'm fine. >> so paula later confessed the ham was like eight pounds, but that's still a significant ham to be hitting in the face with! the event was not a total bust. she helped to donate 25,000 pounds of protein to charity and we're happy that she is okay. that is pretty scary. at the white house tomorrow president obama will deliver the annual prethanksgiving pardon of one very lucky turkey. this year, that turkey's name is courage from north carolina who is on display in raleigh in advance of the festivities after being pardoned, courage will fly to disneyland in california to serve as the grand marshal of the thanksgiving day parade! millions of americans have hit the road to take advantage of the long thanksgiving weekend. aaa says the number of people traveling by car is expected to increase by more than 2% over last year. nearly 3 million people will take other modes of transportation including trains and buses. the air transport association predicting, though, airline passenger traffic will drop 4% from last year. genevieve is here with us from travelocity. we are hearing overall travel up from last year, but travel was low last year. and numbers the fact that air travel is down. >> it's true. what is interestizing that the overall price for air travel for thanksgiving is actually slightly lower than it was last year. while gas prices are quite a bit up from where they were last year. yet still more people choosing to drive instead of fly. i think that speaks to people still being a little bit unsure about flying, about spending all that money after all the average round trip domestic ticket for thanksgiving is 636 when you're talking about family of four that can add up and in many cases maybe driving is the more economic choice. good news, though, it is up from last year, and speaks to people feeling more confident. >> what about the number i heard we're down 62% from 2000? that's unbelievable! >> it really is. that has to do with not only fewer people traveling by plane but also the airline capacity cuts that we've seen, especially over the last year and a half or so. airlines consistently cutting back on their capacity to make fewer available seats in an effort to stabilize and raise prices at a time when they certainly need the revenue. >> finally, looking ahead when people booking holiday travel for december are there deals to be had? can they get on the flights if they want to? >> sure but i would tell people to book now and anticipate paying about $400 round trip for domestic flight around the december holidays. look for value in the hotel stays. hotel rates going down while air fares go up and that is where you will find the value in december and into 2010. >> good to know. genevieve, thank you for the ideas. >> thank you. live pickets from the white house east room where just moments away from a joint press conference between president obama and india prime minister singh that is coming up at 11:35 eastern time. the two men just concluding a meeting and we'll have that for you live here on msnbc. - kids: cup-cakes! cup-cakes! cup-cakes! cup-cakes! - come on. cup-cakes! cup-- re-do! re-do! 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( cheering ) announcer: relax. pam helps you pull it off. i just want fewer pills and relief that lasts all day. take 2 extra strength tylenol every 4 to 6 hours?!? taking 8 pills a day... and if i take it for 10 days -- that's 80 pills. just 2 aleve can last all day. perfect. choose aleve and you can be taking four times... fewer pills than extra strength tylenol. just 2 aleve have the strength to relieve arthritis pain all day. welcome back. we have live picks of the white house east room where we expect president obama and india prime minister singh to speak any moment from now. the leaders are right now behind closed doors for talks regarding afghanistan and pakistan. prime minister singh will be the guest of honor tonight at the obama's first state dinner. it's a clear sign of the importance obama administration is playing on india located, obviously, in a volatile region near pakistan and afghanistan. msnbc's chief washington accordance norah o'donnell is in washington with a sneak peek at tonight's event. the big state dinner. so, norah, everybody is talking about who is on the list. i want to know the seating chart and where they are all sitting! forget the list! >> this is the hottest ticket in town. it's the obama's first state dinner so this really does set the standard for how in many ways the obama will entertain formally. and so there are 320 guests expected tonight. that is fairly large, although president clinton hosted 700 guests when he hosted the indiana yeah prime minister back during 2000, i believe it was. this will be 320. they got a big tent out on the lawn there that will be decorated nicely with chandeliers. the prime minister is seth tearian so many expect a heavy emphasis on vegetarian meals. it's not just the powerful from washington invited but the powerful from hollywood will be there and talks about steven spielberg, david geffen has confirmed he will be there and ari emanuel whose brother happens to be chief of staff and the entertainment we've learned jennifer hudson. so she is going to be there at the white house performing tonight and then the white house is bringing pretty mum who else is on this invite list and the other big stars, we have to wait until later tonight but a lot speculated that oprah, of course, the president's good friend from chicago, would be there but i'm hearing she is not going to be at the obama's first state dinner. >> norah, a picture now just came in a few minutes ago. this is the first lady welcoming the prime minister's wife, the two of them seated together. this picture from just moments ago at the white house. there is talk about what the first lady will wear, of course, this evening. >> it was noted already at the arrival ceremony that the first lady was wearing very bright colors, an orange dress. she is in a sleeveless dress there but a coat that went over that in the formal greeting and so lots of bright colors are expected. there are some style experts like robert given from "the washington post" who has said maybe she choose an indian american designer to wear tonight. the first lady's office pointed out michelle obama didn't choose last minute what she wore on inaugural night and they won't until tonight when she wears it. she is in charge of the entertainmenting and give us a preview what is on the menu later this afternoon the theme and different things and the entertainment and it does seem like a lot of pomp that goes on at the white house but it is, in many ways, important because this is about diplomacy and india is the world's largest democracy so also what this is about and get a sense how the obamas entertain. the bush administration did so few of these state dinners in part because it was after 9/11 and see if the obamas sort of change the way the white house is used and do more state dinners. >> interesting to watch it. thank you. >> my pleasure. u.s. and india relations in the spotlight. the prime minister's arrival for tonight's state dinner and david and danny join us now. david, i want to talk. we heard norah talk about the social aspect of this but know there are political ramifications here. is this a good strategy for the president to invite india's prime minister on the first state dinner? >> absolutely. it sends a number of important signals. first of all, a balancing act with respect to inyeah and china. the president has come off a visit to china so having his first state dinner being that of honoring india is an excel let way of balance that and sort of show a unified front on behalf of the united states. the president is about to make a monumental decision on afghanistan and by having his first state dinner be one for india, he is also pointing out the importance of that entire region to the interests of the united states. finally, i just think it's important to point out someone who remembers working in the white house before the state dinner would happen, it's the entire building is a buzz and it's really a way of sort of literally rolling out the red carpet of the united states to another member of the world community and it's such an important symbolic act. it can't be overstated to show that the united states wants to engage the rest of the world and show the united states respects cultures from around the world and let's not forget the president won by asian americans by a large margin so an important symbol here at home to that community. >> danny, as we wait to see the president and prime minister step out, we know they are behind closed doors and part of the conversation is certainly afghanistan and pakistan. you've got vice president dick cheney coming out critical of the administration saying it was dithering but what about making india a key player in whatever happens in afghanistan regarding the strategy? >> i would have to agree. i think our relationship with india will be crucial in terms of defining the trends as we move forward in that entire region of the world. india is going to be important as it relates to china and relates to iran and afghanistan and pakistan. i think it's incredibly important for us to be able to establish a strong working relationship with india on a number of these issues, not only -- also the fact we have a strong competition with them in the economic relationship and we need to cooperate with them and they are one of our major competitors in the world economy so it's important to establish those ties so we can move forward on the major issues and at the same time make sure that our economies are working together for the benefit of both. >> david, still on the topic of afghanistan. savannah guthrie getting word that we will hear from the president, perhaps december 1st, on his afghanistan strategy. he's had his ninth meeting, said to be the final one, yesterday. there will be a troop level increase. we don't know about how many. what do you make of the timing here? after thanksgiving, it's going to be a national address obviously. >> yeah. the difficulty for the president politically here is that he has got on his left flank of his own party a lot of very serious doubts being expressed by people like david obee, chairman of the house appropriations committee and others. i think the way he handles this is important from an intraparty standpoint as it is interparty. it's really got to be one of the hardest decisions he will have made so far in his presidency. the president did say -- this is important with respect to today's meeting -- if our exports to asia went up by 2%, that alone would create hundreds of thousands of jobs here in the united states. so there is an economic, a domestic economic element to things like tonight's state dinner that can't go unstated. >> i do agree it's important for the president to finally get around to the point he is announcing a decision on afghanistan. i think four months after having received recommendations from the military, it's about time for him to be able to demonstrate that leadship. afghanistan is floundering and waiting for a decision and leadership from the president and i think it's time and important to have india on our side so that we have a coordinated front moving forward in afghanistan. >> thank you both very much. we're going to keep an eye on the east room here waiting on the president and the prime minister of india to walk up to the individual podiums and bring that to you. a quick break here on msnbc. we will be right back. 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[ steam hisses ] why use more when you can use less? bring it. with bounty. the thick quicker picker-upper. and try bounty napkins. now with new prints. right now 1.2 mlion people are on sprint mobile broadband. 31 are streaming a sales conference from the road. 154 are tracking shipments on a train. 33 are iming on a ferry. and 1300 are secretly checking email on a vacation. that's happening now. america's most dependable 3g network. bringing you the first and only wireless 4g network. right now get a free 3g/4g device for your laptop. sprint. the now network. deaf, hard-of-hearing and people with speech disabilities access www.sprintrelay.com we're following breaking news out of college park, georgia. this tape coming in to us right now. there you see that man in the jacket has just been arrested. he has led police on a high speed pursuit. he was on his motorcycle. if we can get the tape back we will try to show you actually. he not only took them on this pursuit for some time but he also then somehow managed to crash his motorcycle but still stand up. he didn't appear to be wearing a helmet but he was weaving in and out of traffic and he reached a high rate of speed passing several cars. troopers from the georgia state patrol were following him. they were able to eventually stop him, force him to a stop by boxing him in. he swerved off the road into a grassy area where he ultimately lost control of that bike and laid it down. after crashing that bike, he stood up and he has now been arrested. we'll bring any more details as 42 they come in. iran president ahmadinejad is in south america right now and greeted in brazil with a warm embrace from president silva. a news conference ahmadinejad said a judge will decide the fate of three american hikers detained in his country and hopes the punishment is not severe. the u.s. maintains those hikers crossed into iran by accident long an unmarked border. saudi officials say four men making a pilgrimage to mecca have died of swine flu. the pilgrimage begins at sundown tonight. queen of england is bermuda-bound to mark the 400th anniversary of that island's settlement by the british. 11 more bodies found in a mass grave in the philippines pushing the total death toll there to 46 in some of the deadliest election violence in that nation's history. a watch dog group says as many as 02 journalists along the dead. victims kidnapped yesterday who was traveling with a candidate who was on his way to file candidacy papers for election in may 2010. right now two provinces with violent political rivalries are under emergency rule. major announcement from new york city police commissioner ray kelly. inspector michael blake is being promoted to deputy chief following his assignment as executive officer of the counterterrorism division. in his new role he is in charge of nypd on the terror attacks on the world trade center. >> we're waiting for the president to walk out with the prime minister of india. the two men speaking about afghanistan, pakistan, and the upcoming announcement perhaps from the president regarding his war strategy. the president expecting to make that public information next week. we'll bring you the comments after this closed door meeting after a break. so many arthritis pain relievers -- i just want fewer pills and relief that lasts all day. take 2 extra strength tylenol every 4 to 6 hours?!? taking 8 pills a day... and if i take it for 10 days -- that's 80 pills. just 2 aleve can last all day. perfect. choose aleve and you can be taking four times... fewer pills than extra strength tylenol. just 2 aleve have the strength to relieve arthritis pain all day. wondering who's been naughty this year? the big printer companies. switch to kodak and don't spend another year overpaying for ink. get your new kodak printer this weekend. available at walmart. well, it is being called a republican purity test. a group of conservatives on the republican national committee has come up with a 10-point checklist of core conservative principles and say the rnc should not fund any candidate who scores less than 70%. "the new york times" says the checklist touches on illegal immigration, abortion and military troop surges and president obama's agenda. the checklist will be unveiled at the annual rnc convention in january. president obama may be getting upgrade that is the pentagon is looking into buying some new presidential helicopters for president obama next spring. earlier attempt to build new choppers was axed to control pentagon spending but now the pentagon is now looking at adapting an existing helicopter to save money. it's not yet thanksgiving but some democrats are campaigning like it's 2010. "usa today" says dozens of democrats on the offensive running full-blown campaigns as they run duties in washington. the party of first-term republican loses in the midterm but charlie cook tells "usa today" things could be tougher than usual. this year 49 congressional democrats represent districts carried by john mccain in the '08 presidential election. take you back to the live pictures from the white house. the east room, we are awaiting the president and the india prime minister. we are told they are still conducting their talks in the oval office. the president, of course, along with the first lady welcoming the prime minister, along with his wife earlier this morning and there you see the president corps lined up and waiting to hear from both the president and the india prime minister. we will be following that. with us again is democratic strategist david goodfriend and republican strategist danny vargas. a lot to talk about on the table here, danny, today. also a lot of telegraphing here. right? not only with the welcome, the president availability that we're about to see, the state dinner tonight. that we're about to see and the state dinner tonight and this is one of those moments where the president is able to show the indian prime minister that if you have concerns that we're putting you at the very top of our list right now. >> so many different audiences that the president has at this moment. he has, first and foremost, the american people acting like a world leader building ties and alliances and strengthening economic and military and diplomatic ties and at the same time the president has overseas. aligning with the united states is something that is positive for the country and i'll never forget the feeling i got riding through a presidential motorcade and having people cheer for president clinton. the leaders look out the window and see their own people supporting the united states. same thing here, if president obama is projecting a positive image of the united states overseas, especially in a democracy, like india, that will help him build his ties that we need so desperately overseas right now as we look at afghanistan and exports to other parts of the world and own economic growth here at home, all those things are very important. >> danny, what do you think in terms of, from the prime minister's perspective today, what's number one on his list? we know they are going it be talking about afghanistan and talking about nuclear energy and climate change, what would be from his perspective, number one on the agenda today? >> i think economic issues will also have a huge seat at the table in terms of these discussions. we have to remember that india is the largest democracy in the world. 1.2 billion people and second fastest growing economy in the world and it's estimated by 2020 the number three economy in the world and we know that india is graduating annually and 420,000 engineers compared to our 70,000. we need to play some catch up and the positive aspect of this trip is the fact that i hope it forces this administration on growing jobs and the economy as opposed to dealing with other issues that are having a negative impact on the economy. it's important for us to be able to see this visit by the indian prime minister as a way to be able to get back on that laser light focus to help our economy grow and focus back on creating jobs and creating a better competitive environment in the united states. >> we want to bring in nbc mike viqueira at the white house with us, as well. the recent headlines following the president, the asia trip, afghanistan now talking about this pending decision that he'll make expected now next wooeek. we'll hear so much from the indian prime minister with the state dinner and hearing about it tomorrow and is there concern that the president is focusing too much on foreign policy now when the american people at home right now are saying we're thinking about jobs, jobs, jobs. >> i think you just put your finger on it, monica, especially the concern among democrats in the house. i mean, you're starting to see the seeds of a little bit of a rebellion before congress went away for the thanksgiving recess and the finance committee, members of the congressional black caucus and a group of ten democrats refusing to vote to go with the financial regulatory reform that is so dear to the president that he has repeated and especially within that bill itself and you've got the leadership huddling behind closed doors in the house and is the nat talking about a "new jobs bill" that they will attack as a second stimulus. you've got the unemployment rate continuing now above that psychological threshold of 10.2%. 17% by some lights, if you count people who have simply given up looking for work or working part-time or not fully employed and a great deal of anxiety as we head into the election year that the economy is sort of taking a back seat in washington even though the president has called a job summit, they're doing all that they can. he's going to oslo in a few weeks to accept a nobel prize. that's not necessarily going to play into what many rank and file democrats would like to be seeing here from the white house, monica. >> we continue to watch here. we are expecting the president and the indian prime minister momentarily. meantime, mike viqueira and david vargas, thanks to all of you. we appreciate it. we want to get you updated on political headlines we're following right now. south carolina mark sanford faces his first day of impeachment hearings and must answer to new ethics charges and former alaska governor sarah palin is well on her way to selling a million books. "going rogue" sold 700,000 copies in its first week of release. arnold schwarzenegger announcing he is appointing senator state as lieutenant governor. he made that announcement on jay leno, of all places last night and he also said that is where he announced he was running for governor. that does it for this hour, thanks for joining us. i'm tam ron hall, see you back here at 3:00 p.m. eastern. >> i'm going to stick around, dr. nancy snyderman picks up our coverage from here. what do you have coming up? >> politics in washington, d.c., with health care reform and alleged murder or assault, whatever you want to call it. boy, it has drugs, sex, fetus, girlfriends, miami drama. we'll have that coming up and, obviously, all eyes still on washington with the president and prime minister of india awaiting their press conference. coming up on noon on the east coast and the doctor is in. here are ways to boost productivity. retrain or cross train employees so your business can run on a lean staff. set standards. measure productivity and create realistic goals and develop leaders internally instead of hiring outsiders. i'd like one of those desserts and some coffee. - sure, cake or pie? - pie. - apple or cherry? - cherry. oil or cream? oil or cream? cream. some use hydrogenated oil. reddi-wip uses real dairy cream. nothing's more real than reddi-wip. we know why we're here. to design the future of flight, inside and out. to build tomorrow's technology in amazing ways. and reshape the science of aerospace... forever. around the globe, the people of boeing... are working together -- for the dreams of generations to come. that's why we're here. the new colgate 360 actiflex. oh yeah. look at those moves. i hear he cleans more than just teeth. and since 80% of bacteria aren't on teeth his flexible head moves left, right. it really cleans around and in-between teeth. and gums too. whoa. and he goes in with the cheek and tongue cleaner-- ow! knocking out more bacteria with a one-two punch. ouh! the whole mouth is clean! bacteria down for the count! 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