one-termer. the vibe was bad enough this week. the top obama campaign strategist sent a memo to reporters noting that the president s support from the democratic base is strong. the same cannot be said of independents. 54% disapprove of how he s doing his job. things can change between now and november 2012. the more immediate question is whether president obama has the political capital to sell his jobs plan to the public and push it through congress. joining us now, the number two democrat in the senate, senator dick durbin. thank you so much for being here. and let s just start with that question. we do see a president who s being openly criticized by democrats, whose poll numbers are falling. a weak economy. and people just not really sure this jobs plan is going to work. how do you sell that to the public and how do you pass that in the senate? candy, you can understand the skepticism of americans. they ve watched the confrontation in washington virtually threaten to
that was cool. american morning continues right now. after the deluge, i m christine romans, tropical storm lee now a tropical depression, but still, packing plenty of rain after dumping a foot on parts of the gulf coast. i m carol costello. right now massive wildfires threatening to burn down thousands of homes in texas. it is the worst fire season in state history and it s far from over on this american morning. all right. good morning, everybody. it s monday, september 5th. labor day. welcome to american morning. ali is off today. happy labor day. i hope you re not laboring. i really do. up first this morning, tropical storm lee now downgraded to a tropical depression but it s still a major rainmaker as it moves across the southeast. the storm dumping a foot of rain along the gulf coast. it also spawned several tornadoes including one in mobile county, alabama. it ripped the roof off of one home, uprooted trees, and brought down power lines. here s what lee
knew he may not get a second term. he needed to fix things, now, because america was in such, as we say from the carter days, in such a malaise. he stayed the course and we came out with 20 million jobs and growth in the economy and the united states american being a shiny city on the hill he talked about. neil: but it looked dicey, we were still in the resex and still concerns it would drag on, and your father would be a one-termer. did he ever say to you, son, well, maybe i botched it. guest: no, no, he never said that. this is a father saying to his son, when i asked him for a larger allowance, he said when they cut my taxes i will give you a larger allowance. he understood that. he understood i would spend a larger allowance and he understood that. he absolutely understood that. he never worried about those decisions he made. the only thing that ever
a the latest poll numbers show it may not matter who runs on the presidential ticket. nearly half of american voters aren t sure they want to re-elect the commander-in-chief. here he is right now. scott rasmussen joining us live. 45% say they are behind the president. but 44% said whoever the republican candidate may be, that s who they are going for. what do these numbers tell us? the last four presidential elections have been one with someone between 4 an between 49f the vote. anybody telling you they are certain the president is going to win or certain he s going to be a one-termer. they are either lying to you or
oh, we don t unfortunately, we don t have jim maceda s report, but here s what we know right now. we do know that the government forces are making their way toward benghazi at this point and the new york times says it s holding out hope that its four reporters are still alive and just in the custody of the libyan government. so we ll keep our tabs on this story as we get more details in. secretary of state hillary clinton says she s a one-termer. clinton says she doesn t want to stay in her current post past 2012 if president obama wins re-election. she also said during one tv interview that she s not interested in running for president or vice president. a record number of americans say they re worried about climbing gas prices and u.s. dependence on foreign oil. the consumer federation of america says nine out of ten adults are concerned about the rising cost of fuel. in fact, 79% say they re greatly