on alert, several european nations say they have uncovered an al qaeda plan for a mumbai-style attack in major cities. tropical trouble. florida bracing for up to eight inches of rain from tropical storm nicole and the entire east coast could get soaked. inspiration or turnoff as the president prepares for another one of those backyard discussions. is he alienating the people who got him his job? >> so sorry about this. oh, my god. i don't know what to say. this is not, this was a complete accident, i'm so sorry. it's amanda. i'm so sorry. and brutal mistake or lame publicity stunt? the questions are swirling about this model contestant embarrassment. we begin with new details on the al qaeda terror plot. france the uk and germany are believed to be the targets. officials here are investigating whether any attacks were planned here for the u.s.

france has been on heightened alert for several weeks and just yesterday a threat forced the eiffel tower to be evacuated. nbc jenny is live in london with the very latest. jenny, i understand london security level is at severe. what else can you tell us? >> well, yes, the security levels have been at severe since january, actually. we are on a heightened state of alert here. the reason that the threat level is still at severe meaning that a terror attack is highly likely means that this plot has been uncovered. nbc news has learned from talking to pakistani intelligence officials that some british born pakistanis were arrested in pakistan earlier this month. now, when they were interrogated by the u.s., the british and pakistani intelligence officials, they revealed that they had planned to go on a shooting spree, possibly starting in the uk and it's slightly unclear and they certainly go on to attack france, germany and denmark, as

well. in response to this, the u.s. has actually stepped up their number of drone attacks in northern pakistan. in the last month alone, they pretty much doubled their usual number of attacks so there have been 21 attacks in total. if you compare that to the whole of the year so far for 2010, 76 in total and if you compare that to 2009, they were just 53. so, there really has been a huge response to this. and the plots they were attempting to foil was stalled on the indian/mumbai style massacre that went on in mumbai when 174 people were killed. that's what they were attempting to avert. they do believe that they have caught this plan and it's very early, if not embryonic stages and that is perhaps why we haven't moved up to a critical level of threats which would mean that an attack is imminent. at the moment, just highly likely. >> jenny, thank you very much.

now, let's bring in andy hayman and also former assistant commissioner at scotland yard. andy, thanks for joining us. first, let me get your insight on this alleged mumbai-style attack not using suicide bombers, but heavy arsenal and a lot of ammunition as part of this plot. what is your take on, if this is actually true, this ethudmethod attack. >> we have seen in this country some real-life preparations by the government. ministers and the police and the intelligence agencies have been put to their paces and get themselves ready should this ever happen. the other thing we should be surprised, this is the way in which the trend is starting to develop. one thing about setting off a suicide attack or suicide bomber is once the bomb has been d detonated the authorities can control what is going on very quickly. you control with a mumbai attack and the terror going through the

public is dreadful. they see it unfolding in front of their eyes and this unfolding attack and indiscriminate attack is in the news media and the police are finding it very difficult to control it. >> andy, as our reporter jenny just pointed out, the cia has stepped up the drone attacks targeting the al qaeda units expected of planning this attack. does that help or does that hurt? >> well, this is an international pledge to make itself safe. not only keep the streets safe in the communities being in the united states or united kingdom but you also have to be out there and doing the drone attacks to try to disrupt the senior command. all those things must be connected and linked. without either one of those, you are doing the best to keep us safe. >> andy hayman, thank you very much for joining us from our london bureau and this developing news. thank you, andy. back here in the states we're watching a powerful storm re raining down on florida.

what was tropical storm 16 was upgraded to tropical storm nicole. heavy rains are hampering the sunshine state. nicole is churning up rough surf and up and down the florida coast. in fact, emergency officials are urging residents to prepare for possible flooding. heavy downpours have already dropped several inches of rain in south florida and slowed traffic on area roads to a crawl. further north, south carolina's coast is also starting to feel the effects of the storm and that is where we find the weather channel's mike seidel in north myrtle beach, south carolina. it now has a name nicole, mike. >> yeah, tamron. let me give you a little background on this. just because it's a named storm does not change the impacts. it is not that big of a deal. they upgraded it because it's now above 39 to a tropical storm. but the impact, still, very heavy rin. we had issues with flooding in jamaica and cuba, we had flooding in kingston, jamaica

and as you mention south florida. up here ahead of the storm, wilmington had two inches of rain this morning and 15 inches of rain since monday and the ground is saturated. the play by play. this tropical storm is on life support and it is going to move past florida and dissipate tomorrow. but the show is not over with. this front down the east coast and that's funneling the rain up towards richmond and washington. another storm will form on that front later today and this evening. that will be a nontropical system. that is the storm that will come up over here up towards richmond into washington and then up into the northeast and tomorrow. all the big cities under flood watches and some gusty winds and we could have power outages. so, nicole will not be the player in the weather focus tonight, tomorrow and tomorrow night into the northeast and new england. it will be another storm completely nontropical in nature. with that said, let's show you the rainfall forecast. that's going to be the other angle all the way from here up into the northeast. flood watches posted anywhere from three to six inches of

rain, some spots may get as much as seven or eight inches of rain. so flooding is going to be an issue and, tamron, we have seen so many times with these storms. if some of the strong winds at 10,000 feet blowing at 80 or 90 miles per hour may get mixed or transferred down, we will have power outages in the mid-atlantic and northeast beginning tomorrow and tomorrow night. we're not out of the woods although by tomorrow, we. waiting for president obama to hold the latest in backyard discussions. he is expected to talk about the economy. at the home of jeff and sandy club. in fact 70 of their friends and neighbors were invited. you had to be invited to this, you cant can't ju you just can't show up in someone's backyard. you might recall it was yesterday at a backyard meeting or discussion that the president was asked why he was a christian and that has set off a lot of

conversation, as well. as we wait for the president to speak, we look at what polls repeatedly show. is the number one issue for americans this november, i don't have to tell you, you tell us all the time. the economy. our own nbc news "the wall street journal" poll show 70% do not think the recession is over. 19% thought it ended in 2009. just 19 in our poll said the recession is over. joining me now is jodylevin of the law and social policy. good to see you. >> good to see you, too. the experts say the recession is over and 70% of the folks out there who participated in this poll say it is not. where is the disconnect? >> both make sense. the recession is technically over. there is a little known group, the national bureau of economic research which makes the call as to whether or not we have ended the recession. they only look, though, at macro economic issues like gross

domestic product. they're not asking questions about whether families are feeling the pinch or having a hard time making ends meet or asking the question, are communities in distress or asking the question, how many businesses are feeling insecure. >> but aren't those exactly the questions that should be asked? >> well, it's a technical, macro economic question that needs to be asked and answered and we've gotten that question. it doesn't mean the effects of the recession have ended. there's a shortage of jobs and a shortage of services. on the job's side, what we have today is five job seekers for every job opening. that's a ton of people pounding the streets and getting no where. >> and combine that, jody, with 41% in our poll think the economy will stay it the same in the coming year. 32% think it is going to get better and 32% think it will get better and 24% think it will get worse. consumer confidence plays a

great role in this. if i am next in line to lose my job or my spouse, i would imagine that that person is less likely to get a home and try to buy anything and you just try to get the basics to survive of fear what is going to be next. >> government can make a difference. we already know that about half a million people stayed in the middle class because of provisions in the recovery act. according to the latest data. so, that's important. congress can make a difference. it recently missed a chance to save a job which provided over a quarter million jobs and it has more opportunity in the lame duck session to get back those jobs for people who need them. and that will help bring back some sense of security. congress has a chance with another kind of effort that will help with people who need jobs. it's called work share. senator reid from rhode island has a bill that enables the

insurance program to help employers who want to avert job layoffs. these are decisions that congress has a chance to make in the coming weeks and we need government support to take care of those problems. what we also know, for example, is that people are losing child care in states around the country. child care slots are being eliminated. 4,000 in arizona, for example. we need funding to go get jobs and keep them. unless those investments are made now, this cycle will get worse. >> jody, thank you very much. greatly appreciate it. thanks, jody, again. some of the democratic base are pushing back against the president today. recently president obama and the vice president scolded the liberal base saying activists need to focus on defeating republicans in the midterm elections. in an interview with "rolling stone" yesterday president obama said, "it is inexcusable for any

democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines in this midterm election. we have to get folks off the sidelines. people need to shake off this lethergy." what was the president's tone? >> the president had left the oval office and shouted from the oval office and came back and said, i have one more thing i want to say on the record and made a very impassioned heel to democratic voters to get out to the polls. >> that's interesting that the interview was done and he came back to make that point. also another point bringing about change is hard and has been hard. we have some lumps to show for it. if people want to take their ball and go home, it tells me folks weren't serious in the first place. >> when you read the whole interview which is a substantive take on the issues, you get the president's view. which he feels they accomplished a lot in very difficult situation and about 70% of his agenda, he said. he accomplished in less than the first two years and that's

really not getting appreciated and the voters need to take the long view and realize the alternative is a lot worse. >> do you get the impression that this was a call to arms, if you will? >> absolutely. they know a lot of dissatisfaction and they know that they need to fire people up. >> eric, thank you very much. joining me now for reaction to what the president said jane hampshire a leading blog. good to see you again. >> thank you, tamron, good to be here. >> are you ready to buck up? >> i'm not quite sure who the president is talking about and no one is asking him that question who specifically do you mean. we raised $22,000 for russ feingold yesterday and helping him get re-elected in wisconsin. i think there are things that people are doing. the thing that people want from president obama is to inspire the surge voters who came out for him and for him to be at this point, not only making himself a story, but telling these people that they weren't

serious in the first place doesn't seem like any kind of political wisdom that any democratic consultant is running right now. >> they want to now take their ball and go home that that tells them they weren't serious in the first place. you have to be in it for the long run. things don't happen overnight. it's not broken overnight. if you saw it as being broken and it can't be fixed overnight. are you impatient or are some of the liberals impatient, jane? >> i don't think that. that is a strong man argument. if you're specifically referring to people who are unhappy with what's happened with gay rights or what happened with civil liberties because people are concerned with things that the president has affirmatively done. and that isn't, that doesn't have anything to do with things not happening fast enough. that has to do with the fact that he has done things. he has taken actions that are very much against what he says he believes in. the greater question, what is the president doing making himself the story this close to an election. >> he is the leader of the party. he is the story.

>> he shouldn't, well, the people who should be the story right now, if he's concerned about getting them re-elected are the members of congress who have acted hur eed huroically a supported his legislation like the health care bill which many people like myself did not want passed. why is he talking about these people? everybody knows you don't get people to vote by hectoring and lecturing them. you get people the vote by inspiring them. that's what he did when his own election was up for grabs. now that he is in this position, i think he is more concerned with laying off the blame for any potential losses in november on liberal critics rather than actually getting people out to vote. the actions he is taking is not conducive to actually getting more people to the polls. >> jane, thank you very much, jane. always a pleasure to have you on reacting to the story. thank you. president obama right now speaking about the economy at a backyard event in des moines. we'll bring you his comments live after a very short break.

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let's take you live now to des moines, iowa, where the president is holding one of the backyard discussions. let's listen in. >> be able to support a family. they're going to be able to send their kids to a good school and send them to college. they're going to be able to retire with dignity and respect and they're going to be able to afford health care and not go bankrupt when they get sick. that has to be the orientation and everything we think about is how do we make sure that if people are out here working hard and taking responsibility for their themselves and their families that they are rewarded. that is the essence of the american dream. the second thing that we have to keep in mind is that we've got to make tough choices if we're going to solve some of these long-term problems that we have been putting off and that means putting aside some of the

politics as usual and it also means sometimes telling folks things they don't want to hear. now, we're in election season, so, that second part of the formula is very hard to apply. and i just want to say and then i'm just going to open it up for comments and questions. when you look at the choice we face in this election coming up, the other side what it's really offering is the same policies that from 2001 to 2009 put off hard problems and didn't really speak honestly to the american people about how we're going to get this country on track over the long-term. and i just want to use, as an example, the proposal that they put forward with respect to tax policy. they want to borrow $700 billion to provide tax cuts for the top

2% of americans. people making more than $250,000 a year. it would mean an average of $100,000 check to millionaires and billionairs. that's $700 billion we don't have. so we'd either have to borrow it, which would add to our deficit or we'd have to cut j t just. to give you an example, 20% of the amount of money we spend on education, we'd have to cut investments we've made in clean energy. we'd have to cut investments we made in head start. we we'd have to cut inimprovements in terms of student loans in terms of kids going to college that would affect about 8 million kids. so, that's an example of where, you know, you have a choice to make.

you can't say you want to balance the budget, deal with our deficit, invest in our kids and have a $700 billion tax cut that affects only 2% of the population. you just can't do it. so, i hope that as you go forward, not just over the next six weeks before the election, but over the next two years or next six years or next ten years, as you're examining what is taking place in washington, that you just keep in mind that we're not going to be able to solve our big problems unless we honestly address them. it means that we have the next generation important then we have to act like it and we can't pretend that there are short cuts that we can cut our taxes, completely have all the benefits that we want and balance the budget and not make any tough

choices. that's, you know, i think more than anything the message that i want to be communicating to the american people in the months and years ahead. anyway, with that, i just want to open it up. i know that there are microphones somewhere in the audience. we have these terrific young people who volunteered. so, just raise your hand and they'll find you. here you go, why don't we start right here? please introduce yourself. >> good morning, mr. president. my name is mary steer. welcome back to iowa. >> thank you, mary. great to be back. >> i have a 24-year-old son who campaigned fiercely for you and was very inspired by your message of hope. >> yeah. >> he graduated from simpson college about a year and a half ago with honors. >> congratulations. >> and he's still struggling to find a full-time job. >> right.

>> and many of his friends are struggling. they are losing their hope which is a message that you inspired them with. could you speak to that, how you would speak to the young men and women in our country who are struggling to find a job and speak to that message of hope? >> you know, i was in madison, wisconsin, yesterday and we had about 25,000, mostly young people come out. and it was, it was a terrific reminder of the fact that young people still have so much energy and so much enthusiasm for the future. but they're going through a tough time. look, this generation that is coming of age is going through the toughest economy of any generation since the 1930s. that's, that's pretty remarkable. most of us, in fact i'm just

looking around the room, i think it's fair to say that nobody here remembers the economy of the great depression. so, the worst economy we had gone through, maybe one. maybe one, maybe a couple. but you guys look really good for your age, though. so, but for most of us, you know, the worst we had seen before was the 1981 recession and the 1991 recession and the recession 2001. this recession had more imfact on middle class families than those other three recessions combined in terms of job loss and how it affected people's incomes. that will have an effect on an entire generation. it means that they're worried about the future in a way that most of us weren't worried the way when we got out of college. now, here's the good news. i said this to young people.

i think that this generation, your son's generation is smarter, more sophisticated, more passionate. has a broader world view. i don't think they take things for granted. they're willing to work hard for whatever they can achieve. i think they think about the community. and other people and they just don't have a narrow focus on what's in it for me. when i meet young people these days, i am very impressed with them. i think they are terrifically talented. so, their future will be fine. but, in the short term what i'd say to them is that, first of all, we're doing everything we can to make sure that they can get the best education possible. one thing we did this year that didn't get a lot of attention. we were able to change the

student loan program out of the federal government to save about $60 billion that will go directly to students in the form of higher grants, reduced loan burdens, debt burdens when they get out of college. it will make a difference to them. so, we're going to do everything we can to make sure we can succeed educationally. number two, obviously, we're doing everything we can to grow the economy so that if they've got the skills, they're going to be able to find a job in this new economy and, as i said, we've seen private sector job growth eight consecutive months now. the economy is growing, it's just not growing as fasts as we'd like it. partly because there's still some head winds. we had some overlang becauhang the problems in the housing market and the housing market is a big chunk of our economy. all that excess inventory of houses that were built during the housing bubble. they're getting absorbed and slowly that will start

improving. so, the expectation is that although we're not growing as fast as we can. if we're making some good choices about providing small business as tax breaks and helping to shore up the housing market, that over the next couple of years you're going to start seeing steadily the economy improving. if the young people like yourself are prepared, if they're focused and equipped, they're going to be able to find a good job. in the meantime, what we've done also is made sure, for example, is that your son can stay on your health insurance until the age of 26, which because of health care reform. and that is going to relieve some of the, you know, stress that they're feeling right now. and then, finally, what i'd tell your son is that we're trying to make some tough decisions now so that by the time he has his own son or daughter that we are back to number one in research and development and back to number

one in the proportion of college graduates and back to number one in terms of inoovation and entrepreneurship that we have succeeded in creating a competitive america that, you know, will ensure this 21st century is the american century, just like the 20th century was. but, it's going to take some time. and, so, the main message i have to young people. in some ways, this generation may be less fixed on immediate gratification than our generation was. partly because they've seen, you know, how some hardship in their own families and in their own careers. >> okay. who's next? gentlemen right here. >> my name is bob bramer and i live about five or six blocks away in beaverdale and we're really glad you came here, mr. president. >> thank you. it is not hard to come here. this is a nice neighborhood, by

the way. i love these big trees. it's beautiful. >> my question relates to things halfway around the world and how they affect the economy. particularly the wars and the enormouses amount of spending that has gone into that over the last decade, not just the last couple years. this is what i'd ask. those decade-long conflicts have had an enormous cost in terms of peopeople killed and wounded an they had a gigantic cost in terms of money and resources and people diverted to the war. when can we look forward to reducing the huge spending on these wars and is it possible that kind of funds could help us square up our budget and give us crucial resources to strengthen our economy right here at home? >> well, you know, as i said at a speech i made at west pointe

talking about afghanistan that i'm interested in nation building here at home. that's the nation i want to build more than anything else. as you know because it was a big issue when i was campaigning here in iowa. i was opposed to the war in iraq from the start. i made a commitment that i would bring that war to a responsible end and we ended our combat mission in iraq and we pulled out 100,000 troops out of iraq since i was in office. so, that's a commitment we followed up on. now, afghanistan was a war that most people right after 9/11 i think overwhelmingly understood was important and necessary. we had to go after those who had killed 3,000 americans. we had to make sure that al qaeda did not have a safe haven inside al qaeda to plan more attacks.

and, you know, you can speculate as to whether if we hadn't gone into iraq, we had just stayed focused on afghanistan whether by now we would have created a stable situation and we would not have a significant presence there. but that's not what happened. so, when i walked in, what we had was a situation in afghanistan that had badly deteriorated over the course of seven years and where the taliban was starting to take over half of the country again. you had a very weak afghan government and in the border region between afghanistan and pakistan, you had al qaeda still plotting to attack the united states. now, i had said during the campaign we need to make sure that we're getting afghanistan right. and what i committed to when i came into office was, we'll put additional resources, meaning

troops and money on the civilian side to train up afghan forces, make sure that the afghan government can provide basic services to its people. but what i also said is we're not going to do it in an open-ended way. we're going to have a time frame within which afghan starts having to take more responsibility for their own country. and i said that on july of next year, we're going to begin a transition of shifting from u.s. troops to afghan troops in many of these areas. now, the situation there is very tough. you know, afghanistan is the second poorest country in the world. there are lot of countries in the world. this is the second poorest. it has a 70% illiteracy rate.

it had no significant traditions of a strong central government that could provide services to its people or a civil service or just the basic infrastructure of a modern nation state. so, we're not going to get it perfect there. it is messy, it is hard and the toughest job i have is when i deploy young men and women into a war theater because some of them don't come back. and i'm the one who signs those letters. to family members offering condolences for the enormous sacrifice of their loved ones. but, i do think that what we are seeing is the possibility of training of afghan forces more effectively, keeping pressure on al qaeda so that they're not able to launch big attacks and that over the next several years, as we start phasing down,

those folks start lifting up. here's the impact it will have on our budget. there are still going to be some hangover costs from these two wars. the most obvious one being veterans. which, we haven't always taken care of as well as we should have and i had to ramp up veteran spending significantly because i think that's a sacred trust. they've served us well, we have to serve them well. and that means -- you know, services for posttraumatic stress disorder and reducing back logs in terms of getting disability claims and help specifically for women veterans who are much more in the line of fire now than they had ever been before. all those things cost some money. so, even as we start winding down the war in afghanistan,

it's not as if there is going to be a huge piece dividend right away. but what it does mean is that we'll be able to more responsibly manage our military budget and this is another example of where you can't say you want to balance the budget and not take on reform in the pentagon. i mean, we've already pushed hard to eliminate some weapons programs in the pentagon budget that the generals, the people who actually do the fighting say we don't need. but getting those programs shut down is very difficult because, typically, there's not a single weapons program out there that doesn't have some part being built in 40 different congressional districts in o10 or 20 different states so that everybody has a political vested interest in keeping it going. bob gates, my defense secretary

has been really good about pushing hard on that and we've won some battles, but this is going to be an area that we have to take a serious look at, as well. when we put forward a plan for getting a handle on our long-term debt and deficits. okay. all right. i'm going to go boy, girl, boy, girl. just to let everybody know i'm fair here. right here. >> hi, my name is ju net mackenzie and my mother lives with my husband and i. we take care of her, she has lived with us for six years now. she is currently in a nursing home getting rehab. >> right. >> i have great concerns over your health bill. one of the ladies in admissions over there, whom i was talking with the other week started, she's from england and her family is still in england. >> right. >> she was explaining to us how

telling us what we had to look forward to here. her sister worked as a nurse in the same hospital for 20 years. she was 55. she was told she needed open heart surgery. she was put on a ten-year waiting list. three years later she had a major heart attack and they were forced to give her that surgery that she needed. >> right. >> i realize you're saying, you know, that 26 year olds have health insurance and they won't have to worry about that. my mother always told me, the older you get, the faster time goes. when he said that to me years back i thought she was crazy. >> i noticed this, too. >> yeah. these 26 year olds in a heart beat are going to be 50, 55. when you're young, you're supposed to be able to work hard for what you want.

you build up your, your income, you further yourself. >> right. >> so you can retire and have peace of mind. it's hard to, i can't fathom now, how can you be excited in your youth when you have to save, save, save just to protect yourself health insurance wise when you reach our age. >> let me ask you a question, though, i mean, you said you're worried about my health reform bill and the nurse said here's what you had to look forward to. is your mom on medicare? >> yes. >> yeah. so, the, there's nothing in our health reform bill that is going to impact whether your mom can get heart surgery if she needed it. we didn't change the core

medicare program. so, unless there's something specific that you're worried about. >> medicare doesn't start until you're 65. >> no, no, i understand. >> i'm talking about 50, 55 years old. >> all right, so, if you're not on medicare -- >> yes, right. >> do you have health insurance? >> yes. right now. >> so, there's nothing in the bill that says you have to change the health insurance that you've got right now. i just want to identify what your worry is because i want to say you shouldn't be worried about it. but what is it that you think might happen to your health insurance as a consequence of health care reform? >> okay. what i'm concerned about is say if my, just say if my husband got laid off. >> right. >> say we had no health. >> you had no health insurance. now, right now, before reform, if you had no health insurance,

you would just be out of luck. >> and then we get the government-run health insurance, right? >> well, no. >> is that what you're saying? >> here's the way it would work. so, let me just kind of map it out for you. if you were already getting health insurance on your job, then that doesn't change. you know, health insurance reform was passed six months ago. i don't know if anybody here has gotten a letter from their employer saying you now have to go into government-run health care because we can't provide health insurance any more. that hasn't happened, right? you are keeping the health insurance that you had through your job and the majority of people still get health insurance through your job. the only changes we've made on people's health insurance who already have it was to make it a little more secure by saying there's certain things insurance companies can't do. a patients' bill of rights, basically.

so, insurance companies can no longer drop your coverage when you get sick, which was happening. sometimes there were some insurance companies that were going through your policy when you got sick to see if you had filled out the form wrong, you hadn't listed some infection that they might call a pre-existing condition, et cetera, a bunch of fine print that lets people not having health insurance. that was one thing that we said. we said also that you can keep kids on your health insurance until they're 26. that children with pre-existing conditions had to be covered under health insurance. so, there were a handful of things that we said insurance companies have to do, just as good business practices to protect consumers. but, otherwise, you can stay on your employer's health care. that's if you have health insurance. the other thing we did was we said if you're a lot of people who don't have health insurance is because they work for small businesses who have trouble affording health insurance

because they're not part of a big pool. you know, they're not like a big company that has thousands of employees and they can negotiate because the insurance companies really wants their business. so, what we said was, let's provide tax breaks to small businesses so they can, they're more likely to buy health insurance for their employees and right now about 4 million businesses across the country are now getting a tax break, a tax credit, if they provide health insurance for their employees. it could save them tens of thousands of dollars. that's the second thing. the third thing we said was, okay, if you don't have health insurance, let's just say your job doesn't offer you health insurance or you lose your job, then what we're going to set up is what's called an exchange, which is basically a big pool, you become part of this big group of people just like as if

you were working for a big company or a big university like drake, you become part of this pool and you'll be able to buy your own insurance through this pool, but the rates will be lower and you'll get a better deal because you've got the bargaining power of these thousands or millions of people who you're buying it with. you'll still have a choice of plans. you'll have a choice of blue cross and a choice of this plan or that plan but you'll be buying it through a pool and if you can't afford it, then we'll provide you some subsidies to see if we can help you buy it. so, make it affordable. that's especially what health reform is about. now, what that means is -- >> president obama answering a wide range of questions from health care, which he's answering now to the money being spent on the war in afghanistan. we're going to continue the president speaking at one of these backyard discussions.

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for the second time in a week an airplane had to make an emergency landing due to faulty landing gear. last night the skywest flight landed safely in milwaukee, wisconsin. only two of the three sets of landing gear were functioning. 36 people were onboard. they are looking into this incident as well as saturday night's emergency landing at jfk in new york. tom costello joins us from washington, d.c. people want to know what is going on here. >> i don't think you can draw conclusions necessarily. these are made by the regional canadian planemaker. the plane involved in the incident last night was a crj 200 series, the one last saturday was a 900 series. essentially what you have is a regional jets that are involved in a series of landing gear mishaps. i think it's important to point

out that these planes are flown widely around the world. 60 different countries fly the crjs and they are a very reliable plane, something like 22, 25 million flight hours already have been racked up with this particular series of plane. you know, when you have so many takeoffs and landings or cycles as they call them in a particular day, in the case of a regional jet, you're talking 15 to 20 30 psyc30 cycles per day. this is a mechanical type of structure and you can have problems from time to time. the question is, of course, why? the ntsb tells me it's looking at the case so is the faa and there have been a series of minor landing gear issues with this particular type of plane. the crj, but nothing so far to link them altogether or to say that there is some sort of a common problem. so the ntsb is investigating. i think it will probably be very

premature and probably irresponsible for anybody to suggest that the plane isn't safe. it has a very good track record and the question is, why have they had a is why had they had a couple of these -- and it's literally only a couple of instances in which the landing gear does not come down properly. >> and people have been asking why there is a couple, and i have not read or heard anybody imply that there is a big problem here, but i have heard the question why a couple? >> yeah, fair question. up next, does money matter when it comes to education. it's part of our education nation. that's a big question, up next. replant a forest? maybe you want to rebuild homes for those in need? or, maybe you want to help improve our schools? whatever you want to do, members project from american express

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welcome back. we are back with education nation, and a week-long focus on our nation's schools.

could the problem be fixed by adding more money. good to see you, michelle. >> good to see you. >> doesn't money fix everything? >> it does not. money is important. we have seen all week this week with education nation, you know, people who have told us, for example, neighborhoods where the families are wealthier and the schools are better, but it's not the sole determining factor. in columbia, or in newark, new jersey, they spend more money per student than most states in the country, and they have been bismol. >> when you add in the $100 million donation to the school system, you do wonder what is going on here, money if it's not well spent or directed does nothing. >> absolutely. i will give you an example. there is a cool in oakland,

california, it's called the american indian public charter school. they spend $7,000 per year per student. every single student graduates and goes on to college. they have the highest sat scores in the nation. and that's with $7,000 a year per student. the entire discussion cannot revolve around money, but it has to revolve around teacher excellence. how to reward teachers that are able to help students in the neighborhood. if you live in a poor neighborhood, it doesn't mean you are incapable of learning. you need good teachers. we need to promote teacher excellence, and merit pay, and do something about how teachers are tenured in this country, and allow teachers to be rewarded for the good work they do, and it's not money, it's the political grid unions have the

system. >> the president is in iowa with that backyard discussion, but i know this discussion will continue regarding education and reform. thank you, michelle. always good to have you on. that does it for me this hour. contessa, what do you have? >> president obama campaigning like it's 2008, trying to fire up the base to come to vote for the democrats in november. plus, a threat of terrorism has europe on the edge after reports of mumbai-style attacks being failed. are terrorists really planning attacks against these targets? one thing, people are not getting married like they used to. we will tell you how else america has changed. stay with me.

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