shook up. the bachmann campaign pressing on with a new man at the helm. big changes at the top and the questions they're raising about the congresswoman's campaign. >> i'm carol costello. president obama offering up one hint about his highly anticipated jobs plan. his proposal to put americans back to work on this "american morning." all right. good morning, everyone. it is tuesday, september 6th. welcome to "american morning." >> what's going on with the weather? >> i know. from earthquakes to hurricanes to wildfires. >> we need some locust. >> all we need is locus and it will complete the picture. it is going crazy. mother nature is piling on. as christine said, fires, tornadoes, flooding, across the south. in texas, dozens of dangerous wildfires are burning across the state fanned by winds from tropical storm lee and fueled by the worst one-year drought in the state's history. nearly 500 homes have been destroyed, thousands of people have been evacuated. in suburban atlanta, tornado sirens sounded through the night, suspected twisters spawned, damaged or destroyed dozens of homes. trees are down all over the place. flooding is a big problem in jackson, mississippi. several major roads submerged and shut down. authorities say a man was killed when he was swept away by floodwaters. and all this as a category 3 hurricane now begins to approach the united states. katia, not going to get here, but it's going to have an impact. katia is churning northwest in the atlantic bringing the threat of dangerous rip currents to the east coast in the next few days. wow. a lot going on. rob marciano is in the extreme weather center tracking lee's trail of destruction. jim spellman is in bastrop, texas, south of austin. he's covering the record-breaking wildfires. let's go to jim first. jim, 3.5 million acres of texas have burned since november. area roughly the size of connecticut. what's going on now? >> yeah. it's really amazing how many fires they've had here and that sheer volume the size of connecticut. we know this fire here in bastrop, southeast of austin, 500 homes destroyed, 25,000 acres and i would be shocked when the sun comes up and they assess this if both of those numbers haven't grown. this fire when we got here yesterday, it was amazing. this huge wall of smoke that just spread across the horizon. helicopters in the air, planes dropping water and retardant trying to get a handle on it. it was burning so fast and aggressively they were having trouble getting even a hold on it yesterday. like you said these epic drought conditions are creating the perfect opportunity for these fires to spread. heat, drought conditions, and wind. it just goes so fast, these fires spring out of nowhere. it barely gives people time to get out of the way. take a listen. >> we left our house and about 30 minutes later we couldn't even get back to it. it's moving probably eight or ten miles across the ground. so, you know, god help us, that's all we can do right now. >> reporter: and with 90% of texas under the severe drought conditions, more people are bound to have to evacuate until they get some kind of long-term, serious relief from this drought, ali. >> all right. jim, is there some sense of when they might get a handle on this? >> yesterday when i spoke to firefighters here, they honestly weren't optimistic, said it could be days, veen a week before they could get this on hand. this morning a little good news for them, it's very cool, only about the low 60s and the winds are calm. they'll take advantage of every minute of conditions like that working on the ground to try to create fire lines between the fire and the existing fuel. and in the air with more helicopter and plane drops while they can until, you know, t the winds pick up again. >> we'll check in with you, jim spellman in texas. let's head to atlanta and check in with rob marciano. although it seems like the worlded my be ending, rob. put this in perspective it is hurricane season, the time of year when these things happens. >> it is. for folks in texas, it's good news that it's hurricane season because the odds are they'll get something tropical to get into texas. we were hoping that would be the case with lee. adding insult to injury, it passed to the east and that just spawned more in the way of backside dry winds in through texas and that's part of the problem that we've seen the past couple days. lee is moving off towards the north and east. a cooler air mass is settling in. you heard jim speak about that. temperatures in the 60s are this morning. that's great news. lighter winds. we don't see any rainfall coming this way. but the firefighters will take lighter winds and certainly take cooler temperatures and that's what we're getting today for the next couple days. no rain in the forecast until further notice. we've seen severe weather from leftovers of tropical storm lee. we saw it across atlanta and alabama and mississippi and louisiana yesterday. and this is parts of northern north carolina. and virginia. a couple counties in south central virginia there. under a tornado warning until 6:15. the entire area under a tornado watch through 2:00 this afternoon. you see a good chunk of north carolina and you'll also notice all that rainfall up towards the north and that is heading towards -- already in through the northeast. that's going to cause some other flooding issues. all right. quickly hurricane katia, category 3 storm. at one point last night this was a category 4 monster. still a beast. northwesterly movement at 10 miles per hour. winds of 125 miles an hour. it will split the difference between bermuda and the east coast and we still think that this strong cold front that's on the east coast will push it out to sea. but, strong or huge swells now rolling and pounding the eastern seaboard and big time rip currents are going to be a threat there as well. that combination along with leftovers of lee, are going to create a flooding issue also. or reinvigorate the flooding issues i should say across upstate new york and vermont. we'll be watching that carefully over the next couple days. >> people in new jersey are saying, oh, my gosh, more rain. so anyway, thank you, i think, rob marciano. >> all right. >> thank you, i think. turning to 2012 presidential politics now, and a shakeup involving two of congresswoman michele bachmann's top campaign staffers. her campaign manager, ed rollins, is stepping back into an advisory role and her deputy campaign manager is leaving the campaign altogether. our peter hamby joins us live from columbia, south carolina. peter, why the shakeup? ed rollins a veteran, why is he stepping back? >> michele bachmann is really entering a new phase of the presidential campaign. she won the big ames straw poll in iowa, but rick perry has come in the race and shaken it up. really damaged her standing in iowa and south carolina, two conservative state with tea party activists and social conservatives she's relying on. rollins went on anderson cooper last night and this was his official explanation. take a listen. >> i'm 68 years old. you know, i had a stroke a year and a half ago and so, you know, i'm -- work 12, 14 hour days, it's wearing. >> that's what rollins is saying. that's the official line from the campaign. i can tell you behind the scenes, that bachmann and rollins never really clicked. in hindsight that doesn't seem too surprising. bachmann has always been this populist, grassroots outsider. bachmann is the salty veteran of campaigns. so another deputy keith nahigian is going going to take over for bachmann and try to help boost her standings, christine, in the polls because she has slipped in recent weeks. >> rollins' intent was to get some discipline into that campaign and make her a disciplined candidate. and certainly it seems as though she has been more disciplined in recent weeks and months than in the early stages of her coming up on the national stage. let me ask you about the five gop candidates at that forum in south carolina organized by tea party power senator jim demint. who impressed there? >> you know what, mitt romney had the highest stakes i think. not typically his wheelhouse, these tea party events. he stepped up his effort ts reach out to them in recent weeks and i talked to a lot of activists last night down here in south carolina who were impressed with his performance. he was asked about the controversial health care law, controversial among conservatives that he implemented in massachusetts. a lot of tea party folks that i talked to were impresseded with his answer there, that he delivered a state based solution, but obama care, as he called it, is a federal overreach. it was a largely friendly forum. there wasn't a debate for mat. more like they would come up, jim demint would press them how they thought on the issue and mostly trained their fire on president obama. listen to this -- >> foreign policy. >> a lot. first, i would have one. >> i happen to believe that this administration is weakening america militarily. this is not what americans want. the world is not safer. >> the constitution does not specifically enumerate nor does it give to the federal government, the role and duty to super intend over education. that historically has been held by the parents. >> liberty and rights aren't -- don't have anything to do with entitlements. entitlements means you can take somebody else's money, you know, and the government there is to redistribute it. >> he's the most effective food stamp president in american history. >> one person we didn't see yesterday was texas governor rick perry. the republican frontrunner. we're still waiting to hear if he will participate in a debate on wednesday in california, which should be, we all expect it to be a little more contentious than yesterday's friendly forum here in south carolina, christine. >> all right. thanks so much, peter hamby. rick perry attending to those wildfires, record wildfire season in texas. he went home. thanks so much. we're getting new details about mitt romney's plan to create jobs. in an editorial this morning in "usa today," romney writes, quote, our country has arrived at a fork in the road. in one direction lies the heavy hand of the state, indebtedness and decline. in the other direction lies limited government, free enterprise, and economic growth. i know in which direction lie the millions of jobs we need. end quote. the republican presidential candidate will outline his vision for getting america back to work at 3:00 p.m. eastern in las vegas. of course on thursday, we'll hear from the president. >> mitt romney's plan has 59 points. 59. >> wow. >> "usa today," read them all. that's your homework for this morning. >> i like there's some detail somewhere. >> a lot of detail, 59 points. president obama also gave a brief preview of his jobs plan, speaking in detroit, the president said one way to boost employment is for congress to get on board with rebuilding america. dan lothian live at the white house. dan, mitt romney has 59 points in his plan. how many does obama boast? >> we don't have 59 points yet, and the white house being careful not to release a lot of new details ahead of the president's speech. what we know is the president will be unveiling a mix of some things that we have heard about already and some new ideas as white house aides have called them. a combination of things that the president can do on his own unilaterally, put in place right away, and other things that will need congressional approval. there will be things such as extending the unemployment benefits, also extending payroll tax cut, and making sure those trade deals with panama, colombia and south korea get completed. what appears to be a key component as the president said in his speech yesterday, infrastructure jobs. >> we've got roads and brings across this country. that need rebuilt. we've got private companies with the equipment and the manpower to do the building. we've got more than 1 million unemployed construction workers ready to get dirty right now. there is work to be done and there are workers ready to do it. >> reporter: and, of course, this all comes as the president deals with low approval ratings, as also we've seen those disappointing job numbers where no jobs were created in the month of august. there's a lot of criticism from republicans who say this administration has not acted strongly enough in order to bring down the high unemployment numbers that what the president should be doing now is really sitting down and putting something on paper, not delivering another speech, and that he needs to create a more stable environment so some of these businesses that are currently sitting on the sidelines with their money will put that back into play. carol? >> we'll see what happens on thursday. dan lothian live from washington, see president obama's speech before a joint sep session of congress this thursday 7:00 p.m. eastern. >> i haven't seen you for a few days. have we worked out the timing of the speech so you can watch both the football game and speech? >> yes. >> yes. it's all okay. >> excellent. the high unemployment rate we told you above 9%. winning the blue collar vote may be a challenge for president obama. he got some help yesterday from the teamster's union president james hoffa. speaking before the president came on the stage, james hoffa had some fiery words for republicans. >> president obama, this is your army. we are ready to march. let's take these son of a -- out and give america back to america where we belong. thank you, very much. >> talking about the tea party and not really republicans in general. also on sunday hoffa called american companies that don't spend their money in the united states, he said they are simply unpatriotic. coming up next, rhode island is in a big financial bind. the state is running out of money and tens of thousands of pensions might be facing the ax. could the same thing happen to your retirement plans? we're going to talk about it. >> also a crisis at the u.s. postal service. costs are going up while business is going way down. so, is the postal service obsolete? it's this morning's talk back. >> and mr. petraeus goes to langley. the newly retired army general starts his new job today as head of the cia. it's 15 minutes past the hour. 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[♪...] >> male announcer: now, for a limited time, your companion flies free, plus save up to 65%. call 1-800-sandals. conditions apply. two libyan military convoys have been spotted passing through niger in the past two days. military sources there telling cnn one of the convoys has already reached the capital city knee yam may and the other on its way. reports that moammar gadhafi and one of his sons were considering joining the convoy. libya's national transitional council will meet with tribal leaders today to make it clear that pro-gadhafi forces will not be harmed if they peacefully surrender. a lot of discussion about whether members of his security forces have left the country, going to niger and he has or will be joining them. >> he's had a lot towards the countries around libya. whether he was doing this anticipation of this day or just because he has friends. >> if he is on that convoy it's amazing he could get out of libya when everybody is supposedly looking for him. a senior al qaeda leader in charge of global operations has been arrested in pakistan. officials say eunice al mar taneny was captured, withheld from u.s. intelligence agencies. he took orders directly from osama bin laden and targeting american economic interests around the world. the white house calling the arrest an example of u.s. and pakistan's long standing partnership in fighting terrorism. the david petraeus era begins at the cia. the newly minted civilian will be sworn in as the agency's director. he retired from the army last week after four stars and 37 years of service which included commanding u.s. troops in iraq and afghanistan. he succeeds leon panetta at cia. panetta is the secretary of defense. your pension, right, this is the thing that is the promise between you and your employer, you and your government. a look at our states in crisis. rhode island considering a plan to slash pension benefits for more than 50,000 workers and retirees. the state is in financial trouble. it's nearly $7 billion short when it comes to funding pension plans for its retired teachers, police officers and other public workers. the state legislature has scheduled a special session for next month. last month the city of central falls, rhode island, filed for bankruptcy because of unsustainable pension costs. now it's your turn to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. the question for you this morning, is the postal service obsolete? neither rain nor sleet nor gloom of night. it's not the post office's official motto, but it's how we as a culture have come to see our friendly neighborhood mailman. he or she is always there with birthday cards or bills from the utility company. the postal service is in trouble. not only because it's running a $9 billion deficit but because the world has changed. the rise of fedex, ups and e-mail giving mr. mailman a run for his money and he's losing. the post office delivered 171 billion pieces of mail in 2010, that's a big number, but down 20% from 2006. but that's the least of its problems. the postal service is also required to deliver mail wherever it's sent no matter what. and by law, it is forced to pay for retiree health costs for the next 75 years. i tell you this because the postal service says it can't make the $5.5 billion payment for retiree health costs this month and is now in danger of defaulting. the postmaster general will be asking the senate for help today. maybe the answer to that plea is in our talk back question this morning. the question for you, is the postal service obsolete? facebook.com/americanmorning. i'll read your comments later this hour. >> in this country, congress is in charge of the purse strings for the postal service even though the postal service runs on its own budget and money. they can have savings accounts and phone cards in their post office. in a way congress has ham strung the agency. it's not as flexible. >> is it possible to privatize the postal service. >> it has been done. i think there are a lot of options. i have to say this, as far as postal services go while a lot of people complain about it, in a lot of those other countries, mail delivery is a not as efficient in the united states. they lose a lot less, get your mail six days a week, doesn't happen in most countries. >> he would like congress to quickly let them drop the saturday mail service, and cut jobs. hundreds -- maybe 120,000 jobs. >> most don't have saturday mail service. >> and they want to cut service on saturday because of these retiree health benefits it