structu destruction of the wildfires in texas. this now stretches across a 16-mile area. winds whipped up flames again today. a separate fire in eastern texas killed a mother and her 18-month-old child. tropical depression lee slogging its way north today after dumping as much of a foot of rain in parts of louisiana. pumps in new orleans helped prevent any major problem there. that was good. but the storm caused flooding in other towns and cities along the gulf. in alabama, lee spun off portable tornadoes and strong winds damaged at least 20 homes in thewn the television say, tornado warning, and about that time, we had an ungodly clap of lightning and the hard ligwind by. >> lights went out, came back on and everything opened up. it was like a machine gun going off. breaking news on the political front. texas gov senior riernor rick p poultd pulled out of a political forum in south carolina to go back to texas to deal with the wildfires. five others will take part in the forum. it's hosted by south carolina senator jim demint. demint blasted president obama over jobs. >> tax creditses, hiring people. >> are you opposed to extending unemployment benefits? are you opposed to extending the payroll tax cut? are you opposed to those two things? >> i just don't think those things will create jobs, candy. the president appears to be doing and frankly, i'm so tired of his speeches, it's going to be hard for me to watch. frormer vice presidential candidate sarah palin is also in the spotlight today, she's going to be at the tea party rally in new hampshire, going to take you there live in the next hour. palin hasn't said whether or not she's going to run for president. and president obama gives his labor day speech in michigan today. he's appearing at an event hosted by the metro detroit central labor council. detroit hit hard by the labor crisis. and the president's remarks come three days before he outlines his plan for turning this jobs market around. fighting, you see there, breaks out between egyptian police and families of people killed in the uprising against the former president, hosni mubarak. the families tried to push themselves into the building where mubarak's trial resumed. mubarak was again wheeled into court on a stretcher. he was charged with ordering the killing of protesters during the revolution in february. libyan rebels pushed to the outskirts of moammar gadhafi's last strong hold. they have targeted the cities of bani walid and serte. talks broke down after an aggressive speech by one of gadhafi's brothers. >> reporter: i was told several months ago that the family was united. right now it's not, so it clearly indicates there are divisions there. gadhafi, just a little bit of his situation, says he has to move often, doesn't have time to watch television, he is save at the moment, but a lot of danger around him. u.s. markets are closed today. a close eye overseas, european markets are now dropping. friday, dismal job report, raising new concerns about another recession. the ftse fell in early trading. stocks in germany down more than 5%. here is your chance. talk back on one of the big stories. patriotism, right? it's a word you hear on the campaign trail all the time. now some american companies are coming under fire, accused of not being patriotic. carol costello joins us from new york with today's talkback question. this can be used as a weapon. we saw this many times on the campaign trail as people tried to jockey back and forth and accusing the other of not being patriotic. >> here is a question for you on this labor day. who is more patriotic, the american worker or the american boss? depends on who you are asking. james hoffa is calling out apple, fizer, and general elect trick for sending money and jobs overseas. >> i think the president should challenge the patriotism of these american corporations sitting on the sidelines saying why do we have high unemployment but i'm not going to hire anybody? they have an obligation just like the federal government, just like obama. >> hiring american workers, patriotic? sort of like going shopping was patriotic after 9/11? that was how many americans interpreted president bush's200 attack. >> when they struck, they wanted to create an atmosphere of fear. one of the great goals of this nation's war is to restore public confidence in the airline industry, to tell the traveling public, get on board. do your business around the country. >> he added, go to disney world. getting back to hoffa's charge, though, it is true that big american companies are making record profits and sitting on gobs of cash. but companies say why should we part with our money if the economy is still a mess? and doesn't it make good business sense to hire american workers at a higher wage when workers can be hired overseas cheaper? it does smack of good old fashioned american capitalism. talkback. i'll read comments later this hour. >> carol, we used to hear that all the time, from president bush on the campaign trail. we'll see what our viewers think about that question. a rundown. some of the stories ahead. first, 1,000 homes in texas at the mercy of raging wildfires. live to see how evacuations are going today. then, the storm that would not leave. tropical storm lee pounded the gulf this weekend. we'll see how louisiana is coping with massive flooding. and is the president's di i diplomacy hurting him? we're in the basement of the libyan intelligence agency, it's like being in the basement of the c.i.a.. we have access to documents, letters, faxes, and other communications, between the c.i.a. and it's libyan counterparse. and 90 miles per hour, no brakes. you have to check out the dramatic conclusion at the baltimore grand prix. has a best-in-class driving range of over 500 miles per tank. so you can catch morning tee time in monterey and the afternoon meeting in los angeles, all without running out of gas. just make sure you don't run out of gas. ♪ fire and flooding are major problems on this labor day holiday. the entire eastern third of the country is being affected by the storm known as lee it's weakened to a tropical depression, but still wreaking havoc with heavy rain and gusting winds. we're covering all of the angles, cnn's chris welch is live in bastrup, texas. and ed lavendera is live on the east coast, and rob marciano, in the cnn weather center tracking all of this. chris, this was ferocious in the county where you are, 14,000 acres scorched. how many homes threatened? how are people coping? >> well, right now, everyone is still kind of waiting to see exactly how many homes will be threatened, will be damaged by the end of this. 8,000 people who live in the city, in bastrop proper. and 17,000 in the county. thousands of homes are still at risk. i want to direct your attention to the plume of smoke we're seeing. it's interesting, just within the last hour or so, we've seen this pick up. getting darker, bigger, officials say this is the time of day. sun beating down, conditions very dry and the wind is picking up quite a bit. things are looking -- they anticipated it to get worse today, but now they are thinking it could get even worse than what they were anticipating. not good on that front. this building behind me is where they set up the makeshift command center, fire crews all over the state. officials from the federal government, they are here, briefing the press, getting crews out in the field. giving them safety precautions and safety speeches. that's what they are really concerned about today. first and foremost, getting people out safely. secondly, making sure crews who go out into the field to fight these fires, given these heavy wind, they want to make sure they are safe as well. we're awaiting a press briefing that will happen in the next 120 minutes or so, we hope to have more information after that. >> chris, we'll get back to you when you get more information. obviously, the one question on everybody's mind, how long will it take until the huge wildfire contained? a lot of questions in terms of people's safety and where they live. we'll get back to you as soon as you have more. i want to turn from the fires to the floods, i want to bring in ed lavendera in crown point, louisiana, a few miles from new orleans. ed, tell us how the storm system over the area dumped a lot of rain. how bad is it? how are folks recovering? >> this is a really interesting area we're in outside the levy protection zone. they are used to flooding, but this a little different in the sense that the floodwaters are really coming dangerously close to flooding a lot of homes. you find scenes like this behind me, where you see the floodwaters here, a few feet away from getting inside of these homes. over on this side of the street this street flooded out. homes, and the water getting much closer there. these are roads that, depending on the tide and where we are although what what point in the day, roads have been shut down and blocked off. several homes in this precarious situation, not only here in crown point, but across the bridge in lafitte. they have bringing in huge sandbags and making makeshift levees. this caused not necessarily by the rain that's falling, but by the tidal surge, the winds blowing waters from the gulf of mexico into? here, they are waiting for winds to shift. >> have folks been able to protect their homes much? are those sandbags working? >> what's interesting is that it's -- a couple times a day, they'll shut down the roads because they become too covered with water. a lot of people simply haven't left. you drive by them. might be two or three feet of water around their homes. they are sitting up on the second floor, watching it from there. these folks are used to dealing with this kind of weather, and a lot of people riding them out. there have been mandatory evacuations, some have left, but a lot just go to friends and families' homes. >> i want to bring in rob mars i marciano. >> we have the flooding issue, the immediate concern today will be the threat for severe weather. a tornado watch in effect for 5:00 for much of alabama, eastern parts of mississippi, a smidge of georgia, and the panhandle of florida. a couple of cells right here around escambia county, okaloosa, they have radar-indicated tornadoes at the moment. we're watching that develop. and the flooding situation where we could see 7 inches of rain in the tennessee valley, chattanooga might see that, and heading up north towards knoxville. right along the appalachians and also kind of meet up with a pretty strong front for this time of the year, and that will squeeze moisture out. flood watches up and down the eastern third of the country. for the potential seeing a decent amount of rain on this. already on top of saturated soils. back side of this is not doing well as far as what it's doing for the fires. bringing in drier weather and windier weather as well. the front, though, itself, bringing in cooler behind this thing. much cooler, 65 degrees in chicago. and one other note on what's going on with katia this thing almost a category three storm with winds of 110 miles an hour. at this point, suzanne, katia should remain off theeen seaboard. >> good news. thanks again. his poll numbers are down, and kind of at a standstill. even some of the president's supporters think that the republicans have him up against the ropes. david gergen, seen other presidents go through some tight spots, we'll ask him what president obama can do to get back in the fighting. 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[ male announcer ] half a day's worth of fiber. fiber one. here are the choices for today's choose the news. text 23360 for the story you would like to see. border agents board? an agent is speaking out, saying agents are getting paid to do nothing and wasting millions in taxpayer dollars. second, gadhafi's former nurse, one of the women who looked after gadhafi's health describes the unique gifts that gadhafi gave to his closest workers. third, coney island makeover. the long island beach is getting a new look. the multimillion dollar makeover and whether or not it's lead to more tourists. 23360. one for border agents bored. 2 for gadhafi's former nurse, and 3 for coney island makeover. winning story next hour. after some ugly fights on the debt ceiling, budget, even over when the president can address congress. some say president obama is getting pushed around by the republicans, so as the leader of the free world really let letting the competition lead him around? or is there a greater strategy at work. joining me is david gergen to talk about all of this. thanks for joining us. we have seen, and it's quite extraordinary when you think about it all of the things that have been written, particularly over the weekend from president's biggest supporters, liberal pundits worried about a crisis of leadership. maureen dowd calling it one and done, the president's chances of re-election slim. what do you think? are we seeing president obama weakened by the compromise? >> is he particularly weakened by the economy. but his responses have struck people on the right and left as weaker than they would have expected from a person so strong as a candidate. >> does that hurt him significantly? what does he need to do to show some more strength? >> it's interesting. i'm not sure anybody knows at this point. i'm particularly clear that his own white house doesn't know. he has had, going back for several years now, he tends to have terrible augusts and he has very good septembers. he bounces back in september. now, he's had his bad august, can he have a good september? certainly the speech thursday night will set the stage. even going into the speech, this little problem over when he should speak, i thought he did the right thing by moving the speech, even so, it symbolically became a sign of weakness. maureen dowd picked up on that. and people in the democratic party wonder if there is any possibility of him stepping aside in favor of hillary clinton. >> there has been some talk, and the president did something more than symbolic. he allowed the epa regulations to be rolled back. he said it could cost america jobs. he ran against this very strongly against in the campaign. the heart, the speeches, the rhetoric behind that, was definitely not what we're hearing today. can he make those kinds of concessions and still have people to support him in 2012? >> another good question. it has undermined the enthusiasm on the left, certainly. there is a powerful argument for doing what he did but i must say, again, going back to -- i think he often makes the right decisions, it's the way he exercises power. let's take the owe zone decision when he dropped the regulations. he would have been so much better off, had he gone into a negotiation over jobs and when that time came, he wanted something from the republicans, here is what i'll give you. i'll delay some of the regulations on air pollution. instead, he made a preemptorry concession, in that if you make that concession, that will warm them up, and they'll be easier to deal with. it doesn't work that way with republicans. they look at this as a sign of weakness and say joouf given us this, what will you give us next? it doesn't wlhet their appetite for compromise. >> the president going into a speech with 34% approving of the economy. what does he need to convey to the american people to get his mojo back? >> it has to be more than a speech it has to be a prelude to action. people need to see action. this has got to lead fairly quickly to action, some sort of agreement with republicans. people can get a feel, a sense, we're moving on, we'll actually move forward. >> all right. david gergen, have a good holiday. thank you for joining us. we'll hear more from president obama at 1:125 eastern today. he'll be talking to people in detroit. and also, sarah palin, the woman some think may be considering for a run for the white house. she'll be speaking in iowa at a rally sponsored by the tea party express. we'll take that live next hour in the krchb nn newsroom. thousands of acres on fire in texas. entire neighborhoods going up in flames. i'll talk to the public information officer for the texas forest service, up next. ♪ okay, so who ordered the cereal that can help lower cholesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. that's yours. lower cholesterol. lower cholesterol. i'm yummy. lower cholesterol. i got that wrong didn't i? 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