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Abuses in syria any longer. what leverage does the u.s. have at all against assad? >> reporter: well, the u.s. didn't have a lot of leverage over moammar gadhafi either -- [ inaudible ] a military campaign. so there are always options. i think it's clear even though there have been sanctions announced that the u.s. and other international players haven't really wanted to get too involved in syria because it's such a thorny issue. all of the -- the states that have been toppled so far in this arab spring have been in new york africa. tunisia -- in north africa. tunisia, egypt. to have a state i...

Israel see its as in its interests to do it right now or not. >> stay with us, richard engle and chuck todd. i'm bringing in michael sing, the managing director of the washington institute for middle east policy and former senior director for the national security council. you've been through this in the previous administration. at this stage, is this the right time for the united states to be giving this speech? have we raised expectations -- has the white house raised expectations too high for what the president can realistically deliver? >> well, i think, remember, andrea, relating to your ...

Singular woman." there's the shot i wanted to get up there. "the untold story of barack obama's mother." really a fascinating read. really interesting details. i was struck by this. so nice to have you on today again, thank you. >> thank you. that's going to wrap up the show for me. thanks for joining me. we are awaiting a major policy speech on the middle east from president obama in minutes. a live picture from the state department where he's going to deliver that address. and andrea mitchell is going to be picking up coverage of the speech right after this break with analysis and insight ...

>> reporter: i wanted to respond to something michael said. i had a similar question to folks behind the scenes at the white house. and they said, look, one thing that some people wanted to say this speech is cairo-two that president obama came addressed in 2009 that took place in cairo, a very different cairo at that time. this speech is being directed at an american audience, too. and every -- you know, all of the policy decisions being made here is through the prism of america's interests, is one thing i was told. you know, first and foremost, one of the questions i had asked is the goal to...

We've talked about why the president would be giving a speech, whether he's overpromised, whether he can't possibly deliver enough to satisfy the region and the world to say nothing of people here at home politically. chuck? >> i can tell you based on our own conversation that the fear that some in the white house have of how this speech is going to play later today and tomorrow, that all the focus is going to be, frankly on, the israeli-palestinian portion of this. and to a lesser extent the syria part where some of the meat and potatoes of the speech is going to have to do with this massive ...