[Wolf Blitzer:] President Obama gears up for his make-or-break jobs speech after a horrible August unemployment report. This hour, the proposals he's likely to unveil and whether they'll actually put Americans back to work. Also, infighting within the Tea Party Movement, and a congressman's explosive charge that elements of the movement would like to see him hanging from a tree. And we'll take you inside the archives of Moammar Gadhafi's brutal regime and uncover secrets that massacre victims took to their graves. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. There is little to celebrate this Labor Day weekend here in the United States for millions of Americans who want to be working, but simply can't find a job. And there's no comfort for them in the government's latest labor report, which shows the economy basically added no jobs in August, leaving the unemployment rate unchanged at a dismal 9.1 percent. It all puts even more pressure on President Obama as he gets ready to unveil his highly anticipated jobs plan later this coming week. Our Chief White House Correspondent Jessica Yellin is joining us now with details of what potentially we could expect. You're digging, Jessica. What are you finding out?
[Jessica Yellin, Cnn Chief White House Correspondent:] Wolf, this plan is likely to focus on jump-starting short-term jobs growth with some longer term infrastructure investment. Now, that means government spending, which Democrats consider essential, but Republicans are sure to attack as more stimulus.
[Yellin:] Even during a speech to the American Legion in Minnesota, the president couldn't resist a preview of his highly anticipated jobs plan.
[Barack Obama, President Of The United States:] Next week I'll be speaking to the nation about a plan to create jobs and reduce our deficit. A plan that I want to see passed by Congress. We've got to get this done.
[Yellin:] It's an effort to jump-start the economy and shore up his dwindling poll numbers. A recent CNNORC poll shows only 37 percent of Americans approve of how the president is handling unemployment. So next week, he's rolling out a package that's likely to include an extension of a payroll tax cut for workers, which is set to expire at the end of the year. Also possible in the plan, businesses could get a tax break for each new worker they hire, or even an additional credit for hiring the long-term unemployed. Outside policy makers consulted by the White House say other possible ideas include a program that gives the long- term unemployed job training experiences with local businesses. And new spending on infrastructure; it could bring back Build America Bonds, which can make it cheaper for cities and states to build roads and bridges, or fund school renovations and programs to make low- income housing more energy efficient. Wolf, the White House is tight-lipped on the final product, no surprise, they don't want it to leak. But they have made it clear that the president will propose that Congress offset all new spending in this package with additional cuts, which he plans to recommend to that congressional super committee. So, the White House says that they view this the package as revenue neutral in the end. No doubt Republicans will see it differently, Wolf.
[Blitzer:] But are you getting the sense, Jessica, that they want a package that could actually pass the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, that could deal with a potential filibuster in the Senate? Or is this simply a blueprint for the president's re-election campaign?
[Yellin:] Wolf, it's a little bit of both. Because they're adamant that the proposals that will be in this package are elements that have had bipartisan support before. For example, these payroll tax cuts have had Republican support in the past. But they're not naive inside the White House and realize that because of the political environment, there is a high likelihood that this plan will not ultimately pass and could just become political fodder in the election year.
[Blitzer:] We're already deep into election year politics. There's no doubt about that. Jessica, thank you. Let's dig deeper right now with our chief political correspondent, the "State Of The Union" host, Candy Crowley, and our Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger. We're looking ahead to the president's big speech, Candy, Thursday night, before a joint session of Congress. But hovering over all of it, these latest numbers we got this week, unemployment remaining 9.1 percent, effectively zero job growth for all practical purposes. That does not bode well.
[Candy Crowley, Cnn Host, "state Of The Union":] No. And a forecast, by the way, that they put out, the OMB put out, that doesn't forecast much more throughout next year.
[Blitzer:] At 9 percent, continuing unemployment for next year.
[Crowley:] Yes, so what does the president need to do? He needs to listen, 9 percent unemployed is going to stick with him through the whole year. He's got to convince the 91 percent of Americans, that are employed, that they're not going to lose their jobs. He's going to convince the people who do have a home that they're not going to lose their home. Because now it becomes for him trying to convince Americans that things will get better. Because we already know they're not going to get that much better next year, at least in terms of the jobless rate. So he's got to get that consumer confidence thing, and by the way, that voter confidence thing going.
[Gloria Borger, Cnn Chief Political Analyst:] And the other half of that is that he has to convince people that what the other guys are proposing would take you down the wrong road. So he's going to try and say, look, if you vote for them, if you listen to just them, the economy will get even worse. Now, didn't work for him so well in the 2010 midterm elections.
[Crowley:] And he doesn't have just one guy now, is the problem.
[Borger:] That's right. But he's saying, their economic theory, he will say, is going to fail America if you're looking to create jobs.
[Blitzer:] And the Republican presidential candidate's wasting no time blasting the president for this anemic jobs report. Listen to Mitt Romney.
[Mitt Romney,  Presidential Candidate:] Obama is not working. And he is disappointed the American people. And this morning, very bad news. Did you see the numbers that came out on job growth? Look, there is zero faith in Barack Obama, because he's created zero jobs last month.
[Blitzer:] All right. Having said that, the president does have the year, plus, before November 2012, which is a long time to get the country's act together, at least moving in the right direction, and his own act together.
[Crowley:] And in convincing the country it's moving, because if your forecast is, we're going to have kind of anemic growth, and that's their forecast. And unemployment's not going to get much better, and that's their forecast. He has to buck history, number one, a president with that kind of high unemployment rate has never been re- elected at 9 percent. And he has to convince people, as Gloria said, that whatever is being proposed on the other side is worse. The problem is, that a re-election bid is about the person in office. And somehow, he has to buck that as well.
[Borger:] Well, and Barack Obama doesn't really want this election to be a referendum on his performance on the economy, because if that's the case, then, actually, he doesn't win. What he does want is to turn it to whomever is going to be opposing him and say, what would he do that would have gotten us out of or she, that would have gotten us out of this ditch? And so we haven't gotten to we haven't gotten to that point in the campaign yet. But at the White House, they are looking to history. They're looking at FDR, they're looking at Ronald Reagan. They're saying these two fellas got re-elected
[Crowley:] Ronald Reagan at 7.2.
[Borger:] And unemployment was going down, not up with Ronald Reagan.
[Crowley:] It's hard to tell trajectory. But let me tell you what President Obama has on his side. Like no other candidate I have known, and even now as president, there is this in the ground water, in the electorate groundwater, there is a hope that he will succeed. They're mad at him, they don't like his policies, as we've seen in all of these but there's some kind of resonance there that he still has, that if he can recapture some of that hope, all his opposition made fun of it, but if they can recapture it, then he's onto something.
[Borger:] Right.
[Blitzer:] Candy has a good point. Because if you look at the polls and you dig deeper in all of these polls, whether it's our poll, or any of the other polls, the job approval number on the economy may not be good. The overall job approval number may not be good, but likability.
[Borger:] They still like him.
[Blitzer:] Americans still like this president.
[Borger:] They still like him.
[Crowley:] And they want him to succeed.
[Borger:] Unless you're part of sort of the hard-core base of the Republican Party, which really does not like Barack Obama, but for independent voters, there's still a sense of giving the guy a chance.
[Blitzer:] I think the latest numbers I saw do like the president, in the 60s, 65 percent of the American public say yes.
[Crowley:] That's what I'm talking about. There's this in the ground water, in the electric ground water, there is some place that he can grow, but he's got to tap into it.
[Borger:] And the big question is, does he care about people like me? And that number's been going down for Barack Obama. So it will be interesting to see if he can get it going in the right direction to convince people he cares about them.
[Blitzer:] Big speech Thursday night, 7:00 p.m. Eastern. We'll have live coverage, obviously, of the president's address before a joint session of Congress. Ladies, thanks very much. This additional programming note: I'll be the moderator when CNN hosts the Republican presidential debate in Tampa, Florida, along with the Tea Party Express and several other Tea Party groups. Monday night, September 12th, 8:00 p.m. Eastern only here on CNN. Trouble at a nuclear power plant in the wake of that earthquake that rocked the East Coast. We're going to show you what some activists are alarmed about. Plus, flood victims left high and dry. Many will be starting from scratch, because they don't have Flood insurance. Plus, a Democratic lawmaker's racially charged slam against elements of the Tea Party Movement. It sparks a heated debate between Donna Brazile and Mary Matalin.