[Velshi:] All right. News happening right now. A 3.4 aftershock has just been reported in Virginia. Let's go straight to Rob Marciano in the weather center. Rob, what are you knowing about this?
[Rob Marciano, Ams Meteorologist:] I'll tell you, we haven't really seen one in a couple of days. And the ones we saw really immediately following the main quake which is over 5.0 magnitude quake were smaller than 3.0. This was a big one and felt by a number of people. About 30 miles or so northwest of Richmond, or about 80, 90 miles southwest of D.C. So, this is certainly enough for people to feel it, especially around the Richmond area. As far as D.C. is concerned, we are getting some reports of folks feeling it around the D.C. area. But the most of the shaking, obviously, just northwest of Richmond. You know, this sort of shaking where there are weakened structures from the main quake will exaggerate some of the weakening and, of course, we have been talking about it all morning the fact that Hurricane Irene may have raised more questions with the Washington Monument having already been weakened by the first quake last week just northwest of Richmond and the winds from Irene. And they found puddles in there. So, no doubt that the officials will be out across Washington and Richmond today, examining already weakened structures from this first quake. But this is a 3.4 magnitude quake. It's about three miles shallow. And that was the main problem with the first quake, is it was shallow and fairly strong. And that's why we see a decent amount of structural problem with that. And it's 36 miles just northwest of Richmond very, very close obviously to the original quake.
[Velshi:] All right, Rob. Keep an eye on that. If you got anything, just get back to us and we will put it on the air immediately. Rob Marciano following the development of that earthquake in Virginia. We've also got some new surveillance video from a Virginia high school that was devastated by last week's earthquake. This is what teachers and students at Louisa County High School faced. Look at that. Ceilings and walls caved in. Everybody is rushing out of the classrooms. They were scrambling to get out. The county says the school buildings suffered $57 million in damage. Louisa High School students will have to double up with middle schoolers while mobile classrooms are being prepared.
[Romans:] All right. The debate over the date of the president's jobs speech given Obama's opponents plenty to run with. The president hoped to talk to a joint session of Congress next Wednesday, the same night as a Republican debate. But House Speaker Boehner pushed back and the president backed down and rescheduled this jobs announcement to Congress until Thursday. Take a listen to presidential candidate Michele Bachmann.
[Bachmann:] Now, does this show maybe a little bit of insecurity on the part of the president? Either A, he wants to distract the American people so they don't watch it or B, he does want the American people to hear what the next president of the United States is going to say about the president's job plan.
[Roamns:] The president's speech will now be up against the NFL's opening night. Joining us now, Maggie Haberman, senior writer for "Politico," and CNN contributor John Avlon. John Avlon, is it insecure, clumsy or all of the above? I mean, we're having press releases any opportunity to send press releases about even scheduling a speech shows we are in this silly time in politics.
[John Avlon, Cnn Contributor:] We are deep in it. I mean, this is the ultimate indicator. Right now, we are going into a joint session, divided government. If you want to do something about jobs, president is unveiling a plan. We can't even get it together, folks, in Washington when to schedule it. I think it was too clever by half on the part of the administration. But at the same time, for the for the Republicans in Congress to be it's literally unprecedented. There's never been a request to hold for a president to hold a joint session of congressional speech and refused in effect by Congress. So, this really is just a new indicator, really a new low, about how dysfunctional the atmosphere in Washington, D.C. is.
[Romans:] And this is a setback to the president. The president lost?
[Maggie Haberman, Politico:] Absolutely. I think the president insecure was a very deliberate word by Michele Bachmann. The fear is that he looks weak now to his own party and to Republicans. I'm not sure what this move got him. He looks like he had to recapitulate to the Republicans. They won a point. You only do this kind of thing if you can win. He didn't have a path to victory with scheduling the speech, as you said. And now, he's in a position where John Boehner looks stronger and he really has to deliver a very strong jobs speech because he's upped the ante, frankly, on what people are paying attention to.
[Romans:] Well, it's interesting. He has to deliver a strong jobs speech. A lot of people are saying, what can the president do? What is he going to do? What's going to be his plan? But there's two brains looking at this. One brain is saying what can he do? The other one is saying, he's got to undo what he has done.
[Avlon:] Right.
[Haberman:] That's right.
[Romans:] There's two completely discordant conversations happening and I don't know how you bridge them.
[Avlon:] Well, there are two fundamental and different philosophies about how you create jobs in the America. I mean, the Tea Party believes that the government creates jobs by getting out of the way. And Democrats believe the government can play a role by getting into the fray and adjusting regulations and creating incentives for investment. That's two fundamentally different philosophical visions and they've got to be able to come together. The only way anything gets done in divided government is if they find some common ground.
[Haberman:] I think that's right. I also don't think that the Democrats feel particularly confident that this plan is going to be a path forward or the White House doesn't, or they would not have scheduled it in such way it is going to get completely deoxygenated by 911, a few days later.
[Romans:] Right.
[Haberman:] They are doing where the attention is going to be totally zapped away.
[Romans:] But we are told the president is going to give policy or is going to give away that Congress can do right now. Things they can do right now. Not up for debate, discussion for think tanks to weigh in on it. It will be things that they can do right now. Does that put it in Congress' court?
[Avlon:] That will be certainly the White House's play. They are going to say, look, here are things we agreed on in the past. Let's not divide because we are on different sides of the aisle. Let's move forward. We can agree on these things today and put the American people back to work. This does become a core part of the president's reelect campaign. He's going to be essentially running against the do-nothing Congress, trying to do a "Give them hell, Barry" approach to things. By trying to say, look, don't let bipartisan stand in the way of jobs progress. That's going to be the core argument.
[Romans:] There's do-nothing Congress and there's undo everything the president has done Congress. That's what we are kind of facing right now. With the moral authority, with Republican Party if you brief it is with the Tea Party.
[Haberman:] That's exactly right. And I think that's what the president discovered with this. You were saying, you know, he e- mailed about the speech immediately last night. It is very much trying to pivot running against Congress. I don't think this is going to win over the people he needs. As you said he is not speaking the language of the other side.
[Romans:] Right.
[Haberman:] Whatever he comes with won't do it.
[Romans:] Ezra Klein, writing for "Bloomberg News," wrote, "Obama's speech will achieve nothing. It can't change the fundamental fact of politics right now, which is that the two parties disagree and most profound question in Washington. It's not how we fix the economy, it is who should win the next election."
[Avlon:] And this is the fundamental problem, right? I mean, we sort of forgotten the horse race is preamble to government and that's not what we're not doing particularly well right now as a country. And I do think people at home, though, folks, independent voters are getting frustrated by the dysfunction of Washington. And as much as they dislike the overspending, they hate the hyperpartisanship even more.
[Haberman:] I think that's exactly right. I think that you are seeing independents are going to decide this election, and they are not hearing from either party what they want to hear. The problem is there's a sitting president who they aren't hearing what they want to hear from.
[Romans:] Meanwhile, the leadership that we've been seeing lately has been governors responding to this crisis. Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey. You wrote a great piece at Daily Beast yesterday.
[Avlon:] Thank you.
[Romans:] Chris Christie who you know, has said I'm not going to run, I'm not going to run. He said it a thousand different ways. But even Democrats and liberals in his state are saying, yes, he's Jersey. He's doing Jersey proud. I mean, the Chris Christie reaction to leadership.
[Avlon:] Well, the Chris Christie phenomenon is fascinating, because it does point to the fact there is still a Chris Christie shaped poll in the Republican Party. There is a hole on the center right, and a lot of fiscal conservatives want someone responsible from the center right to get in with executive experience, and here's the key. Chris Christie is showing that states are governable. And right now, there is a leadership vacuum in Washington. And so, a strong governor unapologetic who can close the $14 billion budget gap without raising taxes, that's
[Haberman:] I think that's right. See, unapologetic thing that matters. It's not just showing that you can move the state. It's the tough message taking the fight. People saw him standing up for his state in terms of aid yesterday, and that's what's making the converse in his state.
[Romans:] All right. Maggie Haberman from Politico, John Avlon, as always, thanks, guy.
[Avlon:] Thank you.
[Haberman:] Thank you.
[Carol Costello, Cnn Anchor:] Just imagine, who would want to get into the fray, though, and run in 2012.
[Ali Velshi, Cnn Anchor:] Yes.
[Costello:] I mean, Chris Christie, maybe I don't know. It would be a tough job. New this morning, only one of the Williams Sisters remains at the U.S. Open. Two-time champion, Venus Williams, has withdrawn from the tournament before playing her second round match. She says she's been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that causes joint pain and fatigue. It's called Sjogren syndrome. Venus says she'll be away from the game while she focuses on getting better. Bad news for the family of a kid who hit a miracle $50,000 hockey shot. Remember this. It happened at a charity hockey event in Minnesota last month. Eleven-year-old Nate Smith nailed an 89-foot shot from center ice through a hole barely big enough for the puck to fit into. The problem was, the boy's twin brother is the one who bought the winning raffle ticket. So, the company that insured the event has decided they won't get anything, but they are going to donate $20,000 to Minnesota Youth Hockey, instead. I wonder if they knew the rules beforehand, the boys.
[Velshi:] I don't know. I can't imagine that they were gaming the system.
[Costello:] They're little boys.
[Velshi:] Yes.
[Costello:] Of course, you never know. It's 47 minutes past the hour. Today's top stories next, including a legal victory for disgraced baseball slugger, Barry Bonds. And the fall of the pajama trail. Two little girls get caught attempting to kidnap a goat. Oh, my gosh.