Meta Description not showing

I have tried two plugins on my WP 1.5 installation but I cannot get the meta description content to show based on a post excerpt.

Both plugins appear to be having difficulty reading the post excerpt for some reason and render the following for a description:
<meta name=”description” content=”” />

The two plugins are add-meta-tags and autometa.

I also tried a custom field called desc and placed this code in my header:
‘<meta name=”description” content='<?php get_post_custom_values($desc); ?>’>’

But no go. My description ends up being ‘ ‘ 🙂

Any suggestions? Thanks!