night for special coverage of the state of the union address it starts at 6:00 p.m. eastern 3:00 p.m. pacific and the speech at 9:00. america tonight with joie chen starts right now. >> on "america tonight": promises promises. as the president prepares for his biggest annual address a reminder of how things went after the last one. >> it certainly says a lot about a president's effectiveness. people look back at presidents in history, you look back at what did they believe what did they do what did they accomplish. >> also tonight the fight for chicago. one year after the president highlighted her story to galvanize america, hadiya

pendleton. >> whether he is backed or not is a different story. >> and true moral courage to stand against your own. the rebel rabbi tells us why he must speak out. good evening. thanks for joining us, i'm joie chen. we begin tonight with a look at tomorrow when the president will give us his view of the state of our union. the single most important schedule address our leader gives each year. the idea of a regular report carved to the nation is even enshrined in the accusation, it ensures us that we the citizens deserves some measuring stick by what has and hasn't been accomplished by the president

and if we want to get a grip on how things are going maybe we should start looking at the past. the founding fathers spelled it out in article 2 and from the first president forward there's always been some kind of state of the union address. it's evolved but annual leaders have made it into an annual catchup, how i'm doing as the executive in chief, and here is how i plant to get moving forward if congress place along. we offer a report card of mr. obama's last one and what happened to those promises. the. >> the state of our union is stronger. >> are people bothered by promises made and not being kept? >> it certainly says a lot about a president's effectiveness. when people look back at presidents in history, you look at what do they do what did they accomplish. >> the most emotionally part of

last year's state of the union had to do with hadiya pendleton. >> just over a week later she was dead a victim of gun violence in her chicago neighborhood. >> senators of both parties are working together on tough new laws to prevent anyone from buying guns for resale to criminals. one of those we lost was a young girl named hadiya pendleton. hadiya's parents nate and cleo are in this chamber tonight along with more than two dozen parents whose lives have been torn apart by gun violence. they deserve a vote. >> and he said we as a country owe the victims of gun crime. some resolution. hadiya's parents. gabriel giffords, the children in newtown, the children from the theater shooting in

colorado. he said we owe these people. so what happened to that debt? >> the fact that he laid it out with such force tells me that he really believed it was going to happen and that he fel felt this a new measure a new yardstick. but the republicans locked arms and because the national rifle association suddenly became more conservative than it has in the past, the sides become more hardened, more polarized and president obama ran into a fierce bark lash that he wasn't expecting. >> he said $9 minimum wage. >> let's declare that in the greatest nation on earth no one should have to liver in poverty and -- live in poverty and raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour. >> if the minimum wage had gone up it would have been $15 an

hour right now. there ain't no way you're going to get that through congress. >> it's a job killer if you force companies to pay more money they'll simply hire fewer people. this is one of those promises that has to go through congress and so far republicans have said absolutely not. >> i realize tax reform and entitlement reform will not be easy. the politics will be hard for both sides. none of us will get 100% of what we want. but the alternative will cost us jobs. >> what about reforming the tax laws -- >> hadn't happened. >> tax loopholes? >> has not happened. we were grading the president on -- just on whether or not the things that he promised have in fact taken place he'd get a failing grade. if we grade him on effort, i'd

give him a better grade maybe a b. you know job creation raising the minimum wage those things help people in the short term. but if we want to talk about raising the nation's economic competitive level, we need to raise the level of education in this country. >> and that has to start at the earliest possible age. you know study after study, shows that the sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road. tonight i propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every single child in america. >> what the president proposed was a the enyear, $75

billion preschool for all. but house republicans balked, wanting to look at what was already available. >> so far there's been absolutely no movement on that either. and that perhaps is my greatest disappointment. >> all right, the affordable care act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs. [applause] >> and the reforms i'm proposing go even further. will reduce taxpayer subsidies to prescription drug companies and ask more from the wealthiest seems. >> bringing down healthcare, the he make it on the promise? >> the website is the problem. the federal government is handling enrollment in 36 states. millions of people couldn't get on the site, when they got on the site they couldn't get the information they needed. the president came out and apologized for that. >> but the bottom line for affordable care act is supposed to to, it was supposed to make things more cable. accessible. do we know that? >> absolutely fulfilled the

promise to you when you qualified for subs dis -- subsidies. >> bottom line what do you think the president has to say tuesday night on affordable care act? >> he has got to sell the law. public support for the health care law has really diminished. he has got to sort of close the deal for the american public. >> tonight i can announce that over the next year another 34,000 troops will come home from afghanistan. this draw down will continue and by the end of next year our war in afghanistan will be over. >> one way or another the troops are coming home but afghan president karzai has thrown up roadblocks to an orderly exit plan and although it might not be his fault, president obama might not be able to detangle the relationship on schedule. >> because we were supposed to have had a clear set of agreements, that would allow us to plan the transition. the way we leave afghanistan, the level of military advisors, the level of civilian advisors, it slipped through all of 2013.

we're now here it's 2014. >> tonight we stand united in saluting the troops and civilians that sacrifice every day to protect us. because with them we can say with confidence that america will complete its mission in afghanistan and achieve our objective of defeating the core of al qaeda. >> the al qaeda is happening outside of afghanistan, and whatever happens in afghanistan is not going to determine the future of al qaeda. and we need to remember that we went into this war to deal with the threat of terrorism. these are factors where the americans sometimes have a much stronger feeling they're in charge, than they really are. >> that might be true for the president, too. a look-back reminds us that whatever his aspirations are, they're bound to run into unexpected challenges. is it too early to call him a lame duck?

>> as soon as you get reelected and reinaugurated, you are called a lame duck. people are jockeying for who is going to be president. >> it's all very well to talk about a lame duck president. but internationally if you are saying if he's a lame duck president, we're a lame duck country. >> i don't think people necessarily expect the president to keep every single promise he made. but i do think the people will be expecting the president to tell us how he's going to get things accomplished this year that he failed to get accomplished last year. >> what will we hear tomorrow and what will that lofty speech tell us about the year ahead, the host of news 1 now is roland martin. he's here with us now. roland, you heard about promises made, promised not kept, not for the same reasons but what do you think the president will say tomorrow?

>> well, clearly, you have heard him talk about the issue of income equality, jobs trying to grow the country, i see this speech more of an opportunity for the president to issue a challenge as opposed to laying out here is my agenda. there's this great scene in the movie drum line where the orlando jones character said we are one band, one sound. the president has to make that perfectly clear. to republicans and democrats. enough with the games of you want to oppose things because it's me. you oppose construction projects in rebuilding america. don't oppose it because it's me. that's part of the problem. put principle over party and i hope he challenges congress on these issues as opposed to sort of lay out a whole litany of issues because that's what's required. >> john anderson we asked him to

rejoin us here. just to keep it real mr. anderson, i mean, the reality is, you guys were the first to feel the government shutdown, you were the first to really understand what all those things maintenance. meant. this year and the promises that the president's made, what do you need out of him now? >> we need more than just promises. we need for him to not just talk about it but actually to be about it. come up with some laws that are going to help the low income bridge the gap, like the low income minimum wage. now people still can't survive off of $9.50. people here in the city. they're pushing the people that are actually working in the city out of the city. we're not even able to live in the city anymore. and they're pushing it further and further out and now we're paying more money for transportation. they're taking more money from us both ways.

>> mr. anderson's plight roland is a plight for americans inside and outside of the beltway, where is income equality going to happen? >> and that's why i say, we issue the challenge. if you look back to robert kennedy u.s. senator from new york from 1968 when he went to the mississippi delta and he saw for the first time. with his own eyes, the poor, the housing conditions, he saw where they lived, that changed him. that changed his whole message. what the president should say tomorrow is, house leaders, senate leaders, forget having a conversation at a hotel here in d.c. forget our wonderful combines, we're going to go to five of the poorest counties in america. i would also hope that the president makes a public imormt oendorsement of the clyburn amendment. 10% goes to 20% living below the poverty line for at least four years. of those 474 counties two-thirds

are republican districts. if the president lays that out he says we talk about the poor not a democratic thing a black thing latino thing, it was i -- it was all of us. so i would hope to see less politician tomorrow and more community organizer challenging congress. >> we are at this time battling like extending unemployment insurance sitting on the surface how realistic is it? >> because they haven't made it plain, they had a philosophic political discussion and not a real people conversation. i've said to the white house for the last five years. forget about going to ohio, north carolina, middle class area. if you want to drive this thing home, go to the home district of cochran and united states senator, yeah you didn't vote for me but i'm fighting for you. he has to make it about the people, not the people in the room but the people who are watching at home. >> mr. anderson people at home. >> yes. it's like they use us to get into office.

they use the low income people to get into office. but once they are in office they take care of the rich, more tax cuts. more breaks here. even after the bailout everybody got bonuses for the companies that were bankrupt but they did nothing for the poor or the low income. >> because the poor have no lobbyists,. >> no one to fight for them. >> no one giving campaign contributions, that's one of the fundamental problems. i would hope that the folks who are here, who tried to do what martin luther king did in 1968 with the poor people's campaign. mobilizing those voices to say you are going olisten to us -- to listen to us. that's what the president has to do. >> but right at this moment the lbj anniversary, this is actually the moment where you know you could look back in history and say this was a fight that was -- >> it is the moment but unfortunately we have civil rights organizations that

unfortunately don't want to offend the president and don't want to offer the critique. they have to step up. it's not about him, it's about moving the president and the congress to say enough with the lofty rhetoric enough with the speeches you have to look the people in the eye, to say i am here to help you not the very small section of america. that's why i say: the speech tomorrow should be a challenge, he should throw the gauntlet down as opposed to nice and airy and wonderful. >> but mr. anderson, look at, a year ago, the president did, talk about raising the minimum wage. is it a reality check, it's great he wants that, we want that too but -- >> what are you going to do for me? >> yeah what are you going to do for me? >> that's why i go back to say, actually can he do something about it, pass some law to -- >> but can he? >> he's the president, why couldn't he? >> i think we have to offer a correction if you will. because the president sounded the alarm last year you have seen cities and counties take the action. and so the president will lay

out -- and first of all also i hope stops threatening using the executive order. just do it. it's in the constitution, just do it. you saw montgomery county, city of washington, d.c, other cities and counties across the country who are raising their minimum wage. granted it's not a national minimum wage but by the president highlighting it it's causing local officials to say we can make the change ourselves without waiting for washington, d.c. >> but you have got to do it from the ground up you are going to do it from communities and this is going to happen. i know within your own community of government workers or people who work within government facilities, this last year you faced the government shut down, and we met you during that period and this galvanized other folks to get people and get together at the local level and say we're going to do stuff.

>> but the shutdown there was people who would have never thought about going against their boss to form the union because they knew their boss didn't want the union in there. >> or standing up to the government. >> yes but now everyone from the little people from cleanup people, everybody is looking into getting more money. everybody is trying to get involved. people that were quiet before now they have a voice. now they feel as though people can hear them now. >> motivated. >> yes. >> keep in mind though john's problem though is when you work for a governmental entity you are at the mercy of politics. the reason we have seen the cut in the last five years is because we have seen more of those jobs cut from the federal government and the state government and so people who are teachers, firefighters, police officers, when you begin to cut those jobs you cut support staff as well. so the difficulty is when you do work for a government

institution you really are at the mercy of a politician. so when the tax base goes down, less revenue comes in they're going to slash and they're going olook to the very people like john who work in those places and that is part of the issue then. >> you've got more to say about it. i know we'll see both of you again. we appreciate both of you being with us this evening and we look forward to what the president has to say tomorrow roland and john thank you very much. al jazeera has complete coverage of the state of the union, starting as 6:00 eastern and the actual address getting underway at 9:00 p.m. eastern. and please make sure you tune in for a special edition of "america tonight". we'll tell you about the president and his goals and the probably response tuesday night at midnight. >> years of pictures of my face, it says here to cut my head off. >> is it a sin to speak? an orthodox leader says he's gone against his own community. to protect the innocent. the state of the union on al jazeera america.

join us for complete coverage of the issues facing all of us from health care and immigration to the economy an national security. we're talking with those affected most. understanding where we are, taking a critical look where we're going. >> there is much progress to report. >> immediately after stay with us as we get your reactions live from around the country and across the globe. don't miss special state of the union coverage as only al jazeera america can deliver. right here on al jazeera america.

>> no doubt about it, innovation changes our lives. opening doors ... opening possibilities. taking the impossible from lab ... to life. on techknow, our scientists bring you a sneak-peak of the future, and take you behind the scenes at our evolving world. techknow - ideas, invention, life. on al jazeera america i feel like there are many

stories out there that are untold that need to be told. stories about young people, about minorities or about women or about countries you don't usually hear about. i feel very fortunate as a journalist to have a chance to share those stories. al jazeera america. >> now the story of an unlikely crusader for justice whose bid to protect the motion innocent has received fierce, even violent pushback from the community he's trying to protect, his own. he's part of an ultraorthodox community in brooklyn but his community can protect abuse. >> boys used to call me they go to the ritual bed, they are being sodomized. girls use to tell me that their father sleeps with them. they say it's abuse not to talk about them. >> using his voice to expose

pedophiles. is >> my name is rabbi menachem rosenberg. i'm trying to expose all the routes these pedophiles do. saying that because we're a jewish nation we're not supposed to be an informer. i went to israel, i got big sages in israel, it's a full book in hebrews, and everybody wrote not only is it not an informer by not going to the police, it is also mandatory for a jewish person to go to the police. >> you see rabbi rosenberg, engaged in protecting children.

rabbi joins us from new york. we appreciate you being with us sir. >> thank you. >> can you talk to us a little bit about the situation? you have been a member of the community for your life i presume. people have cut you off here. but why is it so important to you, to speak out even if other people would be very angry with you? >> well, let's put it this way. the most precious gift that god gave to any person is a child. and because the children look so tiny and timid and innocent, it is unfortunate that these pedophiles use that to intimidate them to molest them, and to do anything that they want. so it is the obligation of the grown-up people like myself, if we see such horrific actions being done in the community, we have to speak out. >> even if it embarrasses people within the community? even if it causes negative attention to come to it? >> well, let's put it this way: in the year 1999 when i started listening to these boys, what people do to them, i wrote letters every week to about 600

rabbis, prominent rabbis, 400, 450 in my state. not only my state, we're talking about muncie, lakewood, new jersey, london, england and israel. i'm going to make aware the rabbis, maybe they don't know what's happening. must have gone out 600 letters each week with the names and the horrific story they have to sell. >> did it wind up with prosecutions? >> let's put it this way. the rabbis after five years, one rabbi was very honest, he said rabbi rosenberg, we know what's happening much more than you think. >> we can't prosecute anything here. what i want to know, when you go forward, do you see the fruit of your labor, you come out you have been ostracized by some people in the more than a decade that you have been working in

this way, have you seen that it has made a difference? >> let's put it this way. you know the expression that you see the light at the end of the tunnel? i don't see the light at the end of the tunnel, i see the full sun at the end of the tunnel. it's so clear it's been in brooklyn alone, maybe 100 plus arrests. there has been so many things that are changing. we work that the government should pass a law that we need in the private schools just like in the public schools circuit televisions and it's working beautiful. the government is paying hundreds of millions of dollars for all these schools. every school bus now has a circuit television. we see an unbelievable change that i wouldn't believe it would happen in five, six years. it's unbelievable. there's a special thank to god that we give that we see the fruit of what we harvest. it started off with saying that i'm a liar, it never happened, there's no sexual abuse. now finally they can't deny that

so it went into stage 2, that they used the government to help the district attorney's office and all, not to prosecute anything. now it comes to a different field that the rabbis are trying to ostracize witnesses to victims. >> i'm glad you're making some difference, rabbi rosenberg, thank you very much. >> after the break, remembering hadiya. , one year ago. a young girl's young life and sudden death could inspire change. >> revealing secrets... >> taking chances... >> everyone that was involved in the movement, had a code name. >> al jazeera america presents every sunday night,

>> now a snapshot of stories making headlines on "america tonight". it's not over yet. another round of subzero temperatures paralyze the midwest. where snow days and flight cancellations now just seem endless. the freezing forecast -- guess what -- is expected to last for two days.

as arctic air forces its way into the deep south. federal crack down on silk road, bitcoin, accomplices and money laundering. prosecutors say the pair bought drugs on the silk road and exchanged them for bitcoin. sochi ring of steel. around the event. the city of chicago is no stranger to gun violence but when 15-year-old hadiya was killed, hadiya's parents became a symbol for grieving parents all

across the country. a year later, the pendletons are among countless americans, state of the union. christof putzel taits sigh takef what's happened in the city. >> chicago feels like two different cities. on one side a modern metropolis, filled with glittering high rises and symbols of american corporate wealth. on the other side a virtual war zone. that's been overrun about drug dealers and gangs. in the past year this part of the city became ground zero in the debate over gun control. suddenly everyone was focusing on the murder capital of the country and what could be done to bring the violence under control. >> more than a thousand birthdays, graduations, anniversaries,

have been stolen from our lives by a bullet from a gun. more than a thousand. one of those we lost was a young girl named hadiya pendleton. she was 15 years old. she loved figure newtons and lip gloss. she was a majorette. she was shot and killed in a chicago park after school. hadiya's parents, nate and cleo are in this chamber tonight. >> that was a thrill. we were there but not present in terms of the emotion of it all and the reasons we actually made it. >> very overwhelming. >> in the middle of grief and you realize why you are grieving. this is a family that is hurting, a real family, real people you know work every day like everyone else. and you know thinking we're steering our kids to do what's right and only wrong came to find us. it's like why, why was the opportunity there. you know what could be done? what could be done differently going forward and how could future families be unaffected,

you know? >> the death of hadiya pendleton touched a nerve open a national -- on a national level. suddenly everyone from jesse jackson to the president himself were talking about the epidemic of violence on the chicago's south side. what took so long? what happened to hadiya happened to hundreds of teens in chicago and it's been happening for -- going on for years. i visited a grass roots organization in the heart of chicago's south side to get a sense of what life has been like here over the course of the last year. suddenly the national spotlight was on the south side of chicago after hadiya pendleton was killed. how did you feel about the spotlight being shined on chicago at that time? >> it made me angry. >> why is that? >> because as you can see since 2010, we have been saying our youth is out here dying and there's nothing that nobody is

doing about it. because we tend to live in a society where adults care more if they agree with you, and your lifestyle, then they'll be more concerned, they'll be more compassionate. but there's no concern for any 15, 14, 13-year-old boys that are losing their life out here every day. >> what would you say the needs of the communities are, then? >> like i say, resources for making money for something other than drugs. you close up clinics. you cut back resources as far as food stamps go, health care, other things, what do you expect broke people to do other than find the best way they know how to get money? >> just driving around the south side of chicago it does not take long to see the economic devastation that this area has felt. almost every block we go down you see abandoned buildings.

businesses that are shut down. mouses that are boarded up. the unemployment rate is at 20% and so there are a lot of kids in this neighborhood that have a lot of free time on their hands. it also means that just about everyone on the south side has been affected by some sort of gun violence. candace denard and victoria crieder have spent their whole lives here and in between them they have seen a lot of people died. candace's brother damien was killed last year, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. his family said he could have been saved if there was a trauma center nearby. >> he was shot on 61th in cottage grove. less than five blocks away from the university of chicago. he had to be taken so far he died on the way. because he was only shot one time. he wasn't blazeup, shot down, he was shot one time. it was a trauma center he could have been saved.

he could have still been alive today if they had a trauma center. >> did you ever expect something like this could happen? >> no, never in a day. because he didn't deserve it. no one deserves to lose their life for -- like he did nothing to no one. and they still killed him. you know, things like that, like that mentality alone makes you question like where does that come from? like how did that even manifest to take actions like this, you know? >> why do you think? >> lack of knowledge, lack of education, lack of opportunity. >> that's a sentiment echoed by steve perkins and ron johnson. members of a south side coalition of leaders striving to

implement change from the inside. >> hope is this. let me show you how to get it back in school. young boys who haven't graduated. let me get you back in school and get you a job while you're in school. you don't have to rob, steal or kill. right? but if you don't have that, don't have that direction, nobody shows you the direction, you are going to do whatever you think to survive. the roles have been reversed in the hood where before the parents, the fathers were the voice of the hood. but now it's the young people who have the voice in the hood and the fathers and the adults are not trying to say anything to them. they're afraid of the youth in the hood. >> why is that? >> because they have the power. the youth has the power and the power in the hood is the gun. >> the center piece of president obama's response to the violence was

stricter gun control but efforts were mostly blocked last year in congress. including a bill in hadiya pendleton's honor. president obama promised stricter gun control. do you think that is the right approach, stronger gun control? >> no, because there's not a 15-year-old guy out there with a gun card. these guys get guns from people who can go buy gun, but actually address the issue by i don't have a gun card but i can get a gun. >> what tactics do you think the city needs to take? >> i think it should be all about prevention. violence prevention. >> all about jobs. >> and jobs. >> i'm pretty sure they won'ting out here selling stuff on the corner if they had a 9:00 to 5:00 job. >> if they had opportunity. >> why do you think these implemented? >> because it's a majority black neighborhood. i'm just being honest. let's just be real, you know? and it still exists, you know

that type of stuff still exists. >> whatever the cause, the south side of chicago is struggling, and local leaders say it's all about the numbers. chicago has more police officers per capita than any other large city. and police claim that it's one of the reasons the murder rate has been dropping. down 18% since 2012. but not everyone is feeling the difference. >> do you feel like things are getting worse? >> yes, i do. >> despite the murder rate being down this year. >> no. >> why is that? >> you say the murder rate is down this year? >> yes. it went down. >> due to what statistics? because i can count on two -- if i had four hands i would be able to count how many people i know, i know alone whose lives were taken from them. >> this year? >> yes, within the last two years. so. i'm challenging their statistics. >> the numbers mean even less to those still grieving as a result

of the violence. >> right now we are trying to focus on at-risk kids. such as the same ones that killed our daughter. i want to be able to talk to those kids and say, why aren't you going to try to talk to the girls instead of shooting at them? you don't kill a girl. you go talk to her. you know, find out why they're so mad. what's your problem, you know, maybe we can help you. >> losing a child is like dying a death that you can't fully participate in. you're forced to live. there isn't a number i can quantify that feeling with to describe the feeling, what it's like to actually lose someone

you have actually raised and nurtured. it is numbing. it is life-altering. it is one of the deepest, darkest moments you could ever live through. >> in this divided city nate and cleo pendleton lost their daughter in an epidemic of violence that's become a way of life. and the question of whether things are improving here or just the same, depends on which chicago you live in. >> "america tonight"'s christof putzel rejoins us here. i guess you can't sometimes see it if you're in it. you can't see things have gotten any better and it's hard to believe it but there are reasons to believe things have gotten a little better for the city overall. >> certainly. the murder rate has dropped by

18% and that's significant. it's now the lowest it's been since 1965 however it's still the highest murder rate in the country. it's still a lot of people. 415 people killed last year and that's more than new york, that's more than los angeles which are cities much larger than chicago. but for people on the streets living in these conditions living on the south side, they don't see it. they still walk outside and they're still scared. they still don't have a place for their kids to go so they feel safe. >> you can talk statistics of any kind. you could answer anything. it could be the highest, the lowest, its doesn't matter if it's your neighborhood right. but there have been efforts by mayor emanuel -- >> he calls it putting more cops on the dots. he puts them into areas that are very high risk. and that is proved to certainly work a little bit. but you know what it also does is creates tension with the community. they feel like what -- they

don't necessarily want is more police, they want a hand-out. they want more opportunity. they want their schools open. >> as that one was saying, need for more jobs, this will all continue. christof putzel, thanks very much for being here this evening. coming up. putting words in his mouth. the president, his writers and the work it takes to make a formal speech sound spontaneous. searching for a better life. >> two hours in, we come upon a body. >> now, in a breakthrough television event, al jazeera america takes you beyond the debate. experience first hand the tragic journey of these migrants. >> a lot of people don't have a clue what goes on until you live near the boarder. >> six strangers with different points of view... >> i don't believe in borders. >> our government is allowing an invasion.

>> ...get to experience illegal immigration, up close and personal. >> its very overwhelming to see this many people that have perished. >> a lot of families that don't know where their babies went. >> i want to make sure that her life, its remembered. >> what happens when lost lives are relived. >> the only way to find out is to see it yourselves. >> on borderland. only on al jazeera america. >> any of you guys want to come to the united states?

>> the lights will be on late tonight down pennsylvania avenue at the white house here in was washington, where the lat minute preparations are made on the state of the union. those are the speech writers, putting the words in the president's mouths.

ron glass knows all of this. he helped write two of president clinton's speeches. how big a deal is this for awriter? >> it's a big deal for the country and the president. it is a big deal for the country and the president. state of the union is where the president determines what his agenda for the year is going to be. >> leading up to the speech is there a lot of last-minute, people pushing get this in mr. president, can you get this in on your agenda? >> there is, most of that gets litigated weeks before the speech. what happens in the last days is the polishing of the language. lots of outside people are trying to help. in the end at least with president clinton he stood there for three hours a day for days in a row editing the speech. he would stop for too tell you've telescope it id too much.

let's rewrite the story. he would literally rewrite the speech from top to bottom. >> was he a good editor? >> he was a great editor. he would have 15, 20 members of his staff throwing out ideas, throwing out lines. he would come out with something say, you like that, is that good? they would say yeah yeah that's greatly. the speech always got better with each iteration. >> you the speech writer, it's not just you, it's a team. >> we had over a half dozen people writing it. and our boss would give each person a chunk to write. maybe would i get to write about education policy and somebody else would write about foreign policy and somebody else would write about economic policy. >> you did actually have pretty salient line, memorable line from president clinton's speech about education. where did that come from? >> so this was in 1999 state of the union.

i was home in st. louis with my mom and dad and my younger brother and my mom were there and i said i need a line to describe this policy of education and he said you know we got better information on local restaurants than on local schools. >> wow. >> i put that in there and it made it all the way through. >> and the president said it? >> he absolutely said it. my brother george is immortalized. >> but that is a very difficult thing to try to find the words to put into the president's voice. in your time in the white house i understand you were looking at a lot of different inspirations for the presidency. you've looked all the way back to thomas jefferson? >> absolutely. you would read other inaugural addresses, other addresses. send in essays of quotes from demosthenes from all places. >> who else was an inspiration for you? i've read jefferson and fdr.

>> honestly ronald reagan. >> ronald reagan? >> ronald reagan gave a honey of a speech. i wasn't the only speech writer who would study what he did. the structure was very good. i mean he was a hollywood actor and actually quite a fine writer. and he could evoke emotion -- >> and he had fantastic writers. >> he did have fantastic writers. you could take great writers with a president who doesn't care or understand the power of his words and you don't get great stuff. you need a president for whom that's very important. >> and so what was it that president reagan did that really inspired you guys? i mean he sort of set the new standard for how to deal with the audience in the first lady's box. >> that's right. we kind of now see those heroes. >> and we saw the heroism of one of our young government employees. lenny skutnick who, when he saw

a woman lose her grip on the helicopter line dived into the water and dragged her to safety. [applause] >> and folks who represent change, represent heroism. that started with ronald reagan and somebody on president reagan's staff had the idea of bringing him and putting him next to the first lady so the president could honor -- tell the story and honor his heroism and every president since then has done that. >> and some of the language doesn't necessarily come from people as great orators. we do think of reagan as a great speaker, we do think of clinton as a great speaker. sometimes you can find great language not necessarily remembered. >> that's right. so i think one of the finer inaugural addresses in american history was inaugural address that had the following language.

i'll just read it to you. i brought it here. we are caught in war, wanting peace. we are torn by division wanting unity. >> we see around us empty lives wanting fulfillment, we see tasks that need doing waiting for hands that do them. to a crisis of the spirit we need an answer of the spirit. and to find that answer, we need only look within ourselves. >> we don't think of richard nixon as this kind of an orator. bud he had some good speech writers. and were i.t. not for -- and were it not for watergate it is the thing that young children would be listening to on documentaries. but watergate knocked richard nixon out of the pantheon such that people wouldn't quote his inaugural address. >> what do you think of the white house now, are the writers at this moment trying to come up with the greatest line ever for president?

>> i hope not. i hope it's all done, my guess is the president is practicing his speech as bill clinton did and maybe tweaking a line here and there. but i'm sure they're tweaking the language but it is a heavily litigated document and the policies are in place. they're work on the rollout of the pr afterwards so they can't mess with it too much right now but he's practic practicing >> all right, it is a big night for all. thank you very much paul. >> thank you joie. >> ahead on our final thoughts this hour: what you want the president to say tomorrow night. our "america tonight" digital project, dear potus. and the other america, he came from japan to chase the american dream and like so many before him, that's a dream now deferred. >> yes like over one million annual sales.

and five employees. but the recession hit everywhere. i was trying my best. i pushed myself to the edge. my buying prices getting higher but my selling price is getting lower so my profit is shrinking, shrinking, shrinking. finally, you know we were forced to close the company. i had to file bankruptcy. ordinary people work 40 hours a week. me, now, you know, i have two jobs. restaurant in the evening, driving taxi, so it's about 85 to 90 hours a week. >> tuesday night, on "america tonight", the other america, riches to rags, keeping the american dream alive.

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>> finally from us tonight we have heard from a lot of voices about what the president's state of the union might include tomorrow night. over the weekend we went online and asked you to weigh in and tell us what the president should be talking about. you responded on paper, even on paper bags. here is what you told us. much of what you told us is about your pain and the high price of your ambitions for the future. bankruptcy on the horizon, for far too many. a lengthy list from just one family. boat big picture, and closer to

-- both big picture and closer to home. you're worried about the environment. health care, prison policy, at home, and overseas. and drones. and finally, a polite plea, capped off with a smiley face from michael glick of lancaster, pennsylvania. dear mr. president, i want you to stop spying on me, please. please, he said. that's it for us here on "america tonight". don't forget, al jazeera has complete coverage of the state of the union, 6:00 eastern time, with the actual address beginning at 9:00.

and we'll break down the president's speech and tell you how realistic his goals are and and al jazeera america will bring you the republican response, that's coming up on tuesday night. at midnight. ftc and remember, if you would like to comment on any of the stories you've seen here, you can log on to aljazeera.com/americatonight. tell us what you would like to see in our nightly current affairs program. and join the conversation. we're always on on twitter and on our facebook page. hi there and welcome to al jazeera america. i'm thomas drayton.

president obama addresses the nation tomorrow night in his fifth state of the union. at the top of the agenda, income and the economy. the president's approval ratings are as low as they have been i >> the state of the union address. glnches nearly two do you americans have died from an overdose of a morphine drug. spy agencies in u.s. and u.k. can collect data from cell phone apps that's according to edward snowden. pleak shows intelligence agents taking information from social apps. during an interview with the bbc, sochi's mayor says there are no gays in the community. but contrary, there are many gays lesbian and transgender in the area. more than 100 people are

reeling from a deep freeze affecting the united states. it is expected to last through wednesday. so bundle up. remember you can get the latest news online at being aljazeera.com. >> president obama set to put his foot down at the state of union, will his threat of executive orders make gridlock worse. has the anti-vaccine movement made thousands of americans sicker? why was an american arrested in dube. and imprisoned over nine months for a youtube video. >> and bit coins, and meth - i'm antonio mora, this is "consider this." here is more of what is ahead. >>