class. >> the cold hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many americans are working more than ever just to get by, let alone to get ahead. >> lead republican response is this part of an image makeover? a mother of three. >> i'd like to share a more hopeful republican vision, one that empowers you, not the government. >> can the president move past a disastrous 2014 or will his 2014 wish list be blocked by election politics? the biggest stories sourced by the best reporters now. >> welcome to cnn's continuing coverage of the state-of-the-union. i'm john king in washington. tonight the president spoke for more than an hour. he was conciliatory on some issues, reaching out to republicans on tax reform, on immigration. but a bit more confrontational, drawing some 2014 election lines on issues like equal pay, the minimum wage and other economic issues. here to talk it over with us,

arnie cornish from npr, john cornyn of the "new york times" -- jonathan let me start with you. the president was optimistic herbs was up beat. it was a well-delivered speech much did it change anything? tomorrow next day next month when it comes to his policy agenda and 2014 politics? >> in terms of policy, he talked about immigration reform very very little. for a reason. because he doesn't want to scare off republicans in the house by pressing too much on the issue. because he actually wants to have a bill to his desk to sign this year. on that issue, john, less is more. on the issue of politics, it probably didn't change too much. look, the most revealing take away i've gotten from the speech all night came about seven minutes ago downstairs here in the green room where senator mark begich from alaska said he in fact does want president obama to come to his state this year. not to campaign for him, he said, but to show him his policies are wrong. that is the night of the president's big speech in the mid-term year, a sitting senator

of his own party is saying that. it's remarkable. >> and the third prominent democratic candidate today to say that, mark udall from colorado said something imearlier in the day. and mary gerk in wisconsin running for governor against scott walker, her campaign said she had scheduling issues so she can't appear with the president. >> in north carolina, kay hagen didn't appear. mary landrieu has been putting as much distance as she can from the president on obamacare. >> joe manchin, the conservative moderate democrat from west virginia who many of those other democrats look to. a form governor, they look to him. he said as well he doesn't like these executive orders from the president. the president thinks that's how he helps the democrats, using executive power on issues like the minimum wage. what does it say when not only the republicans who say it's an imperial presidency that's supposed to be congress's turf but when democrats are saying no, mr. president, within an hour or two of his big speech? what does that tell us? . >> it sort of dims the light. you had president obama doing upwards of 30 fundraisers last

year for congressional democrats. people were seeing that as a sign hey he's doing more trying to help guys out. now just when you think he might be getting on a role you have people like begich coming out and saying no thanks, actually, you can still stay away. >> at the same time, though, i think this was a very energetic speech. he was playful. he kind of poked fun at the republicans on the obamacare issue. he's got a lot of problems right now with voters around the country in rebuilding that trust. so in that regard, even though maybe the country is moving on looking forward to 2016, he may be able to rebuild some of that goodwill with tonight's speech. >> i agree on that point in the sense that presidents are competitors. to run for the presidency you have to be a very competitive individual. he's at 43%. not the lowest point of his presidency but down pretty low. yet he did rallies came in with a lot of heart tonight, came with a pretty well-delivered speech. you mentioned immigration the potential. let's listen to the president. this has been an issue he's been so sharply critical of the republican party in his campaigns and in the oval office. but as jay marr noted much more

conciliatory. let's listen. >> independent economists say immigration reform will grow our economy and shrink our deficits by almost $1 trillion in the next two decades. for good reason. when people come here to fulfill their dreams, to study, invent, contribute to our culture, they make our country a more attractive place for businesses to locate and decree create jobs for everybody. let's get imimmigration reform done this year. >> may, to get it done this year the president likely would have to accept something from the house, the republican house, short of what he wants. the president has said i won't sign it unless it gives a path to citizenship. >> not legalization. >> not legalization. >> that's key. >> so what if the house does legal status and sends it to the president? and then nancy pelosi and hare reid come to him and say veto it we want the issue to attract latino voters in the campaign. does the president look at his legacy and say i'll take it 80% and fight for more or take the

politics? >> i think this issue what we have to really consider is, is this really a 2014 issue or is it really a 2016 issue for everybody? i mean, i can see a scenario here where lawmakers on both sides kind of play around with the issue throughout the year and then bump it to 2015 before they pass anything. that would probably work for both sides. >> punting it down the road work for both sides? there's a risk here for speaker boehner who feels about as powerful as he ever has. he let the tea party guys out there. they shut down the government. they paid a price for it. now speaker boehner says follow me, please. can he do this? >> i think one thing about this comprehensive immigration reform notion. for a lot of conservative republicans it's not just comprehensive immigration reform, it's any reform that riels the base. steve king the conservative congressman from western iowa put out a youtube video saying we won't do anything on immigration. we don't trust the president on immigration. clearly he's talking to his base. but i also e-mailed with the house republican leadership aide

after the speech saying what's the vibe? did obama move the need el at all with immigration? the response i got was it's the hippocratic oath. he did no harm. so that goes to your point. step back, let things happen behind the scenes. i think that's what the president was trying to do. >> the best thing the president can do on immigration reform is to really say nothing at all. sort of let the house, gop sort of work it out on their own. but i think they're going to pass something out of the house this year. the question comes down to president obama and also some of the hispanic advocacy groups. are they going to cast a path to legal status but not citizenship as something either half a loaf as john put it or a poisen pill? that's really the question. >> in ronald reagan days, 80% was a pretty good deal. if president can get a worker guest program, high tech visas, some of the other things he wanted not related to the big issue that derails this everything, citizenship or status or nothing. if he could get status does he sign that for his legacy, or do the democrats say mr. president

don't give that to republicans? >> i think it's more interesting the tone that he took with it. this was his nod in a way to bipartisanship. he stayed out of the way. he only gave a paragraph to this issue. hey, guys, let's get a couple of base hits. let's do some small things. i have an idea. for every idea he put forward he would suggest something that congress could pass if it found it in its heart to do so. that says a lot about lessons learned by this white house over the last few years. >> i think it makes it hard for him not to sign this, he advocated for this even if it's small when it gets to his desk. >> he promised in his first year for immigration reform. every year since. >> maybe the president can say what he says tonight because he doesn't think they get it done. >> maybe the house passes something and everybody can talk about it through the elections. but then you wait until the lame duck session to really get something done. >> if immigration was one of the

issues where he reached out to leave the door open for bipartisan compromise i think many people might have been surprised. if you have ideas to fix it i'll look at them. you could have expected him to say as little as possible in the speech tonight. but he decided to draw a pretty sharp political line. >> now, i do not expect to convince my republican friends on the merits of this law. but i know that the american people are not interested in refighting old battles. so again, if you have specific plans to cut costs, cover more people, increase choice, tell america what you'd do differently. let's see if the numbers add up. but let's not have another 40 something votes to repeal a law that's already helping millions of americans like amanda.

>> part of that was funny, part of that was in your face to the house republicans who have tried 40 something times. is that effective, or for the democrats on the senate side who actually want and some would say need to make changes to obamacare to win their elections back home, is that helpful or not? >> i think that the best thing that these vulnerable democrats can really do is to talk about something else entirely. and we've seen that happen in the landrieu race, in north carolina, and that's really what the president was trying to do tonight was move onto the income inequality discussion, and sort of brush over all of the many problems that he's faced on obamacare. and i think we'll just keep seeing those democrats just soldier on to something else. >> democrats think they can run on this. but republicans are happy to have this fight. >> they want it. they relish it. >> the first test we might have of this is actually in march in just about six weeks. there's a special election in florida and the republican nominee -- >> in the bay area. >> right. pinellas county, the republican

nominee there gave a statement tonight right after the speech saying i hope the president lives up to his word on jobs and improving the economy. then he pivoted to obamacare saying floridians are upset about rising premiums an getting kicked off their plans. this is again just a fight that republicans really want to have. >> how far is the president willing to go? you just heard in the mark begich interview with cnn he said he doesn't want to campaign with the president he wants to tell him how wrong he is. he said he wants to propose changes to obamacare. senator landrieu says she does, too. senator pryor from arkansas another democrat says hey so do i. never mind the republicans. >> how far does he go? this is his signature initiative. >> the white house is going to have to give some kind of cover to those compademocrats. mary bent my ear so many times we are going to tweak this or that. they have to do that this white house. i was e-mailing with a house democrat tonight on the way here about the speech. they don't want to talk about health care at all. they want to focus on two angles this year.

a populist economic message that woo heard to the tune of the president talking about minimum wage. also what you can sort of call affinity politics. women, hispanics, african-americans, focusing on issues that will sort of drive that democratic base. the combination of those two things, populism, affinity politics. if democrats are going to sort of hold tight this year or even make some gains it's going to be because of that. >> one of the biggest applause last night from democrats was about equal pay. >> absolutely. >> also on twitter, twitter is not representative of the american public but the "mad men" line was the number one most tweeted about. >> very clever line. >> the issue is the gender piece. huge. >> this idea of him not really approaching health care, he needed to have a moment where he could defend it without sounding defensive. the last couple of months it's just been him hat in hand, oh, shucks, sorry, folks, the web site doesn't work. it was his moment to say

something about it positively and not have the shadow of the last couple months. >> i believe a reflection they think at the white house that the worst is behind them on this and it will get better. republicans think otherwise. we'll see. stay with us. republicans view this mid-term election as a landscape of huge opportunity. but can they avoid the pitfalls? and take control of the united states senate? that's next.

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that was not a yes or no. yes or no. we'll see what the president's schedule is, what my schedule

is. coloradoens are going to re-elect me based on my record, not the president's record but what i've done and how i've stood up for colorado. that's the case i'm going to make to colorado. >> one more chance. you won't say yes or no, will you? >> we'll see what the schedule allows. >> very telling interview with the democratic senator mark udall refusing to say if he'd allow president obama to join him on the campaign trail this year. in 2014 most expect republicans to keep their house majority. the big battle is for the united states senate. 55 democrats if you count the two independent who caucus with the democrats, 45 republicans. that's it. in 2014, three dozen seats are up. both democrats and republicans with seats to dechlt this is what we view. you look at these races here as the most competitive races. now, republicans need a net gain of six to get control of the senate. in west virginia, veteran democratic senator rockefeller is retiring, republicans think that one is in the bag in south dakota, democratic senator tim johnson retiring. republicans think that one is in

the bag. in montana, democratic senator max baucus he'll be ambassador to china. republicans think that one is in the bag that. would get them to 46. then what happens there? arkansas. senator pryor very vulnerable, a democrat. he won't welcome president obama. republicans think that's a great opportunity. they think in alaska, mark begich just said on cnn a short time ago, no thanks, mr. president, i don't need your help because you're wrong on so many issues. republicans think they have a good chance on that one. 48. then you look at the map from here, north carolina, that's a state kay hagen her first re-election, tough race here. i won't switch it but we'll leave that one. louisiana another one, a republican opportunity. they think they could have chances in michigan and iowa where you have retiring democratic senators. so the map a tough one. a tough one. also perhaps new hampshire. a tough one. but republicans do think they have a chance to get to 50. so let's continue our conversation with audie cornish of npr, jonathan martin of the

"new york times," peter thhanbyf cnn and maeve restin. >> there's little margin for error. montana comes to mind. a red state but john test has won that twice for democratics. max baucus won it for 35 years. there is a way for democrats. >> in this year with this climate? >> that's going to be the challenge for democrats. in some of these red states where they have won in recent years can they pull it off in this kind of year. because in 2010 where you had what was a really bad environment for democrats, those kind of states they didn't win in. in fact didn't even come close. mark pryor type survive in arkansas, a golden last name. somebody a cultural good fit for that state in an environment where his background, his last name, his profile, might not mean as much. >> could it actually hurt him this year where people are so mad at politicians, the golden

last names may be hurt more than they help? >> yes, represents have age across the board to your point. mitch mcconnell in kentucky. that state should favor a republican. but his numbers are terrible. he's completely associated with washington. and he's running against a pretty good candidate profile-wise. again they have the advantage across the board. so many senate races always come down to like little kinds of quirks. iowa, so many republicans in that field. if no candidate gets over 35% in a republican primary it goes to a convention. guess what. republicans can nominate an unelectable conservative against bruce bailey. look at virginia. mark warner is -- to maybe republicans' favor, mark warner has really good poll numbers. but i happen to think that will be a little more competitive. >> we're also talk about a number of untested candidates here. we've seen that in california, in 2010 you had meg whitman put forward and carly furina and they ended up stumbling once they got out on the campaign

trail. while republicans might be talking about pick ups at this point in michigan or in minnesota, that's a really tough call. >> it's one of those funny rules. even when people are anti-politician in most elections the best politician wins. the republicans shut down the government. and after the government shutdown there was actually a brief period in washington where people thought the democrats might be able to get the house back. republican approval ratings tanked. that has levelled off largely because of the obamacare rollout. is that the democrats' best hope that the republicans will somehow screw up again? >> there is a vibe of kind of like indiana jones epic door slide. let's just try and get something in before the window close of mid term elections. and obviously it's not going that well. the seats that you were talking about, president's job approval ratings are under 35% in arkansas, in montana, i mean these are places where there's not going to be any kind of tail. >> just the opposite. >> if you go back to 2010 and 2012, there's some evidence to

the president's job approval being tied to the democratic vote share in. so states. if president is at 40% -- >> mid-term election. the president's approval rating in a mid-term is the gold standard. even gets no credit for the economy. let's listen to a bit tonight. we heard from the president. then you have the traditional republican response. since the tea party boom we've had two republican responses. tonight we had three or four. that's one of the questions. first let's listen to a bit of the republican reaction. >> the president talks a lot about income inequality. but the real gap we face today is one of opportunity in equality. >> obama care. all by itself. is an inequality godzilla. government spending doesn't work. it doesn't create jobs. only the democracy of the marketplace can find those capable of creating jobs. >> does the fissures in the republican party, tea party,

libertarians like rand paul, does that hurt or have they figured it out enough that even though they disagree on some issues to find common ground so they don't mess what up should be a good year? >> it's still a problem. if you talk to senate democrats which i have in the recent weeks, much of their strategy is banked on republican primaries causing problems. i mean, it's remarkable to the degree which how focused they are on the other party's primaries. they really think in georgia, for example, that the ultimate nominee for the gop could be a really flawed candidate and that michelle nunn could find her way in there. they also think there are other races, mississippi for example, that have long-time incumbent thad cochran loses his party to a tea party candidate they would have a shot there if they could get a decent looking democrat in the race. so it's striking, peter, how much talking to dems these days on the hill they are consumed with gop primaries. >> and they pounce, they absolutely pounce when any

republican says something vaguely out of the mainstream or seriously out of the mainstream. last week the republican national committee adopted a resolution urging their candidates to talk about abortion, for example, and terms friendly to them using poll numbers where the public sort of supports some abortion restrictions. and then the republican national committee was very happy about this. the next day they have mike huckabee come speak to the rnc and he talks about women's libidos. there's like a giant women republican face palm. >> this is why you all say you have the republican party itself seems sort of deadlocked on immigration. you can't -- so many of the candidates are worried about their primary challengers that they're scared to go out on a limb and really try to advance. >> the party out of power has these issues. we're about to see the beginnings of the democrats going through this actually. senators starting to talk about this when you don't have these strong presidential model. stay with us next. our panelists em tis reporters' notebooks. the best reporters in the business. stay with us for the stories that will be making headlines in the days ahead. [ male announcer ] here's a question for you:

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simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. welcome back to our continues coverage of the president's state-of-the-union address. what will be making political headlines in the week ahead. audie. >> this idea workplace policies belong in an episode of "mad men" bringing back more liberal leave. this is something from the american jobs act. may want to run to my hard drive do a search, blow the dust off that 2011 document and see if we'll be seeing more of anytime coming weeks. >> john. >> in the previous segment you were going through some of the senate races. two you didn't mention, minnesota and oregon. talking to republicans these

days, they're feeling very bullish. they think if this year turns out to be what it could be for them they could put some states onto the map that aren't being talked about right now. al franken in minnesota, jeff merkley in oregon, two freshmen democratic senators potentially in a really good year the gop could be vulnerable. >> trying to expand the map. >> republicans want to have a convention in 2016 in june their a number of cities can competing for it, charlotte, columbus, phoenix, denver, las vegas. some of the members of the committees bidding for the convention that have nba and nhl franchises, phoenix, denver, charlotte are, concerned that might kind of edge them out because in june you're going to have playoff time. and these stadiums and hotels are going to be booked which could favor las vegas. >> such a fun fight. >> sports. why don't we just agree the boston teams are in the playoffs that year and many others can have their -- >> exactly. we talked a lot about latinos tonight. and the immigration push.

i think what's been really fascinating about the obamacare debate is the fact that many latinos have not been signing up. that's really been a huge problem for the white house. immigration a little uncertain. so what does that mean about where latinos go in 2014 and 2016? i think that's something we need to dig into over the next couple weeks here. >> one of the biggest dynamics in american politics. we didn't talk about the new hampshire senate race. republicans are leaning on scott brown to run. i spoke to two people who spent time with him in the past week. they say he very much wants to run but both described him as 50-50 meaning there's something making him hesitant. we'll try to figure that in the weeks ahead. i want to thank my panel. i'm john king in washington. thanks for staying with us to the early morning. cnn state-of-the-union coverage continues right now.

>> as we wait for the president of the united states to enter the house chamber only a few moments from now, let's take a quick look at what's going on, set the scene. you just saw the supreme court justices of the united states. they have been introduced earlier. members of the diplomatic corps, they were brought in. members of the joint chiefs of staff. they were there. you'll see the cabinet members about to be coming in. right in the middle of your screen you see the vice president of the united states. he is the president of the senate. that's why he's there together with the house speaker john boehner. all of this happening on a very, very important night for the president. he's got to make his case, a strong case, on lots of domestic issues as well as international issues. we want to welcome our views in the united states and around the world to our continuing coverage of the president's state-of-the-union address. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. they are about to introduce the first lady. there she is.