thanks for watching. i'm be in port-au-prince tomorrow. "larry king" starts right now. larry: tonight, many children are on the streets, living in makeshift camps. new fears in haiti that children will he be targeted for illegal adoptions or trafficking. what's being down? all eyes focus on the president, first state of the union address, 40% approval rating, a do or die vote over the health care bill and questions over whether a $787 billion stimulus is working? can he convince a country he's getting the job done? we'll talk about it it next.

>> larry: tomorrow night is the state of the union address beginning at 9:00 preempting us. so we'll be on at midnight and 6:00 p.m. pacific time. among guests are senator john mccain. "larry king live he" is at midnt and 6:00 p.m. pacific. we're going to haiti, and we begin with christian amanpour, our chief international correspondent. saturdays and sundays on cnn. chr chrisiane, you just got there this week. what's your overview on this? what's your read? >> well, the thing is it's

getting better in certain instances. obviously, we've heard since the earthquake struck of all the difficulties getting the food, supplies and medicines out to the people. that is getting better whether it's here in port-au-prince or out in the southern caribbean coast or lagone. the military operation to provide security and get the supplies out is expanding. but it's still not enough to meet the needs of every single person. right now the big issue for many people is still getting enough food and clean water, although many individuals, many people here in haiti, many businesses are doing their best also to give free food and water. the big issue is shelter, because so many of the buildings, certainly in port-au-prince, have been either destroyed or damaged. what they want is huge kind of industrial-strength tents like we see in many other disaster areas where the u.n. and other organizations come in and put in

huge green tents where whole families can live, where there can be sanitation and hooked up to water. there's a million people or so who need homes, and people are worried about what happens when the rainy season sets in and what happens when the hurricane season sets in. just to keep these people some shelter and some place to live. >> larry: if the normal can be used, when can things be back to an approximation of normal in haiti? >> you know, in every disaster the most incredible thing is how small pockets exhibit traits of norm malady so quickly. the traffic is congested and right now in many parts along many roads commerce is springing up, whether it's the people who sit on the side of the roads making, selling, or baking food and selling that as well. whatever it might be. but on the whole this is a major emergency situation, and

therefore, it is nowhere near normal whether it's in shelters as i said, getting in enough food and water, whether it's the government being able to function and show it's in charge and get the message out. whether it's for the children that have no school. school stopped the day of the earthquake. hundreds of schools around the country, colleges, and three main universities were damaged and destroyed. so children, many of whom have been separated from their families either because their parents have died or because they don't know where they are, many, many are left alone traumatized. they have really no recourse. they can't even go to school because school isn't open to have some kind of familiar surroundings, some kind of way of soothing their stress and giving them at least a sense of normality. it takes months and months to get out of the emergency phase, and then you have the major reconstruction and development phase. that's what people here are

hoping will come true and come forth according to all the promises that have been made to them, even after the cameras leave. >> larry: you're an expert on governments and how they operate or failed to operate. how's the government of haiti operating? >> well, you know, so much has been said about their lack of capacity even before the earthquake. it's not a failed state, haiti. there's an elected government. it's a fragile state. over the last several years it was beginning to make progress in association with the united states, which had been really looking at haiti for the last year, more businesses were k coming here. more investment, and the garment industry was beginning to really thrive. it was on the verge of thriving. there's special u.s. congressional legislation which allowed, you know, tariff-free,

duty h duty-free of clothes into the united states. there's a big boone for the economy here. that has to get back on the feet again. the government's buildings were collapsed and many, many members government were killed. it's barely reconstituted itself in a former police headquarters near the airport, and the big complaint, though, is the government is not showing to the people that it's in charge. it's not getting out there and delivering its message. i spoke to a former haitian prime minister who said on the day of the earthquake or afterwards, i would have asked the united states or the international donors to give me six huge tents, put them outside the destroyed and damaged presidential palace and let the people know we're here and operating, we have a he situation room, we can tell people what to do, divide the city up into sectors and look like we're in charge and actually do things. that hasn't actually happened yet. >> larry: and that's christiaen

amanpour on the scene. there's nothing more important in our lives than children. with possibly thousands of children left without parents or families, there's a growing concern that haiti's orphans are at risk for, get this, child trafficking. out when we come back. ented for awhile... like something was stealing him away from us. we wanted to be there for him... to hold on to him. dad's doctor said his symptoms were signs of alzheimer's, a type of dementia, and that prescription aricept could help. it's thought aricept may reduce the breakdown of a vital chemical in the brain. studies showed aricept slows the progression of alzheimer's symptoms. it improves cognition and slows the decline of overall function. (announcer) aricept is well tolerated but not for everyone. people at risk for stomach ulcers or who take certain other medicines should tell their doctors because serious stomach problems such as bleeding, may get worse. some people may experience fainting. some people may have nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, bruising,

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>> larry: joining us now to talk about the risk of child trafficking and ab duck in haiti after the earthquake, lisa lalman at save the children. also maggie boyer, she's communication director for world vision in haiti and anderson

cooper. how worried are we about child trafficking in this tragedy? >> well, larry, we were worried before and we're worried now. i will say that there are a lot of stories out there, a lot of rumors, and a number of organizations, unicef, save the children woshlg children, world vision are trying to follow them up. we haven't found evidence these stories are true, but that doesn't mean children are not at risk. it's very important that all humanitarian actors remain vigilant. >> it's dangerous because so many children are scattered around and don't know if their parents are living or dead. they're certainly open to this, aren't they? >> that is correct, larry. before the quake there were about 380,000 children labeled orphans in haiti. you can imagine that number has increased since the quake, so world vision is certainly min mindful of that number and working hard to keep track of

the children and ensure their well-being. >> larry: maggie is coming to us via the skype gadget, which is amazing how it works. anderson cooper, have you seen any evidence of this at all in your reporting? >> we've looked into it. we were given a heads-up on two allegations, two stories that were floating around. unicef turned us onto them. we investigated both of them. we didn't get any evidence of any kind of tracking in those two incidents. they say they're clearly on the lookout. what's important larry is now a lot of organizations want to start tracking and try to get their hands around how many orphans there really are, who really is an orphan, who may have other family members who they're separated from and want to take care of them. we saw this in the wake of tsunami. there are a lot of rumors about child trafficking. we investigated those. it was very hard to find actual evidence of it. larry, haiti has a history of

child trafficking internationally but also internally kids are sold often or given to families living in the city and they'll grow up as domestic servants working for a family. that's a form of trafficking that happens had haiti and happened long before the earthquake. >> larry: how does trafficking work? what happens? >> it's difficult to say, obviously, because it's a clandestine form of activity. but often traffickers are people known in communities and develop relationships. the kinds of trafficking happening in places like haiti, the stay with phenomenon is something that happens when a family feels it can't care for children adequately and sending them to what it presumes to be a wealthier family in another area to provide domestic he service in exchange for food and shelter and clothes and possibly an

education. what happens often, however, is that the terms of the child living there are not monitored at all and are not very well established and children are often treated harshly. sometimes they're violence and they're not provided the entitlements they think they're sbiltsed to and sometimes they're sexually abused. often they're caused to leave those families before they turn 15, which is the age to be legally paid, and then they go on the streets. >> larry: how much sexual slavery, maggie, is involved in this. >> larry, i think when children are abandoned or separated from their families and not having the care and affection of their parents they're exposed to all kinds of dangers, including sexual exploitation, which, of course, is not unheard of in haiti. we have seen some statistics suggesting that up to maybe a third of our young women,

especially in the city do suffer some kind of sexual violence. it is happening before the quake. there's no reason to think those numbers have decreased. >> larry: anderson, how do we know an orphan is an orphan? when you see a little child on the streets there, how do you know if the father is living, mother dead? how do you know? >> you don't really know. you can talk to them, but oftentimes they will say i heard my mother die, but i don't know. people just disappear here in the earthquake. a mother goes out to buy something at the store, the store collapsed on her, the child hasn't seen her but has heard through stories she's dead. there really needs to be a system in a place. unicef is working on it and save the children as well and i'm sure the red cross will be involved in trying to identify and catalog all the unaccompanied minors out there with the aim of reuniting them with parents if they're out there, reuniting them with other

family members and figuring out they're really orphans and need some sort of orphanage here or international adoption. >> larry: we'll take a break. when we come back, we'll ask if adoptions are taking place that shouldn't be adoptions. don't go away. (announcer) a cold or flu can start fast. it can go from a scratchy throat in the morning. to a cough. to a full body ache... at night. new tylenol cold rapid release gels day and night work fast too. they release medicine fast

to relieve painful coughs, congestion and sore throats. so you can rest, day and night. feel better, tylenol cold. >> larry: lisa, is it possible a lot of children are being adopted haphazardly? >> we know children have left haiti to go to other countries. the children that have come to the united states so far were children in the process of adoption, and there were almost no question at all about what their status should be. i think the concern now is that we not rush to adoption and we not rush to the assumption these children don't have parents or extended families that might want to care for them. adoption may be an important and necessary option down the line.

the first thing we need to do is make sure that if they have family that is out there,eighbo community members who want to and have the capacity to care for them responsibly that we're in a position to let that happen before it's too late. >> larry: maggie, you met with the president and first lady of haiti haiti. did you discuss the possibility of this problem with them? >> larry, i did have the honor of meeting the president and the first lady this morning. i did have the opportunity to bring up to them world vision's concern with the well-being of children. i'm glad to report that the first lady was already aware of that and is working on an initiative and world vision is looking forward to perhaps assisting the government in the coming weeks and days, especially the first lady's office, about this initiative concerning children. larry, can i add one more thing.

the haitian prime minister had in his daily meeting with heads of agencies made it very clear in no certain terms a couple of days ago that any hasty adoptions are not likely to succeed. the government has granted some expedited adoptions, but those were already in process and they were done on formal requests from embassies here. so i do think the government is aware of the danger of hasty adoptions. though the impulse is certainly understood and i don't mean to impune those that want to do that, the government is very aware of the problem and on task of not allowing that to happen. >> larry: are there a lot of children just running loose? >> you come across kids all the time who are identified as being

on their own. you go to a general hospital, i met a little boy named johnny 5 years old and didn't know his last name. the nurse didn't have anyone watching over her. i met a girl in another hospital out by the airport. i was in a church that had about 20 kids they identified as orphans. they made a list telling me these kids were up for adoption. it was unclear if they wanted an orphanage adopt me. there was an indication they were willing to let me take these kids. there's kids floating around in ad hoc groups with maybe some adults and locals looking after them. they are watched over in an organized setting by international groups and haitian orphanages and get a sense how many there are and what their needs are. >> larry: thank you all very much. the state of the union is coming up tomorrow night. all eyes on president obama. he gives his first state of the union speech. what should he stay?

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>> larry: joining us now is ben stein the economist and former presidential speech writer and a columnist for "fortune." penn gillette and tanya acker, political analyst and huffing ton post contributor and stephanie miller. okay, obama is going to propose

a partial freeze. he's announced that already. he'll discuss it at length tomorrow night. what do you make of it ben? >> i've seen it many, many times before. it amounts to a small fraction of the federal budget. that cat is out of the bag. the deficit will grow and grow unless they raise taxes by repealing the bush tax cuts. i think he has to repeal those, and frankly i don't see any way out of this except inflating away the deficit. >> larry: penn, what do you make of it? >> i'm looking forward to hearing a speech by someone involved in innovation and knows america's place in the world market and has fiscal responsibility and i hope that obama is listening very carefully when steve jobs speaks tomorrow. i don't know. i mean it seems we're in big trouble, and the good news is it

seems american people are realizing that when you're in debt horribly that maybe it's best to stop spending a little bit. >> larry: president obama, tanya, dismissed john mccain during the campaign when he proposed a freeze. he said it would be like taking a hatchet instead of a scalpel. here's what mccain had to say today. >> i think that the president understands now how serious this problem is and it requires hatchets and skal pcalpels. it requires a hatchet to bring it under control and requires a scalpel to eliminate the wasteful and unnecessary spending. >> larry: john mccain will be with us tomorrow night when we follow all of the following following the state of the union. we'll be on at midnight eastern and 9:00 pacific. what do you make of all of this? >> i think the president is certainly bending to a political

reality, which is that are people now as concerned about this issue as they are about anything else on the domestic agenda? during the campaign certainly people were really worried about health care. they were worried frankly about a lot of things that the now very much endangered health care bill, i think, would have spoken to. right now they're worried about dollars and unemployment, they're worried about a deficit and the long-term consequences of that and the economy. i think it's important the president be responsive to that. >> larry: stephanie, everyone is hitting at the president who retains his popularity base, by the way, but last night on this show robert reich secretary of labor in the clinton administration said a freeze right now makes absolutely no sense. how do you respond to that? >> well, i got called a chirpy apoll gist for the president today on my radio show, larry. once again, i have a love/hate relationship with ben stein. first of all, we republicans and democrats did not get us into

this deficit. the bush administration got us into this deficit, but i agree with ben. significant deficit reduction requires tax cuts. the rich are going to have to pay their fair share like they did with heroes reagan and eisenhower. >> larry: you mean tax increases? stephanie, you said tax cuts but you mean increases right? >> increases, right. you understand their conservative heroes reagan and eisenhower the tax rates were much higher. i've had it up to here with the bipartisanship. i think we've gotten nothing from republicans. i agree with you. i think he keeps trying, and you know, i think to have a significant deficit reduction, which i think we need, you're going to have to have the rich pay their fair share. >> larry: do you think the ben is going rightward? >> right after the election in massachusetts, but i agree with

your friend and mine, robert reich. we're in a serious recession. i think any gesture towards cutting off stimulus is a danger. >> larry: penn, why is the election of one senator in massachusetts causing all up this upheaval. >> i don't know. i'm from massachusetts. i think here they're maybe seeing that putting through an absolutely insubscridescribable care thing is not a good idea. i think that maybe american citizens know more than politicians about what you should do when you're deeply, deeply in debt, and that's stop spending money. >> penn, it's going to cause deficit reduction. the health care plan is going to reduce the deaf the sit. explain that. >> they will raise taxes on rich

people, which is not necessarily a bad idea. >> that's not the only thing that the health care plan does. just to step back for a second to talk about massachusetts, yes, scott brown ran a magnificent campaign. yes, martha coakley ran a terrible campaign. but the notion that somehow this suggests that the entire country has shifted, i think, is just not exactly accurate. i think what we need to do -- >> isn't that obama that believes that? >> larry: let her finish. >> we forget there are tens and tens of millions of people on election day notwithstanding the enthusiasm a lot had for this president and this administration, tens of millions said they wanted sarah palin to be the number two with her finger on the button. this president has always had some opposition. they're very mobilized now, and he has to mobilize. i agree with stephanie. the time for bipartisan may be pasted. he has to set his own agenda. left-hand side more on this when

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>> larry: stephanie, as a liberal, do you have a fear that your president is now a

centrist? >> yes, i do. the polls back up what we've just been talking about in massachusetts. this is not about health care reform. they have health care in massachusetts which scott brown voted for. this is about we don't want to pay for the rest of the country's. that's the way he successfully framed that issue. the fact that the media has picked up the story, this is a rejection, they did poll by poll, that i just went through today, larry, on my show. this is not about rejecting democratic policies or health care reform. i think we're taking the wrong message. a year ago, larry, the public was clearly behind health care reform with a strong public option. i think what's happened is the president has lost control of the debate and allowed the republicans to lie about it and to frame the issue and to scare people and he's got to take that back tomorrow night. >> larry: penn, what do you want to see him say tomorrow night? do you want to see him forceful? what do you want to see? >> if massachusetts doesn't show that, why does obama think it shows that? he's the one that's changing

course. i didn't write the speech tonight. i'm not the one that said it. i mean, it's obama himself that said it. >> the "wall street journal" had detailed analysis of the vote asking people in exit polls their motivations for voting as they did, and they said the opposite of what stephanie said is that health care is incredibly important for them in their minds, and they didn't like the obama program. i agree he's popular personally, but they don't like the obama program. >> that poll didn't take into account -- >> larry: hold it. hold it. >> beyond that, you have to remember wo tho the voters were show up at the polls. it was scott brown's folks. he ran a great campaign. now we're taking coakley's laziness as a national referendum on the democratic platform. i think that's overreaching. >> she was 35 points ahead and fell apart as the health care

thing went behind closed doors. >> larry: penn, you were saying? >> i don't know what stephanie means. it's obama that's changed his course. it's not we saying he should change his course. he actually is. so apparently what he thought happened in massachusetts is different from what you thought happened in massachusetts. i think he has a better view than you do. >> i beg your pardon. i think he has information i don't have? >> i like him more than you. >> i want to wait until tomorrow night and see what the president says, but i agree with you. i think the lesson from massachusetts is that the health care bill is not liberal enough. the american people in poll after poll have wanted a he robust public option. that's not in any of the bills anymore. that's been in every poll for a year. >> that's not the polls i read in the "wall street journal" or "new york times." that poll seems to --

>> 65, 70% of the american people want a public option. >> larry: what do they want? >> they want a public health policy that covers very poor people and does not disrupt life in america. >> larry: you want no disruption, no sacrifice, and everybody's covered? >> i didn't say no sacrifice. in fact, i said all along on your show and many others i'm personally fine with raising taxes on well-to-do people like stephanie, but against breaking up the whole barn yard to get one thing -- >> larry: where's the status -- my late friend henry lewin in las vegas used to say money is not the only thing. health is 3%. penn, what is the value of health? where does it mean that someone can't get a prescription? isn't that a blight on the country? >> i don't think that anybody in

this debate -- i haven't heard anybody say that people should be unhealthy and suffer and miserable. the question is, how do we help people? there are more than one answer to that, and i think that you should always consider more freedom. i think that maybe letting insurance companies sell across state lines, letting there be actual insurance with deductibles decidable, letting individuals have the same kind of tax breaks on insurance policies that they would have in they had it through their insurers trying to do other sorts of things. i don't think anyone is saying people should just get sick and die. >> that's a cruel position. >> the republicans are not saying that. the republicans want health care for everyone, too. >> larry: we never passed a bill in 75 years. >> the democrats killed it. >> how do you get health care for everyone if there's no meaningful competition? if the insurance companies can do what they've been doing now.

>> larry: we need another break and we'll discuss the stimulus package when we come back. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] the cadillac cts sport sedan. one of car and driver's 10 best for the third year in a row. ♪ and now, cadillac announces the new luxury collection lease. ♪

new gold bond anti-itch lotion gives fast, lasting relief. got an itch? gold bond lotion. the quick fix for almost every itch. >> larry: all week long cnn is breaking down how the $787 billion stimulus money is being

spent. we call it "the stimulus project." you can get more information at cnn.com/stimulus. what do you make of the stimulus, ben? you're the economist on the panel. is it working? >> it doesn't seem to have produced much in the way of results. it must produce some results. the results have been difficult to measure. back to our friend stephanie's point, a simple basic way to get health care for everybody and avoid the horror of poor people not having health care is to write checks to people to buy insurance policies. it's that simple. >> larry: the nixon plan. back to the stimulus question. penn, do you think it's working? >> i don't know. i just don't think that when you're in debt spending money is the right thing to do. i know that people are a lot smarter than me, but i don't think they're a lot smarter than everybody. i think letting individuals have that money back, not take it away in taxes and redistribute

it, is a really good idea. i don't believe that the government is smart enough to know where to put money. >> except trickle down economics does not work and is responsible for great deficits. the whole notion is let nobody pay taxes and the economy will rebound, i think that's counterfactual. in terms of whether or not this stimulus is working and in terms of whether or not it will work in the long run, we knew last year it would take time for some money to work through the system. perhaps if we really want to invest in a country, see about making a difference, we have to realize that, you know, you don't always get -- things don't turn around in two months, three months, five months. it's too early to say right now. >> larry: let me get a call in. louisiana, hello. what's the question. >> caller: here's my question. the president addresses health care and he's ridiculed.

it's the most discussion there's been on health care in 70 years. he addresses and tries to make attempts to reduce spending, and he's ridicule od on that as wel. how does the president move forward to create a win-win situation so we can stop playing the blame game and get some change in america? what does he have to say tomorrow night to get everybody on the same page? >> larry: good question. stephanie. >> let me give you a little tip, no matter what he says the republicans are against it. they've already written the speech. he has tried bipartisan ship for a year, larry. they have said they want to break him politically. they are not going to give him any help, and i agree we're like kids in the back seat on the stimulus. are we there yet? it is working. you can't turn this economy that george bush left you around in a year. you're just not. it is working. ben is right, we can argue about

how many jobs it created, but it's working. >> all presidents get ridiculed. that comes with the territory. all presidents get ridiculed. that's the name of the job. some love you and some hate you. >> larry: you'll get a big boost tomorrow night. >> what could obama say that would make stephanie not like him? >> what would could he say that what? >> what could obama say that could make you ant grnot agree me? >> he would have to come and pee on larry's desk. i don't know. >> that's my point. >> larry: this panel is taking us down to the dredges. they will be back. david gergen is standing by. he's advised many presidents. we'll ask him about his advice for the president and his first state of the union tomorrow. john will be with us, too, columnist with "the daily beast"

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ask your doctor if symbicort is right for you. (announcer) if you cannot afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. >> larry: before we meet john and david, let's go back to port-au-prince, haiti and check in with anderson cooper. what are we looking at tonight, a anderson? >> we're live from port-au-prince. we have the latest on the search for americans. the state department says between 4500 and 5,000 americans are missing here. we may never know the real

number. today we went to the hotel montana where american families hope they find loved ones. we're going to talk to a young woman who is waiting to hear word of her father who is missing at the hotel montana. i'll talk to another man, a wife, an american found in the rubble here. she's basically disappeared. her body dumped in a dump truck and taken to mass graves. we'll go out to the mass graves and it's the most shocking scenes i've seen in my lives. the haitian government is not fully burying people, literally dumping them out on the ground and leaving them, and it's he been two weeks now. we'll have all that ahead, larry, tonight. >> larry: boy, wow. anderson cooper, 10:00 eastern and 7:00 pacific. let's go to new york. john avalon column iist of the daily beast and in boston david

gergen, cnn's senior political analyst and former presidential adviser to nixon, ford, reagan and clinton. david has been around many of these states of union. how important are they? how lasting are they? >> what effect do they have? >> first of all, larry, it's hard to bounce off that report from anderson cooper and those pictures from haiti, isn't it? larry, not many have been m memori memorial. occasionally a president can find his footing in trouble. ronald reagan after two years in the white house lost seats in the second year and came back in the next state of the union and gave a strong rallying cry. it really helped his presidency he. bill clinton did the same thing after his first two years in office. there are times. i think this is for this president this has to be a moment when he relaunches his presidency. clearly the cnn polls that are out today show we're a very divided country right now. a lot of that glow is gone.

people aren't sure they want to follow him. a lot of people will tune him out tomorrow night. even so, he has a special moment and it's the most important moment he'll have this year to reframe his agenda of what he's trying to do as president and get people to rally behind him and finally take charge as a leader. >> larry: john, what do you expect tomorrow night? >> i think we'll see a president who's back focused on a lot of messages from the '08 campaign. he campaigned to someone who would transcend the old divide, and a lot of his actions have fallen short of those high hopes many people had. he needs to reconnect with moderates and the middle class. i think one way to do that is by talking about the deficit. i think he needs to really -- bill clinton is the master of the political pivot when it comes to state of the union addresses, and he famously said the era of big government is

over in one of his state of the union. he said say the era of play to the base pauttics is over. he needs to send that message. >> larry: david, do you expect a big announcement tomorrow? do you expect something that's going to be the headline on thursday morning? >> there's no indication of that, larry. if anything, the white house has been leaking out in very intentional ways on aspects for this, help for the middle class, a freeze so some spends and a freeze on salaries inside the white house, that sort of thing. there is some talk about he may push tomorrow night for a repeal of don't ask don't tell in the military. that would be a surprise, because i think most people think the headline on the speech is going to be about jobs and deficits. so far, larry, there's no indication that he's going to have any surprises on jobs and on deficits. he's already received a couple of body blows in the last couple

of days. >> yeah. >> larry: john, do you expect any surprises? >> well, i mean, i think what david said. this is going fobto be a laser m on the middle class. if you want to understand the anger of independence, the reason they voted by margins of 2-1 for republicans in new jersey and massachusetts, you have to look at the deficits. the middle class families, families all across this country have to balance their checkbook, and they're offended by the idea that big government and big business seem arrogantly exempt. their back room deals that allow them to balance their books on the back of the taxpayer. that's why in issue is so important and that's why the president needs to return to those themes of the campaign. >> larry: david, didn't they re-elect george bush with big deficits? >> yeah, but in the midst of a war that at the time he was still the warrior president.

a lot of people rallied behind him because of that. that's not what this president has going. he's effectively drawing down in iraq and pursuing the right strategy in afghanistan, but he's not getting a lot of credit for that. larry, i think more than anything else let's go to john's point speaking to the middle class. a good leader is a good listener, and someone that can send the message i've heard what you're trying to tell me in the middle class. i hear your anger and anxiety. here's what we're going to do together if you will work with me and have a program that's credible that's going to provide jobs and begin to bring these deficits down in a courageous way. frankly in the last three or four days when we heard talk about the deficits, we heard a lot of talk and very little courage. >> larry: we'll be right back. we're on tomorrow night at midnight eastern, 9:00 pacific. john mccain is one of our guests. don't go away.

>> larry: let's take a call for john and david. hello. >> caller: hi, larry. i am just wondering, is he going to focus at all on jobs and how to put people back to work?

i'm two years unemployed and he's talking about green jobs and everything, but i'm a former banker. you can't put us into green jobs. they're not retraining us. we're not skilled labor. where do they focus on jobs for those that are already skilled? where do they put us? >> larry: wouldn't you bet, john, that jobs is a big part of the discussion tomorrow? >> sure, it absolutely will be. it's all about jobs and the economy at this point. the tricky thing is, you know, president obama can't promise that government will create the jobs. what he can do is call for investment that can create new conditions. that's why the emphasis on green jobs and building a green energy sector clean and green that can move us into the 21st century. the economy and jobs are issues that big government spending for jobs runs against the deficit. they're a difficult balance here. he has to give those folks out of jobs so long a sense of hope about the future again, a sense they're on us like a laser beam and they're going to turn around the economy in the long run.

>> larry: how much emphasis do you think, david, on terrorism? >> it's going to be a minor theme. in massachusetts scott brown made considerable use of terrorism in beating martha coakley he. it's a mistake not to deal with it. he puts terrorism in the bigger picture of afghanistan, iraq and iran and sudan. but the emphasis is on the domestic side. if he gives a long laundry list of what he faces, it's a mistake. people are going to tune out. you have to say here's a big thing, but this is the hardest problem of the president faces because he can't wave a wand, he can't throw money at this and create jobs for the woman that just called. the government can't do that. what he has to do -- john's right -- is create the conditions in which investments

improve, businesses -- there's more credit in the markets, and that's going to require a confidence that he's got a firm handle on these deficits to get spending under control. if we don't get a handle on this, the interest rates are going to shoot up and knock us right off our feet again. we're going to go right back into another recession, so he has to come down hard on discipline and courage, which washington has not shown. we're at a difficult moment for this country right now. people are hurting. washington doesn't have answers and washington is rapidly losing the trust of a whole lot of people. >> larry: do you think guantanamo will come up, john? >> i don't think so by name, no. he will address national security, and he should. it's part of the state of the union. we are at war. the fact that president gets generally high markets on an issue of national security. our country was deeply divided over the issue of iraq and afghanistan. in one year one of his greatest accomplishments is it to

depolarize those wars. he's pursued a centrist course with the reappointment of secretary gates. controversial among some and sent a centrist message. that he is what he achieved what he campaigned on in that area. >> he ran as a domestic president, but he gets his highest marks in foreign poecli and he's running more of a sent ris administration. >> larry: does he get a big bump tomorrow? john? >> he'll get a bump. he gives a great speech. >> larry: david? >> doubt it, larry. small bump from his point of view. he has to hope it lasts. >> larry: david and john, we thank you both very much. don't forget, cnn will have major coverage tomorrow night beginning an hour before the speech and continuing after it with the best political team in broadcasting. we'll be on at midnight to wrap it all up, midnight eastern