service. here's what's ahead. next, our preview of tonight's state of the union address, president obama's first. the speech is supposed to start at 9:00 p.m. eastern live here on c-span and will be followed immediately by the republican response given by the new virginia governor. after that's correct we'll open our phone lines for your reaction and then we'll show both speeches again in their entirety. . .

>> thank you for being with us. this is his first state of the union address.

this is the third time he has delivered remarks before a joint session of congress. what will we hear? >> he will tell the american people that it is a difficult job. he came in with great ideas but the reality is that you cannot get everything accomplished immediately. jobs remain the most important thing to his administration. he would like to get health care reform through. the reality is that this administration came into office promising to deal with the economy and he will deal with that. >> one year into his presidency, ronald reagan told congress that they need to stay the course. can you hear that from barack obama? >> we will hear that. in this time when ronald reagan was in office, his poll numbers for exactly the same as president obama.

bill clinton was actually much lower. these are two presidents that came into power having to deal with a very difficult economy. when ronald reagan came into office, we are one oin one of te worst recessions we had seen. we saw unemployment rate, high interest rates. this economy is very very bad. both of these presidents had to say that we are dealing with the economy. for both reagan and for obama, the economy was not turning around. in fact, we saw one of reagan having problems going well into the next year. we can expect obama to have his polls fall. he needs to tell at the american

people that it is a difficult job to deal with the economy. he will turn around, stick with him. >> with regard to the job picture, the president will say it is time for democrats and republicans to bridge their differences and work on a jobs bill. will that work? >> we will see. this is a way to have a vote on health care bill. that is a good beginning. he said that he would like to bring change that we have not seen. we don't want the kind of partisanship we have seen. we will see how well he does. everyone is hopeful. >> how does this government create jobs? >> this government great stops

by dealing with the international problems of the u.s. economy. -- this government creates jobs. they have a tax program that is very dispersed. there are a few infrastructure projects. somehow or of bird, it can resolve the most fundamental crisis we have had since world war ii. -- somehow or another, it can resolve the fundamental crisis. for a while, he borrowed to keep the economy going. at the same time, the huge deficit on oil. unless we turn this are around, all of the small business credit in the world will not turn this around. what businessmanbusinesses needs customers. i have not seen in a treasury

secretary spankeed like tim geithner was today. a democratic congressman from massachusetts took him right to the wood chest. when a president has his treasury secretary badly abused by a member of his own party, this is a president in trouble. the principal difference between him and reagan was that reagan had a clear and coherent program and after a year it was not working. the problem that barack obama has is that he lacks a clear program. they appear to be grasping at straws. everyone is dissatisfied with his ceci. he is trying to fix his social agenda into the the economy.

the reality is that things like clean energy, health care reform, they will change the economy but they need the tail wind of a good strong macro economy to get it done. the president talk about that on the campaign trail. in the midwest, he talked about dealing with china. tonight, he have to explain how he will get the job done. >> let me bring it back to some of the politics. i want to refer to what bill clinton said back in 1995 as he lost control of the house of representatives. in his speech, he framed this as the elections were about change.

there was the problem with the election of scott brown in massachusetts. >> this is similar to the problems of the clinton administration. name need to convince the american public that they are in fact in control of the economy. the reagan administration was discussing their economic policies by members of congress. one actually came out and said this is smoke and mirrors. of the reagan economy and the idea of supply-side economics did not necessarily drive the american economy.

the reagan years actually turned around the tax cuts. they've made some difference. he also diverted the attention away from the economy. he brought of the fear of the soviet empire and the cold war. america became focused on a different set of problems in the economy. this will turn the public's attention to other issues. the he will talk about running government a more efficiently. that is the same thing that president clinton did with the reinventing america.

this president came in asking vice president biden to have a task force. we will go back to that. we will have the middle class task force. we need to see that they are dealing with the problems of the middle class. what you will see is that the focus will be on the environment. this is an administration focusing on ways to move our dependence on foreign oil. we are talking about solar projects, a wind projects. we are looking to use federal dollars. we will talk about how this is creating real jobs. they will be talking about education. the education money will not be subject to the non entitlement money. they have to lift people's

spirits and say that this is a ministration is going forward with a very positive initiatives in spite of the setbacks of the economy. we can move forward. > let me go back to the issus that we were talking about it. the white house has released excerpts of the president's speech. he said "by the time i'm finished, more americans will have lost their health insurance, millions will lose it this year, and our deficit will grow." health care is a key part of the domestic agenda. >> that is correct. they feel that they have to drive this through.

they cannot let it go. the difference between obama and clinton is that clinton sold the public on the notion that they were in terrible economic trouble. but the time he got in office, things have started to turn around. he could let go of the health care initiative when it failed. obama desperately needs to win. the economy will not win for him right away. he has to win something in congress. unfortunately, i believe that that statement alone will give him a lot of trouble. a limousine driver taken me to the network said that the president should not have been focusing on health care. i was up in connecticut, near the massachusetts border. i was at a gathering where two

years ago they were all obama supporters. i was probably the only person could declare that they had voted for republican in the last 10 years. they said that he should be focusing on jobs and the economy. he should say, by the time i'm done speaking, thousands of americans will have lost their jobs and as your president, i am determined to get this economy turned around because i know that you are worried about whether you have a job or how much it pays. instead, he will talk about health care when most americans have health insurance. his energy initiative, they are the kinds of things that will yield dividends in terms of at 5-10 years. this nation imports about 10-11

billion barrels of oil a day. we have within our grasp technologies that could dramatically reduce the consumption of gasoline that it is not the kind of sexy stuff the last likes. it is basically more fuel- efficient internal combustion engines. we need to accelerate the bill out of those technologies, to transition technologies. he is not talking about that. that would create a lot of jobs. i think that there is going to be a bubble from this. >> would you add the value of your home and your own retirement portfolio? >> retirement portfolios are important to people. dakota they are not as much as a

worry as whether you will be able to pay your mortgage or have a job. -- they are not as much as a worry. people are looking at the 5% to 10% unemployment. the people who cannot find full- time work, they don't like it. the unemployment rate is high. the economy has shown some serious signs of faltering in january. the economy is showing signs of real faltering. housing prices are slipping, the economy is slipping. people are not visiting new home showrooms.

the reported unemployment rate starts to git up around 12 or 13%, then the real unemployment rate that we have, it starts to get right. at that point, we will see very critical circumstances. people running out of unemployment insurance. people leaving their homes because they cannot get insurance. then it will get nasty. >> we have been talking about bipartisanship. the president will say let's try something new. let's try some common sense. >> this will be targeted at the beltway community.

he would like to explain to the american people in clear and simple language exactly what he is doing. i think the problem that the people are concerned with is the economy. hardly anyone can explain to you what the health care bill is. if you go out on the streets and you walk down main street, you can ask 10 people to explain what the bill is. if you ask 10 people what the stimulus bill is, 10 people could not tell you. they can tell you that they are driving on the highway and this is a sign of the stimulus. he needs to talk to the beltway community. you will see this president speak in language that will

address the people in washington, the people around the country. we will see if there will be a read prioritization on how they do business. they will not deal with the economy as the number 1 plant. we will work with you, members of congress, democrats and republicans, and all the constituents that they represent, and try to figure out they can't deal with this incrementally. we have seen massive bills go through. we saw the civil-rights legislation. then we saw the great society legislation that created social security. what congress would like to see is mr. president, are you

willing to work with us in an incremental manner. this is a system, we want to see this go together. >> there is a little bit of news as we go on the air. there is some speculation as to whether charlie crist will be in attendance along with joe biden. in fact, he will be there. part of this plan is $8 billion for high-speed rail. it will connect orlando with tampa. there are seven other locations that will get some of these earmarks. is this a jobs program? >> it sure is. it will put people to work. this is the kind of program that puts people to work.

it does not redress the fundamental imbalances between the u.s. and the rest of the world which makes it necessary for a 4.1 trillion dollar deficit. the other side of the budget deficit is the trade deficit. we have these huge trade deficits. in order to have domestic demand, we have to import more than we produce. the ceo's have been talking to the president ad nauseam about this. they have been telling him that they have to export more and do something about trade. this will be necessary to balance the budget. if you do something about that, you change one of the most critical statistics that the president carries on his back. the u.s. economy has not

operated a single private sector jobs since 1999. a full decade. someone will have to take this on. in order to do this, if they're going to outsourced jobs, you had better figure out a way to it in source some of them or there will be no one working here. these programs are really talented. think it you to next year. they don't get you to the next decade. that is the real problem. people have a sense of that much better than they give credit for. i can tell you this because of the e-mail that i get. this president keeps telling americans that they have to change.

if you add up the things that he wants to change, he is harkening back to lyndon johnson. it is like he would like to remake america. the reality is that very few presidents get a chance to do that. no matter how much he manufactures, his desire to be there, he is simply not in that place in history. he is more at a crisis point. the u.s. economy is crumbling. it is actually shrinking. the labor force is shrinking. the amount of people looking is shrinking. america is in very serious trouble. this guy has got to get serious about american economy and its place in the world. he keeps talking about 3 carving the time, redistributing the

pie as it is crumbling is -- in his hands. he has a great opportunity because the republicans don't have much to say about making things better. it is like pulling a light string and getting the light to come on. if you talk to the republicans, they say deregulation. look at wall street, they need regulation. >> we are waiting for the president who will be departing the white house in about seven or 8 minutes. meanwhile, the senate has gaveled in for a brief session. the senators have dinner together and then they go to the senate chamber and then they will walk across to the house chamber for a joint session of congress.

this is the third time that the president has delivered a speech before a joint session of congress. this will be the first official state of the union. let's talk about the health care issue. you are talking about this tonight. nancy pelosi might have a two -track system. >> i hadn't interview earlier today with speaker pelosi and. -- i had an interview today with speaker pelosi. >> she said that there was a separate track. some legislation would be more incremental in nature. it was difficult to determine what she was talking about.

she believes that there are some things that could be done now even as the larger comprehensive health care project is in a log jam. >> what about senator reed and other democrats? >> she did not tip her hand. i don't know. >> what can you tell us about the president's speech tonight? what do you expect to hear? >> the expertcerpts that we have heard include a renewed call for bipartisanship. that is a familiar message from the campaign. it is pretty discordant with reality.

obama has presided over very sharp partisanship. >> the president also talking about the rising deficit. the senate took up a vote to create a commission but they failed to get the necessary amount. now the president says that it is time for an executive commission. >>will they be able to lower the deficit? >> absolutely not. they can create commissions left and right. they will have absolutely no power. i want to go mention what we were talking about. i think it is important that we will talk about a high-speed rail line. he is not calling to talk about

health care, the informant. he is really looking at it as the economy. he is bringing in something new. let's talk about transportation issues, high-speed rail. if he moves around the country, he will be talking about educational issues, environmental issues. they will all be taken into the issue of the economy. this will take the attention away from health-care reform. i am impressed with what they're doing. >> congressman eliot engel will have a close seek to talk with the president. can you tell me about this. >> i cannot. he got up and has been there since 8 this morning in order

to shake the president's hand. >> that would be a pretty long the. -- a pretty long day. >> who is his audience? >> the people in the chamber and a nation at large. this has been an incredible opportunity that the president has had. president has used to this as a great opportunity to hit the reset button, rally the public. the president is always a dominant figure and sets the agenda. that is important for him right now because over the past weeks and months, even, he has been seen to not be the master of the circumstances. i think it is important. he is speaking to that chamber.

his own party here in washington really is eager for a robust message from president. that is something that has been missing there is a fear that is not filling the vacuum. -- that is something that has been missing. there is a fear that he is not filling the vacuum. >> we have heard the term "political capital." does this president have capital? >> the purpose of this speech is to restore his political capital. he is not completely depleted. the problem is that he has no concrete achievements. if you would have told him a year ago when he was addressing this same chamber that he would

finish 2009 heading into 2010 without health care, without cap and trade legislation, without financial services reregulation, he would have been stunned. trying to do everything, we can look back and say in retrospect that it is clear that that strategy was 84a poor one. >> john harris, thank you for joining us. peter morici, the senate leaders have said that they will help the president if he goes further to the middle. where is this actually? >> it can be found but he has

to refrain some issues. on health care, while most people cannot explain the bill to you, i can explain to thithio you. the first point is insurance market reform. bringing about interstate competition in health insurance. having health insurance being required to take all colors. sometimes insurance companies will be taking people they don't want to take. in reality, sometimes the rates are run up. those will be put into a health care bill. the problem that the president faces is that nancy pelosi and senator reid are much more liberal than would be required

for him to move to the center and he needs them to bring along the liberal wing of his party. on the republican side, it is very easy for them to say no as long as they're looking at nancy pelosi and senator reid. the problem is that the president might be the principal player but he has two supporting actors that would really like to go it alone. my feeling it is possible at this point in time to refrain the energy issue and the trade issue in such a way that he went through the big -- that he wins really big. the ford motor co. is the best hybrid in the world right now. we will make lots of them. in the meantime, we have to use gasoline more efficiently and less talk about how we can do

this and create a lot of jobs. on trade, he can't acknowledge what ben bernanke said a couple of years ago -- he can acknowledge what ben bernanke said a couple of years ago. he could discuss this in a plane way that the republicans would have to sign onto. after all, there are products that would be supplied in their districts. the chairman of ge said that you have to make more stuff in america. if you refrain the issues, you can bring the republicans along. nancy pelosi would have an interesting choice, she could be isolated, come along, or quit. she is just as much of a problem as the republicans. they are so far apart ideologically. it is up to the president to

come up with different versions of his programs that defined the ideological center. >> we have been watching members of the senate as they depart the senate chamber and they will pass through statuary hall. members of the supreme court will also be there. in one part of the speech, the president will ask the military to repeal the don't ask n don't tell policy. >> there has been a backlash from the liberal wing of his party saying that he did not do

what he said he was going to do. this is a good move for him politically. the dimension one thought on how he can resurrect his health care bill. what he needs to do is to tear it apart. the problem is that it is a very large bill. most people to not understand the bill. there are two points of that bill. not the public option part. there are actually two parts. some have some broad support. but he needs to do is to tear that bill apart and actually go forward with the pieces of that bill in a much smaller way. then he will have achieved a health-care bill. but he will do the rest of his term is that he will govern administratively. he does not need to govern legislatively.

he has already used in the epa. he will be using the administrative tools of the executive branch to move forward his agenda and he doesn't need legislation. by and large, he can achieve most of what he wants to do in his agenda saying that he accomplished x, y, z. you only need a couple of pieces of legislation to tell the american people that congress supported him. by and large, he will govern administratively. there is also the incremental portion of this bill. >> we are keeping an eye on the

doors at the self part of the white house. the president and the first lady will be departing momentarily. -- we're keeping an eye on the doors at the self part of the white house. now he will deliver his first state of the union address. we are joined by dr. warren shashaw and peter marici. >> bill clinton had a lot of wind on his sale. the economy did pick up. he did have the problem of new gingrich. what he did was use his administrative abilities to reorient the agenda, especially in the area of civil rights.

his initiative with regards to equal opportunity. this president can do the same thing on the environment. you can break the health care bill down. it is up to him to do it in a way that reaches across the aisle. he need something that he can present to the more moderate democrats. >> vice president joe biden as he shakes hands with members of congress. let's listen in for just a moment.

>> we will take you to the white house where the president and the first lady are departing. there is david axelrod. we will watch.

>> the presidential motorcade as it moves beyond the south side of the white house. it will move to capitol hill. peter marici, shirly anne warshaw, ron reagan delivered a lengthy speech as well as bill clinton. does the length matter? >> this only matters to the extent that you can keep the american people awake. the state of the union has lost a lot of people. most recent presidents are on

television all the time. whether it is a local newscast or whether they are talking somewhere. the american public is not that excited about seeing this president on television. people switch the channel, they would rather watch a rerun of than the state of the union. if they have to, they can read it in tomorrow's newspaper. the audience is the community and not the american public. >> i think it does matter. you never talked for more than 40-45 minutes. by talking so long, the people flip the channel and they have choices. more than that, the president has solved problems. there is growing discontent that

he spends too much time campaigning, visiting foreign dignitaries, not enough time solving problems. the president has enormous resources at his disposal. i think that he is going to hurt himself tonight by talking about a catalog of programs and initiatives and accomplishments he would like to make. what americans would like him to do is to bring down unemployment rate, the second is to get the income growing, the third is to get their housing prices stabilized and rising again. if he can do those things, he can talk about delivering cold eggs from mars and it will do him no good. -- if he does not do those things, he can talk about delivering cold eggs from mars and it will not do him any good.

>> thanks for sharing your expertise to the audience. let me remind you that following the state of the union address, we will open our phone lines. we want to hear from you, tell us what you think. tell us whether he is addressing the issues that are important to you. he will deliver the address from the house of delegates in the state capital. we will keep track of what people are saying and what they are saying on line. >> i want to talk about a number of different features.

what we will concentrate watch and react with fellow c-span viewers. that will take you to our state of the union hub. first, facebook. the link will take you to the c- span facebook page. if you become our fan, we post to videos, scheduling information, and just open comments. right now, we have one going in advance of the president's speech. i will read a couple of the responses that we have so far. "i really hope that he knocks

this speech out of the park. i hope that we can get things done. >> a homea home run will be nic. what will be proposed will not be enough to get this country out of debt." going back to the state of the union hub, i will look at twitter. there are a number of pieces to our coverage. anyone who is on twitter, please follow us. the post a lot of links to video, news items, scheduling information. you will get a lot out of it. >> we are watching the president's motorcade.

for people who want to part with 8, what can they do? >> i will make this very quick. you can send your comments @c span. we are abrogating a lot of these on a website. there are many from members of congress. -- we are aggregating a lot of these. one republican wrote, "joe wilson is sitting in the same seat, i brought some duct tape." a congressman wrote, "i hope

that candidate obama shows up tonight." >> this is what it looks like inside of the chambers. earlier today, we had a chance to talk to robert gibsbs about how the president is preparing. >> i know that the speech writers have gone over this and they correlate to these times in different administrations, particularly the last several for both bushes, clinton, and reagan. it just to get a sense of the type of town and the type of clarity that they had, what they were talking about. in some ways, it is always a little stunning to read those past addresses because you

realize that we have to address the big challenges that face our countries because other countries are addressing their challenges. we cannot get -- we cannot be out competed by some of these countries like china and india. we have to out compete them. >> what do you think will be going to through the president's mind as he prepares to deliver this speech? >> often times, but we joke around with him. >> now nancy pelosi is welcoming the members of congress. live coverage here on c-span. >> the gentleman from connecticut, mr. larsen, the

gentleman from california, the gentleman from maryland, the gentleman from california, mr. george miller, the gentleman from michigan, mr. dingell. the gentleman from ohio, mr. leiner, the gentleman from ohio, mr. kantcantor, the gentleman fm washington, the gentleman from texas, mr. sessions, the gentleman from texas, mr. carty. >> the following senators are appointed. the senator from nevada, mr. reed, from illinois, mr. durbin, from new york, mr. schumer, from washington, the senator from new

jersey, mr. mendez, the senator from michigan, missed stabenow, the senator from kentucky, mr. kyle, the senator from tennessee, mr. alexander, the senator from south dakota, mr. thume, and the senator from texas, mr. cornyn. the members of the committee will exit the chamber through the doors.

>> madam speaker, the dean of the diplomatic corps. [applause]

>> madam speaker, the chief justice and the associate justices of the supreme court. [applause]

[applause] [applause]

[applause] [applause] >> madam speaker, the

president's cabinet. [applause]

. .