tonight on "nightline" -- making his case. with his presidency embattled and republicans vying for his job, president obama stands before the congress and the country to sell his agenda in this election year's state of the union address. >> no bailouts, no handouts, and no cop outs. obesity emergency. the verdict is in. school lunches are making children fat. meet a group of top chefs determined to do something about

it. and the giver. bill gates stirred controversy with his new plan to save the world. america's richest man on what's more important than money. and what steve jobs taught him in his final days. from the global resources of abc news, with cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, and terry moran in washington, this is "nightline," january 24th, 2012. good evening. i'm terry moran. well, tonight, facing a country that is hungry for jobs and preparing to hold a referendum on his leadership, president obama sought to make the case that america is coming back in his fourth state of the union address. it was a stirring election year speech. he struck themes of patriotism and american unity. calling for a renewed commitment to economic fairness, as well as growth. and it was all pegged to the president's signal foreign policy accomplishment, the killing of osama bin laden. in an election year, this is how the challengers get to address a

national tv audience. >> your allowed -- >> speaker, you had -- >> will you please wait. >> what's your excuse for that? >> can we drop the pious baloney. >> reporter: this is what the incumbent gets. >> mr. speaker, the president of the united states. >> reporter: make no mistake, this was a campaign speech for president obama. you saw it in the way many democrats greeted him like a conquering hero and leapt to their feet again and again. while republicans mostly sat on their hands. amid all the rancor, a moment of profound unify and hope, as the president and congress, together,ed by farewell to gabby giffords of arizona, who announced she will resign her seat, to focus on her recovery from a gunshot wound to the head, she suffered just over a year ago. it was just a moment. then, back to politics. and in this campaign, there's only one real issue, obama's record. job number one for the president, convince people his

policies are working. >> the state of our union is getting stronger. >> reporter: but one of the challenges for this president is that he said much the same thing about the economy before. last year. >> we are poised for progress. the economy is growing again. >> reporter: and in 2010. >> the worst of the storm has passed. >> reporter: so, tonight, the president needed to point the way forward, show the country what a future under his second term might look like. >> we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot. and everyone does their fair share. and everyone plays by the same set of rules. what's at stake aren't democratic values or republican values. but american values. and we have to reclaim them. >> reporter: but the great theme and thrust of his speech boiled down to one word, fairness. the president is looking to tap into a deep sense in the

american public that from wall street to washington, the game is rigged. >> it's time to apply the same rules from top to bottom. no bailouts, no handouts and no cop outs. an american built to last insists on responsibility from everybody. >> reporter: obama's record will be front and center in the coming campaign. he wants to define it. two points you'll likely hear again and again. >> for the first time in two decades, osama bin laden is not a threat to this country. >> reporter: and -- >> today, general motors is back on top as the world's number one automaker. we bet on american workers. we bet on american ingenuity. and tonight, the american auto industry is back. >> reporter: osama bin laden is dead. general motors is alive. those points folded neatly into another of the president's goals, to wrap himself in the american flag. >> what's at stake aren't democratic values or republican

values. but american values. no american company should be able to avoid paying its fair share of taxes by moving jobs and profits overseas. so much of america needs to be rebuilt. >> reporter: and with polls showing the country furious about the constant partisan warfare in washington, the president took direct aim at congress itself. >> as long as i'm president, i will work with anyone in this chamber, to build on this momentum. but i intend to fight obstruction with action. and i oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place. >> reporter: it's a good strategy. obama might not be the most popular president. but congress is really unpopular. just 13% of americans approve of the way congress is handling its job. things that are more popular than congress, paris hilton, the irs, even o.j. simpson.

but he closed on an up. >> anybody who tells you that america is in decline or our influence has waned, doesn't know what they're talking about. >> reporter: in the end, president obama tried, again, to sound that old theme of bringing the country together. >> each time i look at that flag, i'm reminded that our destiny is stitched together like those 50 stars and those 13 stripes. no one built this country on their own. this nation is great because we built it together. >> president obama, staking out his turf in the coming campaign battle in an election year. state of the union address. well, just ahead, a cooking boot camp where top chefs put green recruits to the test, in the name of keeping your kids healthy. ♪ a refrigerator has never been hacked.

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues, from washington, with terry moran. the flavor of cardboard, the density of concrete, and the color of mud. school lunches have long been lampooned as barely fit for eating. but with studies tying lunch programs to childhood obesity, the quality of the fare in the nation's cafeterias raises health concerns. now, a group of top chefs is doing something about it. here's abc's juju chang. >> reporter: welcome to cooking boot camp. >> my celery is at an 11:00 angle. >> you get the onions. they're ready. >> reporter: the recruits, people who work in school cafeterias throughout colorado.

learning the long-forgotten art of cooking from scratch, starting with the basics, like chopping an onion. >> so, stand back. a big, strong motion. >> reporter: most school kitchens ditched stoves long ago, in favor of serving preprocessed and prepackaged foods. it turns out kids who eat school lunch regularly are 30% more likely to be obese, than kids who bring a bag lunch. doctors say school lunches are heavy on calories and light on nutrition. because it's cheap. that's where cook for america comes in. >> this is truly a boot camp. we actually are building a complete foundation of professional culinary skills we learn in five days. >> reporter: it's the brainchild of chef andrea martin, who did high-end catering, and chef kate adamic.

>> we see behavioral issues. all of these things affect learning. >> reporter: it seems to me, over the years, the lunch lady has gone from cooking to just heating up. >> part of it was in the 1970s. this whole fascination with everything being convenient. give yourself a break today. and then a lot of processed foods came onto the market that made it convenient for people. what we discovered is there's a price for that convenience.ñ!ó >> we're not doing chicken nuggets. we're not doing the fast food type food at all. >> hey, guys. how are we doing today? how's your lunch? >> good. >> reporter: jeremy west is a warrior in this cook for america crusade. >> got your fruits and veggies? >> reporter: wes left a career in the health care industry and he's seen firsthand the long-term cost of obesity-related diseases. >> how's your food today? >> good! >> reporter: he is hoping to make a difference with this generation. >> this is our central production kitchen. >> reporter: right. >> we're going to do meat sauce. >> reporter: okay. all right. >> we used to just open cans of marinara. now, we make our own meat sauce.

>> reporter: excellent. his kitchen feeds 10,000 students every day. but avoids those dreaded processed foods. no mystery meat. every meal is prepared from scratch, the old-fashioned way. >> we're using stealth help for this recipe. sneaky chef help. we're going to need some garlic powder. >> reporter: of course. >> here we are. >> reporter: full red tomato sauce. >> we're going to need that. >> reporter: protein. >> that's right. now, we're cooking beef raw. now, we need some vegetables. >> reporter: okay, good. >> as we made the changes, it was more than just cooking from scratch. we wanted to eliminate artificial preservatives. we wanted to reduce sodium. artificial dye, sugars. but we wanted to make it as nutrient-packed as possible. what we're doing for this meat sauce, zucchini, celery, onions, carrots. >> reporter: i'm in. >> they're pureed. >> reporter: excellent. >> kids don't know they're there. but they get all of the nutrients from the vegetables.

>> reporter: very sneaky. >> now we're cooking. this is martina. she's been with us for 32 years. >> reporter: she watched the kitchen go from real cooking, to heating up, back to real cooking. >> going to the boot camp we went to this last summer. found out what chicken nuggets were made out of. i don't have my grandkids eating chicken nuggets no more. >> reporter: what are chicken nuggets made of? >> all the byproducts of the chickens. the insulated foam that you put on your windows, that's what it reminded me of. >> reporter: now, it's about turning fresh ingredients into energizing meals. putting smiles onto a lot of little faces. >> what's your favorite school lunch? >> chicken. >> chicken. that's good. >> i like pizza. it's a blast. >> food is a blast. so, the salad bar's new. you like the salad bar? >> yeah. >> the salad bar is the bomb. >> reporter: on the path of a lifetime of good health. for "nightline," i'm juju chang, in greeley, colorado.

>> beats the dreaded veal cutlet any day. next up, we're going to turn the page. they were friends and they were rivals. bill gates talks about steve jobs and his new labor of love. you know the good folks over at prilosec otc

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...is a nicely designed package. ♪ you can have brownies again. fiber one 90 calorie brownies. in the granola bar aisle. caramel...pretzel 90 calorie bar. ♪ there's breaking newsrig newsrightnow and for that we go to the abc news desk. >> thank you, terry. i'm rob nelson in new york. we do have breaking news to report. we learned tonight that navy s.e.a.l.s made a daring rescue of two aid workers who have been held hostage by somali pirates. one of the 32-year-old american woman, the other a dutchman. their pictures are there. "good morning america" will have much more on this developing story. we now turn to bill gates who has made tens of billions as a

computer industry pioneer and has found ever more challenging problems to tackle. he talked to bill weir in tonight's "nightline" interview. >> reporter: as of tonight he's no longer the world's wealthiest man. he didn't lose that title, he gave it away. as a result he can point to a different kind of scoreboard. how many lives do you think you've touched? >> it's easy to measure health work where over 5 million lives have been saved. >> reporter: yes, the cut throat businessman who once lived to release software, is now apt to release a jar full of mosquitos, to raise malaria awareness. >> let those roam around the auditorium a little bit. there's no reason that only poor people should have the experience. >> reporter: and you may laugh when bloggers claim he is better than batman. but it's hard to find a single person who has done more to ease human suffering. you've almost eradicated polio from india.

there was one case in a country of a billion people last year. >> yeah, january 13th, 2011. we've had over a year, no polio cases in india. and we have ten countries left that still have polio. we're very close. >> reporter: with a promise to give away 95% of their personal wealth, bill and melinda gates foundation has granted over $26 billion over the years. but their mission to save the world may become more controversial, with the release of his newest annual letter which describes a plan to feed the world's exploding population with more genetically modified crops. >> they found one rice that can survive flooding. so, they wanted to take the gene out and put it in with the good genes. >> reporter: known as gmos, they're seeds built in labs. designed to grow stronger and more abundant crops. but by tinkering with nature, some worry they can accidentally spread disease, superweeds and mutant insects.

several countries around the world refuse to grow them. still, the gates foundation reportedly invested $27 million in biotech giant monsanto, a leader in genetically-modified crops. >> the question is can these countries have their ability to choose if something's going to prevent starvation? and they see the risks are extremely low? can they as a country have that choice? >> reporter: big companies like monsanto, they have the patents not only on the seeds but the weed killer. so, farmers in america and india, then have to buy both in order to survive. it's very expensive. >> the seeds we're working on for the poor countries, there's absolutely no payments, no royalties of any kind. we go to the big companies and say, will you help us? and so, they donated. >> reporter: the harvard dropout has ideas on how to fix america's school, starting with peer review. he wants to let the top 2% of

teachers float from class to class, teaching other teachers what works and what doesn't. so, you think good teachers can be made? they're not born that way? >> well, we can take the ones that are born that way, there are plenty of those. and, yes. we can't make you top 5%. but we can move you from average and help those teachers improve. >> reporter: there's been a little bit of distance, now, since the passing of steve jobs. i'm really intrigued by the anecdote at the end of walter isaacson's book, that in the final months, you came to his house. and the two of you spent a couple of hours together reminiscing and really made peace. >> he and i really enjoyed talking. he would throw some things out. some stimulating things. we talked about the other companies that have come along. we talked about our families and how lucky we've both been in terms of the women we married.

it was great. a great, relaxed conversation. >> reporter: how did his passing affect you? >> well, it's very strange to have somebody who is so vibrant and made such a huge difference, and been kind of a constant presence. it makes you feel like, wow. we're getting old. and you look back, and think about the great opportunities we had to have a big impact. >> reporter: does it give you any added sense of urgency? >> i hope i still have quite a bit of time for the focus i have now, which is the philanthropic work. >> reporter: you have to stay healthy to see that happen. >> i'm hoping. malaria eradication, i need a couple of decades here to fulfill that opportunity. you know, i don't think of myself as fading away. but you know, it reminds you that you've got to pick important stuff because you only have a limited time. >> bill gates, doing amazing work around the world. now, the bill and melinda gates foundation, supported in part,