answered with the word "strong." the president will walk into the congressional chamber tonight with a lower approval rating than a year ago. a new poll shows he's below that all-important 50% marker. >> as it relates to this question of the polls, i don't spend a lot of time worrying about. here's what i spend a lot of time worrying about, making sure the american people see publicly what i see every day, a president focused very much on opportunity, on action, and on optimism. >> with the american people more pessimistic than ever and his approval rating dropping, the question tonight, how far will president obama be willing to go it alone? >> we will continue to call on congress, both sides of the aisle, to come up with new and fresh ideas for how we can grow our economy and create opportunities for the american people, but we aren't going to stop at that. we're going to do what we can within the president's own executive power and working throughout the country with those who want to move our country forward. >> we're going to watch very

closely, because there's a constitution that we all take an oath to, including him, and following that constitution is the basis for our republic, and we shouldn't put that in jeopardy. >> joining me now, california congresswoman jackie spear, member of the government oversight and reform committee. thank you for being on, we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> more than 6 in 10 americans believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction. using words like divided, troubled, deteriorating. that describes the current state of the nation. does that reflect the sentiment in your district? >> actually, you know, my district is one of those great bubbles where the unemployment rate is under 5%, but when we look at the nation as a whole, the fact that the unemployment rate is still hovering over 8%, 7%, that's reason for us to want to change that. we should be all about creating jobs in this country, and the

reason why i think the american people think we're divided is because congress is so divided, and we have been so unwilling to come together to grow the economy, and part because unfortunately my republican colleagues want to suppress any kind of activity that will make this president look good. >> let's go into that a little bit more. looking ahead to this address tonight, i'm going to play a clip from your colleague congressman steve king of iowa, what he had to say this morning. have a listen. >> the president will give a speech that's designed to divide republicans against each other and unify democrats against republicans. minimum wage, extend unemployment benefits, and comprehensive immigration reform speech. all of that, those are the three items that i can think of that unify democrats and divide republicans. it is clear political strategy. >> just quickly, you know, this new poll finds 81% of americans have an unfavorable view of congress, as you just sort of pointed to. so congress points the finger at

the president, at least the republicans do. the president talks about the divisions in congress, and in a candid way here, you know, we're going to hear a host of suggestions tonight, but practically speaking, is there going to be a way for him in year number two of his second term to get any of them done? >> well, the congress should listen to the american people. the american people, by a wide majority, 70% to 80%, support extending unemployment benefits, support increasing the minimum wage. this isn't something that should divide this country, this is something that should unite it, and i would agree with the american people. i don't like what's going on in congress, and i understand why they are sick and tired of this bickering going on. let's find ways to create jobs in this country. let's find ways to make it better for every american. >> you brought up a couple of themes. obviously, income inequality is going to be a big deal. you talked about the unemployment benefits and we've seen what the president can do on his own when it comes to the

minimum wage. is there something he can do without congress when it comes to unemployment benefits? >> there is an extent to which he can fix the minimum wage for federal contractors. >> that's what he proposed today. i'm talking about the in terms of the unemployment benefits as a separate issue, can he do anything with that without going through your body? >> that's actually a good question. i believe he would need congressional action in order to extend those benefits, and we do have a bill in the senate that is primed to be passed, should be passed, should come over to the house and take action. we should not have 3 million americans out of work and unemployed come the middle of this year. they are typically people who have worked ten, 20 years, many of them older women and men, and that's something that we should all be very concerned about. >> congresswoman jackie speier, we appreciate it. see you tonight. joining me now, ronan farrow. how are you?

>> good to see you, brian. >> you've seen the polls, our nbc first read team points out obama's goal is to convince the american public to actually listen. house minority leader nancy pelosi talked to chuck todd about that particular challenge. have a listen. >> i think that the president understands the pain that the public is feeling and the uncertainty that they have. that's why i know that his policies and i don't know what he will say tonight, but i believe that it will go a long way to restore confidence, restore confidence in the economy, job creation, growing an economy that works for everyone. >> there's a sense among people that he's just going to go through a laundry list of things that we can already predict and this little optimism that anything concrete will come of it, so how does he change that tone? >> well, the numbers say that he kind of can't in the eyes of the public. a gallup survey found basically

the needle doesn't move much after a state of the union in public appearance, the exception in 1998, bill clinton was able to refocus on the economy and that's the message for all of us. the president can't really change public opinion by and large, but he can refocus on the issues he cares about, and even to the extent to which that isn't important in terms of public opinion, that will be important in terms of his dialogue with congress, and it's going to be a fight for everything he wants to accomplish. >> you hear people talking about maybe he'll be more narrowly focused. is that something that can be positive? sitting in my seat, i would love for him, i have to talk about all these other things, but these are the four things i want you to know i am passionate about and do 20 minutes as opposed to 59:59. would that help? >> different presidents come out in different places on this. president obama has tended to make longer state of the union addresses that do address something of a laundry list of

concerns. those speeches have been by and large well received. it's one approach that can work. by contrast, president reagan did exactly what you proposed and would focus in on a set of interrelated themes, it's much narrower. i think both are viable approaches. here and now what's important for obama is what are the issues in that list that he's going to fight on, and he's already -- >> do you think he will let it go with that? >> he's already said through aides publicly leading up to this speech that he's going to emphasize his ability to work around congressional gridlock. i think we're going to hear which issues demand that attention. >> you wrote on msnbc.com and it's an issue that's important to me, as well, here's what you wrote, "will congress turn its back on its students?" you point out more than 40 million americans owe student loan debt. 7 million americans are currently in default of their loans. now, is this one of the issues?

because we have the problem with the interest rate is going to double and they took care of that problem, so maybe they don't address those incredible numbers that you just talked about. >> look, advocates on this issue and ordinary americans dealing with those numbers were heartened last year when he gave this prominent billing. he got in front of congress in the state of the union and said skyrocketing education costs and skyrocketing debt burdens are not okay. we need to change it not just for the students, but america's competitiveness, because this is shackling a generation that could be productive. my hope is he'll return to that. over the last year, he's showed promising signs of carrying forward that charge. he gave a speech in august, this is an opportunity to follow up on this and it would be ashame given how fraught his relationship is with this congress, he backs down from that commitment. >> this is a profit enterprise for the government and that money either have to run it as a nonprofit or somehow return that capital towards the cause they are supposed to be helping,

which is the american student. >> it's a vast source of revenue and the idea when we eliminated the private lender middle men, those costs would be saved and passed to students. they haven't been. it's going to the government, so that's a real problem. >> ronan farrow, the host of the show will be 1:00 p.m. eastern time. >> that's right. >> february 24th, ramping up. >> better watch, brian. >> believe me, dvr will be set. thank you, appreciate it. you can read ronan's entire article about reforming the student loan system. go to msnbc.com. then, of course, tune in tonight starting at 9:00 p.m. eastern for our special primetime coverage of the state of the union address. still ahead this hour, the deep south bracing for something it rarely, if ever sees, snow, ice, how states from louisiana to georgia are preparing for a big slip and slide. also ahead, our coverage of the state of the union will continue. avoiding that second term slump. what does president obama have to say tonight to convince the american people he still has fuel left in the tank?

and our question of the day, how does the president avoid the lame duck label tonight? weigh in on twitter or on facebook. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] with five perfectly sweetened whole grains... you can't help but see the good. is your tv powered by coal? natural gas? nuclear? or renewables like solar... and wind? let's find out. this is where america's electricity comes from. a diversity of energy sources helps ensure the electricity we need is reliable. take the energy quiz. energy lives here.

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house minority leader nancy pelosi said earlier on msnbc the president will deliver a message tonight that is hopeful and optimistic. the question is, will americans hear it? "the big danger for obama heading into tonight's speech is that americans begin tuning him out like they do most second-term presidents." with me now, former speech writer for president obama and michael beshlosh. michael, i want to start with you. these polls that we're talking about, using a lot of words that are not great, right, downhill, wrong track, declining economy. >> not great, yeah.

>> but also this seems like it's the case a lot in a second-term presidency, i guess from your perspective, in history, the history that you're focused on, is there another president that's been in a similar position that found a way to dig out of it? >> well, almost every second-term president since probably roosevelt has encountered an awful lot of problems, but what's happening is these presidencies are getting more and more front loaded. you tend to see a lot of action the first year or two and even after a second-term re-election that's pretty definitive, presidents don't get all that much done, unless they have definitive control of congress. from barack obama's point of view, best thing he can do tonight is give a speech that's so wonderful that people are so impressed by it from his point of view he gets control of congress once again. that's what can help a president. >> all right, it was your job to do just that. how would you do that? >> well, i think that may set the bar a little bit high.

i don't think you can win november -- >> wasn't predicting it. >> i don't think you win a november re-election with a state of the union. i think what these speeches do is they give you a chance to reset, they give you a chance to set your agenda, it also helps the administration itself refocus on what it wants to care about in the next year, and the truth is, this is one of the rare moments where the country actually does listen. i think there is some truth to the fact over time, you know, in their second term what have you, presidents become lame ducks late in their second term, but this is the rare moment where the country does pay attention to what the president has to say. 50 million people, something along those lines, will end up watching this speech and invariably pundits and the press say it's a laundry list and also invariably the american people say they agree with a lot of the proposals and what the president has said he wants to focus on, so you'll see a mix of things the president hopes he can get through to congress, but obviously this is a congress that's difficult to pass things in because it's terrible, so

you'll end up with also some proposals he thinks he can do through executive action. >> he's also raised the bar himself by calling it, you know, the year of action. michael, if you were going to assess this, what themes do you think would resinate the most? if you're trying to build momentum, what do you think are the one or two or three themes he should really go at? >> looking at other second-term presidents feeling frustrated, john's absolutely right, this could be the biggest audience barack obama has between now and the rest of his presidency, so it's a very important weapon. presidents try to persuade people to come along with their point of view, a speech can sure do that. they begin to do as president clinton did in his second term, look for every single instance they can use an executive order to get things done that they want to do. the big things presidents do in a second term is oftentimes turn to foreign policy, because oftentimes that's something that oftentimes they share their views with opposition in congress, but also a lot of things they can do there without

the permission of people in congress. ronald reagan, his last two years essentially set the course for prevailing in the cold war. that happened not only after a setback in his midterm election in his second term, but even after the iran episode. >> quickly before we move on, john, what would you build on for those themes? again, if you were in the room, and we're going to talk about process in a second, what would you say he needs to lead with, in terms of leading with a big right hook? >> i think there's a few things, in terms of what he can convince congress to do, i think there's immigration reform, minimum wage, a few other issues where the president is well within, you know, the popularity of the issue from the american people, where in a more rational legislating process you'd have a give and take that would lead to some kind of passage through a democratic senate or republican house and democratic administration. and those are issues where there is wide support in the country,

not only among democrats, but among republicans, and i think, you know, you focus on the things you can get done through congress and a series of executive actions the president can do on the issues that people are really focused on, which is economic inequality, jobs, minimum wage. those are the things that the people are behind the president on and that have been stuck and that part of the frustration the american people have is so many things are stuck right now and the more he can focus on that, the more you have a situation in which, you know, the republicans in congress will feel some pressure. >> john favro, also a former speech writer of president obama wrote in the daily beast, "the president starts thinking about the speech in late november about the weekend before we'd be cutting furiously, fending off additions from the rest of the administration and the president, as well, in attempt to keep this monster under an hour. obama would clock consecutive 2:00 a.m. nights editing and revising. we know nothing about the

content, does that -- how grueling is this week for you? >> well, you know, the state of the union is not only a way for the country to find out what the president thinks, it also ends up being a way for the administration to find out what the president thinks and some parts of the administration end up finding that troubling, so at this point in the year, you know, especially for the speech writers helping on the speech, you end up with a situation it feels as if new bureaus of the government are created for this week only to emerge and have deep and grave concerns about the speech, sentences they believe will undo the administration, perhaps the republic, and so you end up and you'll hear it from all angles. the cabinet secretary will call the chief of staff, they find every way in to edit the speech right up until the last minute and there's always some kind of thing, something that ultimately does not matter at all that ends up taking up this entire day, a sentence, a battle. we would fight -- i remember there was a day-long battle about a joke about the way in

which the government regulates salmon and that was something that took hours to litigate in the hours before the state of the union. >> any time you script a joke, it's not going to work. quickly, michael, has this been the case for decades, centuries? >> lyndon johnson said the state of the union address, the problem is he said they are like grandma's night shirt that got to cover everything. >> there you go. >> that was his joke, not mine. >> okay, we'll give you credit. good job. we'll have you on again, appreciate it. >> yes, indeed, we allow for everything here. >> john lovet on your left and michael beshlosh. thank you. minnesota, illinois, they are used to scenes like this, but louisiana, georgia, not so much. how the deep south is bracing for an onslaught of winter weather. also ahead, some have called him an aisle hog. whatever you call him, he seems to get a prime spot at every

single state of the union. i'll talk to congressman eliot engel about that and tonight's address coming up. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] old el paso frozen entrées. now in freezers. in fact, they depend on a unique set of nutrients. [ male announcer ] that's why there's ocuvite

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if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪ the arctic air is heading to the deep south today, where places like savannah, georgia, charleston, south carolina, bracing for a rare ice storm. school from minnesota to ohio closed today because of the dangerous temperature. folks in the south kind of excited the kids might get to see snow for the first time in their entire life. >> it's great for the kids to get to, you know, see a little ice and snow, because so many of them maybe in their lifetimes won't get to see other than what they get here in town. >> if you've got a child and we get some snow today, they should be home playing in it. >> weather channel meteorologist mike seidel in fayetteville, north carolina for us. i don't think you can freeze an egg today, but what are people going to expect down there? >> you know, after being in chicago, brian, with those

minus-25 wind chills, i think i can handle a 22-above zero wind chill in fayetteville. everyone is excited here because this town on average in a season gets .9 of an inch of snow. many years they don't even see a flake. right now we're forecasting a solid four to six inches here. that's going to be a major travel headache tonight. already we've got schools closing early in atlanta with snow moving into the atlanta area. look for an inch or two there, but that is the world's busiest airport where they've already cancelled hundreds of flights. here in north carolina, we may have sleet at first and then it goes gang busters tonight and temperatures tomorrow morning in the mid teens, so a definite snow day tomorrow here and up towards the raleigh area. down towards myrtle beach, sleet, ice, snow. but the real concern as far as serious impacts, the savannah, charleston area where we have icestorm warnings, brian, enough ice to bring down trees and power lines, the rain will start

to freeze on contact once the temperatures fall down below freezing later on tonight and the early hours of wednesday morning. so for a lot of us in this area, this is a rare chance to see some accumulating snow, certainly here in this part of north carolina. >> you should get to every red light and tell every driver down there not to drive tomorrow, mike, because they don't know what they are doing. we appreciate it, mike seidel. >> i can't imagine they'll be a lot of folks out on the roads tomorrow because of the fact -- real quick, they only have nine plows and salt trucks for the whole city of fayetteville, that kind of puts it in perspective. >> mike, be safe. weather channel's mike seidel live in fayetteville, north carolina. as we head to break, a live look further north in minneapolis. it looks calm and peaceful, but it's negative 13 degrees right now and the kids are home from school. we'll be right back. nversation r mortgage didn't start here. it began on her vacation in europe

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about how the white house has been preparing for tonight's state of the union address. an official tells nbc news during the past month they've been meeting with dozens of interest groups, including labor leaders, business leaders, and immigration groups. it's the first time the white house has done this kind of outreach before a state of the union address. joining me, president of the aflclo as guest of nancy pelosi. thanks for being on the program. >> thanks for having me on. >> the president has announced he'll increase the minimum wage for federal workers to $10.10 an hour. what do you think of this particular news? >> well, i think it's very, very good news. it shows that he's serious about addressing some of the issues of income inequality. i hope he remembers there are government employees making between $7.25 and $10.10 and actual government employees shouldn't be left behind either.

their wages should be increased to a minimum of $10.10, as well. >> what they want to hear from the president, they said pass immigration reform, jobs, inequality, increasing social security, more funding for public schools, veterans need jobs. what's the one thing if you were going to extract something that you want to hear from the president tonight? >> well, first of all, brian, look, the president is going to give his state of the union address amidst some very critical challenges for the majority of americans. there's falling wages, there's the growing gulf between the rich and the rest of us, there's stunted upward mobility. there's a shrinking middle class, and there's far too many families that are -- can't reach or out of reach of the american dream. so what we want to see him do is talk about the need to rebuild the middle class, talk about the need to give workers the right to join together and to bargain collectively to get a fair share

of what they produce. we want to see him talk about increasing the minimum wage, as he's talked about, but for everybody, an extension of unemployment benefits, we want to see him talk about infrastructure that can create jobs, we want to see the bold, on a bold agenda that will put into motion the challenges that he talked about in his december speech on inequality. >> you know, a lot of labor y unions were unhappy over obamacare. give me your sense how you feel over your relationship between president obama and the unions right now. the influence in some quarters think it's been a really challenging 2014 for unions. how do you feel about the relationship with the president right now? >> i think the president is doing a good job. he's working real hard, he's started a national dialogue on inequality. he knows what has to be done. workers' wages have to be increased, upward mobility has to be increased. look, we have issues. i mean, whenever we started

social security it wasn't perfect. it was a start and you change it. whenever we started medicare and medicaid, it was a good start, but changes had to be made. it's the same thing with health care. the health care bill's a giant step in the right direction. it needs to be tweaked, because there are problems that have come up that we haven't anticipated, so we're working together to try to fix those things, not try to scrap everything, and we have a good working relationship with the administration. >> all right. richard, we appreciate it. have fun tonight, president of the aflcio. today's news of a wage increase for some of the nation's workers is considered progress, there are millions more americans who spent the past year on the front line of this fight for a living wage. arguably, it was the fast food workers that brought this battle to the public's attention and probably because of them that we're seeing any progress on this front at all. joining me now, staff attorney with the national employment law project. what do you think about what the president did today and is it just his sign to push this issue

along further and will it work? >> i think two things, one is, you know, by putting forward his proposal for an executive order, that would impact many contracted workers, you know, there are 2 million contracted workers in this country, and many, they do everything from sew our nation's military uniforms, clean our federal buildings, but it's a very low-paid workforce. about 20% live below the federal poverty line, so the first thing he's saying is the federal government, which spends half a trillion dollars a year on federal contracting should not be in the business of creating these sub standard jobs, and, two, he's pushing congress to act more broadly to raise pay for millions of workers as the minimum wage bill would do. >> do you anticipate there will be a lot of movement in the private sector on this in 2014? >> i think there will be a lot of movement based on, you know, the fact that income inequality has become such a defining issue, it's the defining issue of our generation, as the

president said. there are one in four private sector workers in this country make less than $10 an hour, so the minimum wage bill that's in congress that would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would affect 27 million workers positively. >> i was watching "morning joe" last week and bill gates was on there and said something pretty interesting how you have to be careful about how much you raise the minimum wage, and here's what he had to say. >> you have to be a bit careful that if you raise the minimum wage, you're encouraging labor substitution that you're going to go buy machines and automate things or cause jobs to appear outside of that jurisdiction. a lot of the problem there is that those people don't have many hours. it's not the actual wage level. >> like fast food workers, i mean, a lot of those people are households in poverty. >> 88% in nonpoverty households,

so there's about 11% of those are from the poverty households. >> what do you think of what he said? >> well, with all due respect to bill gates, the weight of the economic evidence is against him. just this week, 600 economists released a letter supporting raising the federal minimum wage, and that's because, you know, his argument about jobs being across jurisdictions, these fast food workers, these fast food joints are not going to leave. they are servicing local economies. these are adults working these jobs. 80% of workers who make less than $10 an hour are adults. many are spending their careers in these jobs because we have essentially become a low-wage economy where more and more jobs being created are jobs paying less than $10 an hour. i think he's a little out of touch about the realities of the modern day low-wage workforce and what it would mean for these workers for local businesses to stay afloat, for families that rely on them so they don't have

to turn to public assistance to make ends meet. i think he's a little out of touch on that. >> it's an interesting debate and one we'll continue to have. we appreciate it. thanks for coming on the program. we asked, you answered. state of the union, how does president obama avoid the lame duck label in tonight's speech? steve on facebook says, make believe you are not the commander in chief and speak honestly from the heart and don't think about hurting people's feelings. provide a bold agenda for people to rally around and speak forcefully about. on twitter, sadly, i don't think any lame duck will be avoidable without a shift in house control back to dems in '14. keep the comments coming on twitter @bshactman, an on facebook. we'll be right back. yeah. everybody knows that. did you know there is an oldest trick in the book? what? trick number one. look-est over there.

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he wants this to be a year of action. just moments ago, the white house released a new clip of the president working on the speech. >> i like it. i think the tone is right. i think the framework's right. we can just find one or two examples, then i think it will buttress that. >> trim your beard, you're going to be on tv, man. >> joining me, corey dade, sabrina, and michael tamasky. hello, crew, how are you guys? >> hey, brian. >> great, thanks. >> robert gibbs on "morning joe" today brought up last year's speech and how dysfunctional washington, d.c. has become. have a quick listen. >> 2013 was a lost year for the president. he was buffeted by crisis after crisis, and i think the test of this speech will be, do the american people that do watch, do they feel like this president has a plan to get some of those

things done, or is this just another speech out of washington? >> you know, it's a fair point. this will be a tough spot for any president, so just put that aside, cory, people wanting tonight, they want results, but with all the stuff he's going to talk about and who knows what will get done, it's almost impossible to fulfill the goals of tonight. >> yeah, you know, a lot of the things that he'll talk about to some degree were talked about in his state of the union speech last year in 2013, and we saw how well that worked for him last year as robert gibbs just said, last year was a lost year for the president. i think he's still going to try to set the political agenda for the year, but really, you know, he has to be careful here. you know, he's talking about using his executive authority on different issues like the minimum wage, of course, and that takes a page out of the bill clinton book in his second presidency and that actually helped clinton leave with bigger job approval ratings, but with obama, you know, don't expect a whole lot of sort of bold

promises tonight. he doesn't want to inflame the partisanship divide in washington, immigration reform and democrats holding on to the senate. >> michael, quickly, i'm going to be watching body language and see if the energy is positive. aside from what we just heard, he's sending a message to the people, people want to read into that, not only what they hear, what they see. >> i think that's right. i think he has to exude real toughness and real impatience with what is happening in washington. i would actually say that i disagree with cory, respectfully. i think that he should throw down at the republicans, and i think he should risk being partisan a little bit partisan, because we all know, whatever he proposes, whatever he talks about tonight, it's not going to get passed, unfortunately. maybe, maybe, maybe there's an outside shot in passing a minimum wage, but the house

republicans aren't going to pass anything. he has to set up a framework that he and the democrats can take into the general election fight and midterm elections and say we want to do this, they are blocking us, what voters are you going to do about it, that's what he needs to do. >> sabrina, do you want to break the tie? >> i'm going to say this, tonight's speech is unlikely to change the trajectory of the president's second term or sway public opinion, but it gives him opportunity to reframe his message to the american people that his administration plans to advance, whether it's through congress or on their own. the american people aren't just tired of the gridlock in washington, they are tired of hearing about the gridlock in washington, so i agree with michael here, i think this year of action is what his supporters are looking forward to, kind of seeing what the president can do within his own powers to start advancing pieces of his legislation, rather than waiting around for the rare moment when congress will cease to be dysfunctional. >> we'll see. cory, you're outvoted, but at

the same time we've heard a lot of leaks from the white house that on immigration he doesn't want to make anyone too mad. on that particular issue it seems clear he's going to toe the line a bit. sabrina, you talked about a moment from last year when the president spoke about giving victims from gun violence a vote. let's have a listen to that. >> gabby giffords deserves a vote. the families of newtown deserve a vote. the families of aurora deserve a vote. the families of oak creek and tucson and blacksburg and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence, they deserve a simple vote. >> you know, it was truly a moment last year, it gave you a little chill. it was an intense, intense moment, but yet it didn't happen, so is this an issue when it comes to the gun violence, we've had more shootings since, do you think it will come up again, or is this issue moved on? >> well, i think he certainly

might raise it, and he should, because at the end of the day, the white house really did try to do what it could to advance some antigun violence legislation. this came down to congress not being ready to even expand background checks, despite having the support of 90% of the american people, so, you know, i'm not sure if there will be another moment like that. he's probably going to focus on the economy. we know he's going to talk about income inequality, but every day we turn on the news and hear about yet another school shooting or a shooting at a mall, so this is probably where the executive action comes in to play. at this point he can probably continue to pass modest pieces of legislation to sort of, you know, improve background checks, which he already did a few weeks ago and turned to executive action rather than waiting around for congress. >> i want you to listen to this real quick, a democratic congressman spoke about why president obama needs to use executive orders. here's that byte. >> i think most of us are all for the president doing everything he can to work with

our colleagues here, republicans and democrats alike in the house and the senate to get things done, but let's get things done. that's why he's president. >> cory, the pen and the phone, what do you think? >> you know, that's what he says. we'll have to see. i mean, basseta is one of the leading proponents of immigration reform, and one of the things they want him to do is use his power of the pen, certainly, his executive authority to stop the pace of deportations, which is up to 2 million, more than george w. bush, but the white house isn't inclined to do that, so as much as we, michael and sabrina may want some bold talk tonight, you know, i think he's going to really kind of tight rope this tonight. >> you got my pronouncer bad, basseta, you made me look bad. all right, wish we had more time to talk, corey dade, sabrina, and michael tomasky, who's also author of a new e-book, off

topic, but we want to give it attention, beatles, america then and now. it's an e-book, but looks like a book on our screen. >> it is political. >> everything's political. all right, guys, thank you. chris christie's poll numbers are headed south now. time for the poly side bar. the problems plaguing his office are taking a toll on the new jersey governor's image. according to new numbers from nbc and "the wall street journal" just 22% say they see him in a favorable light. that's down from the fall. the man with christie at the center of the bridge scandal will be in washington tonight, mark sokolich will attend the state of the union. he's new jersey congressman bill pascrell's guest. will senator rand paul follow in his father's footsteps and make a run for the oval office? here's how he answered that question when posed by a fourth grader. >> what percent do you think? >> what is the chance that i would run? >> yeah. >> you know, it's probably 50%. we are thinking about it and

sort of, you know, looking at what it would take to run, but we probably won't make our decision for about a year. >> good question. texas gubernatorial candidate wendy davis rejecting criticism of her parenting from the woman on the left, bristol palin. palin fired out a tweet accusing davis of leaving her kid behind to go to law school. davis responded, "nothing said in that tweet was true." we'll be right back. s list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. for over 18 years we've helped people take care of the things that matter most. join today at angieslist.com some brokerage firms are but way too many aren't. why? because selling their funds makes them more money. which makes you wonder. isn't that a conflict? search "proprietary mutual funds". yikes!! then go to e*trade. we've got over 8,000 mutual funds and not one of them has our name on it. we're in the business of finding the right investments for you. e*trade. less for us, more for you. the fund's prospectus contains its investment objectives,

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you can bet on one thing when it comes to tonight's state of the union address. elliott engle from new york will be perfectly positioned to shake hands with the president. he has been known for could have vetting an aisle seat back to george h.w. bush. congressman engle joins me now. why do you do it? >> because it's fun and because it's great to be in the middle of the trappings of american

democracy and my constituents love it. they look for me and i just have a really good time and bottom line, it's just an honor to be there and serve. it's become a tradition. i think if i wasn't there people would wonder where i was. >> we all camped out for tickets or to get close to something. so you've got to give us the strategy, we're nine hours out, i'm surprised you're talking to us. >> if i lose my seat because i'm talking to you, i'm going to blame you. but so far so good. you know, the myth is that we have to sit in our seats hour after hour. well, we do, but you can do a bathroom break or do a meeting or do a television interview and other colleagues that come and stake out their seats, they watch for you and you have to go and watch for them -- >> somebody standing in for you right now? is your spot already reserved? >> i hope so of t. i'll let you know.

it's a five minute walk back to the capitol. i made it a point of doing it with every president, be the president democrat or republican because it's our president and again, it's a great trappings of american democracy. i feel exhilarated and love every minute. >> the mustache was there with clinton and no pocket square. there's a little bit of a controversy, last year you shook hands with his left hand and people were wondering if you got blown off. >> it was a camera angle. he shook hands and we'll see what he does this time. >> you can confirm on msnbc there was a handshake. >> this was a handshake. i always tell the truth. >> is he going to come looking for you tonight? >> i'll be looking for him. i'm looking forward to the speech. i hope he gives a really good one. i think he will and i hope he talks about some of the

important issues of the day, like jobs and minimum wage, i think he's going to do that and i look forward to hearing him. >> congressman eliot engel, get back to that seat we're happy there's no catheter. >> craig melvin picks it up after the break. ♪ driving rock music music stops ♪ music resumes ♪ music stops ♪ music resumes ♪ ♪ [announcer] if your dog can dream it, [whistle] purina pro plan can help him achieve it. nutrition that performs. this is the creamy chicken corn chowder.

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remarks. >> the president says he wants to make this a year of action. sounds good. but if he wants to make it a year of action, let's work together and of course we do not need to tell most of you it is cold outside. arctic temperatures and snow in the south and a super bowl to play. we start in fact with much of the nation plunging into a deep freeze, icy cold creeping way down into the deep south where new orleans the big easy, could be seeing some snow. we'll take a close look at the crippling cold just ahead. first, president obama facing some frosty feelings among the electorate ahead of his state of the union address tonight. in our new poll, they say the nation is stagnant or worse off. just 3% say the state of the union is strong. words folks used instead, divided, troubled,

deteriorating. i'm willing to wager those are not the words the president will be using tonight but you may hear in one of the four, count them, four republican responses. i want to bring in the power panel with us now, keeren finney and robert tranum and "washington post" political columnist dana milbank. this is a power panel. president obama undoubtedly in a tough spot, talking tonight to a nation in a distinctly bad mood if you want to believe the poll numbers after five years in office, how does mr. obama reset? how does he hit refresh and get that hope and optimism going again? >> well, i think that's part of why you have in the runup to the state of the union, you've heard the administration officials talking about the president is going to be optimistic and positive and i think part of this idea of the phone and the pen is to denote