. >> joining me now is josh rogen, our cnn analyst. thank you so much for being with us. let's start with donald trump who is leading cruz by 20 points in the latest cnn poll for new hampshire. that is a significant lead, and now, of course, he has sarah palin's endorsement. what impact is that likely to have on trump's standing yrk do you think. >>? the longer he continues to rise in the polls and gain ground on his nearest competitor, ted cruz, the more and more the pundits and conservative commentators and even mainstream republicans are sort of coming around to the realization that there's a growing possibility, although not yet a probability he could take this nomination. it also shows that the attacks on ted cruz are working. it shows that the mainstream candidates j jeb bush and marco rubio have failed to do something spectacular that would allow them to break out. and it shows the attacks against trump continue only to fuel his support rather than diminish it. >> on the other side of the political equation, we're also seeing bernie sanders outperforming hillary cl

let's bring in josh rogen.ing on politically speaking behind the headlines. he joins us today from d.c. josh, great to have you. i want to start with donald trump. he is still the republican front runner. he attended church on sunday. then he hit the campaign trail attacking cruz hard. there were some protesters demanding to stop hate at one of his rallies. really more of the same from trump. but there were some new elements here. the des moines register just encourse endorsed rubio and clinton. is trump on the back foot at the moment? >> reporter: well, his numbers continue to be strong. he continues to outpace cruz and the nearest competitors. cruz's numbers have gone up and rubios. but that's mostly because of the craters of support for carson in iowa. as we head toward the iowa caucus, we saw trump dominating the headlines, attacking anything that attacks him. and betting that his well of support will come out in caucus. that really is the big question. whether or not all the people who go to the rallies an

. >> cnn political analyst, josh rogen joins us to help preview the state of the union address. es tellig you as far as what we can expect? >> the white house staff has been telling reporters today that the president will forego what we the typically expect from a state of the union address, namely, a list of specific policy proposals and a call on congress to implement them. he'll present an optimistic view and he'll try to frame progress he's made in an attempt to solidify a legacy and to set terms for the coming election. >> and that optimism will be in stark contrast to what we've seen at the donald trump rallies for the past six months, that anger. on the economic front, many parts of the u.s. have these pockets of republican voters who are very angry, but if we just look at the numbers, unemployment is down to 5%. it was 10% in 2010. since then 14 million jobs have been created. should obama be touting the successes here knowing there's a vain of the country that hasn't felt it yet? >> it will be a difficult task for obama to convince the american people that the country is

josh rogen is with me. >> happy new year. >> happy new year to you.ng that's happening in the middle east, how does this put the white house -- what kind of position does this put the white house in? how should the u.s. handle this? >> sure. well, it puts the white house in the worst of all possible positions. the administration came out yesterday and said we're not going to take sides. this is for the saudis and iranians to work out for themselves and we're not going to use our influence. the problem with that is as far as the saudis are concerned, the u.s. has been moving both before the crisis and now even after the crisis toward the iranian position. they have been displeased for a long time about the iran nuclear deal, about the u.s. syria policy, and then in the wake of the crisis, the u.s. has been criticizing saudi arabia. they defended the iranian position that the government wasn't responsible for burning the embassy, that was the state department spokesman yesterday. so the saudis look at all of this and say if you're not listening to us an

. >> josh rogen is joining us now to talk about this.want to highlight an article you co-authored about north korea and the nuclear weapon test. you said the obama administration has no strategy with a chance of stopping this progress which undercuts the entire push for a nuclear weapon-free world. let's get to this weekend's warning to north korea. do you have any belief that that will accomplish anything? >> well, the administration is really stuck in a terrible position. they don't want to get caught in this trap of rewarding north korea for bad behavior by going into negotiations. at the same time, by not going into negotiations, the problem only gets worse and worse. so what the administration has decided to do is sort of talk tough and do things like fly these bombers runs when something deroggive happens but no way to solve the problem that north korea is increasing massive stockpile of nuclear weapons and the threat north korea presents to the whole region with its conventional army. i'm not saying it's an easy problem. there are