with us to share their stories, julie pace, robert costa, cnn's peter hamby and malika emerson of the washington post. president obama is ready to share a wish list aimed at the middle class but one that has zero chance of passing the republican controlled congress. that in a moment. we begin this sunday morning with mitt romney and a moment he compared to a high school reunion. he's gearing up for a presidency run in 2016. >> in the last few days the most frequently asked question i get is, what does ann think about all of this? and she believes that people get better with experience. and -- heaven knows i have experience running for president. the results of the hillary clinton/barack obama foreign policy have been devastating. you know that. terrorism is not on the run. the american people are struggling to make ends meet and so our policies in this regard are designed to help create economic growth and put people back to work and get rising wages. >> there you have it, mitt romney signaling he's back. it's been a bit of a back dllas. for minimal fundraising network, a very crowded

peter hamby, thank you for your report.porter: thanks michael. >>> when we come back "american sniper" hits its mark. we'll talk with two iraq war veterans who serve in congress and why this hits a chord with american veterans. mes breathing air can be difficult. if you have copd, ask your doctor about once-daily anoro ellipta. it helps people with copd breathe better for a full 24hours. anoro ellipta is the first fda-approved product containing two long-acting bronchodilators in one inhaler. anoro is not for asthma. anoro contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. it is not known if this risk is increased in copd. anoro won't replace rescue inhalers for sudden copd symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition, or high blood pressure. tell your doctor if you have glaucoma, prostate or bladder problems, or problems passing urine as anoro may make these problems worse. call your doctor right away if you have worsened breathing chest p

. >> peter hamby, thank you. >>> steven, we saw peters.and he mentioned that the governor chris christie certainly was great for this crowd but the real question here is does that. >> translator: late, to voters actually see this in him? can that take him all the way through the candidacy here or is he going to need more to do? >> i think christie actually gave a signal last night that he is actually going to compete in iowa. there have been some questions about whether he would sort of bypass it completely and going to new hampshire and florida. but he made a connection with that evangelical crowd. he made the argument i'm a conservative. you might not like my style but my brass new jersey political style can be toned down a little bit. he talked about some personal stories as peter said. he talked about his dying mother. he tried to make an emotional connection with the crowd. the core of his argument was that conservativism must defend itself and appeal to people outside the sort of heartland conservative states like iowa. he was sort o

joining me to talk about this is cnn national political reporter peter hamby. first off, who is senator ernst for those who don't know and why was she picked for the rebuttal? >> well if you covered the last campaign joni ernst was a breakout star. >> famous for castrating pigs and -- >> that's right. she ran a tv ad saying i castrate hogs i'll get to washington and cut pork -- >> make them squeal. >> right. she is kind of perfect for the state of the union response. the response does two things. one the opposition party gets to introduce a rising star to the american public and it tells you a little bit about where they stand, especially heading into the next election. in 2006 the governor of virginia democrats chose him to give their speech. in 2009 bobby jindal was chosen to respond to president obama's first address to congress to show that we're a diverse party as well. republicans are still struggling a little bit with women. in the last election they did better than they did in previous elections but still lost one by four points. joni ernst is a fresh f

including political director david chalian and peter han hamby. got a slew of candidates maybe nine potential presidential candidates addressing this group of 1,200 conservative activists here today. but it may be important to take a look at who is not here. because donald trump, who is -- says he's considering a run for the white house, made sure when he took the stage here to sort of throw an elbow at those not here specifically the heavyweight establishment folks, jeb bush and mitt romney. give a listen. >> so you can't have romney. he choked. you can't have bush. the last thing we need is another bush. >> the seriousness of a donald trump candidacy, the crowd here peter, really liked his digs at romney and bush. >> yeah they totally ate it up which plays right into what we have been talking about for many months which is that iowa is going to be tough for mitt romney if he runs, and jeb bush if he runs. because there is such a vocal conservative electorate here. that doesn't mean there isn't space for those guys. remember mitt romney almost wo