he was the leader of the federalist party in congress. it's important to note the deference between then and now. he's the leader of the party, most powerful member, but in the first congress, the speaker was confined to a ceremony role like the british house of commons. james madison is the leader in the first congress, and with the leader of the federalist party opposing the plan of hamilton the federalist, he blocked the legislation in a way monroe couldn't have. these three things, the bill of rights, the first great compromise and executive question were decided differently because of 336 votes in 1789 in the fifth congressional district of virginia. >> where did you do your research? give examples. >> yeah, i spent a lot of time in the madison reading room, in the library of congress, and so it was fun to research james madison in a room namedded after him. there's university libraries with great resources, and unlike the library of congress, i can check home books i had absolutely no business being able to check out and take home. [

he ran against the famous 80th congress, famous because it was the do-nothing republican congress. the irony in 1948 is the 80th congress was actually an extraordinarily productive and meaningful congress. the 80th do-nothing congress gave us the marshall plan which transformed the world for half a century. as senate democratic leader reid sees it, the problem of inaction stands out clearly when this congress is compared to the last one in which democrats controlled both chambers. >> we had the most productive congress in the history of the country, some say only the most productive in the last 75 years, but a very productive congress the last congress. >> reporter: that congress-- the 111th-- passed 383 bills that were signed by the president, including the economic stimulus, and both health care and wall street reforms. the first session of the 112th congress, which began a year ago, has enacted 90 laws so far. mostly housekeeping measures-- extending current laws and naming federal buildings. over the weekend the republican speaker of the house john boehner stood by those numbers

have to develop strategies for dealing with congress for trying to maximize the chances of getting congress to do what they want to do. so what were bush's strategies? that is the second part of my title. though it comes first, it is the offered hand in the veto fix. much of the paper deals with what the strategies were and to what extent they worked. the congress and the heavy democratic majorities, bush was going to need bipartisan for legislative success. thus, the offered hand as he, himself, phased it in his inaugural. bush cultivated both members of congress of both parties and he would, when necessary, compromise on legislation, on the substance of legislation with democrats. in fact, he did a lot of cultivating, which was not even second nature. first nature. and of necessity, he did a lot of compromising. i think the question arises when you look at this element of strategy is whether bush completely understood how much congress had changed. he did seem to have expected personal friendships and the cultivation of members to pay off in support much more than they actually did. well,

the answer somebody gave is because congress has been so bad. this has not been a time in the history of this great institution that i think any of us feel good about and this is an opportunity to do something real that we can not only feel good about but more important, that our constituents can feel good about. so i hope that we will have a resounding vote at 5:30. i'd yield to the senator from massachusetts. the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. mr. brown: thank you. i concur and i've always felt one good deed begets another good deed and so on add so forth. this is a measure that the american people are clamoring for. we need to re-establish the trust with the american people and this is the first step in doing that very thing. i want to once again thank the chairman for referencing something that i failed to reference as well, we need to make sure -- and i would encourage my colleagues on my side of the aisle and my friends on the other side of the aisle to keep all amendments germane, make sure we move for cloture, get clot

madison was the leader of the federalist party in congress. it's important to note the difference between then and now. now the speaker of the house is the leader of his party, he's the most powerful member, but in the first congress the speaker of the house was largely confined to a ceremonial role, kind of like the british house of commons. they weren't the leader of their party. james madison's the leader of the federalist party in the first congress. and so with the leader opposing the plan of hamilton, the federalist, he was able to effectively block this legislation in a way james monroe would not have been able to. so i think these three critical things -- the bill of rights, the first great compromise and the executive question -- were all decided differently because it's 336 votes in 1789 in the fifth congressional district of virginia. >> where did you do your research, which libraries, museums? give some examples. >> yeah. i spent a lot of time in what was called the madison reading room. named after james madison. so it was fun to b

if we gave the 112th congress a midterm report card, the grade would be clear. ngress would get an f for failure. now, i can't say it more clearly and neither can any of you. congress has flunked, they've failed, and we, the american people and our cities, can't afford this failure. we can't afford this inaction. we can't afford a congress where the representatives with the least experience and the most rigid views routinely block good bills and believe that brinksmanship is the only way to negotiate. some of you know that i was an assembly member, majority whip, majority leader, speaker of the california state assembly. i remember when we used to value in our legislators, in our leaders compromise. i remember when we used to value those states people, those people that were bigger that finish bigger than themselves and willing to focus on solutions. i remember when we worked across the aisle. in fact, the first thing i did as speaker of the state assembly with democrats on one side of the aisle and republicans on the other is i sat them together. i gave the repu

certainly there were delays in various stages of the process because congress was waiting to find out whatever the latest version was could pass this cbo test. >> host: doug bowman to refuse to work for dick gephardt? >> guest: i am not sure. it is possible to seven is there a professional staff has well that goes through the administration? >> guest: there is. interestingly nonprofessional like you would find with most federal agencies. first, dominated by a ph.d. economist that you cannot find in the federal agency usually but the cbo staff work at the pleasure of the director. of a director could come in to clean house on the number one if they wanted. in that respect the relation of the cbo staff and director is like the relationship of the congressional staff to a member of congress. no director has ever come in and decided to clean house and a number one because there's a lot of expertise that resides in the cbo staff so the practice has been for the staff to stay from one director to another but really because that is what the directors have chosen to do. there was one case whe

you are expressing his views to the congress. there are 535 other people who think they ought to be president of the united states and spent a great deal of time communicating their views back to you. i like the analogy that prince phillip told me when barbara bush came to me. oh, you're the ping pong ball. that is the way i felt. i looked at it more like crystal ball gazing. we had to put together the numbers that we needed to be able to have success with the president. a look at the 1988 elections. 260 to 175 split in terms of democrats and republicans. the senate was a 54/46 split with democrats and republicans. although george bush won 53% of the vote, that was the situation we faced as we began service in 1989. we probably were the victims of our own success. i served for a couple of years on the senate legislative team for president reagan. during a period of time when we had control of the united states senate. from 1980 to 1986. at that point in time, i say we were products of our own success. it was sort of the beginning

that is who delivered the democrats the congress in 2006 and the president his presidency.en, hispanic, woman, 30 to 50, who are independents, not democrats those people decide those elections. newt gingrich against barack obama, what a motivator. >> we had a website that focuses on women within that category and i can tell you those women are interested in three things. the economy, spending and a strong national defense. and what i can tell you is that every republican candidate fairs better in that populace than the president. i predict that we have a republican president. >> taking that and running with it. we will discuss the dynamics that make the sunshine state so very unique. next on "now." [ coughs ] what is this shorty? uh, tissues sir, i'm sick. you don't cough, you don't show defeat. give me your war face! raaah! [ male announcer ] halls. a pep talk in every drop. no, i wouldn't use that single miles credit card. nice ring. knock it off. ignore him. with the capital one venture card you earn... double miles on every purchase. [ sharon ] 3d is so real larry. i'm

we kept reelecting the members of congress. the people have the responsibility as well. they kept bringing the goods back to the district. how did they do it? they had too much compromise. there were conservatives who spend money on their projects. liberals spent money on the other. there was no money, so they agreed to raise the natural -- national debt. it was the wrong head of compromise. what we need is not compromise, but coalition building. this is why freedom works. it brings people to gather for different reasons. these people want to use their freedoms the way that they won in the personalized. other people want to use their freedom in their economic lives. this will bring people together, if they understand them. but coalitions spending overseas, i work with a lot of independent, moderate liberal democrats, who see this as more like conservative republicans. protecting civil liberties. cutting these overseas spending. at the same time, you have to work with people who have a better sense of too much spending here at home. if we can continue to depend on deficit

at the same time he certainly set congress up for blame if nothing gets done. hite house domestic policy director joining us from the white house lawn, good to see you, thank you very much. >> good to see you. >> the speech had a big appeal on economic issues, the mill r millionaire, the buffett tax targeted right at mitt romney. i want to share the rnc video that was released showing the comparisons, the side-by-side comparisons with this years and previous state of the union speech. >> whether the hard work and industry of our people are rewarded. >> where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded. >> let's fix what needs fixing and move forward. >> tonight i want to speak about how we move forward. >> it's time for colleges and universities to get serious about cutting their own costs. >> colleges and universities have to do their part by working to keep costs down. >> and we should continue to work of fixing our broken immigration system. >> i strongly believe that we should take on once and for all the issue of immigration. >> i believe as strongly

while the congress has hit a new low. e latest polling from the right wing firm rasmussen shows only 5% of likely voters approve of the job congress is doing. "the times" reports the president will spend less time fighting congressional republicans and focus on economic justice for ordinary americans instead. white house deputy press secretary josh earnest confirms, "in terms of the president's relationship with congress in 2012, the president is no longer tied to washington, d.c." what does that mean? the only legislation on the white house's must-do list is a full-year extension of the payroll tax cut. according to "the times" the president will showcase measures he is taking on his own to revive the economy. "associated press" reports he will unveil at least two or three directives per week. the president will continue to take the populist tone he adopted late last year. gosh, that was just a few days ago. in his weekly address, president obama tapped into middle class frustrations over the payroll tax fight and income

the mascot. is says if you are a member of congress and the executive position is creed of your in congress or the salary is increase in you cannot take the position.pp and ordered to stop a member if you would be appointed so you vote to raise his salary by $100,000 if the that was a bad idea so they put the ineligibility cause but now it has come up several times over history and there is a move the government had used to get around this and the idea is if the person who is a congress takes a the executive office that congress passes a billab reducing the salary by thei original amount then there is no violation.vi they actually did not get anan increase so there's a problem. 1987. lewis powell retires from the supreme court and the question ronald reagan had to face who'd asea point*? orrin hatch is in the senate. the supreme court salary went up. that was a violation of the eligibility clause. other people discover this could be used the saxby 62 put him in any way? they ask the office of legal counsel and they said no. this clause means any time the salary is wait -- raise to cannot be put in

the constitution requires the president to quote from time to time give to the congress information of the state of the union and recommend to their consideration such measures as he may judge necessary and expedient and quote from the constitution every so often the speeches given during times of bullying prosperity low unemployment and peace is given when spirits are high when confidence in our form of government is unshakable when our nation's reputation around the world is admired and during those times the president can walk up to the podium flanked by his vice president and the speaker of the house and confidently tell the nation that the state of our union is strong the future is promising and a new generation of the of americans are such to inherit a better nation but tonight is not one of those times. tonight the state of our nation is grave and if the majority of americans were given their chance to speak out about the state of the union this is likely what they would say tonight forty nine million americans are trying to claw their way out of poverty including one out of eve

and exceed position office is created while you are in congress or if the salary in that position is increased while you are in congress and you can't take that position you can't be appointed to that position. it's to stop the self dealing. you vote to raise the salary by $100,000 that sounds like. the framers of the was a very bad ideas of it is inevitable because of the constitution. now it's come up several times over history and there is a little move that the government had used to sort of get around this. was called the saxby fix because it was in connection with the attorney named william saxby. if the person who is in congress and takes the executive office whose salary has been raised but before he or she takes the office congress passes a bill reducing the salary of original amount then there is no violation. the idea is they didn't actually get any increase in salaries of there is no problem. .. reagan appointed board. work was defeated. ginsberg was defeated in that mixture for various reasons. anthony kennedy was appointed anthony kennedy of course makes the

and our staff have a duty of trust to the institution of congress, to the united states government and to the american people. a duty that members of congresst violate and portray nonpublic information gained by virtue of our publicli position. the bill also requires the ethics committees of both houses of congress to issue guidance to clarify that members and staff may not use non-public information derived from ourss o positions and their positions in congress to make a private profit. besides these changes, this is different and important. are committing decided that the stock act should require members of congress and their staffs to bar public reports on ourf purchases or sale of stocks, o bonds, commodities futures or other financial transactions exceeding $1000 in value within 30 days of the transaction. right now as the president knows these trades are reported want to year in our and our annual financial disclosure statement so this proposal would change that to within 30 days of the trade. r more timely, reporting of this kind will allow no

we have to have help from the federal government especially the congress. there are days and i'm right here in washington where i wonder if they even listen to us and understand what's going on in our cities. the kind of investments that mayor nutter talked about would be valuable in every one of our cities. there's not a mayor in town this week who wouldn't underscore the importance of making those kinds of investments. right here in the city, for example, we, along with the rest of the mayors, talked about getting a transportation bill. investing in our street car system would have major benefits from economic development here in the city. because it would bring people into areas that they're not going into now. street cars are being supported all across the nation at this stage. at the federal level the congressional level, there's no conversation at all. >> we'll be back with the mayors in just a moment and talk about jobs and football and whether their teams have a chance next year. right after this. i just had it with cable. it just got more frustratin

and i challenge the congress to finish the job. let us stick with the strategy that's working and keep the crime rate coming down. [applause] now we conclude a look at the state of the union speeches from the past with a 2005 address from president george w. bush to the he came to the house chamber for three months after being freed elected to give remarks that focus mainly on domestic issues. we will show you a part of that now. runs about 40 minutes. >> mr. speaker, the president of the united states. [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] members of congress i have the privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the president of the united states. [applause] mr. speaker, vice president cheney, members of congress, fellow citizens, as the new congress gathers all of us in at the elected branches of government share a great votes privilege. with a new place in office by w the votes of the people we thais serve. and tonight, that is a privilegw we share with newly elected leade

have you identified... >> the whole point of the brach process is to identify corporateively with the congress and the communities involved basing structure that is excess to our need so to the public out there who wants a strong national defense, realizes it's still a dangerous world out there but realizes we don't have as much money as we thought we were going to have to spend on defense they want us to be making cuts where we're essentially wasting money first before we begin cutting real capability excess basing structure is simple and we have to do it. i realize that it's always politically difficult, much of what we're doing is politically difficult. but we have no choice because national defense is an important imperative and we don't have all the money. >> you're also calling far brach-like process to review military pensions and it's a reminder that for all the focus on weapons systems and ground forces a lot of personnel issues are just like any private company, right? pensions, salaries, health care costs. so you're limited some salary increases and you're raising some health care f

a lot to be done that requires the cooperation of congress. there will be plenty of that in this presidency address. estimate the president watched the health care we can. >> i haven't discussed with him the results as of carolina primary. so i just don't know. again, i -- my guess is he read about them and didn't want them, but i don't have a reaction for you on that and i don't have anything on joe's death either. >> you mentioned comprehensive immigration reform. does the president believes in comprehensive tax reform? >> yes. as he said many times. corporate and individual. does he believe in there should be changes in campaign planning? >> i will ask you to wait until the speech. our position on the citizens united decision has been well described. but i don't have any new proposals or ideas to give to you today. >> sometimes the laundry list is used in the pejorative sense in the state of the union. is the president's state of the union going to include a long list of policy proposals or would you describe this more as a framework of the

the idea is that if the person who is in congress and takes the executive office whose salary has been raised, but before he takes can't he or she takes that office, congress passes a bill reducing the salary back to the original amount, then there's no violation of the ideas they didn't get any increase in so there's no problem. 1987, okay, lewis powell retired from the supreme court and the question that ronald reagan had to face these who to appoint it should be a point warren hatch backs orrin hatch of course is in the senate, and abuse in the senate the supreme court salaries went up. so that was argument of violation of the ineligibility clause the i didn't like discover any of the state of the people have discovered this. they wanted can we use the saxby fix and put hatch in anyway? they the office of legal counsel in the reagan justice department and they said no. that if you read this clause, this clause means that anytime somebody, the salary is raise coming means he can be put in that office, no way. so what happened? reagan appointed board. bork was defeated. douglas ginsbu

has the ability to define the jurisdiction of the supreme court congress has some ability to define the numbers of justices on the court which is why we had franklin roosevelt's so-called court packing plan there is a healthy tension that the elected branches should bring to the supreme court from the president to the congress and you know when president obama called out the supreme court two years ago after citizens united and that was considered shocking no that's not shocking that's that's how our system is supposed to work the supreme court has incredible power as an unelected body to decide what the law is in deciding cases and that's an extraordinary power that should be exercised judiciously and they have overstepped they have they have overstepped and become so pro corporate that it's appropriate that congress and the and the president keep some tension there but in the end though i think what's most the biggest check and balance on the court that the framers gave us was article five the amendment process and we've used it seven times to overturn supreme court cases t

what we what we said to congress once we needed a financial rescue package because the credit markets were stopped up and so hank paulson using tarp completely differently than how he presented to congress was the question and that happened that actually happened and hank paulson got off pretty unscathed for what many people have accused him of doing there we all move past it now we have president obama signing away our constitutional rights with the n.d.a. the national defense authorization act with an amendment that says american citizens can get military detention without due process so the question is the legislative i guess rape on autopilot i want to bring him back back and dr paul craig roberts to answer that question i just gave a couple of examples dr roberts going back to hank paulson to bring back that history lesson to our viewers i know our viewers are very familiar with it and then looking at obama today and the kind of acts that he's signing it is the legislative rate at this point on autopilot. where you don't look the legislature is always the weakest element and it n

the congress. nancy cordes is our congressional correspondent at cbs news. nancy, the president threw a brushback pitch. i wonder how that's going to be received. >> well, scott, he didn't browbeat republicans to the extent that they were expecting so in that sense this speech was not as aggressively political as they had been predicting but i'll tell you, the central theme of the president's speech, economic fairness, as bob just mentioned, requiring wealthy americans to pay more in taxes is just a complete nonstarter among republicans on capitol hill, in fact, speaker boehner accused the president today of what he called the politics of envy pushing this theme, dividing thes have and the have notes and you'll also hear indiana governor mitch daniels address that when he gives his republican response coming up. >> pelley: ora o'donnell, chief white house correspondent, is there on the white house lawn tonight. norah, i wonder, the president will be taking this message on the road as they typically do. >> >> reporter: the president hits the road tomorrow for

the congress has jumped ship just like that captain. they -- [applause] the economy is sinking as we speak and they are sitting on a lifeboat refusing to throw out a live prereceiverrer to the american -- preserver, and that's why we are here today. >> the conference of mayors talked about predatory lending and financing. we'll hear more about the u.s. conference of mayors' economic report. this is an hour and 20 minutes. [applause] >> thank you, michael, for having me here today, a special thanks to you in particular, a long time friend. he just gave me the conclusion, we were trying to puzzle over how long we've been in public service, and it's telling we have trouble remembering. i'm especially pleased to be here speaking with you today, and i have prepared remarks, and then i understand we'll open up for questions. especially, please, because my own roots as michael indicated are in state and local governments. the challenges you face on a daily basis are the same challenges i face in ohio. we were colleagues and have faced the issue

lame-duck session of the 2010 congress. big economic challenges, a fight over the bush tax cuts. and quite frankly, the 2012 session has a double whammy because you have this question of the sequestration kicking in. in other words, not really looking at targeting your spending in a careful way. i have looked at a lot of ways to break out of this cycle. for example, i opposed the bush tax cuts and i suggested after 2010, why don't we extend those bush tax cuts for one year so that congress will be forced on a bipartisan basis in 2011 to make some tough choices so that both sides would be under pressure to come together. obviously, we were not successful. i would have liked to have seen it. senator coats and i have a bipartisan tax reform idea. there have been other ideas on how to approach it. my one question to you is, what do you think can be done over the next few months to try to drive this kind of bipartisan agreement are around tax reform and spending reform so you do not get this kind of lame duck meltdown where the c

so the congress passes it. except that 12 to $15 million is allocated back to each state goes into early childhood trust them. i would argue has to be spent time the education portion because i think that is where the real need is. states often time to gaming. great? pattycake gaming past? be tied to education. nowadays it is a person's nightmare. it turns out these side effects, that it may be a specific policy option that's actually doable. >> do something like that practical and workable? and if it is, how long would it take to get something like that going? >> you didn't mention that they also is the deputy director of the congressional budget office and people in the budget office very much tied taxes. but after eight years will forgive you. i am the price of the third inning. it is important priority to ensure that it's going to be a priority for many years in an efficiency and equity created by the fact that the service is usually thought to the internet via myers. solving that problem and dedicating to s

hypocrisy is nothing new in the house of congress, unfortunately. my good friend from colorado talks about what we're doing on the right hand side. there's no question, however, that mr. polis himself voted for the democratic caucus budget proposed by mr. van hollen, which would have increased spending by $4.5 trillion more than the ryan budget. $4.5 trillion more than the ryan budget. there's only one way to reduce debt at that level of spending, and that's higher and higher taxes on the middle class. it's bad enough that in one bill, under the democrat-controlled house, they increased taxes on the middle class by $500 billion and at the same time raided social security, men and women on a fixed income, they raided social security by $500 billion or half a trillion dollars. it's unfortunate that not only were they increasing taxes, but they specifically targeted the middle class, creating a new $3.-- a new 3.8% surtax on an investment income on folks who have a middle class income. it is very unfortunate that the president went a step further than e

the bush administration tried that. congress, our allies and a lot of the other communities, the obama administration has resurrected it. but what has changed in the last few years to prevent an adversary or the rest of the world from confusing what is conventional missiles as a nuke? >> i'll go first. the technology and, therefore, the trajectory that would be required to deliver it. the speed at which these delivery systems can move and, therefore, you can lower, you go to the trajectory and, therefore, avoid the confusion you're talking about. in terms of it being mistaken for an icbm with a nuclear warhead. there's issues beyond that but fundamentally that's it. technology has changed. >> you know, it's a fundamental problem. we have to confront, as we draw down the force, without to take a look at the infrastructure that is supporting the remaining force. and the reality is that we're going to have to be able to reduce that infrastructure. the best approach to reducing that infrastructure politically on capitol hill has bee

it says, it's the clause that give withs congress the power to -- gives congress the power to regulate the property of the united states, and it gives rise, it's why the government can regulate national parks and national forests and stuff like that. i worked on that issue, that clause quite a bit when i was at the justice department. the question came up about whether the president could set up a national monument in the middle of the ocean, and this turned on issues about the property clause. so i'm interested in that clause. that's something i thought about, but i was disabuseed of the fact that it was odd. there are lots of really weird, interesting, odd issues about the partisan clause, like, for example, can the president pardon himself? but that's an odd issue about a not odd clause, so i rejected that. i thought about the ex post facto clause for a while which is the clause that prohibits retroactive punishment so you can't punish somebody for something that wasn't illegal at the time they did it. and i remember at the workshop there was somebody in the audience who said i can'

no colonial congress or grand council as franklin conceived developed from the albany congress. nevertheless, franklin's idea which he shared with others of drawing the colonies more closely together under british rule so that they could form a common policy and front against the french and the native allies of the french, that was very important. and franklin, of course, expressed this idea through a famous cartoon that he published in the "pennsylvania gazette" in 1754 in philadelphia. and it shows the colonies as a snake, right? and either they it will join together or they'll die separately. now he chose to picture them from north to south. head to tail. new england grouping those together, new york, new jersey, pennsylvania, maryland, virginia, north carolina, south carolina, seems to have forgot georgia. maybe that was a little distant and not immediately -- he knew georgia was just a new and beginning colony and might not perhaps contribute so much to the common effort so franklin interestingly ended the tail of this colonial dragon with south carolina, but the point is th

economic outlook there were just some big news making debates and so the first time that i'm in the congress center to kind of get everybody's response to you know how they felt about the comment that came out on the euro zone and and that kind of thing they kind of look at you with a quizzical. what are you talking about you know i it's just i was the most important thing to people when i asked them what you know what is the value in davos for you it's all the same kind of thing larry summers says you can see more people in one day than you can in a year you know that it's easier for the networking i was a u.s. politician a congressman said the same thing it's the one place where you can see all these heavy hitters and network that's really it also c.e.o.'s i talk to c.e.o. bill gross of ideologues and said you know he's here he has this new idea this new business pre-fab houses for india and he gets there and starts networking about it and suddenly out of customers and he's you know figuring things out and getting buzz and possibly business from it so that is what seems to be driving the a

the white house running against this congress. those kind of statistics have to make john boehner a little nervous. >> let's listen to senate majority leader harry reid on meet the press yesterday talking about placing blame in congress. >> understand we have had obstructionism on steroids. the republican leader said his number one goal at the beginning of this congress was to defeat president obama, not have him reelected. we have spent months on things that used happened just a matter of factly. raising the debt ceiling, we did that for president reagan 18 times. we spent two and a half months doing that. the number one goal -- and i hope the republicans have learned their lesson -- extending the payroll tax. a disaster. imagine people being opposed to lowering taxes. i hope that they understand everything does not have to be a fight. legislation, building consensus, compromise. i hope that the tea party does not have insolence in the next year that they had in the previous year. it has been really bad for this country. host: tha

he triped compromise and went on the take for a while chris crossing the country calling congress a do nothing bunch. which president do you think we need to see today? >> that's the message that sells to the key constituency. i would say the real core of who he is trying to reach are the 40 to 41% that gallup identified as the largest block of independents in the 60 or 70 years they have been polling. those are the folks the white house needs. the way they reach them is talk about income disparity in the way he put forth in that prior speech. >> you don't think this will be a speech aimed at suring up the base? >> i think there will be something in there for everybody. i think a great indicator is to look at the attendance list, those invited guests in the first lady's box. if you go through it, i think you can identify all the talking points we're about to hear. >> john, these specials are usually opportunities for presidents to brag about what they have done over the past year. what will president obama highlight tonight? >> i think he will do less brag, althou although he'll talk a