This is a big moment in the president s presidency. There is no moment for president like being reelected. I think the president feels like his theory of the economy has been validated by reelection and lets not forget, economic restoration is still the major goal. He has a lot of opportunities, and a lot of emotion tonight is around new gun laws, new gun control measures. Some momentum. Well see what can happen. Immigration reform, bipartisan movement there. But ill tell you, brian, this is a very difficult atmosphere over taxes and the budget. I spent some time with Speaker Boehner today. Who said the president doesnt have the guts to take on spending. Doesnt have the courage to take on liberals in his own party. These sides are really far apart on something as fundamental as how we deal with spending and the debt in our country. And thats going to be part of the back drop tonight. The relationship right now between the two men who will be feet apart tonight, the president and the ho
Rights activist ted nugent. And in the chamber, our chief white house correspondent, jon karl. You are right above the speakers shoulder, jon . Right off to the left, 20 feet from Gabby Giffords and mark kelly. As we watch the president s cabinet come into this chamber, george, you will see a confident president come in. He is convinced that the American People are with him on the big issues. And he is also convinced that he has a mandate coming out of that election. So, he will be at times confrontational in this speech. Compromising, willing to compromise, but only so much with the republicans. The key issue, as you mentioned, is the economy. They gave us some excerpts of the speech early. One that hit me was that he said that the economy, an economy that creates job, good, middle class jobs must be the north star for our efforts, for everything we do. And that will be the message here. This is a divided chamber. John boehner, right over his shoulder, just this morning, told reporter
Of the president s cabinet walk in, theres panetta, the defense secretary and, of course eric holdier, the attorney general norah, youve been talking with the white house and you have some of the high points from the president s speech that were about to here. Odonnell i spoke with a senior white house advisor who said this will be more like a Campaign Speech than an inaugural address. The president is emboldened by his victory. They know chef a short window of time to get things done so tonight the big fuse that comes out of the speech is this the president will call for prek education for all american children. He will also call for raising of the minimum wage to 9 an hour. The federal minimum wage. Its at 7. 25. Finally what you reported tonight that he will call for withdrawing 34,000 troops out of afghanistan by the end of the year and, of course, were still scheduled to be in afghanistan until the end of 2014 to have some troops there. Pelley were waiting for president to enter t
At them come in, sean donovan housing and urban development there in the gray suit, arne duncan with education a lot of these people have served four years. This is not exactly a new team. He didnt clean house by any means. There are some new people, john kerry but its a very familiar group of people. Is there fresh vision there . Thats one of the things well be able to judge tonight. Woodruff a good point, mark. The president is replacing about half the cabinet, about half of them have announced theyre leaving. We know some of the new names but most of them havent taken their jobs yet. You know, there were some conversation that, you know, as david was just saying that some of these folks are exhausted from four years of partisan warfare. I think it is. I think its always difficult to replace somebody who is enjoying her work or his work. For any president. This is a president that, quite frankly, is comfortable with a smaller circle of people. Woodruff if i can just interrupt, the ge
Finally what you reported tonight that he will call for withdrawing 34,000 troops out of afghanistan by the end of the year and, of course, were still scheduled to be in afghanistan until the end of 2014 to have some troops there. Pelley were waiting for president to enter the chamber here. We expect that in another minute or two. Nancy cordes is our capitol hill correspondent and nancy, after the president makes his remarks tonight, well be hearing the republican response from senator marco rubio of florida. Reporter thats right, scott. Hes expected to say he hopes the president will abandon his obsession with raising taxes and hell say president obama believes that Free Enterprise is the source of all of our problems. Mr. Rubio is really going to be focusing on the middle class were told, in his speech tonight. He is going to make the argument that the republican party, not the democrats are the party that is better situated to help the middleclass and to help more people get into th