now that spoke up in the house gop conference today. it wasn t the southern conservative members, it was the republican members from the northeast, from the midwest, from the coast that said, this government shutdown is really hurting us. the polling is reflecting that. you re also seeing some discussions happening now in the senate. susan collins of maine has been tasked by mitch mcconnell to try to sort of figure out, is there a way to have a year-long extension of the debt limit? is there a way to have government funding extended for a long time so you don t come back to these problems once again? so you re starting to see some break within the gop ranks against the ted cruz ideology to shut it down over all else. and i just come back, though, to the nbc poll, wall street journal poll today, rachel, i can t emphasize enough the effect that had in this building. it went around here like wildfire. these numbers, as peter hart, the pollster said to our own chuck todd, and his four ye
republicans that they will not accept any debt limit bill unless they had some movement on funding the government. what i would also say, though, rachel, is that there is a group now that spoke up in the house gop conference today. it wasn t the southern conservative members, it was the republican members from the northeast, from the midwest, from the coast that said, this government shutdown is really hurting us. the polling is reflecting that. you re also seeing some discussions happening now in the senate. susan collins of maine has been tasked by mitch mcconnell to try to sort of figure out, is there a way to have a year-long extension of the debt limit? is there a way to have government funding extended for a long time so you don t come back to these problems once again? so you re starting to see some break within the gop ranks against the ted cruz ideology to shut it down over all else. and i just come back, though, to the nbc poll, wall street journal poll today, rachel, i can
president s approval ratings have shifted since he first addressed the nation. according to a new fox news poll today, only about half of all u.s. voters approve of the president s job performance. that s an improvement from around this time of last year s state of the union address but a decline from when president first addressed congress in 2009 which, by the way, was not a state of the union because incoming presidents are not required to deliver a status report so soon after taking office. doug brinkley is a presidential historian and professor of history at rice university. good to see you. thanks for having me. arthel: so let s talk about this. i want to know if you, if there s any state of the union addresses from recent history that perhaps president obama will want to channel in terms of layout and message. and that said, what are you expecting the president to say to sort of go over his to-do and set the tone for his second term? well, what they do at the white house is
as the gop marches toward the caucus in iowa, the race still looks like it s anyone s game. we were talking before the break versus iowa versus new hampshire, versus south carolina. we have a new iowa state university poll today that shows that ron paul has leapt ahead of gingrich and romney. i like to show ron paul and leaping. leprecha leprechaunish ron pauls a-leaping folks are concerned in iowa that if iowa nominates ron paul, it completely discredits the iowa caucus. is that a fear unfounded? john just came off the ground in iowa. can you tell us what it s like?