why we shouldn't own the 21st century. >> all right. so we want to go to nbc's senior white house correspondent chris jansing, what are the major themes the president is likely to touch on tonight? >> reporter: this is a big picture speech. as you mentioned, the president and the white house saying unlike any before. don't look for a laundry list of policy initiatives. that's not going to happen but do look for some of the kind soaring rhetoric that got the president-elected in the first place. he wants this to be inspirational, aspirational and let's not forget the fact that we are in the middle of the political season. and so, sort of wants to set the democratic agenda. it's going to be looking at the kinds of broad democratic themes that he wants people to think about when they go to the voting booth come november. here's a little bit more of what the president had to say about tonight. >> there have been times where it's been pretty rough but there's no doubt that politics