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 reporters that he doesnt think the president has the guts to make the tough decisions to deal with the deficit. That was an exact quote. I dont think he has the guts to do it. So, a divided chamber to be sure. Thats right, jon. He said he didnt think the president had the courage to take on his own team. Those were fighting words that he said to many of us this morning. But i want to going ba and show everyone mrs. Obama coming into the room. And we saw her going down to resounding applause. And i want to point out, youre looking next to her will be kaitlin roig, who is the first grade teacher at newtown who told me about taking her 15 first graders into the bathroom, shielding them from the gunman, saying, the good guys are on their way. And the president knows he has a job to do on ending gun violence. Hes laid out proposal, including universal background checks, an assault weapons ban, a limit on high capacity magazines. I want to bring in our own matthew dowd right here. He knows that most of that or a lot of it is not going to get through this congress. This interesting thing about this speech is, hell obviously have a litany of things but hes hanging his hat, from what we can tell, about who he has in that crowd and who hes brought in. On gun control legislation. Its going to be a very difficult thing to get some of that stuff through, even in the aftermath of the crisis we face. Even among, Donna Brazile joining us tonight, even among democrats, especially in the senate. A lot of senate democrats, states that mitt romney carried in 2012, do not want to go along. The president believes democrats can be brought along around some common sense gun safety measures, universal background checks, making sure that theres adequate regulations in effect, but the president tonight is really going to focus on the economy. He believes its time to chart a new course to maintain the economic progress weve seen over the last few years and to begin to revive the middle class. And republican strategist nicolle wallace, what are you going to be watching for . No doubt, this is the president s night, but its also the most important speech in the so far short career of senator marco rubio. So, i think all eyes are going to be on our i wont say our rising star, i might say our only star. And george will, that will be one of the few areas tonight where there could be some Common Ground between the president and marco rubio, between the president and top republicans, Immigration Reform. Immigration reform is a promising area for cooperation. Far more important than gun control, if only because if the president gets all hes asking for on gun control, it wont make a particle of difference in gun violence, as far as i can tell, however, immigration concerns not just the 11 million Illegal Immigrants in the country who are looking for a path to citizenship, but the other 300 million americans who have a stake in immigration to revitalize our economy and replenish the work force. New secretary of state. John kerry, former senator of massachusetts, next to the chief justice of the supreme court. And, of course, theyre in the next several weeks going to be dealing with gay marriage, one of the other signature issues this administration will deal with other the second term. And you pointed out earlier, george, that justices alito, scalia and thomas did not walk in. We assume theyre not going to be there. And Justice Scalia said he had a speech tonight, couldnt make it, but said its turned into a childish spectacle and so he didnt intend to come. I want to go back to jon karl. Jon, they had something called date night two years ago. There was going to be a great attempt to link arms, to show some solidarity, to get work done together. Is it still happening tonight . Well, ive got to tell you, diane, its almost a thing of the past. Not entirely. For the most part, the republicans are sitting on their side, the democrats are staying on their side. But there are some notable exceptions that im noticing as i look down into the chamber. First of all, you see senators Lindsey Graham and john mccain. Two of the biggest headaches for this president , especially going into the second term, but sitting between them tonight, you will see senator chuck schumer, the number three democrat in the house. He wants to craft an immigration compromise with republicans. Theyre his two closest allies on that. So, they will be down there together. And also, i see, out of camera view off to the side, we have, for the first time in american history, two africanamerican senators. Both recently appointed to fill vacancies. Tim scott of south carolina, senator will cowan of massachusetts. And they are democrat and republican and they are sitting together also on the side. But for the most part, they are back to their battle stations here. Another simple of bipartisan unity, about 40 members of congress will be wearing orange pins, that stands for the no labels movement. Democrats and republicans who are committed, they say, to reaching across party lines in order to get something done. About 40 or them wearing those pips tonight. Just a little sense of the room. 948 people seated and in the galleries and standing in that room tonight. And the president s speech, were not sure how long it will be. It was an hour and four minutes last year. And i think its probably going to be a about that. The white house is saying without applause it ran 50 minutes. They said the speech has been done for several days. No crisis in the last couple of days before the speech. They think with applause, it could go about an hour. One other note on marco rubio, giving the response tonight, giving the response both in english and spanish, separately on Spanish Television networks. Spanish version is going to go a little longer. But it is the same, we are told, its identical, just a little bit longer. Give us a sense of what you expect him to do. Whats his headline . I shared this on georges show on sunday. But he started working on this response to tonights speech in early january after hearing the president s inaugural address. Im told he tore up the inauguration and started over. We are expecting paul irving to announce the president. Mr. Speaker the president of the United States and heres the president making his way along the aisle. And its worth pointing out, a lot of the people on that aisle have been waiting hours. To make sure that they got those seats. They had a chance to say whatever their one sentence was to the president. Behind the president , the republican leader of the house, leader of the senate, harry reid. The president is not going to try to reach for the kind of soaring rhetoric you saw in the inaugural. Observations of many that he didnt really focus on the economy in the inaugural address. But can you be sure theyre going to make that the bulk of the speech this evening. Nancy pelosi also behind the president. We do expect him to at least to talk about afghanistan, although it will not be the concentration of the speech, to talk about Foreign Policy and the white house has indicated there will be other speeches on that front. I wanted to say, george, i was in the House Chamber earlier this morning at 10 00 in the morning and some of these people were already in there. Long day and a long night. You mentioned afghanistan, were joined bid martha raddatz, our chief Global Affairs correspondent. The president did put a number on how many troops will come out this year, martha. 34,000 troops by this Time Next Year will be out of afghanistan. We have about 66,000 troops there now. So, that is a big announcement. Also, one change he did have to make to his speech today is the north korean conducted a nuclear test today, the Third Nuclear test theyve conducted, two of those Nuclear Tests have been during president obamas term. The white house encouraged, martha, by the response of china to that north Korean Nuclear test. They believe china willing to crack down a little harder now . Well, i think the response was somewhat muted from china, i think they expected more. They condemned the test. China tried to talk north korea out of testing a Nuclear Weapon but they did it. But they didnt really threaten them with any action but believe me, president obama would like to get china, chinas help in this issue. So, tell us, again, matt, how much can the president get done tonight . How much could he put concerted pressure on this room . I think its really interesting, because in terms of second term president s, they understand that Political Capital is a diminishing resource. They know that two key pillars for that Political Capital are his inaugural address and state of the Union Address. Those are the two most important things he can do to keep momentum moving. If he starts to lose it, its very difficult for him to do it. Thats why this speech and the inaugural, they always look at them like a package, put together a package to keep momentum going. The other way theyre going to try to keep momentum going by keeping the president s Campaign Apparatus in place. They call it now organizing for america. Right after the president delivered his state of the Union Address tonight, his administration and others will be on the phone with tens of millions of americans who supported president obama, they are activating them to follow up on his legislative agenda and they also plan, as you well know, to travel to North Carolina and georgia in the next couple of days to continue the momentum throughout the country. We just saw the president giving a hug to senator mark kirk. Suffered a stroke earlier this year. This has been a long struggle back for him but hes there with the president. We also saw how Speaker John Boehner waiting. He indicated today that they are going to be streaming on the republican website live fact checks of the president as he speaks and some said, are you going to be tweeting behind him tonight . And he laughed and said, well, that might be something to do. George, one thing that Speaker John Boehner, also the Senate Republican leader Mitch Mcconnell seems to have given up on is any hope of reaching agreement with the president on the big deficit issues early this year. Be interesting to see what the president says about the sequester tonight. It was, of course, his idea, 15 months ago to create the sequester, the doomsday machine, too horrible for republicans to take because of the defense cuts. Signed onto by everybody, but this seemed to have been originated in his house and we will see tonight whether or not he and the republicans are facing the sequester. Lets listen to the president. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Do i give these to you right now . Members of congress, i have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you, the president of the United States. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, mr. Vice president , members of congress, fellow american americans, 51 years ago, john f. Kennedy declared to this chamber that the constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress. It is my task, he said, to report the state of the union. To improve it is the task of us all. Tonight, thanks to the grit and determination of the American People, there is much progress to report. After a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in uniform are coming home. [ applause ] after years of gruelling recession, our businesses have created over 6 million new jobs. We buy more american cars than we have in five years. And less foreign oil than we have in 20. Our Housing Market is healing. Our stock market is rebounding. And consumers, patients and homeowners enjoy stronger protections than ever before. So, together, we have clear eed away the rubble of crisis. And we can say with renewed confidence that the state of our union is stronger. [ applause ] but we gather here knowing that there are millions of americans whose hard work and dedication have not yet been rewarded. Our economy is adding jobs, but too many people still cant find fulltime employment. Corporate profits have skyrocketed to alltime highs. But for more than a decade, wages and incomes have barely budged. It is our generations task, then, to reignite the true engine of americas Economic Growth. A rising, thriving middle class. It is it is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country. The idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead. No matter where you come from, no matter what you look like or who you love. It is our unfinished task to make sure that this Government Works on behalf of the many. And not just the few. And it encourages Free Enterprise, rewards individual initiatives and opens the doors of opportunity to every child across this great nation. The American People dont expect government to solve every problem. They dont expect those of us in this chamber to agree on every issue. But they do expect us to put the nations interests before party. [ applause ] they do expect us to forge reasonable compromise where we can. For they know that an american moves forward only when we do so together. And that the responsibility of improving this Union Remains the task of us all. Now, our work must begin by making some basic decisions about our budget. Decisions that will have a huge impact on the strength of our recovery. Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than 2. 5 trillion. Mostly through spending cuts, but also by raising tax rates on the wealthiest 1 of americans. As a result, we are more than halfway towards the goal of 4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists say we need to stabilize our finances. Now, we need to finish the job. And the question is, how . In 2011, Congress Passed a law, saying that if both parties couldnt agree on a plan to reach our deficit goal, about a trillion dollars worth of budget cuts would automatically go into effect this year. These sudden, harsh, arbitrary cuts would jeopardize our military readiness, theyd devastate pryor tips like education and energy and medical research, they would certainly slow our recovery. And cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs. Thats why democrats, republicans, Business Leaders and economists have already said that these cuts, known here in washington as the sequester, are a really bad idea. Now, some in congress have proposed preventing only the defense cuts. By making even bigger cuts to things like education and job training. Medicare and Social Security benefits. That idea is even worse. [ applause ] yes, the biggest driver of our longterm debt is the rising cost of health care for an aging population. And those of us who care deeply about programs like medicare must embrace the need for modest reforms. Otherwise, our retirement programs will crowd out the investments we need for our children. And jeopardize the promise of a secure retirement for future generations. But we cant ask Senior Citizens and working families to shoulder the entire burden of deficit reduction while asking nothing more from the wealthiest and the most powerful. We wont grow the middle class simply by shifting the cost of health care or college onto families that are already struggling or by forcing communities to lay off for teachers and cops and firefighters. Most americans, democrats, republicans and independents understand that we cant just cut our way to prosperity. They know that broadbased Economic Growth requires a balanced approach to deficit reduction. With spending cuts and revenue. And with everybody doing their fair share. And thats the approach i offer tonight. On medicare, im prepared to enact reforms that will achieve the same amount of Health Care Savings by the beginning of the next decade as the reforms proposed by the bipartisan Simpson Bowles commission. Already, the Affordable Care ability is helping to slow the growth of health care costs. And the reforms im proposing go even further. Well reduce taxpayer subsidies to Prescription Drug companies and ask more from the wealthiest seniors. Well bring d