You can do it on 364 other nights of the year. Most of the people that will be on that street tonight, theyre not watch iing those either. Time magazine cnn political analyst, mark halperin, and former chairman of the Republican National committee and commentator for nbc news and news analysts for npr, cokie rockets. Youre wearing purple. I am. I am wearing purple and gold and beads i left in the makeup room. Ill bring them later. I like the beads. Being a good catholic from norms, you can talk about it. I speak pope. And your mom was ambassador to the vatican in the 90s. That aint nothing. No. It was quite fabulous. We loved it. Got to go to rome all the time. I got to meet the pope then john paul the 2nd. Then what happened happened and my mother found herself representing bill clinton to the pope. How exciting for her. It was a challenge. I guess it was. E. J. This morning quotes somebody who says the most noted earnize i earnizing modernizing thing this pope did was to retire, get out of the way. Could it be at this modern age a pope just cant afford to be seen frail and weakened in the 24 7 news cycle . Are we moving beyond the days . I dont think thats necessarily true. John paul felt strongly he wanted the world to see him in a sickened state because that was humanity. That he was setting an example of someone who was frail and feeble and carrying on. I think this pope, you know, has decided to set a different example. Well see what this precedent means. Does it mean future popes have to be pushed out . Does he have influence after a new pope is manamed . Were in unchartered waters. And in quite a while, well see they have their own camp david. With the choicloisted nuns. Theyll probably get better food. The state of the address and the Washington Post talking about the state of the union never really meaning anything, unless youre bill clinton and come in the middle of a scandal with Monica Lewinsky with a 59 approval rating. I remember the speech and think he went on for 15 hours. I went back to the cloak room and said, tell me when its over. I slept for an hour, hes got to be done. I go out, hes still going on. His Approval Ratings jumped 10 percentage points, should have been our clue. Brier rabbit, stay away. What can this president do tonight to move his agenda forward in a divided washington . I think theres two new elements what he can possibly do and not have a speech annualized and by tomorrow morning we move to other things. One is this new Grassroots Organization hes building. No president has ever tried Something Like this before. It may not work. The scale is bigger and thought is bigger. If hes able to take the messages he wants and push the agenda he wants to push. Whats the focus going to be . He doesnt need to waste it on immigration. He will get immigration. He says jobs. This is his first state of the union in this new term. Im still thinking even though i dont have hard reporting on it. Are you going to be optimistic again . If you are, i may just walk off and have some coffee. Im tired of you being optimistic about him being responsible with entitlements. I think he will try to be dynamic. That will be great. I think he will try to say is if you dont do somethi something this is what the white house has been putting out anyway. If you dont do something, it will crowd out something else. Do you think he will actually say that . I do. Thats what i dont understand about liberals. Im dead serious. It seems to me liberals should want to reform middle class entitlements more than conservatives because when you do that you dont have to steal from medicaid, you dont have to steal from welfare programs, food stamps, for the poorest of americans. Cokie, im curious what you think, we had paul krugman on and medicare he has all these apost apostles, bloggers eating chitos, what we have is conservatives denying science and we have liberals denying math and i dont know whats worse but its laughable and theyre dead wrong. Bill clinton said that, when he became president he was appalled his advisors said to him you have to get this deficit in check or otherwise you wont be able to do any programs you want to expand. He did that. You put honest democra democrats honest democrats in the white house because republicans were elected two years later. Honest democrats in the white house on capitol hill will say we are drawing these lines in the sand because we have to and were willing to compromise. The question is will republicans be willing to compromise to make a deal that involves democrats taking on some of their own constituencies, i think the president will talk about that. Let me ask you, what do republicans talk about tonight so they dont look like bob newharts two cousins in vermont. Larry and my brother larry . Daryl and my brother daryl. Bobby jindal, you put him responding to the president , talk about the greatest homefield advantage and he ends up looking like kenneth the page. I dont think rubio will look like that or sound like that. I think he will obviously, it will be a play on immigration. It will be hopefully an economic response to the president. To your point, joe, the president has said, weve got to do something about entitlements. The question is what . What are you willing to put on the table . Is he going to lay out a specific or some direction towards a specific policy. Thats what republicans will look for. More importantly to your question, they have an opportunity to frame this economic argument. You still have 21 million americans unemployed. The rate is still up. You can frame that argument and say to the president , take the laundry list you laid out tonight, give us the bill and we will wait for it in the house and embrace it and work with you and the Senate Democrats if thats what you want. Give us the bill. I think the whole speech is going to be in spanish so we wont know what he says. I can go to sleep much much earlier and wait for the translation. Talk about a no win situation. That response to the state of the union, i think people should give it up. I wasnt being critical of bobby. A smart guy but he was terrible. Its terrible. The property comes in, flags behind him, George Washington on one side, lafayette on the other, everybodys cheering, its great. Then theres some guy with teleprompter in the room. It doesnt work. Then you have rand paul coming in. Will he look at the right camera tonight . That says look here. How many times did the Washington Generals beat the globetrotters . They never do. Only bets on the washington general. I think hell be more than fine. I think hell do what eric cantor did, republicans one thing they seemed to have learned since the election, you have to talk about the real lives of real people and connect your policies up to do that. Thats the thing marco rubio is best at. I think the great thing for the republicans tonight is you have two people that support Immigration Reform that will be talking tonight. We got hammered. Mitt romney would have been president. Rand paulgiving the Tea Party Response to the president. You have marco rubio giving a response to the president and rand paul giving the response to the response to america. Does this make sense to any having a bifurcated message . You will have two images in contrast to the United States, as cokie very well put out the grandeur of the well of the congress. Were a split party. We are. The point is supposed to be unifying around common sense themes and ideas. Right now, we have half of the party, who is like the conservative movement from 60 to 64 who decided we would rather lose with gold water or nixon or win with rockefeller. You talk to a lot of people, a lot of my friends say they would much rather lose. If thats the modus Going Forward, advantage obama the next 18 month or so, he will always pivot off this tri fur kated screen. And cokie, i know you were in the kindergarten in the 60s so you dont remember this. Right. Why dont you compare the Republican Party where it was from 60 to 68. Many of the people in the conservative movement at the time, it was movement will say, look, we lost in 64, but it laid the groundwork for the reagan victory in 80. That was Republican Party they would say we were proud of opposed to the weak imitation of the democrats that they considered rockefeller and nixon. They think it was a success. Look, if you look right now at where the party is an where the people are, it doesnt add up. Talk about math, this the Republican Party is the party of white guys and michael. You saw what they did with me. White men are 34 of the population. And marco rubio. You cant make a party of that. You cant do it. When registonald reagan was ele in 1980, white men were 46 of the electorate. You could add a few people of color and a few women and get a majority, now, you cant. You look at comparisons, michael, between george h. W. Bushs tallies and demographics come paired to now. It is a radically different country and moving further away from the Republican Party of the 1980s. It is a question of what do we do . Is it possible this Party Continues to split apart . Yeah. I think its a very real possibility. Tonight is a very glaring example of that split. It depends how deep it runs to cokies point. Do we resolve ourselves to get around this quicker general ideas that are principled positions for the party to take or still go through the social conservati conservatives, fiscal conservatives, National Security conservatives and continue to split this up. I stay theres a common thread. I found it in 2009 and 2010 and we won and cobbled around the coalitions we needed around the country and put those coalitions to work on behalf of a common idea whether health care or the economy. That seems to have dissipated. The rnc has walked away from that, trying to come back with messaging. Theyre touring a listening tour but theyre tone deaf to whats going on out there. The reality, people are telling exactly what they want. Just listen to it and do it. They make people feel unwelcome in the party. You had marco rubio up on the stage at the Republican Convention but you also had joe arpaio, the sheriff from arizona who is such an advocate of that immigration law. You have those immigration laws all over the country and people voting for them. You have voting id laws all over the country so people are made to feel unwelcome. You combine that with legislate rape and youve got youve driven off everybody. M. Dont forget what virginia tried to pass in the middle of the campaign and see how that helps you in the suburbs of washington. A few hours ago, the state media reported there was a successful media address that coincide coincided with president obamas state of any aoUnion Address tonight. And its to fight earlier resolutions. We have Jim Miklaszewski with us. Nbcs chief correspondent. What are you hearing at the pentagon. Officials knew this was coming although they didnt know the exact timing. This one has set off alarm bells, particularly because of the size of the blast. Were not relying on north korea claims here. South koreas seismic readings on the blast said it was somewhere about 6 or 7 kilotons, which could make it anywhere from 3 to 6 times more powerful than any previous weapon they set off before. North korea did claim they did this with a much smaller warhead, which would indicate they could be making progress miniaturizing a missile that could be launched at the United States. Thats north korea and nobody is taking that seriously at this point and quite frankly, thats impossible to prove. Within minutes, it seemed, after the blast was reported, the white house responded and president obama called it a highly provocative act that undermines regional stability and threatens ultimately u. S. National security. The president said it demands swift and credible action by the International Community. Thats where everything comes to a screeching halt because north korea is pretty much sanctioned out at this point. Unless china decides to cut off oil supplies and other goods to north korea, it appear theres no stopping the north korean regime at this point. Whats chinas response . Immediate neighbors to the west. A blast if i were china, id be a hell of a lot more concerned about them setting off Nuclear Devices than in the United States. Look at the map, theyre literally in the shadow of china . Any response from china or belief inside the pentagon or this Administration China will eventually step up and start exerting more pressure on the North Koreans to become a more responsible state . One of the biggest fears in that region is it will spark some kind of Regional Nuclear arms race. Both south korea and japan in the past have threatened to start developing their own Nuclear Weapons. No signs theyre doing that yet. We go back to china. The only thing that might make this a little bit different is china leaned heavily on north korea not to conduct this test. For north korea to do this is like in your face beijing. There may be a more aggressive response from china but nobody is counting on that. This should once and for all dash any hopes this International Community had this 29yearold kim jong un would be different from his father, kim jong il. Despite the fact he was educated in switzerland, had exposure to the west and much more exposed publicly than his father ever was, he appears hell bent developing Nuclear Weapons and Missile Technology that could some day reach the United States. Nobody is shivering in their boots at the pentagon yet but theyre on track to do that. It could be a game changer in four words you dont like to say if you want too stay in power, in your face, beijing. If china is telling them not to do this, maybe the dynamic changes this time. And they had warned them publicly in advance, there is a u. N. National security meeting and all eyes are on them and what they do there and south korea election coming up and incredible concern on the part of the pentagon and Intelligence Community and that there are ties between north korea and iran not just on the cluck lar program but missile programs as well. It comes at a time we are in the mist of chandst of changingd States National team and going out and saying its a weak team. Its a scary moment. Thanks for being with us. Straight ahead, senator joe manchin on set and Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the president will be here and gene sp sperling and Eugene Robinson and the nbc political dream team. Thats what they call these three people when theyre like in a bar drinking together. David gregory, Chris Matthews and chuck todd. Up next, nobody has ever accused him of being part of any dream team, jim vandehei. And up next, bill karins with the forecast. Will we have another snowstorm this weekend . First we have snow around syracuse, buffalo, rochester, new york, a little bit of snow for burlington, vermont. This is probably the nicest day for much of the week. D. C. Is gorgeous, 53 and sunny. Through the 40s and massachusetts. And hopefully all the plow driver drivers will still get to some roads they havent plowed yet. Today is mardi gras. Watching a lot of rain in the deep south. We had rainy days three days in a row now. Charleston to new orleans. And other trouble spots, joining us from north texas or oklahoma, a snowstorm. Amarillo is snowing now. It will head to Oklahoma City a little earlier today and later shift over to snow. Winter storm warnings and advisories. Oklahoma city, i think you will end up with 2 to 3 inches of snow. Back to i40, probably as much as 6 inches and could probably shut down the highway. Joe was asking the upcoming weekend. Yesterday, i was saying there will be a big storm, there is still going to be a big storm. The trend is to kick it offshore and it could have minimal effects and looking better yesterday than at this time. A lot of Rainy Weather in the deep south. Youre watching morning joe, were brewed by starbucks. If loving you is wrong i dont wanna be right [ record scratch ] what . its not bad for you. It just tastes that way. [ female announcer ] honey nut cheerios cereal hearthealthy, whole grain oats. You cant go wrong loving it. Lets see what you got. Rv covered. Why would you pay for a hotel . I never do. Motorcycles check. Atv. I ride those. Do you . No. Boat. House. Hello, dear. Hello. Hello. Oh check it [ loud r b on car radio ] im going on break the more you bundle, the more you save. Now, thats progressive. Im here to pick up some cacti. It should be under stephens. The verizon share everything plan for small business. Get a shareable pool of data. Got enough joshua trees . On up to 25 devices. So you can spend less time. Yea, the golden barrels. Managing wireless costs and technology and more time driving your business potential. Looks like were going to need to order more agaves. Ah oh ow . And more bandages. Thats powerful. Shareable data plus unlimited talk and text. Now save 50 on a droid razr maxx hd by motorola. What is the popes point . Well do what hes been wanting to do for a long time, read books and to pray. Isnt that what the pope was doing . Sounds to me like the only thing hes losing in requiremetiremene waving. Time to look at our morning papers. The chicago tribune, gun violence is going to be a major focus of tonights state of the union speech. Fi