and you wonder how much it s telegraphing 2012, let me ask you really quickly, general, you campaigned for president. i was on the trail with you a few times. what did you hear in that speech that tells you where he s going as candidate obama? i think he s moved to the middle. and it s going to be very hard for the republicans to get this red meat issue and get traction with it that they need if he follows through in the course of that speech. general clark, secretary spellings, thank you very much, ben zimmer, thank you for coming in as well. we ll be talking more with them coming up. meantime, arizona congresswoman gabby giffords has just been moved from a houston hospital to a rehabilitation facility. less than three weeks after being shot in the head, doctors have upgraded her condition from serious to good. her office did release this photo of her husband, astronaut mark kelly, who was watching the state of the union address in her room at her bedside while holding her han
said is, you know, we need stricter rules on those gun stores. why doesn t that raise flags? there s a rule that has been proposed at the white house to require gun stores to report two or more long-gun purchases within a five-day period. but that rule has yet to take effect. the nra has been lobbying very heavily against it. did you, julie, think there was a missed opportunity last night by the president? i know some people were very disappointed, especially in light of what happened in tucson, that there wasn t a call for some new gun control. i think the president gave a good speech, a thematic speech, not to dump everything in that and to include every issue that s important to him. but we need to make sure that this administration is focusing on gun control and the best way to have intelligence in this area. and i will say that one of the issues with this proposed registration requirement is it only applies to the four border stateds. to think that the cartels would
you also have the empty chair for gabby giffords who, as we ve been reporting, thankfully, is getting better. but do you think that that was a positive change for a state of the union, general? i do. i think it was i agree with what margaret said. i think he hit the right tone. although there s some great things about american history and we re a great people, we ve got a lot of work to do. and i think he hit a real leadership tone there. so people understand he s serious. so they re building on the tucson speech. rate. he s serious, balanced, he s going to try to bring the country together, going to help us try to achieve the future. we talked a little bit about the window dressing of this. i m going to talk about the tie. a lot of us said, ben, about the president s tie. i don t know how you felt about it or if sartorial splendor is your cup of tea. you want to take a whack at that one, as someone who s doing the
think people battles calmed down and think that goes to a lot of it. he has done some smart things, tucson speech, the perception, everybody calm down and not accuse each other, that ended up being a positive positive for him. bill: the economy has not improved all that much, new unemployment numbers out today, it s still very dicey and people are very on edge. the other thing is, when asked if you would vote for barack obama against nobody, they don t put anybody, would will you vote for obama against anybody else 51% say we re not going to vote for him. i forgot to add the fact that he agreed to do an interview with you. bill: that was all attributed to the rise, the whoa thing. bill, i think when you look at that u.s.a. today poll, that came out, an important question, does barack obama understand the
think people battles calmed down and think that goes to a lot of it. he has done some smart things, tucson speech, the perception, everybody calm down and not accuse each other, that ended up being a positive positive for him. bill: the economy has not improved all that much, new unemployment numbers out today, it s still very dicey and people are very on edge. the other thing is, when asked if you would vote for barack obama against nobody, they don t put anybody, would will you vote for obama against anybody else 51% say we re not going to vote for him. i forgot to add the fact that he agreed to do an interview with you. bill: that was all attributed to the rise, the whoa thing. bill, i think when you look at that u.s.a. today poll, that came out, an important question, does barack obama understand the