GOPers are from Mars, Dems from Venus? Biggest disparities among issue priorities by party in next 2 tweets. #nbcpolitics sotu
— @chucktodd
Among GOPers: 1) secure border 2) deficit 3) Iran 4) simplify tax code 5) defeating ISIS. #nbcpolitics sotu
— @chucktodd
Among Dems: 1) income inequlity 2) min. wage 3) climate 4) pathway to citizenship 5) keep health care law in place. #nbcpolitics sotu
— @chucktodd
Thomas E. Mann:
One can already hear the catcalls from the early release of the centerpiece of President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union speech. His focus on an explicit redistribution of income through the tax code from the top 1 percent to the 99 percent is hardly a basis of legislative cooperation with the Republican Congress during the last two years of his presidency. Instead of seeking common ground to set the stage for bipartisan cooperation, he will use the opportunity to sharpen differences between the parties, particularly on taxing the wealthy.
And a good thing he has made that choice. Except for the handful of matters on which legislative action cannot be avoided (such as funding the government, extending the debt ceiling, and reauthorizing such essential government activities as defense and infrastructure) or that manage to stay below the surface of ideological or partisan conflict, there is no potential for productive cooperation during this period of divided party government. The President’s public embrace of a policy is usually sufficient to ensure overwhelming Republican opposition.
Senior Democratic Hill aide reacting to Obama's speech: "Best I can remember seeing him in a non-campaign setting in a long, long time"
— @mmurraypolitics
Danny Vinik:
The president has spent the first six years of his presidency waiting for the moment he could take that credit, knowing it was coming. On Tuesday night, it came. Even with five separate responses to the president’s address, there was nothing Republicans could say to fight the growing sense that Obama’s policies are working and that the GOP has been wrong for the past six years.
Catherine Rampell:
Last year, government scientists tell us, was the hottest year on record.
This news is terribly — what’s the word? — inconvenient.
No, not for polar bears or drought victims or coastal dwellers. It’s inconvenient for politicians across the country who, despite whatever data or overwhelming scientific consensus might be proffered, insist on denying global warming.
never agree to do the response ever
— @pareene
More politics and policy below the fold.
SOTU reply very rarely a path to prominence. It's a tough role. Predict that record remains intact this year.
— @JamesFallows
The Upshot:
President Obama isn’t going to offer an objective overview of the country when he delivers his sixth annual address to Congress on Tuesday night. No president does so in a State of the Union. He will instead emphasize the positive, mostly elide the negative and take a few wry digs at the other political party.
For readers looking for a guide to which parts of his speech are grounded in reality and which are less so, The Upshot is offering its own take on the state of the union. Below, we cover some of the major domestic policy areas Mr. Obama is likely to mention.
In short: The state of union, while far stronger than when Mr. Obama took office, remains troubled.
The financial crisis has ended, with job growth picking up and the American economy among the world’s strongest right now. Yet the great 21st-century wage slowdown continues, with pay raises for most workers still meager.
In other positive news, the deficit has fallen sharply, thanks to a combination of slower health-cost growth and budget cuts (the latter championed by Republicans). Many more people have health insurance, thanks to Mr. Obama’s health law. More people are graduating from college — although Mr. Obama is likely to fall short of his vow to have the United States lead the world in college graduates by 2020.
OBAMA:
Middle Class Tax Cuts
Raise Minimum Wage
Better Internet
Affordable College
Healthcare
Sick & Maternity Leave
GOP:
A Pipeline
#SOTU
— @TheNewDeal
AP:
Advocates and opponents of gun control held dueling demonstrations at the Virginia Capitol on Monday as the perennial debate over the hot-button topic began anew.
Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe is pushing a package of gun control measures ahead of this fall's state legislative elections even though they stand little chance of passage in the Republican-controlled General Assembly.
Pro-gun forces held a rally Monday morning. Many attendees wore orange "Guns Save Lives" stickers and a speaker assailed McAuliffe and other gun-control advocates as "gun grabbers."
In the afternoon, gun-control backers wore yellow "Background Checks Save Lives" stickers and displayed a string of red paper hearts representing the more than 800 gun deaths in Virginia last year.
"Too many people are dying from senseless crimes," said Elois Cuffee-Smith of Chesapeake, who held a heart for her son Braxton Smith, killed in a Portsmouth shooting 5 years ago.
LA Times:
In the months since his son was shot to death during a massacre near UC Santa Barbara, Richard Martinez has canvassed the country advocating for stricter regulations on firearms.
He can't remember all the places his travels have taken him — there was the trip to Florida to deliver postcards with his rallying cry, then the long stay in Washington to promote a state ballot measure, and visits with so many parents who have gone through what he has. But he says the last two weeks have been some of his busiest, with only a day and a half at home in between all the flights.
By the time he stepped off a plane in Washington, D.C., on Monday evening, Martinez was exhausted but still looking forward. On Tuesday, he will attend the State of the Union address as a guest of the congresswoman who represents the area where his son, Christopher Ross Michael-Martinez, 20, was killed in May.
Politico:
The Myth Behind Defensive Gun Ownership
Guns are more likely to do harm than good.
Roger Simon:
A Better Politics “isn’t one where Democrats abandon their agenda or Republicans simply embrace mine,” Obama said. “A Better Politics is one where we appeal to each other’s basic decency instead of our basest fears.”
And he deftly talked about decency and fears when he said: “We may have different takes on the events of Ferguson and New York. But surely we can understand a father who fears his son can’t walk home without being harassed. Surely we can understand the wife who won’t rest until the police officer she married walks through the front door at the end of his shift.”
Obama said he could see the future, the future this Better Politics would lead to.
A Better Politics, he said, “is one where we debate without demonizing each other; where we talk issues, and values, and principles, and facts, rather than ‘gotcha’ moments, or trivial gaffes, or fake controversies that have nothing to do with people’s daily lives.”
Personally, I found that last point terrifying.
No more “gotcha” moments? No more concentration on trivial gaffes or fake controversies?
What on Earth will the press do for a living?