9:00 PM: So audience participation allowed for this one?

9:01 PM: Seriously worried that someone might call their response speech a post-buttal.

9:04 PM: My take on where we are going into this speech.

9:11 PM: The heart of the President’s speech, putting the Buffett Rule into effect — makes you wonder what Mitt was thinking releasing his tax returns on this day of all days.

As we head into the President’s third State of the Union speech, it’s worth stepping back and looking at the broad swath of events over the last year.

Over the last year and especially after the debt ceiling debacle of late summer, the White House has been trying to refocus the national debate away from budget cutting and retrenchment toward job creation and tax equity. The Buffett Rule, the endlessly repetitive hawking of the president’s Jobs Bill (legislatively futile, politically powerful), welcoming a fight with the Republicans over an extension of the payroll tax holiday. We can see them all of a piece, staking out a policy agenda and converging on early 2012 as a platform to set the terms of the national debate. Read More