Daily Democratic Wire 1-27-2010

George Wenschhof

Tonight, at 9:00 PM ET, President Barack Obama will deliver his State of the Union address - a speech that, in importance, will be ranked up there with Obama's speech on race he delivered in Philadelphia during the 2008 presidential campaign. In spite of large Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, the President has failed to deliver promises on health care reform. The NY Times is reporting Obama will acknowledge he has not delivered on some of his goals.

I will live Blog during the speech adding my comments along the way so visit the site and add you own comments if you wish.

I look to see him continue to pivot away from health care reform and concentrate on jobs and the economy. After the Senate failed to pass the creation of a bipartisan committee to examine ways to reduce the debt, the president will announce he is creating the committee through executive order.

He will throw the conservative Republicans a bone with his proposal to freeze 447 billion in domestic programs in his proposed budget and also give an update on Iraq and Afghanistan. Expect him to use the phrase; "the war on terrorism" to appease the Hawks in Congress.

Along the way, he will discuss his proposal for 4 Billion more for Education to fund a program he has entitled "Race to the top" which essentially replaces the former "No Child Left Behind' program initiative under the George W. Bush administration.

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Arlen Specter trailing in early Pennsylvania polls - perhaps in some sort of divine justice for the silliness in politics that the Specter defection to the Democratic party has exposed to the voters. Republican Pat Toomey is leading Specter 45-31 in early polls. In addition, don't count out Democrat Rep. Joe Sestak who is challenging Specter in the Democratic primary even after White House assurances to Specter he would have a clear field. You can read more here.

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NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows 70% unhappy with government - only 28% felt government was working well. However, the frustration is mostly directed at congress and not President Obama who received a 50% favorable rating. Interestingly, respondents to the polls preferred a Democratic controlled congress over a Republican Congress. This makes speculation on the mid term elections even more difficult. MSNBC.com has more here.

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Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke will receive Senate vote on cloture tomorrow - 60 votes are needed to end the filibuster and reports are he will receive the needed votes. His final confirmation vote will then be scheduled. Politico.com has more here.

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Conservative Film Maker James O'Keefe arrested after posing as telephone repairman in office of Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) - It just does not get any better than this as he was the guy who posed as a pimp and filmed interaction with ACORN employees which led to the scathing reports on ACORN. What in the world was he and three others doing posing as telephone repairmen trying to do in the Senator's office and were there others involved? Stay tuned as more is sure to come. The New Orleans Times-Picayune has more here.

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House majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) says health care reform tactics need to be decided by next week - He's right, the longer time passes without a clear way to pass reform legislation, the more likely reform will die. The options at this point are really fairly simple. Either have the House pass the Senate bill and let it stand, have the House pass the Senate bill and then use reconciliation in the Senate to pass amendments to it sent by the House, or get bipartisan agreement on a handful of items and pass a severely paired down version of health care reform. Stay tuned for total defeat on this legislation would be a disaster for Democrats. TheHill.com has more here.

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