SOTU Expectations

David Brooks: "The country wants a more precise vision of what a thriving America is going to look like in the 21st century. It also wants Obama to define, once and for all, his vision of government’s role."

James Clyburn: "The President will make it very clear that he’s no longer in a crisis mode, and that he’s now in creative mode. He’ll be laying out his proposals for job creation."

Austan Goolsbee: "The State of the Union... is going to preview the budget, and I don't think there's going to be any question that the president is committed to long run fiscal challenges."

Douglas Holtz-Eakin: “The jobs program failed, and he just says ‘more of it.’ On the budget, we don’t know where the President stands.”

Mitch McConnell: "I'm all for the President changing his tune, but unless he has a time machine he can't change his record."

Anthony Weiner: “He’s going to say we need to get America working again... and we have got to make sure this Republican Congress doesn’t drive whatever progress we have made off a cliff."