Live Q&As

The first thing we have to do as a country is grow the pie. We have to restart job growth so that people have opportunity. The President talked last night about reforming the tax code so the corporate types don't get off the hook from paying taxes. That will help. Finally, the focus on education and training our people to succeed in the new industries is critical.

I don't think Michele Bachmann speaks to that many people who are PERSUADABLE. A lot of the people who like her are Republicans who are looking for a champion. The folks in the middle who are trying to make ends meet and worried about their kids schools are not looking for ideology, they want effectiveness.

I think the State of the Union is a moment for everyone to come together regardless of ideology. Too sad those conservative justices didn't show up.

I worked for Al Gore and the first time I saw Geroge W. Bush at a speech I was so mad at him I almost didn't stand up when he came in. Then I realized he was the president and you stand for the office even when you don't like the man. The Justices should do the same.

I'm not sure about getting an African American senator next time. We never know who is in the cue. It could be someone like my friend Steveh Horsford in Nevada who is the Senate Majority leader there. It could also be a Republican. Minorities are running pretty well under the GOP banner lately!

It's tougher now than it was when LBJ was president. The party doesn't control the campaign process as much. Now candidates raise their own money and it's much more open, not as many smoky back rooms. It's good for democracy but harder to control.

I thought Ryan did a good job. he was light on specifics but he presented himself well. My problem is with his program. We can't cut education by 30%. It's silly. And cutting the budget this year could cause a second recession. Read the stories today about Great Britain.

It seemed like a good analogy to me. President Kennedy really got America goosed to do something with that speech. The president could have set out a more concrete program, but he gave us a vision and an inspiration to ensure that America would be on top for the rest of the century. We have a lot of work to do.

I wish the president would have done more on our individual responsibility to make America more competitive. There's a lot we can do that we don't need government for!

Thanks for the catch!

I thought Bachmann's speech was fine other than it looked like she was staring oat our collective foreheads. She was more specific than usual an dnot as bombastic.

The problem is we can't cut the deficit as much as they want this year and we have to include defense cuts and taxes. There is no other way to do it.

The economy is looking better. I think the pres should get a lot of credit for helping to stave off a depression and for getting us growing - even though it's not fast enough.

Now he has to stay focused so that he gets credit when things turn around even more and he needs to continue to be disciplined about talking about jobs.

You probably know better than me, being out there, but Amy is TOUGH!

The tradition for the military is to be stoic - just sit there and not react to political statements. They are there as a testament to the commander in chief but should not be political props.

The president talks about African American issues from time to time.  Go back and look at some of those father's day speeches. 

A broader point though - we have had politicians TALK about black issues for decades, but the situation sometimes is better, sometimes not. I'm more interested in what he does and I think he has been tackling really big issues:

- covering health care for more people

- trying to fix the schools with Race To The Top

- Saving government jobs with stimulus money. You know how many black people work for state and local governments that were bailed out last year?

The big test for him in my eyes will be on education and small business growth. We need more African American entrepreneurs and need them to be more successful.

The president is trying to answer it. I like your approach. First focus on jobs, then the deficit. We can't cut spending now we have to get the economy on more solid ground. once we have growth we can focus on the deficit. Read my friend Maya MacGuineas at the Center for Responsible Budget. She's very smart on this.

you're right, minorites are not getting mostly minority votes. That's because the GOP is focused on personalities over programs in my mind. They are playing with fire in the long run. If the GOP doesn't get a better position on immigration and tolerance they are in for a big shock when the demographic timebomb explodes.

The President was more  specific than you suggest. He talked about a 5 year domestic spending freeze to save $400B and getting 80% of US electricity from clean sources by 2035. There is more to hear from him but the GOP has to tell people HOW they want to accomplish these goals. If Paul Ryan had told Americans that he wants to turn Medicare into a voucher program and cut education by 30-40% I think people would have thrown something at their TV's!

Gun control is tough for politicians. Most people are for some reasonable gun safety measures like reducing the size of a clip from 31 bullets to 10, but they are drowned out by the people who are against anything.

Most of us who want to prevent gun violence don't vote on it, but the people who only want to protect their right to own ANY gun with ANY kind of ammo are REALLY focused.

most small biz people I talk to are concerned about access to capital.  The government can give direct aid as they are doing at the Small Business Administration and can incentivize lending. Also growing jobs means putting money into communities so that it will circulate.  Once people have an income, they spend more thus starting the econmic scycle tht produces more jobs -- unless we don't make anything and it all goes to Asia or Mexico!

I think our lack of bipartisanship problem is deeper than that. We used to have two parties that had liberals and conservatives in them. There were liberal Republicans and conservative Dems. Now we just have a conservative party and mostly liberal one. Not a lof incentive to corss over. We're more like a parliamentary legislature (like in England) but we don't have parliamentary rules. It's a BIG tough problem.

My Democratic friends may not like my answer but there are things we can do. We should look at means testing or lowering benefits for people who make more money. Someone who makes $1million a year maynot need to get the same benefit as someone who makes $35,000 a year.

We can also look at raising the retirement age, but we have to find a way to protect the people who work with their bodies from being stuck working longer. Those of us who work mostly with our brains could work longer without much sacrifice.

Ultimately we have to do something. We can't afford to spend so much money on one part of the population when we can't invest in our young people who will have to make the money to pay for all of this in the future anyway.

If you stack Obama up with another candidate and find you like the other candidate better, you should vote for him or her.

I'm just saying it's tough because most people whoa re for gun safety laws don't vote on that issue alone, but the people who are against them do.

Ultimately every political leader has to decide what the most improtant parts of his agenda are and do the best he can to achieve those. Right now President Obama looks focused on jobs and the economy where most of the American people are.

I would love it if we passed the ban on 31 cartirdge clips. seems like common sense to me.

LOL!

I guess that's why we need more education money!

It's hard to limit the audience reaction with a rule, but I get your point.

I actually thought the speech sagged a bit in the middle last night and ostly because there could have been more applause. Maybe that was dampened by all of the party mixing. Sounds like you would have liked it though!

Don't you think the president has already rebranded foreign policy. In George W. Bush's last years people were protesting and throwing shoes at him (which I deplored as an American). Now people celebrate and clamor to get close to our president when he travels.

I'm with you on foreign policy in the speech though. I wish he would have spoken more about it. He did lay out a pretty firm post to Al Qaeda - We will not relent, we will not waiver and we will defeat you.

Alito should have gone to show that he was mature enough to sit there like the rest of the justices. It would have been good for his brand.

We'll see!