President Obama delivers his State of the Union address tonight at 6:00 pm PST/9:00 pm EST.

You’re invited to join us tonight for a special Live Chat during this address and the Republican response to it. After the live events are over, you can join us on this thread for a continuing discussion of the night’s events.

You can watch and live chat in one of two ways:

1. You can watch the live feed below and use the Live Chat widget in the right column.

2. You can go to our Live Events page (click the link or on the Live Events menu item above) which will carry the live feed as well as a full Live Chat screen.

If you’re watching on tv, we’d recommend using the Live Events page for your Live Chatting enjoyment.

There is a lot at stake for this nation and for President Obama’s re-election so this should be quite a meaningful address. We hope you’ll join us for it!

WHITEHOUSE.ORG Webcast

(LIVE FEED SCREEN REMOVED AFTER SPEECH)

Click the arrow below during Mitch Daniels’ response to the SOTU when you believe he is not being forthright:

They may be hard bitten political figures but they too make up lists of wishes to send to Santa, in hopes that he’ll bring them what they want:

John Boehner

 ”All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth, my missing spine, these shoe prints cleaned off of my suit and face and a very thick and absorbent handkerchief.”

Mitt Romney

“What I would like from you St. Nicholas is a very expensive artificial tree, a more convincing fake laugh and a word that simultaneously means “yes” and “no” (“Nyep”?).

Pres. Barack Obama

“Between the GOP Presidential field and the recent Republican House fight against tax cuts, I’ve received so many wonderful gifts already from the GOP, I’d feel guilty asking Santa for anything more.”

Newt Gingrich

 ”Dear Santa, I would like (and deserve) the Presidency, an amnesia ray mounted in a satellite or the moon which could affect an entire nation and a redefinition of marriage to mean one man, one woman and one affair…at a time.”

Ron Paul

“We shouldn’t be investing wishes in a foreigner who doesn’t even live in the United States! We need to spend our wishes here! And anyway, the only fictional character I believe in is Ayn Rand.”

Michele Bachmann

“I would like an industrial sized eye drop applicator, the Patsy Cline song, “Crazy”, a mega pack of D batteries, a war with Iran that brings about End Times and a corn dog.”

Charles and David Koch

“Give us everything now, Santa, you fat fuck!”

Corporations as people

“What the Kochs said.”

Sarah Palin

“Attention…lots and lots of attention…please Santa, I’m going through withdrawals and it hurts like acid burning through my veins! Please!”

Herman Cain

“A Nine-nine-nine figure salary as a Fox commentator, a subscription to Playboy, the book “Secretary of Defense For Dummies” and smiling in slow motion becoming the coolest new trend with the kids (including that Just A Beeper kid).”

Here’s hoping Santa makes all your wishes come true!

Grover Norquist’s concubines…also known as “The GOP” have cheated on him. They’ve had an affair where they got into bed with those who want to raise taxes…but it was only on the lower 99% of American workers. They’ve explained to Grover, “They don’t mean anything to us, we’re not in love with them. It was just political!”

And Grover has already forgiven them…in fact, he confessed to a degree of arousal over the thought of the majority of Americans being bent over by House Republicans.

The fraud of the Norquist no-taxes pledge has been publicly exploded now and as long as Dems don’t overlook this opportunity, the entire raison d’etre for the Republican Party will be invalidated in the minds of most Americans.

Add to this the calls from House and Senate Repubs, as well as GOP Presidential candidates like Prozac spokeswoman Michele Bachmann campaigning for the poor and lower middle class to be taxed heavily (the bullshit term they use for taxing the poor is “broaden the tax base”) and you have a class warfare loving, tax loving GOP.

One would have been mistaken all year, underestimating the lengths to which the hostile, ignorant and hypocritical Repubs would threaten the sanctity of Congressional precedents and the security of this nation. We’ve seen them hold the gun to Americans’ heads enough times this year, threatening, “We’ll do it! We’ll waste them!” like two dimensional villains from an old Dirty Harry movie so we’re hardly shocked by it happening again.

But this time, it’s a little different. This time, these Republicans are threatening to raise taxes if they don’t get their “One MILL-ion dollars!”. Republicans killing a tax cut bill which would result in raising taxes? As Rick Perry would say, “Oops!”

This time, they are rejecting a truly bipartisan bill that 89 out of 100 Senators voted for. This time they are telling the Senate Republican leadership to kiss their asses. This time they are already at 9% approval and most Americans blame them far more than Dems for Congress’ being a failure. And this time, there will be an election in about 10 months.

Today, the Republicans may well have jumped the shark for good. It is hard to see them having any legitimacy from this point forward with the American People (Tea Baggers excluded) in any of their claims for having good reasons for causing gridlock. They have openly stated that defeating Obama is their priority. Okay, America believes you so you can stop with the excuses.

Today, addressing John Boehner and his crocodile tears about wanting to compromise to save Americans from a tax increase, Nancy Pelosi responded, ““He is not Lucy and we are not Charlie Brown.”

A very apt analogy. The entire year the Repubs have said, “Go ahead Charlie Brown, kick the football,” then pulled it away and America landed flat on its back again and again.

Unlike hapless Charlie Brown, Democrats and other Americans have had enough and won’t fall for it again. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have firmly stated that they will not assign conferees to run at the ball the Republicans are holding now.

The House Republicans are the ones who are stuck. They may try to present a confidence that they can fool the public into blaming Obama for the approaching tax hike on Americans but behind the phony self-righteousness is a recognition that it’s not so likely.

When 89 Senators vote for a tax cut, that includes most Republican Senators. So, though House Repubs will continue to try and hang the tax increase on Dems, they are opposing Dems and Repubs in order to screw everyone more.

Let’s also remember that just weeks or months ago, these same liars who claim they’re blocking the payroll tax cut because it’s only two months instead of a year, were loudly declaring their opposition to ANY payroll tax cut. They are bald face liars, plain and simple and thanks to our lazy media, their feet are rarely held to the fire for their blatant bullshit.

As for the Dems in the Senate agreeing to further negotiations, I say they are absolutely correct in saying “no”. First, this is yet another case of the Dems compromising and moving to the right then when that effort is rejected, the already compromised position is framed as a Dem position that needs to compromise with an even farther right position.

Enough!

If payroll taxes need to go up for a month for the fury of the American Public to crash down on these deluded fanatics, so be it. Give into bullies or terrorists and all you get is more of the same. President Obama and the Dems in Congress have compromised repeatedly, even in this case, dropping the tax on the wealthy and agreeing to the Keystone Pipeline provision.

And why have they done so? To protect the American people from the Republican’s vicious agenda. So the contrast is clear, Dems compromise to keep people receiving unemployment and payroll tax breaks, Republicans compromise from destroying the lives of many to destroying the lives of some (check out some of the horrendous things in the House Payroll Tax bill, including slashing unemployment payments from 99 weeks to 59 weeks which would cut off 3,347,942 Americans from receiving UI…that should help in a recession!)

It’s high time to drive the stake through the heart of the Tea Party and the Republican House and make sure that the public throws them in the ash heap of history in November 2012.

It’s kind of ironic that Newt Gingrich is vying for the GOP Presidential nomimation, the current Republican House looks to have made the same kind of political miscalculation that Newt made when he ran The House and shut down government. Repubs then were convinced the public would side with them and against President Clinton when they did so. Instead, Newt was gone shortly afterwards and Clinton was solidly re-elected.

The House Repubs look to have overplayed their hand today in the same way. Whether they panic at the backlash and sign onto the two month extension of the payroll tax cut or not, they are branded by this and for folks who have a memory that can last at least ten months, this would look to be the last straw that breaks the zealots’ back.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Apparently, local media are now noticing what we have been talking about here for some time. For all the talk about President Obama facing “DOOM!!!”, he looks to be the only candidate with a real grassroots base and campaign infrastructure here in Nevada.

But today, I don’t want to talk about just that. I also want to discuss the message. This morning, we caught a glimpse of this continuing work in progress as top Democrats stressed the need to address job creation and income inequality while certain Republicans again used “TAXES!!!” as a proxy battle for the same old class warfare. For all the rumors about Obama “abandoning the working class“, we’re not seeing that as his actions speak louder than certain pundits’ words.

Nick Kristof reminded us this past weekend of what President Obama has actually done.

The administration helped tug us back from the brink of economic ruin. Obama oversaw an economic stimulus that, while too small, was far larger than the one House Democrats had proposed. He rescued the auto industry and achieved health care reform that presidents have been seeking since the time of Theodore Roosevelt.

Despite virulent opposition that has paralyzed the government, Obama bolstered regulation of the tobacco industry, signed a fair pay act and tightened control of the credit card industry. [...]

In foreign policy, Obama has taken a couple of huge risks. He approved the assault on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan, and despite much criticism he led the international effort to overthrow Muammar el-Qaddafi. So far, both bets are paying off.

This looks an awful lot like support for the 99% to me.

Yet while Obama hones in on this one message, leading G-O-TEA hopefuls can’t seem to pick just one!

Even conservatives know who Mitt Romney works for (hint: th

ink 1%). And seriously, it’s not like the other G-O-TEA hopefuls are all that different.

In a sign of the growing impact the 99 Percent Movement is having, New Hampshire Union Leader publisher Joe McQuaid explained today on Fox News that his paper endorsed Newt Gingrich rather than Mitt Romney for the GOP Presidential nomination because the latter represents the one percent and is politically damaged because of it. “I think — and this is crazy, but so are we — that Gingrich is going to have a better time in the general election than Mitt Romney,” said McQuaid. “I think it’s going to be Obama’s 99% versus the 1%, and Romney sort of represents the 1%.”

Indeed, Romney’s net worth is estimated to be as high as $250 million — and much of this money was made through the same sort of corporate mergers and layoffs that have continually ripped off the 99 Percent. Ironically, Gingrich is also part of the one percent, “earning $2.5 million in personal income last year,” much of it accrued from using his government connections to assist major corporations.

OK, so even Romney can stick to this message! Without a doubt, a huge contrast is forming. Who’s willing to work for the 99%? And who only cares about the 1%?

This is the message going into 2012. And this points us toward the real choice we will be making with our ballots next year.

(This can also be found at Nevada Progressive)

Lately, there’s been plenty of talk on how President Obama can win reelection next year. Pundits wonder about how he can escape the same geographic dilemma that did in Al Gore’s and John Kerry’s respective campaigns. What most don’t seem to understand is that the answer is staring them right in the face.

Allow me to explain.

“The Map” has fundamentally changed since 2004. States like Virginia and Colorado, where past Democratic candidates had not seriously competed before, are looking good so far for Obama. And states like Oregon and New Mexico, which caused plenty of heartburn for Gore and Kerry, should not be a problem for Obama in 2012.

And in our own fine state of Nevada, the DC media crowd can’t see the real ground game in action. OFA is working around the clock to lock in the base… And then expand it. Yet as I looked at the other side, I could not find one example of any GOP field operation. And I know I’m not the only one here who sees this.

The one factor keeping GOP hopes alive is Mitt Romney, but I suspect even this will prove to be a mirage for them. He still can’t catch President Obama nationally, and I wholeheartedly believe he’s weaker than most media pundits think. Remember, he SUPPORTS continuing the home foreclosure crisis, he continues to deploy logical pretzel twists to explain his record on health care, he flip-flops regularly on more than just health care (just look at his record on LGBTQ equality), and he simply cares nothing about middle class families.

So what’s the result?

This is what I call the “worst case scenario” against Romney.

2012 Presidential Election: Electoral Map: This map displays the projections of the sender and does not reflect the opinions of 270toWin.

This is what I sense is likely against Romney at this point.

2012 Presidential Election: Electoral Map: This map displays the projections of the sender and does not reflect the opinions of 270toWin.

And this is what I see possible against an imploding Romney campaign or any of the other GOP contenders.

2012 Presidential Election: Electoral Map: This map displays the projections of the sender and does not reflect the opinions of 270toWin.

Not only am I increasingly confident that most Americans can see through the G-O-TEA BS, but I also sense that changing demographics is the ticking time bomb that’s now causing real trouble for Republicans. Their xenophobia, homophobia, and “working class phobia” are just totally out of touch with an America that’s becoming more diverse and less enamored with “class warfare” by the 1% against the 99%. I strongly sense that’s Obama’s ultimate Ace in the hold against the G-O-TEA in 2012. Considering the growing Latino population here in Nevada, as well as Colorado and Arizona, and considering the extreme G-O-TEA war on workers in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Florida, I don’t think any of these states should be considered a “slam dunk” for the Republicans. And considering the Republicans’ weaknesses in so many swing states, the President looks anything but “DOOMED!!!”

Perhaps 2012 won’t be the easiest election for progressives, but it’s also far from a losing proposition.

(For more insight and analysis on the upcoming election without the usual stupid punditry, why not check out Nevada Progressive?)