State of the Union: 'Difficulties right now'

by Mark Silva

It may take 45 minutes to deliver a speech, but it should take less than a minute to get the message.

And the White House has been fairly pointed this evening in its release of precious few excerpts from the long speech that President Barack Obama will deliver at 9 pm EST to a joint session of Congress and a national television audience at home.

"While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken,'' the president plans to say in his prime-time address, " though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before. ''

And to make sure the message is getting through, David Axelrod, the president's senior adviser and chief campaign strategist, made the rounds of network TV news anchors today, setting them up for their programs this evening.

"There's no doubt that he has to strike a balance tonight,'' Axelrod said of the president, in a talk with CBS News' Katie Couric for the Evening News.

"I think he is hopeful that we can work our way out of the morass we're in,'' he said. "But he also needs to be very direct with the American People about what that's gonna entail. He absolutely will, I hope, leave people with the sense that there's a better day. He believes that deeply. And he has a sense of how we need to get there....

"One of the things that impresses me, Katie, looking at your polling, and other public polls I've seen is that the American people are realistic,'' he said. "They understand that we have significant problems, and it's gonna take some time to work through those problems. So we put our trust in the American People. He's gonna treat the American people like adults, and share the truth with them about where we are and where we need to go.''

When he was running the campaign, Couric asked, did Axelrod "ever envision inheriting this job at a time when the country is in such deep trouble?''

"Well, it was obvious that there were problems,'' he said. "The president used to joke when we were on the campaign, when he'd read the paper in the morning, and he'd turn around and say, 'You know, there's still time to throw this thing.' But, you know, the truth is... he says to us, and it's kind of the creed by which we operate, that if you're gonna do this job, do it when it counts. And it counts right now.''

This is not a State of the Union address, ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson asked Axelrod in his appearance for World News Tonight, but what is the "impression in the president's mind (of) what the state of the union may be?

"Well, I don't think people need a lot of elucidation on what the state of the union is,'' Axelrod said. "They know what the state of the union is. They know we've got some difficulties right now. What they're looking for from the president is a sense of where we go from here, how we change our circumstances, how we reclaim the momentum in our economy and put people back to work and deal with the issues we're facing. ''

Who is the primary audience tonight, the House and Senate assembled in Washington or the television viewing audience at home.

"Well, obviously it's important to speak to members of Congress,'' Axelrod said. "They have to be our partners in this endeavor of lifting the country out of the morass that we're in. But fundamentally this is a chance to speak to the American people, to be direct and open and blunt about where we are and where we need to go....

"These are extraordinary times,'' he said. "The economic challenges we face are as great as any we've seen since World War II and the Depression. And people are concerned and they need to hear from the president about how we address these issues and how we move the country forward.''

Get the message?