Interviews either. Its whether the substance was there or not and theres three important issues clear out of that hearing and why hell go through the nomination process successfully. First, he said he will defend israel. Second, iran cannot have a Nuclear Weapon. And third, he is leader to transform our military, both for moving from southwest asia to the western pacific where 60 of the naichl forces are moved for a reason and second to transform our military to the new type of warfare where often based upon knowledge and the agility and speed to touch someone quickly. This also is necessary in the western pacific where china, for example, has 80 sub marines just to our 50. Even john mccain who was quite critical in the hearing said this nomination should go through. Right. Well, yeah. On that point, it looks like the nomination will be confirmed. The problem is it loonlgs like theres a filibuster or attempt at a filibuster and that means democrats and the white house have to come up with 60 votes to get this through. Mccain has indicated to break a filibuster. Looks like they would have the votes to do that. Do you think we have sort of crossed a line here, bad precedent set for future cabinet nominations . Never before has there been a filibuster of a defense secretary nominee. Only two rejected since 1959. Nobody tried to filibuster one in that time. Are we creating bad precedent . Why the senate has the right as a senator said who is supporting senator hagel to do a filibuster. I think it would set a bad precedent because as many people often very conservative have said in this particular case, the president has the right to have who he wants as cabinet secretary as long as theres nothing egregious in the background. I think in this particular case it would be wrong. Look. There are often claiming they want a filibuster and even though theres republican and democratic votes to actually have him approved because they feel strongly that the president did not reveal something and that somethingdy tans from the benghazi hearing, delaying the inevitable. Theyre going to come to an agreement and bring it to a successful vote. And admiral, lets move on to north korea. Official state media is insisting that the reason for the test was in response to quote unquote outrageous u. S. Hostilities. Do you think thats the case or merely kim jung uns way of announcing himself on the president s state of the union of the day . This is an in your face type of explosion because theyre doing it at a very interesting time. There is a new Prime Minister in japan. Theres a new south korea president , a new president of china and frankly the day before the state of the union of the president of the United States taking over the second term. Look. They are not there yet and have a distance to go before theyll be able to actually miniaturize a Nuclear Warhead and mate it to a missile with a missile to reach out to the United States but this is a dangerous situation. And the real key to this is china. They have to theyre necessary in order to ratchet in an influencing north korea from not building another bomb, not doing proliferation and hopefully stopping them from having Nuclear Capability and has to be our goal but i think the United States has to be begin to approach this not just as north korea but how does removing forces in to the western pacific for a reason that our relationship with china has actually detier yatded and begin to use north korea where china doesnt want it to have a Nuclear Weapon or the forces to have this be a way to begin to Work Together for something we both dont want and expand it to a competitive strategic relationship. So admiral, going deeper on what do we do now about north korea, we have sanctioned them just about as much as possible. We need china to go forward with a solution or pushing back against this. So, you know, when do we know they have gone too far and what do we do right now . You will see more sanctions imposed and not going to work because china is keeping open some of this material going in to north korea because it doesnt want to have an implosion of that society which then north korea south korea moves up north. So this is why we have to find out whether its uranium usage or plutonium us and. We dont know where the uranium production plants are in the mountain and military options is not an option to try to do it now. The only way to have this done is to be able to bring china in and to be able to use its influence of developing that economy, of making sure they stop. That is the key to this. Look. In the last 12 years, u. S. Has had 15 different negotiators as we flip between a stick and a carrot. Our inconsistency is wrong. We have to bring together japan, south korea and china with us for one longterm consistent process. Sanctions are one tool but china necessary but just not sufficient is the absolute key to this. We can have words and sanctions and will be done but thats the key is opening up its interest in to bringing about the stoppage of this Nuclear Program in north korea. Theres no other option. Right. Admiral to switch gears a final time to the sequester and the potential cuts that the Defense Department could see as part of that if no deal is struck, you know, in your opinion, how impacted would the Defense Department and our capabilities be by the sequester cuts if they were to take effect . Because of how this is coming about the last couple of months, with the Defense Department actually spending as though we were going to have a resolution to its longterm expansion of last years budget where they were expected to come up, theyre spending at a higher rate than if they knew that we would not have an increase on the last yores budget resolution to increase how much they would get this year. So it is going to have an impact on our readiness. See less ships sailing and a state of readiness to deploy. See the air force and the navy doing less types of sodies and readiness and while its good for the front lines troops are degraded for those to deploy a year from now for example. All that said, this is washington not being adults and having a harmful effect. But that said, can defense be a part of the shared sacrifice . Absolutely. Because we do know that warfare has changed. For example, i once put a 1 billion warship off the coast of y yemen and waiting to strike at terrorists. Once a satellite sent us a picture. That coordination is not adequate. Months later we flew, a period of time later, a drone over there and floated around waiting with its own camera to pickle off a missile and get that terrorist. We are still buying cold war systems and how we are doing it is absolutely going to have an unnecessary and quite frankly harmful impact. Admiral, it dawns on me a year ago at the 2012 state of the union the president promised that we would not tolerate anymore syrian violence. We are at 60,000. Assad is still in power. What do you expect him to say tonight about syria . Im not sure youll hear a word about syria but once we found out over a period of time about six or eight or 12 months of who was who in the zoo over there, who were the people and which ones we should have been giving turkey and other elements over there that are helping those that were, lets say, less radical, more support. Communications gear and we have given them some. Were listening in. Second, we should have been giving them sufficient arms. Not those to head to iraq but others and should have by now taken a stronger step in this sectarian violence there but i dont think youre going to hear a word about that tonight. Focus on jobs and necessarily so. Yep. Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you for having me. Next, where tonights state of the union will rank in history. I feel kornacki facts coming on. Heres a clue. Vines anyone . Weird. Toure played some of the favorite grammy songs on monday. My turn. Mumford sons. [ whispering ] ive always preferred the creme part of an oreo. [ whispering ] thats crazy, the cookies the best part. Creme. Cookie. Creme. Stop yelling. You stop yelling. [ whispering ] both of you stop yelling. [ whispering ] im trying to read. [ male announcer ] choose your side at oreo. Com. Were still waiting from the Senate Armed Services to vote for defense secretary. Well keep an eye on that and let you know the results as soon as they happen. Meantime, there are less than six hours until the state of the union and i know that because of the that countdown clock right there. Its a big day. Helpful, helpful. This calls for a big spin cycle, guys. So nbcs luke russert joins us as the honorary fifth cyclist. Happy to be in the brady bunch graphics. This is the ann b. Davis box. Reserved that spot especially for you. So this is proud. First time in the spin cycle. So well let you lead off with your thoughts on the state of the union. What should the president do, what do you expect . Reporter i think the president is strongest in this idea of numbers, where he talks about how much things cost and what could be then purchased with them if certain legislative action goes forward. Lets say the buffett rule, the one we heard him about in the campaign, assume that went forward. You get about 16. 7 billion in revenue over a decade. The president should use stats like that to take it and talk about what he could get from that. Infrastructure spending, grants and we know about one fourth of the bridges in the United States structurally inefficient. A lot of them unsafe to drive on. The president can harp on that. The other thing is theres a lot of worry here about some moderate democrats on the hill because nancy pelosi and steny hoyer gone down the line of the United States does not have a spending problem. The president should ive heard say we do have a problem but we can do things in a bipartisan manner, whether its i put forward a change cpi in exchange for some closing tax loopholes and for the president to be taken seriously by the country there should be acknowledgment of a spending problem going on throughout the United States coming to the longterm future entitlement programs. Lastly, president obama well served to make the point on numbers. 11 million undocumented folks in the country. What would it take to get them in line and have a negative birthrate like that in europe without this workforce here in the United States and many big business folks and republicans from texas and florida here in the capitol they want. That message probably cant go wrong on that especially for folks here on capitol hill. But luke, on your spending problem point, i thought according to republicans its the president whens behind the sequester cuts, he is mr. Austerity. Thats not an issue. Hes too kra cone idraconian. Thats the thing they have been pushing forward left and right recently. Sequester is a thing that originated with democrats and supported by republicans, looked forward as a way to go forward. John boehner said he got 98 0 of what he wanted in the sequester. Exactly. I have something i hope the president mentions tonight. He mentioned it in the victory speech after he won and in the inaugural address which is election reform and so far cursory mentions to long lines and when you look at the totality of the system, when you look at the fact that minorities waited in line almost twice as long as white voters and Ohio State University i believe studies show that 200,000 florida voters alone left and did not vote because the lines were so long. It is a disgrace the way that our system operates right now. It is discriminatory. It is inefficient. Wasteful. Wasting money on this basically pen and paper system. I would love to see the president get in to actual specifics and show to put some weight behind this because theres no issue more central to our democracy than being able to go and cast your ballot. Which is something you and i did together this year. Yes, we did. Canceling out the votes. Which was fun. You know you didnt vote for obama . Dont tell anybody. What . You know, in addition to the state of the union, im obviously also looking forward to the response and ill get in to the duelling responses in my rant later. Right now focusing on rubio. Hes such a gifted communicator. He really is. Thats not spin. Thats not veneer. I agree with this. Im hoping tonight that he puts on a positive message. Lets be honest. This is not a response to the state of the union. This is already been written. It is basically designed to present an alternative view. I love that. So i actually one of my new rules for the gop is to stop describing messages in terms of obama. So i hope that its less antiobama and more positive, optimistic, i expect him to put in a lot of personal stories about success and growing up as an immigrant and im really hoping for that young revitalizing optimistic message of what conservatism can do and bring for opportunity. Optimistic message from the republicans, that would be new. I think about it wouldnt be new. Its new of a last few years. Youre describing the rnc speech and had that potential to launch a career in recent years. This rebuttal, generally, only has the possibility to sink a career and the odds for rubio jindaling i think are high. I dont think so. Hes a pretty following the president and in the middle of the chamber, the clapping and the grandeur and having rand paul following him as a corrective is a difficult thing for rubio in that whatever he wants to say hes going to have the real republican come behind him and say, no, this is what we really want. Like he is a far right guy rubio in a center left guy and increasingly center left country and how does he move to the middle with rand paul waiting to say this is what we really want . Like when you go on a date and your moms there. Youre not really going to score with your mom right there. Well, you are right. So many images in my head. Mothers not withstanding is a tough format. No, no. Expand on that analogy. That is that is toures department. It is not been a launching pad. Thats interesting to me waiting for somebody to come along and figure how to do that. What a big night the state of the union sort of has become and the big event on the political calendar, wasnt always this way. You look at the evolution of this and all the rituals that surround it. Constitution basically says the president has to advise the congress from time to time about the state of the union and for the first two president s they went in to the congress and gave speeches and then this long stretch all the way through the taft presidency where the president s just submitted a written message to congress. Wilson brought back the speech and then radio and coolidge with the first radio address and then the first tv address and then the response and that came in the lbj years. Whens funny is originally while theres period there where the response was just one person looking at the camera. As bad as looking slightly not at the camera. Are we going to play this . Im hoping. Play the parties used to produce 30minute infomercials. We were watching this before the program. Omg who is that . Just lost 49 states to reagan. This is a party in disarray. They first offered the role of hosting the video not kidding. Warren beatty. They said lets go with the and up and comer of bill clinton. Bill clinton took an enormous amount of heat of democrats after this video. This was a party flattened by reagan. On reagans birthday, the night before the speech and clinton began with a warm tribute and happy birthday and democrats thought it was too complimentary. The video and then every Democratic Office holder in the country featured for 30 minutes. Just their face inside of the map of the country. Theres dukakis. Cut to an interview. It was just it didnt sink bill clintons career. And then three years later, the 45minute speech and cheered and said he is proved that is the single greatest hope for bobby jindal to be president that bill clinton could have that video on the record and that speech in 1988 and survive it all and waiting to figure out whats the master form of the response. Maybe rubio showing us Something Different tonight. Doesnt do anything for anybody. Thats why they call him the comeback kid, i know. Did you know that off the top of your head or look any of that up . Ive watched that video once or twice or 23 times. Impressive math, by the way. Did you see that map . Alaska is proportional. All blue. The alaska is proportion to the United States. They get upset. Hawaii is not. All blue on the american map. Good look for it. Thank you so much for spinning with us. Always a pleasure. They can care. Straight ahead, our dr. J puts it in perspective. The address, the response and the promises, promises. Jonathan allens next in the guest spot. Joann brewer and christie sterling of dallas created cute homemade decorations for their kids lockers. The partners created locker looks. The products hang on retail racks across the country. [ male announcer ] how do you make americas Favorite Recipes . Just begin with americas favorite soups. Bring out chicken broccoli alfredo. Or bestever meatloaf. Go to campbellskitchen. Com for recipes, plus a valuable coupon. Campbells. Its amazing what soup can do. Diarrhea, gas, bloating . Yes one Phillips Colon Health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues. With three strains of good bacteria. [ Phillips Lady ] live the regular life. Phillips. We can think of no one more appropriate for the guest spot on this big political day than our resident washington expert dr. J, jdog, politicos jonathan allen. Boom welcome. Whats wrong with you today . Thank you very much. I just want to say that the state of our union is alaska. Nice. I like it. Im always waiting far state to get named after that park. Okay. They say state of the union is wrong. The president should pick a state congratulations, alaska. You are the state of our union. Especially given that confetti falls. A pageant every year. Well have a miss alaska. Let me get to my questions, please. Before this goes totally off the rails. As if its not already there. I want to bring up the piece you have up in politico right now. You talk about obamas housing stunt a year ago. President obama and the state of the union promised a task force of prosecutors. To come after wall street firms on those broken mortgages and you say it went nowhere