President politically and economically. Surging Approval Ratings, a surging stock market a plummetting Unemployment Rate. This is the Fourth Quarter of Barack Obamas presidency. President obama will unveil his new tax plan. We have to play the game. Middle class tax relief and higher taxes on the president. The president has been very aggressive lately very bold. Raising taxes on people who are successful. Youre already seeing republicans start to object. Its not going to make people who are struggling more successful. Is it a political legacy . Mitt romney may be back and hes got a new platform to prove it. Very problematic for mitt romney who has others to run a campaign on poverty. He choked like a dog. We cannot allow that to happen again. Who in their right mind would listen to someone who keeps getting whupped. Charlie brown keeps kicking that football. A new poll from the Washington Post and abc news shows president obamas Approval Rating hitting the 50 mark since may of 2013. Among all adults polled 50 approve of the way president obama is handling his job while 44 disapprove. In the october poll same poll president obamas Approval Rating was 10 points layer, at 40 . President obama will announce a package of state cuts paid for by an increase in the Capital Gains tax. A video released by the white house today, president obama gave a preview of tomorrows state of the Union Address. Last year was the best job growth we had seen since the 1990s. The Unemployment Rate has now dropped to 5. 6 . We have seen manufacturing come back. We have cut our deficits gas prices have dropped, so we are well positioned for the future. Joining me now, david coren, and an msnbc analyst. David coren, at the state of the Union Address tomorrow night, do you think the white house will be able to use that same soundtrack music for comments . It really helps. It sounded really good. I think we all do better with a soundtrack, lawrence. Yeah. These speeches usually need some kind of external energy boost. Seriously, you raise a good point. The soundtrack hes going into the state of the union with is with that approval number being high, gas prices being incredibly low i feel like im in high school again and the federal deficit is as low as its been since 2007 and i think democrats probably in some ways are pulling their hair out saying, why couldnt this happen in november . But yet the president does seem to have picked um somep some momentum and hes actually going to put it to good use tomorrow night. I mentioned that same poll had him at 40 in october which is relevant to the congressional campaigns. What has happened, david, between then and now to push him up 10 points and why couldnt he have gotten those 10 points back in october when he needed them . Ive been saying all along the president is smart in a lot of ways. I dont think hes done a good job of telling an overarching political narrative that includes the rest of his party in it in these offyear elections. He did it going into 2014. The economy has gotten better in the last couple months. I think taking charge in immigration, the cuban policy he looked strong again. I think the republicans got off to a rocky start. So all politics is relevant. He looks very strong and decisive compared to them these days. The more people hear about ted cruz, i think its good for the president. Maybe even for mitt romney its good for the president. He has some good balances. People tend to like him overall, so when he does well the numbers move quickly for him. Describe the tax cuts and tax benefits the president is going to propose tomorrow night and how he will try to convince republicans to pay for that with an increase in the Capital Gains rate. Well Neither Party is probably going to work too hard on it because theyre not going to listen to that. The increase in the Capital Gains rate is from 24 to 28 which, by the way, they will tell you in assess incessantly is the rate that was approved biron ald reegy Ronald Reagan. This is the deal where if youre a rich person and you pass on you can leave your Capital Gains to your heirs, and they go out and sell all that stock that appreciated over the years, they dont have to pay a tax on it. Even if its a 40 million Capital Gains, that goes untaxed. Its called stepping up basis and they plan to get rid of it. Even some republicans i know think this is a loophole that ought to go. Then they raise another 100 billion, by the way, by increasing a fee on 100 of the largest Financial Institutions all of which have assets of 50 billion to the extent those Financial Institutions are leveraged, which is one of the things that got us into this mess in the first place. What do they use it for . Basically more opportunity for folks to get an education, for folks to pay for child care tax credit for a second earner. There is some college benefits. There is an automatic enrollment into retirement plan. Youll hear him tick through all these tomorrow night. I think they come under the rubric of kind of enhancing opportunity for the middle class. David coren, what are the politics of this . Well i think the president is talking in a way that most democrats are going to like if they go and swing voters and moderates will find very appealing when talking about opportunity in terms of College Costs to kids and if you have a second earner in your family being able to keep a little bit more of that money. And going after the top 10 of the top 1 will get a lot of republicans very ticked off. Youve seen it already. Now, theres no i think, any deal here on how this can go forward, as jerrod just says wisely, but i think its about setting up this overarching fight. The president wants to at least leave behind winning in some debate points, that the republicans stand for trickledown economics and he wants to share the benefits of this recovery which havent been shared widely enough yet. And jerrod it seems to me that isolating the payfor side of this tax package on the Capital Gains rate is a way of saying in effect look what the republicans are willing to deny us just to hold onto this Capital Gains rate for the highest income earners. I think thats right. And by the way, when you talk about this loophole basically, the trust Fund Loophole i mentioned where you can bequeath all those gazillions to your heirs without taxation there arent a lot of republicans that will move on it. They do go around talking about how they have to close these loop holes. I think what i like about how the president is structuring this and you and david have been getting at it is it goes to this problem of untaxed inheritances while the middle class have been falling behind. While weve been hearing this rhetoric from jeb bush from mitt romney now, what weve yet to see is anything more than rhetoric. What kind of policy kind of architecture do they have in mind. Historically its just been trickled down and we just know that wont do it. And david, theres something remarkably bold although there shouldnt be. But im proproposing an increase in the Capital Gains tax in this environment with this Republican Congress is, in and of itself bold. I think what the president is doing here is saying im not going to play on your territory. I still can try to set the debate, i can still set the ground. I dont expect you to comment and expect you to win this but its a longterm fight about the political themes the political values that will drive what happens in the future. And i think hes always been very interested in vaghaving in sort of having the debate over values. This is what this is going to boil down to. Were going to see this play out for the next two years. Hopefully into 2016. Jerrod a point you made earlier, this was the Capital Gains rate under Ronald Reagan so the country survived the increase the president is proposing, the country survived it. It was under president lincoln, the country survived it, to put it mildly in both of those decades. Economic analysis ive done some of this myself but bipartisan analysis has shown that the linkages between where you set the Capital Gains rate and things like investments in kmets the economys capital goods are not correlated at all. So, really having a Capital Gains tax rate at the reagan rate im sure will be fine for the economy. And david, were going to hear about governor norquists pledge that you can never raise taxes in any way. Virtually all these republicans have signed that. Well thats right, and thats why its really hard to envision a scenario in which john boehner and Mitch Mcconnell will cut a deal that gives the president a lot of what hes asking for. And i think the president knows that and, you know maybe on immigration, though i doubt it but there may be other things patent reform and other places where there will be an outburst of bipartisan cooperation between the white house and the Republican Congress. But i think in all the big picture items, and thats what the president is doing here hes drawing a big picture, there wont be. It will be a healthy debate and it will be something the president has a chance of defining terms for the 2016 election and onward. Thank you both for joining me tonight. Coming up when a tv series runs as long as mitt romney has been running for president , youve got to do something to keep it fresh, which is why mitt romney has decided to kill off one of the characters in the romney for president show. And in the rewrite tonight when Lyndon Johnson and the New York Times turned against Martin Luther king jr. Go go go hes challenging the very fabric of society. In a post cannonball world was it Grilled Cheese . Guilty the aquatic delinquency is a larger issue to this you did it again, didnt you . Yup. The director and the stars of the Oscarnominated Selma marked the 50th anniversary of the protest march from selma to montgomery by marching across the edmonton bridge. Before the march, oprah winfrey, who plays in selma, says this. Im so proud that once again i get to walk across the bridge not portraying annie cooper but in following in the shoes and on the shoulders of everyone who came before us. Up next who does mitt romney have to get rid of to succeed in his next president ial campaign . Grand prix race car made history when it sold for a record price of just under 30 million. And now, another mercedesbenz makes history selling at just over 30,000. And to think this one actually has a surroundsound stereo. The 2015 cla. See your authorized mercedesbenz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedesbenz financial services. Let me state unequivocally that i have no intention of running for u. S. Senator of massachusetts. Mitt romney who obviously has never once in his life stopped thinking about running for president , said on friday at the Republican National committees winter meeting that he is quote, giving some serious consideration to the future. Romney pre viewed his new president ial Campaign Style on friday, taking on the likely democratic president ial nominee. I used to joke during the campaign that president obama didnt have a Foreign Policy. And, of course that was a joke because he did have a Foreign Policy, and the Foreign Policy was one that was crafted by he and his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and their Foreign Policy was based in part on the premise that if were friendly enough to other people and if we smile broadly enough and press the reset button peace is going to break out around the world. And the results of the Hillary Clinton barack obama Foreign Policy have been devastating. In his last president ial campaign, this is all mitt romney had to say about poverty in america. Im in this race because i care about americans. Im not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair ill fix it. Mitt romney who is in effect, the showrunner in what is now a nineyear tv series about mitt romney running for president has apparently decided to breathe through life into the series the way many tv writers before him have done by killing off a character and introducing a new one. Romney has decided to kill off the ultra rich president ial candidate who doesnt care about the poor and replace him with a republican president ial candidate who is concerned about income equality and pulling people out of poverty. As a matter of fact under president obama, the rich have gotten richer income inequality has gotten worse and there are more poor people than ever before under this president. Their liberal policies are good for four years after a campaign but they dont get the job done. The only policies that will reach into the hearts of American People and pull people out of poverty and break the cycle of poverty are republican principles conservative principles. 13 want to see mitt romney one again, 50 want to see jeb bush 40 for Mike Huckabee 30 for sarah palin, 20 for Chris Christie and 27 for rand paul. David, i think one of the challenges that remain in your party is that 30 who really want to see sarah palin run for president. Well, they said run, they dont necessarily say be nominated. So theyre like me they want the entertainment. The more the merrier. With all this ridicule that mitt romney is facing about running for president a third time we have to notice he does come in at the top of the polls of republicans. Why shouldnt the guy at the top of these polls run . You know im not going to defend mitt romney on much but he is not alone. Hes been seeking the presidency at least three times. Ronald reagan did it, tom dewey did it. Once this bug grabs hold it never lets go. Obviously the opinions have been from people who voted for him last time. I was thinking he could run these great political ads where the slogan is mitt romney for president. Hell stand up for the 47 . It would be really interesting. Well you know david, he has kind of built a political career on not worrying about what he has said in the past about giving political issues including changing his position on abortion over the years as a political candidate. And so his career seems to be based on the idea that four years is plenty of time to completely change what youre saying about any given subject. You know an old friend of mine who was an observer of american politics said the key to understanding american politics is that americans love underdogs but hate losers. So the moment youve lost the bombay is open and the whole barrage of ridicule falls on you. Heres the thing to keep in mind about romneys candidacy. Again, im not encouraging him to make a decision one way or the other. In 2012 he ran about half a point behind where george w. Bush ran in the year 2000. The Republican Party is not a very effective president ialwinning machine anymore. It hasnt been since 1998. This deal about putting things on mitt romneys shoulders and blame him and him alone is going to prevent the problem being solved. Mitt romneys famous gaffe wasnt a gaffe at all, it was a doctrine. If hes going to lead the party away from that that would be a very welcome thing from someone who got a lot of votes in 2012. I would love to see a president ial campaign where the candidates are fighting over who has the better idea for getting people out of poverty. Well i would love that and i think something very important is happening in politics right now. Youre seeing all the republicans Start Talking about wage stagnation and income inequality. Youve got john boehner, youve got mitt romney youve got marco rubio and youve got jeb bush. When one side starts talking, the other sides talk because those are democratic issues. Thats a real sign that something is changing. Back when reagan won, democrats fell all over themselves to talk about markets and entrepreneurship, and one democrat told me in that period we used to talk about immunizing little children. Now we talk about investments in human capital. Well, youve got republicans talking about a fundamentally democratic issue, that opens up a lot of room and democrats are going to ask, okay what are you going to do about it . David, to look at the second tier of republican candidates these are the ones running well behind sarah palin. Thats marco rubio 26 , scott walker 22 ted cruz 21 ted benson tied with ted cruz, rick san soretorum at 19 bobby jindal 14 , only 14 of republicans want to see bobby jindal on a president ial campaign stage. How important are those polls, david, in republicans making up their minds about getting into this . Not very. I should think at this point in the 2008 cycle, barack obama is both behind Hillary Clinton and john edwards. Sarah walker and ted cruz will probably rise. He said something about the what, not the who of politics. It is not clear that wage stagnation is a democratic issue at all. And the president s state of the union is going to demonstrate how untrue that is. The president s ideas are all about transferring money around after its been earned. He doesnt have an answer to the question of why are wag