Ed Martin jumped into the Missouri Senate race today, giving former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman a top primary opponent less than a week after former Sen. Jim Talent decided he would not enter the Republican primary.

Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill is up for re-election in 2012, and she's a top target of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, not least because she'll be running in a tough state for Democrats when President Obama is also on the ballot for re-election.

Talent indicated late last year to RealClearPolitics that he was taking a careful look at the race and was inclined to run, but he announced last week that he had changed his mind.

Before Talent decided not to run, however, Steelman, who also considered running in Missouri's open Senate race in 2010, was the first candidate to jump into the field. She was joined Monday by Martin, a chief of staff to former Republican Gov. Matt Blunt.

Martin ran for Congress unsuccessfully in 2010 against Democratic Rep. Russ Carnahan in his St. Louis-area district. But his aggressive campaign in the Democratic-leaning metropolitan area made the race competitive and got the attention of national Republicans.

In his announcement video on Monday, Martin said, "I believe that the election in 2012 will come down to a very simple question: What should the size, scope and cost of the federal government be?"

He goes on to voice his support for a balanced budget amendment and attempts to tie McCaskill to Obama, attacking them both on government spending, bailouts and health care.

McCaskill, however, has taken a hardline stance against the administration at times for overspending.

The video, which features Martin speaking directly into the camera for three minutes against a white back-drop, appears to mimic the style of a long TV ad Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida cut last year in his successful campaign.

Steelman said in a statement on Martin's entry, "I am running to fight for Missouri families who want less government and more freedom. I remain focused on running against Senators Claire McCaskill and Harry Reid's control of the U.S. Senate."

GOP operatives in Missouri have said Steelman is unlikely to lock up support throughout the state, and that if Martin can rally Republican donors in St. Louis while keeping former Ambassador Ann Wagner out of the race, he'll have a serious shot at the Republican nomination.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee already is previewing its line of attack on Martin: "Nothing says outsider like a failed Congressional candidate and chief of staff to a failed former Governor turned-lobbyist."

If former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty decides, as expected, to run for president in 2012, he likely will talk about a unique national security qualification from 2007 in which he nudged an Indian company to drop its plans to invest in Iran.

The 50-year-old Republican embarked on a trade mission to India in late October of 2007 to meet executives from Essar Group, a Mumbai-based international conglomerate that had just acquired Minnesota Steel the week before. Essar was moving forward with plans to construct North America's first mine-to-steelmaking plant in Minnesota's Iron Range, a venture worth $1.65 billion that would create about 700 permanent jobs. The new facility is under construction now and scheduled to reach capacity in 2012; it is estimated to bring in 2,000 additional construction jobs, as well as spinoff jobs.

But there was a hitch: A U.S. Commerce Department official phoned Pawlenty during the trip to notify him of a Reuters report that had surfaced a few days earlier about Essar's potential investment in a $10 billion oil refinery in Iran.

Had Essar pursued the investment, it likely would have meant the company was in violation of the Iran Sanctions Act.

So it was Pawlenty who delivered the message to Essar that because of terrorist activity associated with Iran, it would not be permissible for the Indian company to do business in both countries. And within four days of Pawlenty's notice, Essar capitulated by way of a letter stating the company would abandon those interests in Iran, giving the Minnesotan a critical foreign policy line for his resume in the race for the White House.

Pawlenty's supervision of Essar's involvement in Minnesota was not free of hiccups or politics - he took some heat at home for jeopardizing job creation in order to score a national security victory - but the governor was careful to note in an interview last week that he didn't see it as a stepping stone to the national stage.

"It was a matter of enforcing core principles and core values," he explained, twice.

Yet when he threatened to pull the plug on more than $60 million in Minnesota infrastructure funding to prop up construction of the project, he helped spark a new paradigm for Iran sanctions.

"It was really trailblazing of Governor Pawlenty," said Ilan Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council.

At the time, neither President Clinton nor President Bush had ever sanctioned a company under the Iran Sanctions Act since its original enactment in 1996, according to Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and director of the Iran Energy Project.

President Obama has since applied more pressure. He became the first president to sanction a company under the act, which he did in 2010 when he sanctioned Naftiran, a Switzerland-based Iranian energy company. Still, the real purpose of the law is to sanction international companies doing business with Iran's energy sector, and Dubowitz pointed out that there are multiple companies that may be sanctioned in due course by the Obama administration.

In the Essar case, Bush had more power to act stringently than Pawlenty did as governor. Under the act, the president had the authority to prohibit Essar from investing in Minnesota, but he never made that call. Instead, by threatening to veto state funding for construction of the plant, Pawlenty took matters into his own hands.

"If it was not the first, then it was certainly the most high-profile example of the willingness of a government official to impose a choice on businesses between Iran and the United States," Dubowitz said.

Pawlenty said that Bush administration officials did not give him guidance on how he should proceed. Representatives from the Commerce Department and the State Department simply provided him with information.

"In the end it was my decision," he told RealClearPolitics.

So while en route to Minnesota at the end of his trade talks, Pawlenty hastily arranged a press conference to be convened in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport upon his return on Oct. 27, 2007.

"I have learned that Essar companies may be engaged in discussions, plans or activities that may constitute or lead to prohibited business practices with Iran," he said then. "Iran is a terrorist state. Actions by Iranian groups or individuals have killed American soldiers and many other innocent people. I will strongly oppose any effort to provide state financial assistance to companies or entities that engage in prohibited business practices with Iran."

Essar Americas President Madhu Vuppuluri, the executive in charge of Essar Steel Minnesota, told RealClearPolitics in an interview that he, too, found out about the report during Pawlenty's mission to India and was alerted by the governor's team to the complications it could cause the Minnesota deal.

"Frankly, we were also unhappy about it because we never wanted to breach any code of conduct," he said, adding that the timing was particularly unfortunate. In addition to it disrupting Pawlenty's visit, Essar had acquired Minnesota Steel officially just a few days earlier.

Consequently, Vuppuluri said, when he became aware of how uncomfortable the reports of Iran connections made Pawlenty and, by association, the state of Minnesota, Essar immediately made clear that it would not continue down those avenues in Iran.

"We weren't told we had to make a choice," he said. "We were not [previously] aware of the significance attached, and we had not done as much as other companies in Iran before."

He pointed out that Essar was vested in Minnesota and far along in the development of the project, whereas the petrochemical plant negotiations in Iran were in infancy.

But most important, Vuppuluri said, "We cherish and value our relationship with Gov. Pawlenty, Minnesota and the United States, and we wouldn't want to put that at risk of any negativity."

"I clarified to him we will in no way undertake the project that was publicized in the news with Iran," he said. Vuppuluri sent a letter to Pawlenty on behalf of Essar making that official on October 31, 2007. "The project, per se, in Minnesota was never at risk."

Pawlenty said his dealings with Essar executives were positive, and Vuppuluri corroborated that by calling them "exceptionally constructive."

"I have great regard for his leadership," Vuppuluri said of Pawlenty. "He acts with a lot of conviction and clarity of mind."

Pawlenty's action was in part a "grassroots response" to the federal government's approach, AFPC's Berman said, because there was a growing concern in many quarters at the time that the federal government was not doing enough to pressure Iran.

Another case arose in 2008 when then-state Sen. Ted Deutch, a Florida Democrat, pressed then-Gov. Charlie Crist to examine the European company, Vitol, which planned to build a $100 million fuel terminal at Port Canaveral. The company supplied approximately 60 percent of Iran's oil imports. Deutch authored legislation in Florida addressing the issue and was elected to Congress last year.

As for Pawlenty, the Essar deal did not come together without a couple of oversights.

There was public evidence a year earlier that Essar had connections to Iran, and Minnesota Steel intended to construct the mine-to-steelmaking plant on its own before Essar announced its intentions to buy the company. Therefore, the public concern over the Iran complication just after the transaction went through could have been avoided.

As early as July 1, 2006 - 16 months before Pawlenty was made aware of Essar's refinery possibility in Iran - Essar posted a story on its Web site announcing plans to build a steel plant in Iran. That deal may not have raised the same concerns, but it could mean a player in Pawlenty's administration did not do proper due diligence regarding Essar's involvement there.

A Bloomberg report from April of 2007 quotes the chief executive of Minnesota Steel at the time, John Elmore, who said: "We had every intention of developing this ourselves.... Essar decided they wanted to step up and take everything. It was not the way we had planned it."

But as Pawlenty writes in a three-page passage about the deal in his new book, Courage to Stand, "This was about something much bigger than one project in Minnesota."

What handed Pawlenty a security victory and foreign policy credential also landed him a few home-state enemies, who accused him of playing politics with jobs in the cash-strapped town of Nashwauk.

"He was a waving a flag towards a presidential campaign," said Nashwauk Mayor William Hendricks, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party in the state.

Hendricks complained that he thought Pawlenty was more interested in developing a national security portfolio than he was in watching the development needs of the small town, because, he said, there do exist connections to Iran in American commerce that don't pose threats - so why risk jobs in this case?

"This is a small, little town that was crying out for help," he said. "He was playing politics with 2,800 jobs."

Fellow Democratic-Farmer-Labor member Tom Anzelc, who represents the area in the state House of Representatives, said he generally agreed with Hendricks's account. But, he said, the Iran connection was both a surprise and a concern to him, too, and the consternation over it lasted less than a week.

To him, the bigger problem has been delay, and while he credited Pawlenty for his role in helping the project go through, he faulted him for the pace.

Steve Rutherford, however, who came on as project director of Essar Steel Minnesota over the summer, had a different take.

"It [has been] a nice wrap-up to my career" in the industry, he said. Rutherford volunteered to RealClearPolitics a list of Pawlenty's support for other projects in the Iron Range dating back to 2003, when Rutherford was managing the Mesabi Nugget operations for Steel Dynamics in the region.

American Action Network CEO Norm Coleman, a Republican senator for Minnesota at the time, said he conversed with Pawlenty and his staff while Pawlenty was handling Essar's potential Iran investment. Coleman pointed out to RealClearPolitics how critical job creation efforts are for the northern part of the state, which, he said, made Pawlenty's approach to the Essar episode difficult.

But remembering different trips abroad both he and Pawlenty had taken and their discussions about Iran, Coleman said there was no way Pawlenty could have brought himself to brush aside the Iran connection.

"It would have violated his ethical precepts," he said. "Tim's a very moral person. I think it was in his character."

And noting the choice between jobs and national security concerns, Dubowitz said, "This was a very courageous move." He added, "He really does stand out as a leader on this."

Governors who seek the presidency tend to endure a campaign cycle's worth of questions about their fitness for handling international tensions, given that many political observers assume they have less exposure to foreign matters than senators do. In part to address that potential limitation, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a potential rival of Pawlenty's for the GOP nomination in 2012, traveled to the Middle East earlier this month to learn about and assess issues on the ground there.

But as Berman pointed out in Pawlenty's maneuver with Essar, "This was an example of how states and governors can influence national security and foreign policy."

Indeed, Pawlenty noted that the incident is an illustration of the hands-on experience he had with international issues as governor, and he stressed that he had an unusual amount of international travel and experience for a governor between his multiple trade missions and trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, among other destinations.

Vuppuluri agreed that it was a good example of Pawlenty's handling of an important foreign issue. He said he has not yet read Pawlenty's book but intends to, and he asked eagerly several times about what Pawlenty had written regarding his encounters with Essar.

The executive said he follows American politics closely and believes in a healthy two-party system. He intends to watch the 2012 presidential race closely, particularly if Pawlenty becomes a candidate. So far, his only personal campaign contribution that registers in FEC records was a $1,000 check to a Kansas state representative who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2010 - Raj Goyle, a Democrat.

Of Pawlenty, he said, "America needs more people like him leading the nation in the years to come."

Indiana Rep. Mike Pence will not run for president in 2012, the Indianapolis Star reported Thursday.

"In the choice between seeking national office and serving Indiana in some capacity, we choose Indiana," the 51-year-old GOP congressman wrote in a letter to supporters.

Sources in the state told RealClearPolitics last week that Pence's team was told to expect a gubernatorial bid. Though Pence did not make it clear Thursday that he's officially in the race for governor, he is planning to appear throughout the state at Lincoln Day Dinners with county Republican groups.

Pence has been the subject of several draft movements by conservative groups, which upped his national profile as he gave passing consideration to a presidential bid.

GOP leadership sources consider the congressman's past history in fundraising to be somewhat lackluster, and he would have had less than $500,000 in the bank with which to mount a presidential bid. A state statute passed last year prohibits him from raising money for a gubernatorial bid until the state legislature closes its session in late April. He can, however, funnel the money he currently has into a state campaign pot for a run for governor.

Mark Helmke, a senior adviser to Indiana Republican Sen. Dick Lugar, said the senior senator met with Pence recently and urged him to run for governor. Lugar is up for re-election in 2012 and has been something of a target to the tea party, which supports Pence. With Pence in the governor's race as opposed to the Senate race, Lugar would have one less potential primary foe to worry about.

Term-limited Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels urged politicians in the state not to announce their plans for the next campaign cycle during the legislative session. Daniels, who is a decade older than Pence and who has been a political player in Indiana for more than three decades, may decide this spring to seek the White House. Had Pence and Daniels both shot for the White House, the current governor may have had more support throughout the Hoosier State.

Political watchers agree Pence will be a prohibitive favorite for governor next year should he choose to run. Despite having closed the door on a White House run in 2012, if Pence wins the governorship he'd be well-positioned to launch a presidential bid in 2016 or 2020.

As Indiana Republican Rep. Mike Pence nears a decision on his political future, a presidential draft group for another Hoosier looking at a White House bid has gone one better than the draft groups for Pence.

Students for Mitch, a PAC organized by Yale students, announced on Thursday that they purchased TV time to air an ad to try and draft Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels into the Republican presidential primary for the coming campaign cycle.

The ad features a Yale student speaking about President Obama, although she never names him.

She alludes to things passed during Obama's first term, including cash for clunkers and health care by noting, "He bought me a car. He even subsidized my medical insurance."

"Everything was perfect," she continues, "until I got my credit card bill. Turns out he was spending all of my money."

The student goes on to promote Daniels, touting his concerns with fiscal responsibility.

"Mitch Daniels did not approve this message," the narrator says at the close of the spot. "Tell him to."

The ad buy is miniscule, but the spot will air in Iowa and New Hampshire. A draft movement for Barack Obama aired a longer TV spot in New Hampshire for the president after the 2006 midterms.

Seeking to build on the theme of economic competitiveness that was his refrain in Tuesday's State of the Union address, President Obama on Wednesday visited a Wisconsin town that faced its own "Sputnik moment" nearly a half-century ago.

After Air Force One touched down in Green Bay, Obama made his first of three Wisconsin manufacturing stops at Orion Energy Systems in Manitowoc. Just hours after declaring that the United States faces a Sputnik moment in rising to the challenges posed by today's global economic climate, the president insisted that it was merely a coincidence that he was giving his first post-address speech in Manitowoc - the town where a piece of the Soviet's Sputnik satellite, which launched the space race, came falling from the sky in 1962.

"It wasn't until I was on my way here that I found out that a chunk of metal came crashing down to the Earth right here," Obama said to a crowd of employees after touring the plant. "So I want to say to you today that it is here, more than 50 years later, that the race for the 21st century will be won."

But it was likely not a coincidence that Obama was in Wisconsin - a state that figures to be contested closely in the 2012 election - to take his post-address message to the industrial heartland.

Obama extolled the rise of Orion - a power technology company that specializes in making efficient and renewable energy technology for businesses - after another large employer in the region moved its operation abroad in 2003.

"You fast-forward to 2011, and new manufacturing plants, and new hope, are now taking root - part of the reason the unemployment rate here is four points lower than it was at the beginning of last year," Obama said.

Obama noted that China was making renewable energy investments at a rapid rate and that the U.S. has already fallen behind in the solar market.

After facing gentle ribbing from the Mayor of Green Bay and Governor of Wisconsin over the defeat of his Chicago Bears to the Green Bay Packers in last Sunday's NFC Championship game, Obama told workers in Manitowoc that American must play to win, rather than playing "not to lose."

"Part of what I wanted to communicate last night is, having gone through a tough time, having gone through a recession, having seen so many jobs lost, having seen the financial markets take a swoon, you get a sense that a lot of folks have been feeling like, 'Well, we've just got to play not to lose,'" Obama said. "We can't take that attitude. If we're on defense, if we're playing not to lose, somebody else is going to lap us, because there are a lot of hungry folks out there, a lot of countries that are gunning for us."

As Republicans continue to criticize Obama for calling for a reduction in the deficit while at the same time touting new spending projects, the president made the case that economic growth required both individual commitment and imagination as well as government investment.

"The jobs you're creating here and the growth you've achieved have come through hard work, ingenuity and a single-minded focus on being the best at what you do, and you've also been supported over the years not only by the Department of Agriculture, and the Small Business Administration, but by tax credits and awards we created to give a leg up to renewable energy companies," Obama said.

Though Obama's focus remains heavily on the economy and job development, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was asked on Tuesday whether and when the president would begin speaking about gun control issues-a topic that he avoiding in Tuesday night's address-in light of the tragic shootings in Tucson that claimed the lives of six.

"I don't doubt that there are a host of issues that didn't receive billing in the State of the Union that will still encompass a decent amount of time inside the administration in 2011," Gibbs said, adding that just because a topic was not covered on Tuesday does not mean that it is not being considered in the White House. "That having been said, I wouldn't rule out that at some point the President talks about the issues surrounding gun violence. I don't have a timetable or obviously what he would say, but I wouldn't rule that out in the future."

There were two Republican responses to President Obama's State of the Union on Tuesday: one direct from the GOP leadership in Congress, and another that the tea party requested.

Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, offered the official response, while Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann delivered a response for the Tea Party Express.

Ryan recognized Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who is recovering in Houston from a gunshot wound to the head, but Bachmann didn't mention it. Otherwise, both of their remarks were focused entirely on fiscal matters.

The big difference was in tone.

Via Ryan, the Republican leadership took some ownership of the nation's fiscal troubles and vowed to do more to reshape the economy. Bachmann, however, launched immediately into an attack on Obama's actions since taking office.

In response to Obama's address, Ryan began by noting that the president rightly focused on the debt and the deficit and said some of his words were reassuring. He also signaled a willingness to work with the White House.

Ryan continued, "Our debt is the product of acts by many presidents and many Congresses over many years. No one person or party is responsible for it. There is no doubt the president came into office facing a severe fiscal and economic situation."

The Wisconsinite did point out some of Obama's spending initiatives that he did not agree with, but he also listed some of what House Republicans have done on the spending front since gaining control of the lower chamber in November.

Bachmann, by contrast, offered a litany of criticisms of Obama's economic measures and made a passing mention to "unacceptably high" deficits under President Bush. She then offered a few broad suggestions for changes Obama can make.

Bachmann's spokesman was careful to note to RealClearPolitics on Tuesday that "Congresswoman Bachmann is not speaking for the tea party." He explained, "The Tea Party Express, which is one part of the tea party, asked her to give a response, so she is giving her own response via their website. She has often made the point that even as chair of the House Tea Party Caucus, she is not a spokesman for the tea party, but is focused on listening to the American people and having the Tea Party Caucus be a listening tool."

Bachmann is toying with a presidential bid in 2012 and has traveled to the first caucus state, Iowa. Ryan may consider a bid for the seat Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl now holds. A few Republican operatives said Ryan came across as a bit robotic; Bachmann's delivery, some noted, was decent.

President Obama sprinkled Tuesday's State of the Union Address with light jokes and centered his remarks on a renewed call for bipartisanship. But despite the niceties, the speech left no doubt of the big ideological battles that lie ahead in the new Congress.

The theme of Obama's speech was economic competitiveness and "winning the future" in an increasingly complex global economic landscape featuring ascendant countries like China and India. Obama challenged the U.S. to "out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world," even as he warned that other nations were making increasingly daunting investments to propel their own growth.

"So yes, the world has changed -- the competition for jobs is real," Obama said. "But this shouldn't discourage us. It should challenge us. Remember: for all the hits we've taken these last few years, for all the naysayers predicting our decline, America still has the largest, most prosperous economy in the world."

Seeking to summon the can-do spirit of an earlier era, Obama said that this generation was facing its own "Sputnik moment" and alluded to new spending proposals in infrastructure and education, which have already elicited cries from the newly empowered GOP.

Noting that he would send his budget to Congress in a few weeks, Obama said, "We'll invest in biomedical research, information technology, and especially clean energy technology -- an investment that will strengthen our security, protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people."

Despite his call for increased investment in critical areas, Obama said that with the worst of the recession over, it was time to begin to tackle the deficit in earnest. He proposed a five-year freeze in annual domestic spending, which he said would reduce the government's shortfall by over $400 billion over the next decade.

But Obama's speech offered few specifics on where he would cut spending, and the Republican National Committee was quick to tout an Associated Press analysis, which noted that the president "offered far more examples of where he would spend than where he would cut."

This year's State Of The Union Address featured noticeably different atmospherics from past presidential speeches, as members of Congress decided to forego the traditionally partisan seating chart, in a symbolic gesture that developed after the tragic shooting in Tucson that left six dead and 14 injured, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).

Obama was more measured in his tone than in some of his best remembered speeches, and the House chamber appeared more subdued than in past years, as the typically frequent standing ovations on one side of the aisle or other were replaced by slightly more sporadic and less predictable applause lines.

But Obama appeared to acknowledge that the bipartisan "date night" that had Washington abuzz on Tuesday would only have legs if members of Congress made a lasting effort to downplay the politics of division for the sake of the country.

"Amid all the noise and passions and rancor of our public debate, Tucson reminded us that no matter who we are or where we come from, each of us is a part of something greater -- something more consequential than party or political preference," Obama said. "What comes of this moment will be determined not by whether we can sit together tonight, but whether we can work together tomorrow."

Obama noted lightheartedly that he'd "heard rumors" that some members of Congress had concerns about the health care law and vowed to listen to Republican suggestions for improving it, starting with correcting a "flaw in the legislation that places an unnecessary bookkeeping burden on small businesses."

But the president pushed back against GOP efforts to repeal the entire law, using the personal stories of a brain cancer patient from Texas and a small businessman in Oregon to make his case that reform had made significant strides over the previous system.

Obama disappointed some of his progressive allies by not even mentioning gun control in the wake of the Tucson shooting, but he did make reference to the repeal of the Don't Ask Don't Tell law, which had barred gays from openly serving in the military and had become a major rallying cry for the left.

"Starting this year, no American will be forbidden from serving the country they love because of who they love," Obama said. "And with that change, I call on all of our college campuses to open their doors to our military recruiters and the ROTC. It is time to leave behind the divisive battles of the past. It is time to move forward as one nation."

Though it was light on specific prescriptions, Obama's speech alluded to several lofty objectives for well into the future, including goals to connect 98 percent of Americans to high-speed wireless coverage within five years, to provide 80 percent of the country with access to high-speed rail within 25 years, and to generate 80 percent of the nation's electricity with clean energy sources by 2035 -- an ambition that the president also framed in bipartisan language.

"Some folks want wind and solar; others want nuclear, clean coal, and natural gas," Obama said. "To meet this goal, we will need them all, and I urge Democrats and Republicans to work together to make it happen."

When he turned to education policy, Obama received a rousing ovation when he said, "We need to teach our kids that it's not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair."

Obama's address was reflective of a political climate in which jobs and the economy remain at the forefront, and his State of the Union speech was among the lightest on foreign policy that has been delivered in the post 9/11 era.

But the president did note the end of U.S. combat patrols in Iraq and said that al Qaeda's leadership in Pakistan was facing severe pressure.

"Their leaders and operatives are being removed from the battlefield; their safe-havens are shrinking," Obama said. "And we have sent a message from the Afghan border to the Arabian Peninsula to all parts of the globe: we will not relent, we will not waver, and we will defeat you."

Though Tuesday night's speech featured frequent acknowledgments of the political and economic uncertainties that remain in the wake of a devastating recession and anxiety over America's standing in the world, Obama received what was perhaps his biggest applause line of the night when he delivered a piece of the uplifting rhetoric that helped propel him into the White House in the first place.

"As contentious and frustrating and messy as our democracy can sometimes be," he said, "I know there isn't a person here who would trade places with any other nation on earth."

President Obama will attempt in Tuesday night's State of the Union address to build on the political capital he began to generate with a string of accomplishments in the lame duck session of Congress at the end of last year and the wide praise he received from both sides of the aisle for his speech in the aftermath of the shooting tragedy in Tucson.

With his approval rating on the rise, Obama faces a newly empowered Republican Party that is eager to challenge his agenda at nearly every turn but has also opened the door to a new level of cooperation with a president who has demonstrated a desire to slide toward the political center.

Obama will be aided by the symbolic gesture of Democratic and Republican lawmakers pairing off to mix up the traditionally partisan seating arrangements, as he tries to recapture the post-partisan tone that helped spring him into the presidency but was largely absent from his first two years in office.

"These are big challenges that are in front of us," Obama said in a video emailed to supporters over the weekend, which previewed his speech. "But we're up to it, as long as we come together as a people -- Republicans, Democrats, independents -- as long as we focus on what binds us together as a people, as long as we're willing to find common ground even as we're having some very vigorous debates, that's what built this country. That's what we're all about."

There are some recent indications that Obama may have an opportunity to find more common ground with Republicans.

Appearing on "Face The Nation" on Sunday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) -- who has been one of Obama's most frequent and vocal critics since losing to him in the 2008 election -- said that the president has "changed a great deal" and has wisely shifted toward a more centrist approach in the two years since he took office.

"I think he's doing a lot of right things -- this emphasis on cutting spending that we'll be talking about...was something that obviously was not talked about in the last two years," McCain said. "I think there's common ground because I think the president realized, as a result of the November elections, that the American people have a different set of priorities."

Bruce Buchanan, a professor of presidential and American politics at the University of Texas, suggested that Obama's tenor in reaching out to Republicans would be a particularly important indicator in Tuesday's speech.

"He somehow has to continue that Tucson tone," Buchanan said. "He hit a plateau there that worked for audiences all over the country, and to the extent you can in a speech about policy where you don't have the emotional opportunities he had in Tucson, he needs to try to keep that level of soaring effectiveness."

In his video previewing the speech, Obama said that he will zero in on rebuilding the economy -- the issue that defined the 2010 midterms and is likely to remain the most critical factor in his 2012 re-election campaign.

"My principle focus -- my number one focus -- is going to be making sure that we are competitive, that we are growing, and that we are creating jobs not just now but well into the future," Obama said. "And that is what's going to be the main topic of the State of the Union."

The address will offer Obama a chance to reach a vast television audience. However, in the past, the State of the Union has tended not to have a long shelf life, as subsequent event have quickly diminished its political significance.

Historical precedent suggests that Obama would be wise not to veer from the heart of his message in Tuesday's speech, according to Bruce Buchanan.

"What most presidents have done that I consider to have been a mistake is to try to cover too much in a State of the Union message, and so his model ought to be Reagan," Buchanan said. "Reagan would focus on two or three big things, rather than Clinton's 120 separate things, which sometimes left the audience confused about what the message was."

Even amid the potential for a revitalized political discourse that could include more cooperation between Democrats and Republicans, the partisan divide in Washington remains, in many ways, as visible as ever, and it will be on full display as the president wades into policy specifics on Tuesday.

Obama is expected to suggest increases in infrastructure spending to make America more economically competitive, even as he calls for taking additional steps to bring down the federal debt.

In an appearance on "Meet The Press" on Sunday, House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said that members of his party would not go along with plans to raise the debt ceiling, which currently stands at over $14 trillion, without coinciding moves to shrink the federal budget immediately.

"Republicans are not going to vote for this increase in the debt limit unless there are serious spending cuts and reforms," Cantor said. "We know there are hundreds of programs that are going to need to be cut."

New York Jets owner Woody Johnson has been preoccupied with the NFL for the last several months while his team has been making a strong run at the Super Bowl, but he already may be thinking about another competition.

Several politically involved Republican sources say the New Jersey business magnate is toying with the idea of a Senate run and getting some encouragement. Every source contacted for this story emphasized that it is still unlikely Johnson actually will enter a race to face off against Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez in 2012, but there's been enough buzz that a few Republican lawmakers have begun to chatter about the possibility with staff and lobbyists, who suggest that a Johnson candidacy could reorder the political landscape in New Jersey next year. CNN listed him as early as November as a potential candidate.

Mike DuHaime, a Garden State native and veteran Republican operative who guided New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to victory in 2009, was effusive in his praise for Johnson.

"He's very well thought of in New Jersey, as is his family, for everything from the Jets to his charitable work," DuHaime said. "If he were to decide to run, he'd be a very serious candidate."

Johnson is politically active within the GOP and was a major donor to Arizona Sen. John McCain in the 2008 presidential race. He recently has raised cash for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's Free and Strong America PAC and was a critical presence at a May, 2010, fundraiser for Romney's organization at the New York City Waldorf-Astoria hotel.

Johnson has raised millions for Republicans - especially within the last few years - and has engendered support from the upper echelon of politically motivated and wealthy Republicans in the Northeast. The New Jersey Republican Party did not return several inquiries about whether they have heard from him about the coming political cycle.

Already potentially considering the U.S. Senate race is New Jersey Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr., who lost to Menendez in 2006. Kean, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and state Sen. Michael Doherty have been tested against Menendez in independent polling matchups that size up the coming race.

But GOP sources believe that if Johnson were to enter the race, his candidacy could clear the field. In addition to high name recognition and good will throughout the Garden State, they point out that the billionaire Johnson would be capable of financing his own campaign, and that would make him a threat not just to the Republican field, but to the Democratic incumbent in the blue state home to the nationally popular Republican governor, Chris Christie.

In addition to his work with the Jets and with research and charitable funding for diabetes, the 63-year-old Johnson is the chief executive of the private equity firm, Johnson Company, Inc. and an heir to Johnson & Johnson. He also is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

And in a sign that Johnson could be gearing up to be more serious than political operatives claim, the businessman joined Romney on an educational trip earlier this month to the Middle East, according to a blog post on Politico's Web site.

Menendez's poll numbers suggest that the first-term senator who ran the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee last cycle could be in for a competitive re-election race next year.

A poll conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind surveyed 802 registered voters, Jan. 3 to Jan. 8, and found Menendez garnering less than 50 percent against several potential challengers. Johnson was not tested, but Menendez bested his 2006 opponent, Kean, in the survey, 44 percent to 34 percent. The poll's margin of error was 3.5 percent.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Fundraising challenges could affect Indiana Republican Rep. Mike Pence's calculus as he makes his future political plans.

It's not just that some GOP operatives say the financial sums Pence has posted with the Federal Election Commission in campaigns past are lackluster. There's a statute in Indiana that bars him from raising money for a possible gubernatorial campaign until after the state legislature's session closes in late April - and that could have an impact on his decision and shed some light on his coyness in the process.

The congressman is nearing a self-imposed deadline of late January for making a decision on whether to run for president in 2012 or for the open governor's chair. Indiana Republican sources said earlier this week that Pence's team was preparing some sort of announcement for next week, and the rumors on the ground are that he's readying a campaign to be chief executive of the Hoosier State. A Pence spokesman said no announcement is planned because a decision hasn't been made.

Pence addressed the Indiana General Assembly on Tuesday and met with Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican also considering a presidential bid who will leave office at the end of this cycle due to term limits. After November's elections Daniels urged the politicians of his state not to make their intentions for higher office known until after the 2011 session ends - and at least financially, there's no incentive for them to announce anyway.

In March of 2010, the Indiana legislature expanded a ban on fundraising during sessions of the General Assembly. The ban applies to all state officeholders as well as candidates for state offices, which would include Pence should he choose to run for governor.

Pence is headlining about eight Lincoln Day Dinners that county Republican organizations are holding this winter and spring throughout Indiana, but sources in the state said he's been invited to many more than eight and could be confirmed to speak at more of them in short order.

As one party source explained, "What better thing to do than start meeting Republicans in other parts of the state if he can't raise money during this time period?" Indeed, the state statute does not prevent Pence "from participating in party activities conducted by a regular party committee."

Of course, if he does decide to run for president, it will take a hefty fundraising surge, and he would start almost from scratch.

During the 2010 election cycle, Pence's campaign raised $2.5 million and spent the bulk of it for a race that he won with 67 percent of the vote.

As of Nov. 22, 2010, Pence had about $461,000 in his federal campaign coffers. By contrast, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, who is perhaps more serious about a 2012 presidential bid, had an eye-popping sum of $7.2 million in his campaign account at that time. In other words, Thune has about 15 times more operating money from the starting gate than Pence has, and the two conservatives could appeal to some of the same constituencies in a Republican primary.

According to legal parameters, Pence is able to transfer money he's raised for a federal campaign down to a state campaign - but the money can't be funneled in the opposite direction. That means Pence could open a presidential exploratory committee now and then shoot the federal campaign cash into a gubernatorial campaign should he switch races later in the cycle, although most Republican sources in the state say such a scenario is highly unlikely.

And Pence's spokesman stressed that his fundraising is stronger than some realize, considering he raised an additional $1 million for the National Republican Congressional Committee and more for his Win Back America PAC last cycle. According to data filed with the FEC, Pence's PAC raised about $615,000 in the last cycle and spent $561,000, leaving the PAC with just more than $56,000 left for operating expenditures going forward.

Compared to his potential rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, that means he would have quite a few donors to call. There's no doubt the uptick in draft movements for a Pence presidential bid helps his bottom line - for whichever race he chooses.