Twitter
has put together an interesting graphic from last night’s State of the
Union Address, showing the tweets per minute during the speech and how
members of Congress reacted.

Behind the numbers: While Republican members of Congress are generally seen as more prolific
users of Twitter than their Democratic counterparts, last night’s
congressional tweets were overwhelmingly by Democrats, with 60%, while
Republicans made up the remaining 40%.

Here’s the complete text of President Obama’s State of the Union address as released by the White House:

Last month, I went to Andrews Air Force Base and welcomed home some of our last troops to serve in Iraq. Together, we offered a final, proud salute to the colors under which more than a million of our fellow citizens fought – and several thousand gave their lives.

We gather tonight knowing that this generation of heroes has made the United States safer and more respected around the world. For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq. For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country. Most of al Qaeda’s top lieutenants have been defeated. The Taliban’s momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home.

These achievements are a testament to the courage, selflessness, and teamwork of America’s Armed Forces. At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations. They’re not consumed with personal ambition. They don’t obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together.

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President Obama will warn the nation tonight that “the decades-old promise of a secure and rising middle class is threatened by economic unfairness as he delivers an election-year State of the Union message that is likely to resonate in the months ahead on the campaign trail,” the Washington Post reports.

“Obama will outline the steps he believes are necessary to reform a fragile American economy now showing signs of slow recovery after the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.”

According to excerpts, he will say: “The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive. No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important… We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules. What’s at stake are not Democratic values or Republican values, but American values. We have to reclaim them.”

Ryan Lizza notes that although many hoped Barack Obama would be someone “who reshapes public opinion and the political landscape with his charisma and his powers of persuasion.”

“Instead, Obama has turned out to be… ‘a facilitator of change.’ The facilitator is acutely aware of the constraints of public opinion and Congress. He is not foolish enough to believe that one man, even one invested with the powers of the Presidency, can alter the fundamentals of politics… Directors are more like revolutionaries. Facilitators are more like tacticians. Directors change the system. Facilitators work the system. Obama’s first three years as President are the story of his realization of the limits of his office, his frustration with those constraints, and, ultimately, his education in how to successfully operate within them. A close look at the choices Obama made on domestic policy, based on a review of hundreds of pages of internal White House documents, reveals someone who is canny and tough–but who is not the President his most idealistic supporters thought they had elected.”

President Obama will use his State of the Union address on Tuesday “to define an activist role for government in promoting a prosperous and equitable society, hoping to draw a stark contrast between the parties in a time of deep economic uncertainty,” the New York Times reports.

Obama will promise a populist “blueprint for an American economy that’s built to last,” with the government assisting to ensure “an America where everybody gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share and everybody plays by the same set of rules.”

With three days remaining until the speech, the Washington Post reports Obama said he has yet to finish writing his address, “so there might be a few late nights between now and then.”

The Hill
reports that Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) will give the official
Republican response to President Obama’s upcoming State of the Union
address, and Herman Cain will deliver the Tea Party Express response.

The
choices for speakers demonstrates the continued divide between the
Republican establishment, which chose a relatively moderate governor
with ties to the George W. Bush administration, and the Tea Party
movement, which selected a businessman who has never held elected office
and ran for president as an outsider.

Vice President Joe Biden had his “oops” moment yesterday in San Francisco when he told a crowd that “the Giants are on their way to the Super Bowl,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

That didn’t please a crowd filled with San Francisco 49ers fans looking forward to a playoff game this weekend against the New York Giants.

“Biden quickly recognized the gaffe and and explained he was accustomed to thinking in terms of the San Francisco Giants and their baseball wins. His next reference was to the ’49ers on their way’ to the Big Game.”

The “book” on President Obama’s desk in a Thanksgiving Oval Office photo is actually an iPad with a DODOcase. 

The White House released its latest batch of visitor logs last week, possibly hoping a Friday news dump would attract little attention.

If you find anything interesting, let us know in the comments.

Update: The White House emails to say they always release these records on the last Friday of every month.

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President Obama is sharing a traditional Thanksgiving feast with his family and friends, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The menu: turkey, ham, cornbread stuffing, oyster stuffing, greens, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and dinner rolls.

Dessert: banana cream pie, pumpkin pie, apple pie, sweet potato pie, huckleberry pie and cherry pie.

Edward Luce notes that President Obama is an exception in recent administrations as his campaign inner circle “is actually strengthening its grip on the White House. The group, which most prominently includes Valerie Jarrett, the longstanding Chicago friend and mentor to the Obamas; David Plouffe, the 2008 campaign manager; and David Axelrod, who is now shepherding Mr Obama’s re-election campaign from Chicago, last week clipped the wings of Bill Daley, the president’s hapless chief of staff.”

Also interesting: “On his way out, Rahm Emanuel warned Mr Daley that he would be just one among four de facto chiefs of staff, each with independent access to Mr Obama. That has proved accurate.”

Jonathan Chait thinks Bill Daley ultimately failed as White House chief of staff — and was stripped of authority — because Americans “were not itching for Obama to make peace with corporate America. Americans are in an angry, populist mood — distrustful of government, but even more distrustful of business.”

First Read notes this is the message of the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll: “Heading into 2012, America is looking for a populist. According to the poll, a whopping 76% agree with the statement that the current economic structure of the country is out of balance and favors a small proportion of the rich over the rest of the country.”

White House chief of staff Bill Daley “turned over day-to-day management of the West Wing to Pete Rouse, a veteran aide to President Obama,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

The unusual recalibration of Daley’s portfolio “is designed to smooth any kinks in the president’s team as it braces for the overlapping demands of governing while campaigning for re-election, people familiar with the matter said. The West Wing is preparing for budget battles with Congress and is seeking to use its executive powers more extensively.”

The new set-up effectively makes Rouse the president’s inside manager and Daley his ambassador to Congress, “roles that appear to better suit both men’s talents.”

Politico: “Daley’s relationship with some of his West Wing colleagues has been strained, and many pined for Rouse, who served as a bridge between the volatile Rahm Emanuel, now the mayor of Chicago, and Daley, the son and brother of Chicago mayors — who assumed office just ten months ago.”

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds President Obama’s approval rate up a bit to 49%, with disapproval at 50%.

However, the poll also showed Obama would finish just behind Mitt Romney if the presidential election were held today, 44% to 43%, among registered voters. It was the first Reuters/Ipsos poll to show Romney ahead, although his slim lead is within the survey’s margin of error and technically a dead heat.

President Obama has passed his physical — and is “tobacco free” to boot, USA Today reports.

“Obama, who has been criticized for smoking, has told interviewers recently that he has kicked the habit… The two-page report concludes that Obama is physically active, eats a
healthy diet, stays at a healthy weight, and on occasion drinks alcohol
in moderation.”

Jonathan Alter says that while President Obama goes into his re-election campaign with a weak economy, he still has one asset that hasn’t received much attention: He’s honest.

“How did we end up in such a scandal-less state? … For starters, the tone is always set at the top. Obama puts a premium on personal integrity, and with a few exceptions (Tim Geithner’s tax problems in 2009) his administration tends to fire first and ask questions later. The best known example is Shirley Sherrod, the Agriculture Department official who was mistakenly fired by her boss over a miscommunication that led higher-ups to believe — wrongly — that she had made inappropriate racially tinged remarks. In several other cases, the decision to give staffers accused of wrongdoing the boot was made within hours, taking the air out of any possible uproar.”

“It’s been a brutal three years. It’s been a very, very difficult three years, an incredible three years.”

— White House chief of staff Bill Daley, in an interview with Roger Simon.