Morning Joe   |  February 13, 2013

Mike Allen: Obama saying US a 'center, left nation' in SOTU speech

Politico Playbook: President Obama's speech indicated he believes the country is a center, left nation, Politico's Mike Allen tells Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

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>> with us now, chief white house correspondent.

>> is that bad? obviously someone agrees with me.

>> mike allen here with the "morning playbook." i'm still shaken by the exclusion of wrestling in 2020 . mike allen , this morning "politico's" taking lie look at the big picture behind the president's state of the union address . i guess the question is what was the president after last night?

>> well, the president was saying that this is a center/left nation. he was unabashed about that. the rhetoric that we heard in the inauguration now has some meat on its bones. and people are talking about how little the president will get passed. but it's astonishing that he will get some of these things on guns, he's going to get universal background checks, probably tough trafficking law, maybe a limit on magazine size. and no, he's not going to get a ban on assault weapons. but if we said a year ago the president was going to get these kind of measures on gun control , we would have been surprised. also on immigration, more signs last night that there is going to be movement on that after the rubio response, there was yet another republican response. the tea party response from senator rand paul of kentucky. and fascinatingly, importantly, he talked in there about how the tea party wants something to happen on immigration. so it's going to be hard. yesterday speaker boehner did not sound like someone who is in a deal-making mood. at a breakfast with network anchors and correspondents, he said he didn't think the president had the guts. he used that word to do what needed to be done on entitlements. but the house is going to wait for the senate to move on these. and when the slow-moving senate comes with something real on these, there's going to be a lot of pressure on the house to deliver.

>> thank you, mike allen .

>>> still ahead, nbc political director, chuck todd and from "the washington post ," eugene robinson . more " morning joe " when we come