The Gaggle: SOTU preview

>>> the president's state of the union has been focusing on guns and the economy. nbc news confirmed that the president will announce 34,000 u.s. troops serving in afghanistan will be home by this time next year. let's bring in our super state of the union gaggle. from "the washington post ," former senator from arkansas and republican poster anderson and politico john allen . john, you department get to be on set with us because you didn't get the memo about wearing valentine's day colors.

>> you put them as close to you as policy.

>> exactly.

>> i admire that decision.

>> you get to talk first. that's a benefit. i want to ask you, the state of the union , we covered this thing. it is viewed as the super bowl of politics. how much of what the president talks about tonight has any chance of getting accomplished? typically it feels like these things are a laundry list of asks with very few things that can actually be done. what do you make of that?

>> if history is any judge, one or two things he can actually get done. we hear about the national infrastructure bank. every address the president gives, there has been no movement on that, but certainly when he talks about immigration reform , there is a chance of reform happening. i think you have some possibility of some gun control legislation happening. very limited it would seem at this point. there some areas where the president will talk about things, but by and large most proposals are dead-on arrival and most of the things we can get done are things he has already done. perhaps some sort of task force or getting a secretary of one of the instances to do something.

>> thanks for that encouragement. i want to ask you, as a senator from arkansas, you sat in the audience for several state of the unions. we asked about them and democrats want to like the proposals on guns. people like mary landry and tim johnson in south dakota . as a senator in a swing or maybe republican-leaning state, how do you greet them and react to them? i assume you want to be supportive of the president and know your politics.

>> you have to realize that first of all it's an issue that has to be dealt with and news to be dealt with comprehensively. it's not just guns, but all kind of things. mental illness no doubt. we have areas in our state and three counties that for years went without mental health . those are critical issues and you have to realize that. the most important thing is that you come to the table with the willingness to come somewhere where you can start and move out from the consensus there.

>> we talked to him and said we will find common ground . it appears it will largely be driven by electoral realities. is there common ground on gun control ? it doesn't seem like it. am i missing something and do republicans need to move forward as a party heading into the mid-terms?

>> rhetorically you can hear a lot of the same sentences coming out of their mouths. doesn't mean they support the same policies. i imagine you will hear a lot about the need to reduce america's deficit in the state of the union , but republicans and democrats have different ways of getting there. there is common ground in terms of ultimate goals and very, very big differences.

>> you see a republican and a democrat, congress is broken and you need to fix it. it never gets there. i want to ask about the economy. the president and his advisers signalled this will be a heavy speech. the speech was being touched on. did the president -- did he make a mistake that he won convincingly by not talking more about the economy.

>> they see it as a book end that was more about this social agenda apart from the economy and he got pushback from republicans, what about jobs? what are you going to talk about? so he'll return tonight. but let's face it, a lot of what he's going to say tonight, we've already heard from the first state of the union and the second state of the union and the third one.

>> all right. we'll be back with all four of you shortly, but it is trivia time. i love this one. we asked, who is the last president to not deliver a state of the union address in person? the answer, jimmy carter in 1981 . seems odd. according to the senate historian, president's truman, eisenhower, and carter all sent their final messages to congress in print. if you've got a political trivia question for us, e-mail us at dailyrundown@msnbc.com. we'll be right back. i am a