Obama’s two speeches in one… First part was your typical SOTU; second part was emotional plea to curb gun violence… Obama on the economy, sequester… President also unveils laundry list of economic/educational proposals… Obama heads to Asheville, NC to deliver speech at noon ET… On Rubio’s tough assignment last night and on whether he expanded his party’s appeal… And yesterday’s vitriolic day at the Senate Armed Services Committee.

*** Obama’s two speeches in one: Perhaps the best way to view President Obama’s State of the Union address last night was a tale of two speeches (actually, you could even argue three speeches if you count the sequester portion, which we discuss below). The first part was your traditional State of the Union -- domestic policies proposed, praise for America’s resiliency, and recognition of the country’s military service members. As he did in his inaugural address, Obama also called for comprehensive immigration reform and efforts to combat climate change. But it was the second part that was something you don’t often see in a State of the Union -- an emotional conclusion in talking about his proposals to curb gun violence that ended up overshadowing the rest of the speech. Recognizing the parents of a slain Chicago teenager who performed at last month’s inauguration, Obama said, “They deserve a vote [in Congress].” He continued, “Gabby Giffords deserves a vote. The families of Newtown deserve a vote. The families of Aurora deserve a vote. The families of Oak Creek and Tucson and Blacksburg, and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence –- they deserve a simple vote.” It was powerful stuff, and a reminder that the gun debate (as well as the emotion that goes with it) isn’t going away anytime soon. Yet with Obama asking simply for a vote, it was also a reminder that passing anything won’t be easy. It was actually a fairly low bar for success that the president set. 

Jason Reed / Reuters

President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union speech on Capitol Hill in Washington, February 12, 2013.

*** Obama on the economy, sequester: The top of the president’s remarks were focused on the economy and the ongoing debate over the budget.  Obama warned that the so-called sequester -- the automatic spending cuts set to take place March 1 -- would hurt the economy. “These sudden, harsh, arbitrary cuts would jeopardize our military readiness,” he said. “They’d devastate priorities like education, and energy, and medical research. “They would certainly slow our recovery, and cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs.” He also noted that Congress had already reduced the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion, and he laid out proposals to curb Medicare spending. And he called for Congress to work together to resolve the budget issues. “Let’s agree right here, right now to keep the people’s government open, and pay our bills on time, and always uphold the full faith and credit of the United States of America.” Buried in this speech is something that the president didn’t want to advertise, but that was placed in there as a hint to Republicans at where he’s ready to compromise on the deficit: He called for cuts to Medicare equal to what Bowles-Simpson proposed. He never said the number (not popular politically), but he stated the goal. Folks, this is where the compromise in March could happen.  

*** The laundry list of proposals: After opening with sequester and trying to frame the upcoming budget fights on his terms, the president then laid out a series of new initiatives. Universal pre-K. Infrastucture projects. Better training high-school students for technical jobs. Raising the minimum wage to $9.00 per hour. And creating a bipartisan commission to expand voting rights. We’re already hearing many Republicans dismissing these proposals as small bore. And, yes, we had Clinton flashbacks ourselves (remember the school uniforms?). But we’d note that this is a potential trap for the GOP. These are items -- especially the ones on education -- that many Americans care about, and they test REALLY WELL in polls. Republicans may want to claim all the ideas together are “liberal” and “big government,” but individually, these ideas poll test through the roof. They are 65% ideas, not 50%-50% ones. Today, Obama heads to Asheville, NC to begin selling his State of the Union with a speech at noon ET. (There, per the White House, he will tour a local factory to highlight the manufacturing policies he unveiled last night.) Tomorrow, he goes to Atlanta, GA. And on Friday, it’s to Chicago.

*** Rubio’s tough assignment: As we wrote last week, giving the State of the Union response hasn’t always been the best stepping stone to higher office. And with Marco Rubio’s response last night, we saw why. While the president gets to address a packed Congress and recognize individual citizens sitting in the audience, the responder often speaks to an empty room or office. While the president gets applause and opportunities for TV camera cutaways (and thus maybe a chance to take a swig of water), the responder looks straight into the camera with no one else there and with no chance for a break. That’s why the viral moment of Rubio gulping down water -- a moment he’s since joked about -- was so jarring. But even take away that water-gulping moment, Rubio’s speech shows you why the State of the Union response is such a tough assignment and one that’s fraught with peril. When it comes to music concerts, the main act is the final event. But the State of the Union is the only instance we can think of where the main act goes first and the side act is last.

*** Did he broaden the party’s reach? But here’s a separate question we have: Did Rubio broaden his party’s reach? While he’s younger than Mitt Romney and has a more relatable life story, Rubio’s speech was almost a rehash of almost everything we heard from Romney and the GOP in 2012. He accused Obama of believing that the free enterprise system is the source of America’s problems (when the president praised it in his State of the Union); he said that Obama wants to grow the size of the government; and he attacked the health-care law. All of those messages had hundreds of millions of dollars behind them in the 2012 presidential election, and Republicans got just 47% of the vote in the presidential election. There is no doubt that Rubio is a GOP politician with a bright future and plenty of personal appeal. But it also seemed like Rubio was preaching to the Republican choir rather than broadening the party’s reach. It’s a speech that is being very well received among conservatives, but was it a persuasion speech?

*** A vitriolic day at the Senate Armed Services Committee: Besides Obama’s State of the Union and Rubio’s response, the other big political event yesterday was Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be defense secretary passing through the Senate Armed Services by a party-line vote. But the actual vote got overshadowed by something else. The New York Times: “At times, the meeting slipped into an unusually accusatory and bitter back-and-forth, with Republicans like Ted Cruz, a freshman senator from Texas, going as far as to suggest that Mr. Hagel had accepted money from nations that oppose American interests. Saying that he had serious doubts about the source of payments that Mr. Hagel had accepted for speaking engagements, Mr. Cruz declared, ‘It is at a minimum relevant to know if that $200,000 that he deposited in his bank account came directly from Saudi Arabia, came directly from North Korea.’” That back-and-forth added fuel to the fire that the Senate is -- more and more -- turning into the more combative House of Representatives. On the other hand, with Democratic senators and even John McCain stepping in to rebuke Cruz (“No one on this committee should at any time impugn his character or his integrity”), it was a reminder that there’s a line you can’t cross in the Senate. Cruz is cementing himself as someone who doesn’t play by the old rules; that will make him popular with many non-Beltway conservatives. But he’s not making a lot of friends in the Senate (even among Republicans).

*** On the Hill today: The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on comprehensive immigration reform at 9:30 am ET, and Jack Lew’s confirmation hearing to be Treasury secretary takes place before the Senate Finance Committee at 10:00 am ET.

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USA Today: Twitter “blew up when the Florida Republican reached for a bottle of Poland Spring water as he was outlining the GOP's vision to help the middle class. His speech text ran for five pages, about half the length of Obama's remarks.”

Rubio paused mid-speech, leaned over out of frame, grabbed a small Poland Spring bottle, took a swig of water, swished it, put it back down, and continued.

More: “Twitter said there were about 9,200 tweets per minute at about 10:43 p.m. ET, after Rubio's sip of water. For a short time, #watergate and Poland Spring were trending on the micro-blogging site.”

Politico’s provocative headline: “Marco Rubio’s drinking problem.” From the story: “[T]he Florida senator appeared a little sweaty and dry-mouthed at mid-speech, taking an awkward swig from a bottle of water that had been placed off-camera. Rubio handled the hullabaloo with some humor, later tweeting a picture of the water bottle.”

The New York Daily News: “Thirsty Sen. Marco Rubio makes waves with awkward grab for water.” From the story: “Thirsty for attention? Or just thirsty? Sen. Marco Rubio made headlines for all the wrong reasons Tuesday night as he delivered the Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union address. It was supposed to be the moment that propelled Rubio into the top tier of potential presidential candidates. Instead, social media exploded with jokes after Rubio awkwardly paused, reached for a bottle of Poland Spring water and took a swig to douse a case of dry mouth.”

For Rubio and his team’s part, they seem to be rolling with it. Rubio went on ABC this morning and made light of it, taking a drink again. “I needed water; what am I going to do, you know? It happens. God has a funny way of reminding us we’re human.”

On CBS, he said: “I'm just glad the water was nearby. I don't know what I would have done without it."

Rubio brought a bottle of water with him on another appearance, too. This one on FOX. “My mouth got dry and I had to get some water,” he said, noting that he’d rather “take the hit” for getting water than not be able to say the rest of the words in his speech. "My mouth got dry, what can I say ... I brought some with me now." He then took a swig.

Aside from “water-gate,” Politico notes: “Sen. Marco Rubio got a turn on the national stage opposite President Barack Obama Tuesday night, but some of the facts the likely 2016 presidential contender marshaled to make his case played loose with the truth” on the sequester, climate change, Medicare, and Obamacare.

As Matt Yglesias noted on Twitter, Rubio’s “middle-class” neighborhood may also be fiction. As the Huffington Post and the Daily Caller reported last month Rubio put his house on the market for $675,000.

On substance, Roll Call says the contrast between Obama and Rubio was “a stark display of the ideological divide between the parties.” Noting “water-gate,” Roll Call writes, “Regardless of his uneven performance, Rubio offered a clear contrast to the president’s call for enhanced government services and programs, such as an expansion of pre-kindergarten programs and money for new infrastructure improvements.”

AP: “Republicans say President Barack Obama’s second-term agenda will bring more tax increases and increase deficit spending. They’re vowing to promote economic growth to help middle-class families find good jobs. Republicans are responding to Obama’s State of the Union address with fresh appeals to voters on the economy and promises to rein in federal spending with a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.”

And Beth Reinhard notes this overlooked bit from Rubio: “By delivering the Republican response to the State of the Union speech in Spanish, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on Tuesday broke through an increasingly powerful language barrier between the political establishment and the nation’s fastest-growing demographic. Rubio pretaped his remarks in Spanish and was the first opposition leader whose official response was broadcast on English and Spanish television networks.”

Politico: “Rand Paul tackled gun control, drone strikes, immigration and — first and foremost — spending cuts in a blistering ‘tea party’ response to the President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address.”

Reuters: “U.S. Senator Rand Paul blamed Republicans and Democrats for heavy government spending on Tuesday in an address responding to President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech on behalf of the small-government, fiscally conservative Tea Party movement. … Paul's remarks under the Tea Party banner prompted talk of division within the Republican Party. But Paul's speech echoed many themes in the official Republican response to Obama's remarks by Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who like Paul was elected in 2010 with strong Tea Party support.”

And this is why inviting Ted Nugent is a problem. He slammed Rhode Island Rep. Jim Langevin, who was critical of the decision to invite Nugent. Langevin is in a wheelchair from a gunshot as a teenager. Nugent: “He probably has s**t for brains. … “I couldn't be more proud of myself, what I stand for, and for this pompous ass to claim that he cares more about a family that lost a child than I do is a perfect example of the brain dead critics of Ted Nugent.”

President Barack Obama challenged Republicans on major tax and entitlement proposals in Tuesday's State of the Union address, unveiling sweeping new initiatives to boost the middle class while taking aim at GOP recalcitrance.

The president traveled to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for the annual speech, where he pressed Republicans to allow his proposals on issues ranging from taxes and entitlements to guns and immigration to move forward. While Obama seemed determined to advance his ambitious agenda, he must race against a window of opportunity that often closes quickly on presidents in their second terms. 

Moreover, the president's plans will have to survive the brier patch of Capitol Hill, where Republicans have strenuously opposed much of Obama’s agenda and are girding for a major springtime showdown on budgets and the swift, automatic spending cuts known as the sequester.

“Let's be clear: deficit reduction alone is not an economic plan,” said Obama, who argued that his second term priorities did not represent “bigger government,” but rather, “smarter government.”

Obama spent much of the first half of his speech challenging Republicans on that central issue after two years of legislating in Washington that saw the government lurch from the brink of a shut down to the brink of a debt-limit default to the brink of automatic tax hikes. 

“Let’s agree, right here, right now, to keep the people’s government open, pay our bills on time, and always uphold the full faith and credit of the United States of America,” the president said. 

The assertive rhetoric from Obama recalled the themes on which he successfully campaigned for re-election last fall. Tuesday’s speech mostly lived up to its billing by the White House as a coda to the liberal call-to-arms in Obama's second inaugural address on issues ranging from government spending to gay rights and immigration reform.

One issue on which Obama did not campaign -- stricter gun controls -- featured more poignantly in Tuesday's speech. Gun violence has unwittingly become a cornerstone of Obama's second term agenda following the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn. last December.

Gun control is an issue on which Obama faces stiffer Republican resistance, and the president took a much more personal tack in pressing lawmakers to take up his proposals. He turned victims of high-profile shootings in attendance at Tuesday’s speech in urging lawmakers to, at the very least, allow his gun proposals a vote.

"Gabby Giffords deserves a vote," he said, referring to the critically injured former Arizona congresswoman in the House chamber. "The families of Newtown deserve a vote. The families of Aurora deserve a vote. The families of Oak Creek, and Tucson, and Blacksburg, and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence – they deserve a simple vote."

Obama’s speech on Tuesday was delivered in the same vein; the president embraced proposals that might encounter resistance in this Congress, such as new legislation to address climate change. But, in a reflection of Obama’s newfound feistiness in a second term, the president vowed to take executive action if Congress would not act.

Obama made other proposals he said would bolster the middle class. Among Obama’s proposals were: universal access to preschool for all four-year-olds, increasing the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour by the end of 2015, $50 billion in infrastructure spending, and partnerships to promote cleaner energy and improved manufacturing.

Those initiatives, the president pledged, should not increase the deficit “by a single dime.”

To help finance those initiatives, Obama called for broad individual and corporate tax reforms, as well as savings from entitlement programs like Medicare – changes to which have been a lightning rod in recent election cycles. Those proposals carefully track with Obama's previous demands to close loopholes and deductions to raise new revenue in tax reform.

But Republicans have argued that the matter of new revenue is “settled” following a fiscal cliff deal that saw the GOP relent to higher taxes on household income above $450,000. To that end, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, in the official Republican response, called on Obama to “abandon his obsession with raising taxes and instead work with us to achieve real growth in our economy.”

RELATED: Rubio to frame bitter tax, spending fights in humanizing terms

Obama’s ambitious plans come as he’s asking lawmakers to approve two other major proposals: comprehensive immigration reform that gives undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship, and a series of tighter controls on firearms as part of a broader effort to curb gun violence.

On immigration, the president lauded a bipartisan Senate group’s work on immigration.

Slideshow: State of the Union

Charles Dharapak / Pool / EPA

Click to see pictures from President Obama's State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress.

Launch slideshow

“As we speak, bipartisan groups in both chambers are working diligently to draft a bill, and I applaud their efforts,” he said. “Now let’s get this done. Send me a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the next few months, and I will sign it right away."

But for as much as fiscal matters and economic policy have dominated discussion in Washington, Obama devoted a good part of his State of the Union speech to foreign policy – highlighting in particular the planned withdrawal of 34,000 American troops from Afghanistan in the next year, a tangible symbol of how that war is winding to its end.

Obama also used his speech to address some of the emergent national security issues. He condemned North Korea’s nuclear test on Tuesday and pledged to work with Congress to develop rules for the use of unmanned aerial drones in targeting terrorists for assassination. The administration has faced new scrutiny on that latter issue amid the revelation of a new White House memo arguing that the president has wide latitude to target Americans for assassination if they’re deemed to be assisting terrorist actors.

Obama additional announced a new executive order to inoculate U.S. infrastructure from a cyber-attack, by enabling greater information-sharing between the government and its partners and calling for the development of a National Infrastructure Protection Plan within 240 days.

The event, as always, was filled with Washington pomp and circumstance, including lawmakers to arrived hours earlier to reserve prime seats for themselves. Also, in keeping with tradition, outgoing Energy Secretary Steven Chu was kept spirited away from the Capitol to ensure continuity of government in case of a security incident.

This story was originally published on Tue Feb 12, 2013 8:35 PM EST

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio will look to jettison Republicans’ caricature as a party of the rich in the official Republican response Tuesday to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address.

Recommended: Obama says Bolstering middle class must be policy 'North Star'

Rubio, the Cuban-American senator and a rising Republican star, will frame Washington’s bitter fights over taxes and spending in humanizing terms. His remarks seem firmly tied to the broader Republican effort to expand its reach and shirk the image of a GOP that has grown older, whiter and more dominated by men.

“Mr. President, I still live in the same working class neighborhood I grew up in. My neighbors aren't millionaires. They're retirees who depend on Social Security and Medicare. They're workers who have to get up early tomorrow morning and go to work to pay the bills. They're immigrants, who came here because they were stuck in poverty in countries where the government dominated the economy,” Rubio will say, according to English-language excerpts released by his office. (Rubio will also deliver a pre-taped response in Spanish.)

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Florida Senator Marco Rubio speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on Aug. 30, 2012 in Tampa.

“Mr. President, I don't oppose your plans because I want to protect the rich. I oppose your plans because I want to protect my neighbors,” the Florida senator will add.

Rubio’s speech will also seize upon anemic U.S. economic growth in the fourth quarter of last year to argue that increased revenues would only stifle the sluggish recovery from the 2008 recession.

“Raising taxes won't create private sector jobs. And there's no realistic tax increase that could lower our deficits by almost $4 trillion,” Rubio will say. “That's why I hope the President will abandon his obsession with raising taxes and instead work with us to achieve real growth in our economy."

Recommended: Florida – the state to watch over the next four years

The Republican’s speech sets the stage for this spring’s fight over alternative Democratic and Republican budget proposals, both of which are tied into resolving the so-called “sequester” – the swift, automatic spending cuts that make up part of the “fiscal cliff.” Lawmakers delayed the onset of these cuts until Mar. 1, but lawmakers appear nowhere near a deal to avoid its effects, which would threaten to hamper economic growth and harm national security, according to the Obama administration.

Among other policy specifics upon which Rubio will touch are budgets and entitlement reforms. The first-term senator will call for ratifying a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution – a proposal that has failed before in Congress – as well as changes to Medicare that would shore up the program’s solvency for future generations.

Marco Rubio’s rise within the Republican Party, just two years since his election to the Senate, has played out at head-spinning speed.

The 41-year-old, Cuban-American junior senator from Florida, has carefully navigated a choppy political environment in the two years since he was first elected.

And now the Republican rock star gets his moment in the spotlight when he delivers the official response to the State of the Union address delivered minutes earlier by President Barack Obama – another political rock star whose meteoric ascent invites inevitable parallels for Rubio.

Virtually every step of Rubio’s budding career has been scrutinized closely for what it might mean for his future political prospects. And after maintaining a deliberately low profile for much of his first 24 months as a senator, Rubio has begun to embrace the spotlight, including Tuesday’s coveted job of delivering the official Republican response to the president.

Nicholas Kamm / AFP - Getty Images

Sen. Marco Rubio speaks at the BuzzFeed Brews newsmaker event in Washington on Feb. 5, 2013.

The intense focus on Rubio reflects the speed of his ascendancy within the Republican Party, an institution in search of a new, compelling leader after losing two consecutive presidential elections by wide margins.

The State of the Union response is generally sought by political leaders hoping to increase their national profile, even though the slot is more often fraught with the risk of political misfortune.

“Marco has to articulate a clear and optimistic vision for growth in America but at the same time present a clear alternative to President Obama's call for a big, centralized government,” said Ana Navarro, a Florida Republican strategist.

But accomplishing that goal could be difficult, even for a well-spoken politician like Rubio.

“It's an opportunity to be seen and heard by the nation but you run the risk that if you bomb, it'll be on your tombstone,” Navarro said. “Marco is an eloquent speaker, an extraordinary orator. But this is the toughest gig in politics, by far. Following the president of the United States at the [State of the Union], which is full of pomp, circumstance and tradition, it's not an easy task.”

Rubio’s importance to the Republican Party is practically assumed at this point. When reports emerged in June that suggested Rubio had been left off Mitt Romney’s short-list of running mates, the GOP presidential nominee had to hastily stage a statement to declare that the Florida senator was being “thoroughly vetted” for the job.

Now, the Floridian has a chance to add another notch his burgeoning political belt.

Rubio has most recently shouldered the burden of selling a comprehensive immigration reform framework – which he helped craft as a member of a bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senatorial group – to skeptical conservatives.

He has made the rounds on conservative talk radio to talk-up the plan, which includes a proposal to give undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship. A similar plan earned President George W. Bush a rebuke from the right. But many of those same critics are now praising Rubio for his work, even if they haven't endorsed the proposal.

Rubio is expected to address immigration in his State of the Union response, but as part of a broader discussion about growing the economy and helping the middle class, according to an aide to the senator.

"He’ll explain why President Obama’s call for big government is bad for the middle class, and why limited but effective government will grow our economy and create jobs," the aide said.

Democrats are casting Rubio’s expected speech as little more than a rehash of staid Republican proposals.

“While the president will offer new ideas and an agenda for the next year to continue to grow our economy and broaden opportunity for the middle class, Sen. Rubio and the Republican Party – despite their desire to learn to be a ‘happy’ party that just needs to smile more – will continue to offer Americans more of the same failed policies that were rejected by the American people last November,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.

Indeed, part of Rubio’s task involves advancing a broader Republican effort to make the party more appealing to a changing electorate, especially after Obama won 71 percent of the Hispanic or Latino vote in his re-election bid last fall.

Rubio’s popularity in Republican circles is undoubtedly tied to his status as one of the most prominent elected Latino officials in either party. Rubio is writing the remarks himself, per his aide, and will deliver them in both English and Spanish – the first time the same person has delivered the official response in both languages.

(Rubio will tape the Spanish-language version beforehand, and deliver the English version live on national television.)

Still, Rubio’s rise – and, with it, the speculation about whether he’ll run for president in 2016 – comes well before the next election. There are plenty of pitfalls and challenges to sustaining momentum awaiting the Florida senator in the next few years.

But a scant two years of federal experience hasn't always been a limitation when a politician is eyeing the presidency a full four years out from the next election. Just ask Barack Obama.

Chris Cillizza notes in the Washington Post: “Marco Rubio’s selection to deliver the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union cements the Florida senator’s role as a first-among-equals when it comes to the future leaders of the party, and sets up an intriguing dynamic over the next few years between Rubio and the man he almost certainly wants to replace.”

“Marco Rubio won’t just give the Republican rebuttal to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday night. The Florida Senator will give two. One in English. Otro en Español,” according to the Miami Herald. “It’s the first time such a high-profile speech will be given in two languages by the same person, and it’s a sign of how crucial the Rubio has become in the GOP efforts to draw more Hispanic support and rebrand the party.”

“Republican Savior” Marco Rubio is the cover of this week’s Time magazine.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio will deliver Republicans' response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday, GOP leaders announced Wednesday.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., selected Rubio -- an influential Latino conservative who was first elected in 2010 -- to speak for Republicans in their official response to the president's speech.

The State of the Union response slot is often seen as a potential launching platform for politicians who harbor national ambitions; fittingly, Rubio is one of the most-hyped figures in the GOP, and is thought to have designs on the party's presidential nomination in 2016. The honor carries a degree of risk, however: many past figures to deliver their party's response have been panned for their performance.

Nicholas Kamm / AFP - Getty Images

Republican Sen. from Florida Marco Rubio speaks at the BuzzFeed Brews newsmaker event in Washington on February 5, 2013.

“I’m honored to have this opportunity to discuss how limited government and free enterprise have helped make my family’s dreams come true in America,” the Florida senator said in a statement. “Limited government and free enterprise are the very foundation of what makes America special and separates us from the world, particularly through our strong middle class.  I look forward to laying out the Republican case of how our ideas can help people close the gap between their dreams and the opportunities to realize them.”

Rubio has also helped take the lead recently in working with a bipartisan group of senators to craft a comprehensive immigration reform bill that allows a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Rubio has worked to sell that legislation to conservatives, just as immigration is sure to figure prominently in Obama's yearly address on Tuesday.

"His speech will focus on the Republican Party's agenda to grow the middle class," a Rubio aide said. "Immigration will likely be mentioned as one way to grow the economy, but the speech really is about the Republican Party's commitment to limited government as the best way to help the middle class, and how it differs from the President's plans for bigger government."

"Marco Rubio is one of our party’s most dynamic and inspiring leaders. He carries our party’s banner of freedom, opportunity and prosperity in a way few others can. His family’s story is a testament to the promise and greatness of America,” Boehner said in a statement. 

Added McConnell: "Marco Rubio embodies the optimism that lies at the heart of the Republican vision for America. On Tuesday, he will contrast the Republican approach to the challenges we face with President Obama’s vision of an ever-bigger government and the higher taxes that would be needed to pay for it."

Updated 3:34 p.m. ET - President Barack Obama hailed the Senate's bipartisan immigration framework at a major speech on that topic this afternoon in Nevada, but threatened to send his own alternative legislation to Capitol Hill if Congress fails to act.

The president embraced of a statement of principles offered Monday by four Democratic and four Republican senators, which would strengthen border security and employment verification in exchange for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants in the United States.

"The good news is that -- for the first time in many years -- Republicans and Democrats seem ready to tackle this problem together," Obama said in his speech in Las Vegas, according to prepared excerpts.

Jason Reed / Reuters

President Barack Obama arrives in Las Vegas, Jan. 29. Obama arrived in Nevada to deliver remarks on immigration reform.

"And yesterday, a bipartisan group of senators announced their principles for comprehensive immigration reform, which are very much in line with the principles I've proposed and campaigned on for the last few years," the president also said. "At this moment, it looks like there's a genuine desire to get this done soon. And that's very encouraging."

But in a speech in Nevada -- a Southwestern state that has experienced a boom in its Hispanic population -- the president said he refused to allow comprehensive immigration reform "to get bogged down in an endless debate."

"It's important for us to realize that the foundation for bipartisan action is already in place," he said. If lawmakers fail to advance their own proposal, Obama said he would send legislation to Congress based on his own principles "and insist that they vote on it right away."

He said at the top of his speech: "I'm here because the time has come for common-sense, comprehensive immigration reform."

The president used Tuesday's speech in Nevada to outline many of those principles, which rest on four pillars: strengthening border security, cracking down on employers who hire undocumented workers, streamlining legal immigration and -- most importantly -- offering undocumented workers an earned path to citizenship. 

Those pillars mostly resemble the bipartisan Senate framework unveiled on Monday by lawmakers, which has prompted hopes that Congress would finally be able to advance a comprehensive immigration reform law, a priority that eluded Obama during his first term, and President George W. Bush before him.

The primary sticking point in those fights has been the pathway to citizenship, which conservatives deride as "amnesty" for those who have broken the law. Already, some prominent conservatives have expressed their skepticism of the Senate framework for exactly that reason.

"Yes, they broke the rules," Obama said of those undocumented immigrants. "They crossed the border illegally. Maybe they overstayed their visas. But these 11 million men and women are now here."

Republicans in particular had been closely watching Obama's actions for cues as to how the administration might handle immigration, and the emerging Senate deal. Republican lawmakers have openly worried that the president might stake out stark positions and oppose some of the enforcement measures included in the Senate framework, namely the trigger that would only allow a pathway to citizenship once the border enforcement mechanisms had been verified. 

"There are a lot of ideas about how best to fix our broken immigration system," said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. "Any solution should be a bipartisan one, and we hope the President is careful not to drag the debate to the left and ultimately disrupt the difficult work that is ahead in the House and Senate."

But Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a rock star to conservatives who's seen as eyeing a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, has taken an active lead in selling this proposal to the right. Rubio has appeared in conservative media to both discourage Obama from opposing enforcement provisions, but also talk up the proposal as the best chance at compromise for Republicans.

"If, in fact, this bill does not have real triggers in there -- in essence, if there's not language in this bill that guarantees that nothing else happens unless these enforcement mechanisms are in place -- then I won't support it," Rubio, a member of the bipartisan gang of eight, told conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday. "But the principles clearly call for that."

But the president generally spoke in broad terms, and did not draw any bright lines as it relates to the Senate proposal. 

"I believe we are finally at a moment where comprehensive immigration reform is finally within our grasp," he said.

A bipartisan group of senators formally unveiled an immigration reform framework that they hope the Senate could pass "in overwhelming and bipartisan fashion" by late spring or early summer.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday on Capitol Hill, five of the eight members of a bipartisan working group announced the contours of their agreement, which would shore up America's borders and provide an eventual path to citizenship for undocumented workers.

"We still have a long way to go, but this bipartisan grouping is a major breakthrough," New York Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democratic member of the group of eight, said Monday afternoon.

Schumer, the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate, set an ambitious goal of translating the statement of principles released Sunday evening by the senators into legislation by March. He said the Senate would try to approve the legislation for consideration in the House by the end of spring, or early summer.

The major development involves the pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers that would be established under the Senate plan. Conservatives have resisted similar proposals -- even when they were proposed by President George W. Bush -- and labeled them as "amnesty" for individuals who entered the United States illegally.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said that Americans "have been too content for too long" to allow many undocumented workers to provide basic services "while not affording them any of the benefits that make our country so great."

"It is not beneficial to this country to have these people here, hidden in the shadows," added McCain, whose own experience on the issue of immigration provides an instructive example of why immigration reform has been so elusive for Congress.

McCain had long been one of the most vocal advocates of a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers, but tempered his opinions in recent years amid conservative scrutiny. As he was fighting off a conservative primary challenger in 2010, McCain appeared in a television ad saying it was time to "build the danged fence" -- a reference to the proposed fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, which is favored by a number of Republicans.

The senators' announcement on Monday comes a day before President Barack Obama was set to make a major policy address on Tuesday in Nevada on the topic of immigration. While Obama had not been expected to outline any formal legislation during his remarks, lawmakers from both parties will carefully parse the president's words for their impact on the immigration debate. Schumer said that he had spoken to the president about the Senate framework, and that the president was "delighted" by it.

Obama himself had vowed to achieve comprehensive immigration reform during his first term, but his efforts were stymied. That failure invited a degree of consternation from the Latino community during last year's presidential campaign, even though Obama had taken executive action to halt the deportation of individuals who were illegally brought to the United States as children.

(That order, made by Obama last summer, sought to effectively enact much of the DREAM Act, a piece of legislation that failed in the Senate as recently as 2010, when some Republicans who'd previously supported the law flipped, and voted against it.)

Indeed, the success of this push in the Senate may well hinge on Republicans' willingness to go along with a plan that gives undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship. Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, an influential House Republican, already labeled the Senate framework as "amnesty" in a statement on Monday.

House GOP leaders were otherwise mum on Monday toward the Senate proposal, though top Republicans have previously expressed a preference for tackling immigration in a piecemeal manner.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a member of the eight-member group and a favorite of conservatives, has worked to gather conservative support for the proposal. He said at Monday's press conference that while no one is happy about the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally, "We have an obligation and need to address the reality that we face."

The other factor weighing upon Republicans involves their poor performance among Hispanic voters -- a bloc that is growing in importance in a variety of key battleground states -- during last fall's election.

"The Republican Party is losing support of our Hispanic citizens," McCain said Monday in a nod toward a variable that could convince more GOP lawmakers to support this bipartisan proposal. But, McCain noted, "We're not going to get everybody onboard."

In the meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pledged to "do everything in [his] power as the majority leader to get a bill across the finish line."

"Nothing short of bipartisan success is acceptable to me," he said in remarks on the Senate floor preceding the group of eight's press conference.

TAMPA, FL -- Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney reined in his criticism of President Barack Obama on Wednesday, signaling a softer tone at the outset of a three-stop swing through Florida coinciding with the president's trip to New Jersey to survey hurricane damage.

Returning to the campaign trail after cancelling several campaign events out of respect to victims of Hurricane Sandy, Romney joined several prominent Florida Republicans in blending a pitch for storm recovery support with more traditional political fanfare.

In his first formal campaign event (Romney morphed one planned stop in Ohio into a "relief event" on Tuesday), Romney struck hopeful notes.

"You should know I could not be in this race if I were not an optimist. I believe in the future of this country I know we have huge challenges, but I’m not frightened by them, I’m invigorated by the challenge," Romney told supporters gathered in an airplane hangar here near the close of his remarks. "We’re going to take on these challenges we’re going to overcome them!"

And Romney included an entreaty for donations to the Red Cross as the East Coast reels from the impact of the hurricane earlier this week. (Romney himself made a donation to the Red Cross, an aide told NBC News.)

"If you have an extra dollar or two, send them along and keep the people who are in harms – who have been in harms way, who’ve been damaged either personally or through their property, keep them in your thoughts and prayers," Romney said. "We love all of our fellow citizens.  We come together in times like this and we want to make sure that they have a speedy and quick recovery from their financial and in many cases, personal loss."

Romney was joined on the trail by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the latter of whom noted that Floridians are more familiar with hurricanes than most of the nation, and urged the roughly 2,000 attendees here to pay back the generosity they have experienced after past storms.

"People are going to be living with the aftermath of the storm, and so our hearts and our prayers go out to them, and also our help," Rubio said. "If you see on the screen the number you can text the Red Cross and make your donation. We have been the beneficiary of these donations in the past. Let's make sure we pay it forward for our neighbors and fellow Americans up north who are suffering."

Bush, who had to handle numerous hurricanes during his time as governor, also waded into the politics of disaster relief, suggesting that local governments contributed more to recovery efforts than the federal government.

"My experience in all this emergency response business is that it is the local level and the state level that really matters," he said to applause. "That if they do their job right the federal government part works out pretty good."

Brian Snyder / Reuters

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney greets audience members at a campaign rally in Tampa, Florida October 31, 2012.

But today's event was certainly a return to the issues that have driven the campaign for the last year -- with Romney criticizing the president's stewardship of the economy indirectly, and offering his own plan in contrast.

“My view is pretty straight forward and that is I believe that this is time for America to take a different course, that this should be a turning point for our country, and I say that because I look at where we are and with 23 million Americans – you think about that. These are real people. These are folks trying to put food on the table," Romney said. "Twenty-three million people struggling to find a good job. This is something that requires in my view a different path than we’ve been on."

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

Reuters, Getty Images

In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

Launch slideshow

PENSACOLA, FL -- Campaigning in this famous Navy town on Florida's panhandle, Mitt Romney returned to a topic from last week's final presidential debate, slamming the president for proposed defense cuts and pushing his plan to expand the US naval fleet.

“In 2010, then-President Obama came to Pensacola. You probably weren’t there, but some folks were. And he took pride in saying, and I quote, that he had halted reductions in the Navy. That’s what he said. But today, he again has shrunk to a smaller version of the Navy and his view of the Navy’s role," Romney told a crowd of 10,000 supporters here Saturday, setting the scene.

Related: Romney turns Obama's attacks back against the president

"You may recall in our most recent debate I made the point that our Navy is now smaller than any time well, in almost a hundred years, and the president’s response was, well, you know, we don’t use bayonets and horses anymore. And, uh, in fact we do use bayonets, and a modern Navy is one of the critical elements that allows us to protect sea lanes and to keep the world more free and prosperous," Romney said.

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

Reuters, Getty Images

In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

Launch slideshow

The former Massachusetts governor has made increasing the size and role of the Navy a cornerstone of his military policy. Here in Pensacola, home to a major Naval installation where former GOP presidential candidate John McCain went to flight school, his plan for the Navy took on an outsize role in what was otherwise a largely boilerplate stump speech.

"I believe in a modern Navy. That’s why my plan is to increase the number of ships we’re building to maintain our strong commitment to our military," Romney said. "His vision is not greatness in America’s Navy or America’s military. His vision is to cut our military spending by a trillion dollars. And by the way, a trillion dollars in cuts would cost about 41,000 jobs here in Florida, and think of all the businesses that depend on all those jobs. It’s extraordinary, but the president’s agenda keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller.”

Saturday is the first day for early voting in Florida, a key battleground state that is pivotal to Romney's chances of taking the White House in 10 days. While Romney himself did not mention early voting in his remarks, both Sen. Marco Rubio and Senate hopeful Rep. Connie Mack urged supporters to cast their ballots right away.

"You know today is the first day of early voting, so when you're done here today, what are you going to do?" Mack asked, as the crowd shouted back "Vote!"

"You're gonna go out and vote and then you're gonna call your friends, you're gonna call your neighbors, you're gonna call your family. No matter where they are, tell them to get out to vote."