Sneak Peak to State of the Union: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22, 2011 -- Days before his State of the Union address, President Obama offered a sneak peek tonight into the ideas that will shape his address to the nation Tuesday night.

With the unemployment rate sitting at 9.4 percent, Obama indicated he will spend a large portion of his speech addressing the economy and ways to ensure America remains competitive.

"My number one focus is going to be making sure that we are competitive, that we are growing, and we are creating jobs," Obama said today in a Democratic National Committee video previewing his State of the Union Address.

Though he admitted to still making final touches on the speech, the president told supporters he will pledge to make the economy his number one priority, ensuring that the economy grows and more jobs are created for Americans across the country while also working to slash the deficit and trim the government to a more efficient level.

"I'm focused on making sure the economy is working for everybody, for the entire American family," he said.

In addition to the state of the economy, the president said he will urge the country to engage in a more civil discourse.

This is a message the president and Vice President Biden delivered to Democratic House members over the weekend.

"We've got to change the way we talk to one another," Biden said Friday. "It matters in terms of how we're going to deal with the problems of this country, whether we're actually going to respond to the needs of the American people."

House Democrats gathered at a retreat in Cambridge, Md., to discuss one of the biggest challenges they have faced in four years -- governing as a minority.

For the first time since 2006, Republicans are in control of the House a fact many House Democrats are struggling to embrace.

"You have brought a group of members together that do not have a minority psychology," House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, said.

As they grapple with their new minority position in the House, some Democrats, including some who lost their seats in November's election, are pouring over polls, taking seminars in messaging and listening to inspirational authors as a means of understanding how they reached this state.

"I don't think they are projecting that they got the message quite yet," said Bud Cramer, a former Democratic Congressman from Alabama. "I think they have been wounded."

Cramer, who is now chairman of the Blue Dog Research Forum, suggests that a message of bi-partisanship may be the key for the Democratic Party to regain its position in Congress.

"The message that Democrats better be delivering is we get it," Cramer said. "We may have overreached for the last two years, but we need to buckle in and we need to reach across the aisle."

And while Democrats strategize on how to govern as a minority in the House, they are receiving plenty of advice.

ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd points to a change in the tone adopted by the party and dedication to supporting the president as fundamental in their journey to success along with sitting back and letting Republicans make some mistakes of their own.

"Let the Republicans shoot themselves in the foot for a period of time," Dowd said. "And they can come in with answers."