Written by Hayley Tsukayama and Eric Roper in Washington.
We'll bring you more comprehensive analysis of the delegation's reaction to tonight's State of the Union speech tomorrow morning. But here is what some of Minnesota's lawmakers were saying as they left the gallery tonight.
Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said one of her primary take-aways from the speech was that the country needs to rally together.
“This focus on innovation and bringing people together to move our economy – I really believe that was the defining part of the speech in addition to the talk about regaining people’s trust," Klobuchar said.
Regarding whether Obama's call for bipartisanship was realistic in this political climate, Klobuchar quipped, "It’s not just realistic in the Senate. We can’t do anything now unless its bi-partisan."
Rep. Michele Bachmann, a frequent Obama critic, appreciated the president's focus on jobs, reducing spending and cutting the deficit -- though she's doubtful he will be able to effectively tackle the problem.
“It’s a good message. It’s a great message," the Stillwater Republican said. "Unfortunately, I don’t think that the words that the president was saying will actually address that because the president got bad news today – 1.35 trillion dollars in deficit for this year and every year going forward through 2019 to the point where our debt will equal about 98 percent of GDP. This is not going to work going forward. And we need to reverse course quickly so that we don’t swamp our economy.”
Bachmann added that the speech shed light on Obama's intention to move forward with the Democratic health care plan, despite Republican Scott Brown's recent win in Massachusetts.
"He’s planning to go full-steam ahead," Bachmann said. "The American people need to be warned. And even though a lot of people think 'Obamacare' is pants on the ground, it really isn’t after all.”
Rep. Erik Paulsen, a Republican, said the president's speech had the right focus, but "the devil's in the details."
"It was a good speech. And truthfully the point is we’ve heard a lot of speeches and the most important thing is what happens after the speech," Paulsen said. "And I hope we’re going to make progress on the call for bipartisanship, on the call for addressing the spending and the deficit -- which are critical to the future of our country -- and focusing like a laser on jobs."
Rep. Keith Ellison, one of the most liberal members of Minnesota's congressional delegation, said he was pleased that Obama focused on creating jobs and pledged his support for health care reform. He was not as happy with the three-year budget freeze proposal, however.
"I think that he made it very clear that jobs are number one," Ellison said. "And he’s focused on job creation. I’m very happy about that. He also threw his shoulder behind health care reform and he’s committed to not letting this stall out. I think he knows that his destiny is tied up with the success of completing the health care efforts. So those were good. I wasn’t a big fan of the effort for the three-year budget freeze, but I’m happy that’s he’s not planning on starting this year.”
