In speech, Obama set to admit missteps

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   >>> show.

   >>> but we begin this wednesday morning with president obama 's first state of the union address , a speech that comes at a pivotal time in his presidency. david gregory is the moderator of "meet the press." david, good morning to you.

   >> reporter: good morning, matt. well, high anxiety around the country means high stakes for the president tonight. the white house agenda and the fate of the president's party in this midterm election year are both riding on the new course the president sets in tonight's speech.

   >> the president of the united states .

   >> reporter: one overriding goal for mr. obama is to restore confidence in his leadership.

   >> i think it's a turning point for the president. he has to recapture the voice that he had during the campaign.

   >> reporter: while still personally popular, doubts are growing about his ability to solve problems. in a new nbc news/" wall street journal " poll, only 39% felt confident the president had the "right set of goals and policies to be president." 61% lacked confidence. tonight, even as the fate of his health care reform push remains unclear, the president will speak about the economy and announce a three-year spending freeze for many domestic programs. aides have defended the freeze against critics who claim the impact will be too small.

   >> this is only one component of what we are going to be doing to be bringing the deficits down over time . it's $250 billion over ten years. that's nothing to sneeze at.

   >> reporter: efforts to cut red ink come as the government announce a record $1.4 trillion deficit for this year. that, coupled with 10% unemployment, underscores growing political weakness for the president and democrats among independent voters.

   >> go, scott, go!

   >> reporter: the gop upset in massachusetts could be an early warning of what democrats will face this fall.

   >> he has to re-establish a connection to many of those voters who are feeling economically uneasy about the trajectory of the jobs, the stock markets and housing prices , but also disillusioned with what they are seeing out of washington , both with process and to some extent with substance.

   >> reporter: in fact, our new poll shows anger at washington spares no one. 93% say there is too much partisan fighting between the political parties . seven in ten say the federal government is not working well. most of the blame goes to republicans and democrats in congress.

   >> he's going to have to show that he's listened to the american people over the last few weeks and he's not impervious to that message.

   >> reporter: part of that message is where's the bipartisanship in washington ? look for the president to talk about that tonight, to call out republicans to get off the sidelines and to help govern. and what about health care ? well, the president will chart a course for the way forward on that, but there's a lot of question marks about that path, and right now, senior advisers say, meredith, the first goal is to get a jobs bill through the congress.

   >> david gregory , thank you very much. robert gibbs is the

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