Howard Fineman: The Emotion Of The Night

Howard Fineman: The Emotion Of The Night

I was playing the role of hard-boiled -- not to say cynical -- reporter on the Hill when I got into a conversation with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz after the president's State of the Union address Tuesday night.

"So," I asked, "do YOU have your own personal victim of gun-violence with you tonight?"

The Florida Democrat, an important party leader, shot me a glance that was equal parts pity, surprise and annoyance. "Yes I do," she said, and turned to introduce me to 17-year-old from Miami named Megan Hobson. The young woman explained that she had been injured in a drive-by shooting last year.

"We needed to have people here such as Megan to underscore the point we want to make about gun violence," Wasserman Schultz said.

President Barack Obama laid out a detailed progressive agenda, a recitation that some pundits panned, but that early polls showed the public liked. Still, the emotional highlight -- and potentially most politically astute maneuver -- was when Obama and his fellow Democrats discussed the lives and losses of gun-violence victims.

In an effort organized by five Democrats from New York and New England -- the region of Newtown -- more than 30 members brought to the Capitol families that had experienced gun-related tragedies. It was powerful theater, especially when Obama himself paid homage to the parents of a victim from Chicago.

Using the call-and-response cadence of a church service, the president demanded that the Congress allow up-or-down votes on several gun measures. The idea was to put Republicans and wavering Democrats from Red States on the spot.

And it felt in the House Chamber Tuesday night that he had done so.

"The president backed them into a corner and they sat there like they were trying out for stone faces on Mount Rushmore," said Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee. "I loved that. And maybe we'll get those voters."

Maybe the Democrats and Obama will. Whether they will win them is another matter. If they do, the beginning of the story of that victory will be this night in the U.S. House -- and with people such as Megan Hobson.

-- Howard Fineman