New York (CNNMoney) - For the third year in a row energy played a central role in President Obama's State of the Union address, with the president leaning hard this year on the twin themes of increased domestic oil and gas production and the need to invest more in renewable sources.

"Right now, American oil production is the highest that it's been in eight years," said Obama. "Not only that - last year, we relied less on foreign oil than in any of the past sixteen years."

Washington (CNN) – President Barack Obama announced Tuesday the creation of a new trade enforcement unit that will be tasked with investigating unfair trade practices in countries, he said, "like China."

It was one of a handful of comments on international issues the president made during his annual State of the Union address, which mostly focused on domestic matters and the economy.

(CNN) - President Barack Obama delivers his annual State of the Union address Tuesday night in Washington. Check back here for updates from CNN reporters and producers on Capitol Hill and at the White House. Also tune into CNN for live coverage of the speech beginning at 8 p.m. ET, and afterward for a full wrap-up with reaction and analysis anchored by Anderson Cooper.

Read more here.

10:52 p.m. ET – GOP Rep. Flake on helping Rep. Giffords stand during Democratic applause lines during the president's address: "It was the least I could do."

10:50 p.m. ET - Former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain delivers a tea party response to the State of the Union. Watch here.

10:44 p.m. ET – Daniels ended by laying out a broad theme of the upcoming year for Republicans, who will be working to defeat President Obama and win seats in Congress.

"Republicans in 2012 welcome all our countrymen to a program of renewal that rebuilds the dream for all, and makes our ‘city on a hill’ shine once again.”
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Washington (CNN) - House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has been a fixture on the GOP presidential campaign trail of late, but not of her own accord.

Newt Gingrich - a former House speaker - and Pelosi - then the speaker - appeared side-by-side in a climate change commercial; Gingrich now says, "the dumbest thing I've done in the last four years was sit on a couch with Nancy Pelosi."
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New York (CNNMoney) - Okay, we get it. Mitt Romney is uber-rich.

And like a lot of wealthy investors, he's got money offshore, particularly the Cayman Islands.

Punta Gorda, Florida (CNN) - At a tea party rally here Tuesday evening on the banks of Charlotte Harbor, Rick Santorum offered up a vociferous defense of law enforcement profiling when asked about possible overreach by the Transportation Security Administration.

"We are spending billions and billions of dollars, wasting money, wasting time, delaying people. A United States senator's going to be secondarily searched? Oh everybody should be treated the same," Santorum said sarcastically, referring to a recent incident where Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was forced to miss his flight after refusing a secondary search. "Use common sense. Please."
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Washington (CNN) – The White House is facing hostile fire from Republicans in the final hours leading up to the State of the Union address.

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney accused the president of offering more “partisan planks for his election campaign.”

Washington (CNN) – Are American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS comparable to labor unions and MoveOn.org? Democratic activists scoff at the question. But Steven Law, Crossroads' CEO, says yes.

"American Crossroads was conceived as an answer to the hundreds of millions of dollars that unions and MoveOn.org and other groups on the left have been spending for years to support Democrats," Law said.

Washington (CNN) - In what could be his final State of the Union address, President Barack Obama on Tuesday will call keeping alive the American dream "the defining issue of our time" and pledge to fight obstruction by congressional Republicans.

The speech to a joint sitting of Congress is an annual evening of political pageantry, but the stakes are higher this year with Obama's re-election on the line in November.

Lehigh Acres, Florida (CNN) - Mitt Romney hit the reset button. In a day that could mark a turning point for his campaign, the GOP contender released his tax returns and returned to an investment strategy that has paid dividends in the past: spend more time attacking the President.

To hammer the point home, the former Massachusetts governor chose two compelling backdrops to deliver what his campaign described as a "pre-buttal" to the President's State of the Union address.
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