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From Jim Forsyth's Reuters preview of Perry's speech today:

Perry has set a 1 p.m. news conference Monday in San Antonio to make what was billed as an important announcement.

Asked on "Fox News Sunday" whether a presidential run is in the cards, Perry said: "Well, certainly, that's an option out there, but, again, we got a lot of work to do in this building right behind me over the course of the next couple of weeks that have my focus substantially more than even 2014 or 2016."

The timing of his announcement comes shortly after he rehired his former presidential campaign communications director Mark Miner, and as Perry is locked in a heated battle with Texas Democrats over restrictions on abortion.

Perry begins his speech by listing accomplishments throughout Texas -- initiatives in education, public utilities, small business.

Perry references bouts with Texas legislature, strong link to recent abortion restrictions battles in state legislature. "You see, we Texans are not afraid of a good fight."

Perry: "Today I am announcing that I will not seek re-election as governor of Texas."

Yesterday, the Washington Post dug up two videos quite aptly showing, as they put it, "how you feel about the filibuster depend almost entirely on whether you are in the majority or the minority."

First we have Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in 2008 decrying a 2005 effort in the Republican-led Senate to change filibuster rules on judicial nominees. Reid's currently pushing to change filibuster rules on the president's non-judicial appointments.



On the flip side, so to speak, here is Senate Minority Leader McConnell (R-KY) echoing Reid 2013 during Senate Republicans' aforementioned 2005 push to eliminate the filibuster in certain cases and rely on a simple majority.

Buzzfeed reports on Senator Carl Levin's (D-MI) opposition to Democratic Majority Leader Reid's efforts to subvert filibusters on non-judicial nominees:

Levin is one of a dwindling number of old guard Senate Democrats who have expressed discomfort with the idea of changing the rules. But there is enormous pressure from Democratic base organizations to change the rules. And much of the Senate Democratic conference is made up of relative neophytes with little love for the chamber’s traditional rules that have turned it into a legislative quagmire.

Levin also recently announced that he won't be seeking re-election in 2014, perhaps making it easier to buck his own party and take a more traditionalist stand.

Meanwhile, Senator Gillibrand (D-NY) is holding a press conference on sexual assault in the military following yesterday's report of faulty military investigations of abuse. Patricia Zengerle is there for Reuters:

Here's how the Reuters preview by Roberta Rampton sets up today's speech:

Galesburg is a symbolic backdrop for the arguments Obama wants to make to Americans in coming weeks and months to prod Congress to allow him to spend more building roads and bridges and giving states grants to hire teachers.

He has described his speech in Galesburg as a "thematic" look at the issues, with details still to come.

In RealClearPolitics, Alexis Simendinger pulls the lens out to situate the speech in Obama's second term:

It comes as no surprise that President Obama wants to reset his messaging before Congress escapes Washington for a long August holiday. Filling the airwaves with presidential speeches, travel stops, news media encounters, and images of the president doing summer-y things is a tradition of the modern presidency.

But the enormous White House wind-up for an economic speech today that aides say will be long on vision and short on news suggests Obama is beginning to work on another kind of agenda -- speaking to the history books.

The Atlantic's Elspeth Reeve writes that Obama is pitching Republican Senators with his speech, as he focuses less on internecine legislative battles and DC jargon (it's worth listening for any mention of "sequester") and more on trying to convince wavering conservatives -- a more common animal in the Senate -- to collaborate, rather than watch more extreme House Republicans hold up any significant legislative accomplishments.

Obama takes the podium: "Hello, Galesburg! It's good to be back!"

Despite speculation below that Obama might pull back on sequester talk and direct attacks on Washington opponents, we're seeing a standard impassioned refrain here ticking off national security and other sequestration targets, as well as deflections of Republican attacks on Obamacare.

To echo Reuters reporter Jeff Mason below, this speech has a definite State of the Union feel to it, with the high levels of energy and applause coupled with sweeping rhetoric and proposals and a promise of more specific action to come.