Soft answers to hard questions: A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey uncovers the concerns the public wants addressed by the president in his State of the Union address tonight. The survey provided a list of goals, but respondents were told that only one could be achieved in the next year. Here’s what they picked:

• 35 percent: “bring most of the American forces home from Iraq”
• 20 percent: deal with health care coverage and costs
• 17 percent: the economy
• 11 percent: simplify the new Medicare prescription-drug program
• Less than 10 percent: reduce the federal deficit or cut taxes