Sen. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.) tells NRO that President Obama has a “tremendous opportunity” tonight to “seize the moment.”

“This moment is more important for President Obama than it was for [Bill] Clinton in 1995,” Alexander observes, in an interview outside the upper chamber. “President Clinton had a political problem in ’95.”

“The problem we have today is a problem for the country,” Alexander says, pointing to the country’s high rate of unemployment and its ballooning federal deficit. “This is a crucial moment for the country, and therefore for the president”

“He should confront this debt and say that we’ll deal with the whole budget,” Alexander advises. “He can do what only the president in our system can do: See a need, develop a strategy, and persuade at least half the country that he’s right. An individual senator can’t do that, a single congressman can’t do that, a governor can’t do that — only a president can do it.”

“He has to start that tonight,” Alexander says. “If he ducks it, we won’t be able to get it done.”