Mitch Daniels to slam Obama on Keystone XL pipeline in GOP State of the Union response

In an early release of some portions his Republican rebuttal to President Obama's State of the Union address tonight, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels attempts to paint Mr. Obama as a divisive figure in Washington while also criticizing his decision to block the construction of a trans-national oil pipeline.

The two-term governor sharply criticizes the president's decision to hold off on the construction of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline that would transport 700,000 barrels of oil a day from Western Canada to the Gulf Coast.

"The extremism that stifles the development of homegrown energy, or cancels a perfectly safe pipeline that would employ tens of thousands, or jacks up consumer utility bills for no improvement in either human health or world temperature, is a pro-poverty policy," Daniels will say.

Republicans have promised to make sure Keystone is a thorn in Mr. Obama's side as he seeks re-election this year. In addition to Daniels' speech highlighting the pipeline, House Speaker Boehner invited four proponents of the 1,700 mile project to sit in his reserved seats in the House gallery for the president's speech.

In the speech, Daniels also attacks Mr. Obama as being a political operative failing to listen to Republican ideas.

"No feature of the Obama Presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others," Daniels says, referring to the president's efforts to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, a plan he is set to detail tonight known as the Buffett rule, named after billionaire Warren Buffett.

President Obama's third State of the Union

The governor also challenges Mr. Obama's populist message that everyone should get a "fair shot" while "everyone plays by the same set of rules." In response, Daniels also evokes a populist message, saying: "We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of haves and have nots; we must always be a nation of haves and soon to haves."

Read the full excerpts of Governor Daniels' speech below:

"As Republicans our first concern is for those waiting tonight to begin or resume the climb up life's ladder. We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of haves and have nots; we must always be a nation of haves and soon to haves."

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"The extremism that stifles the development of homegrown energy, or cancels a perfectly safe pipeline that would employ tens of thousands, or jacks up consumer utility bills for no improvement in either human health or world temperature, is a pro-poverty policy. It must be replaced by a passionate pro-growth approach that breaks all ties and calls all close ones in favor of private sector jobs that restore opportunity for all and generate the public revenues to pay our bills.

"That means a dramatically simpler tax system of fewer loopholes and lower rates. A pause in the mindless piling on of expensive new regulations that devour dollars that otherwise could be used to hire somebody. It means maximizing on the new domestic energy technologies that are the best break our economy has gotten in years."

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"It's not fair and it's not true for the President to attack Republicans in Congress as obstacles on these questions. They and they alone have passed bills to reduce borrowing, reform entitlements, and encourage new job creation, only to be shot down nearly time and again by the President and his Democrat Senate allies."

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"No feature of the Obama Presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others. As in previous moments of national danger, we Americans are all in the same boat. If we drift, quarreling and paralyzed, over a Niagara of debt, we will all suffer, regardless of income, race, gender, or other category. If we fail to shift to a pro-jobs, pro-growth economic policy, there will never be enough public revenue to pay for our safety net, national security, or whatever size government we decide to have."

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"2012 must be the year we prove the doubters wrong. The year we strike out boldly not merely to avert national bankruptcy but to say to a new generation that America is still the world's premier land of opportunity. Republicans will speak for those who believe in the dignity and capacity of the individual citizen; who believe that government is meant to serve the people rather than supervise them; who trust Americans enough to tell them the plain truth about the fix we are in, and to lay before them a specific, credible program of change big enough to meet the emergency we are facing."