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Doug Mills/The New York Times President Obama delivering the State of the Union address last January.

With four days until President Obama gives his State of the Union address, interest groups have buried the White House with a barrage of unsolicited advice about what they want him to say.

The suggestions come from all quarters — the Mr. Obama’s liberal supporters who are already suspicious of his commitment to their causes, the conservative activists who oppose his policies and independent groups who are urging compromise and conciliation.

Gun control groups want the president to call for restrictions on the size of high capacity ammunition clips. Gay rights organizations say he should talk about bullying aimed at homosexuals. Think tanks believe he should focus on the nation’s debt. Tea Party groups hope he will endorse a repeal of his health care overhaul.

Aides to Mr. Obama remained largely silent on which of those, if any, are likely to make it into the president’s address, which he will give Tuesday night in front of a joint session of Congress.

“The State of the Union is an annual occasion to get a mountain of advice both public and private on what to include in the speech,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the president’s communications director. “A lot ends up on the cutting room floor, but getting all the ideas and sifting through them is a very constructive process.”

The Caucus asked more than 20 interest groups in Washington what advice they are giving the president, either in public or in private. Here’s a sampling of their responses:

Mark McKinnon, No Labels: “President Obama, you have an opportunity in your State of the Union Address to bookend the great speech you delivered in Tucson.  We are at a potential inflection point in our politics where we have an opportunity to tone down heated hyper-partisan rhetoric and recognize that our opponents are not “enemies” but people of pure motive who just have a different approach and ideas.  Your speech next week can help heal the partisan breach by compelling us all to work together to achieve consensus on the pressing issues facing the country.”

Damon Silvers, policy director for the AFL-CIO: “We need to have an economic recovery that creates jobs and rebuilds the middle class because if we are reduced to competing to cut spending instead of deciding how to compete in the world economy then we are having the wrong conversation. … We also hope that the president will protect and defend Social Security and Medicare, which are crucial lifelines for working families, seniors and the disabled.”

Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women: “I am writing to you with a heartfelt plea to take a stand against Social Security benefit cuts or any other weakening of the program that may be attempted in the new Congress. Will you speak out against any undermining of Social Security in your State of the Union message?”

Edward F. Coyle, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans: “Retirees will be watching the State of the Union address on Tuesday, and they will support President Obama’s call to lower federal spending. But they know that Social Security did not create these deficits and that we cannot balance the budget on the backs of current and future retirees.”

Mark Meckler and Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinators of Tea Party Patriots: “Based on his newfound understanding and respect for the views of the majority of Americans, Tea Party Patriots hopes that he will encourage repeal of Obamacare in the Senate, and then sign the bill and begin to engage in true bipartisan negotiations to solve the nation’s health care problems.”

Colin Hanna, president of Let Freedom Ring: “If he fails to address the need to rein in the excessive and economically ineffective deficit spending of his administration’s first two years, anything that he says about raising the debt ceiling should be disregarded.”

Paul Helmke, the president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence: “We’re hoping he’s going to say something about gun violence. Here’s a chance for some leadership and some eloquence. He should call for a presidential commission on guns and support for the legislation limiting the size of ammo clips.”

Fred Sainz, spokesman for Human Rights Campaign: “This past year Americans were confronted with the epidemic of bullying against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people that goes on in our schools.  The State of the Union address would be an appropriate time for the president to assert leadership on this moral issue and call on all schools to address the problem head on.”

Jim Kessler, vice president for Third Way: “The president ought to make long term economic growth the theme of his State of the Union. He should declare that with the passage of health care reform, America’s 85-year quest to weave a strong safety net is now complete. From there he would describe a clear, tangible, and compelling destination for the nation – that of American excellence. It is a destination where America has the strongest, most vibrant, and most advanced economy on earth.”

Ralph Benko, senior adviser on Economics for American Principles Project: “President Obama must make the case that public funds for essential government services not be used up in paying exorbitant retirement benefits, a trillion dollar problem that news reports show is threatening more than 100 American municipalities with bankruptcy and up to 20 states with insolvency.”

Former Senator Pete Domenici, a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center: “First, he must carefully explain the severe nature of the nation’s debt and deficit problem, showing why it is unlike any other fiscal problem we have ever faced.  Next, he should discuss the consequences that may occur if we simply continue to delay facing the problem with concrete proposals.  Finally, I hope that he will outline a comprehensive plan of what must be contained in a real debt stabilization initiative.”

Adam Green, co-founder, Progressive Change Campaign Committee: “He should use the State of the Union to draw a firm line in the sand against any reduction of the Social Security benefits that American workers earned, paid for, and do not want to see cut. Then he should offer a progressive vision for creating jobs and fighting for middle class families over big corporations.”

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform: “You should say you recognize that spending $800 billion on stimulus didn’t create jobs. You should say you will bring corporate tax rates down, extend the expensing of business investment, and allow repatriation of overseas assets. These are tax cuts that you and Democrats have endorsed that would have bipartisan support.”

Richard Socarides, president of Equality Matters: “In order to be the kind of transformational  leader he can be, he should show the country the way forth on dismantling the so-called Defense of Marriage Act so that the law no longer robs the states of their right to decide the question of marriage, nor deprives lawfully married gay Americans of their federal benefits. That’s the advice I’m giving to all the people I know who might actually influence the speech. If you want to be a leader, this is the speech in which to do it.”

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And now, the arm-twisting.

When President Obama lamented on Tuesday that the rift among Democrats over his tax accord with Republicans was ‘’the public option debate all over again,’’ he was suggesting that he knows he has his work cut out for him. As in the current tax debate, liberal Democrats were incensed with Mr. Obama over his health care plan – and were ready to bolt because they believed the president had given up on one of his central goals, a government-backed health plan for low income people. It took some considerable presidential arm-twisting to keep them on board.

White House officials know that this time will be no different. For now, the White House is relying on Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. as its chief lobbyist on the tax measure, which would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for people of all income levels (Mr. Obama had vowed to end them for the wealthiest Americans) in exchange for continuing benefits for the long-term unemployed. Mr. Biden spent Tuesday in the Senate – an institution he knows well from the 36 years he spent there, representing his home state of Delaware – trying to sell the package, and he is likely to return to Capitol Hill on Wednesday for more smoothing of ruffled Democratic feathers.

At the moment, senior administration officials say, Mr. Obama has no plans to visit Capitol Hill and has no meetings with lawmakers scheduled. On Wednesday, he will meet with President Bronislaw Komorowski of Poland in the Oval Office and take questions from reporters afterward. (An opportunity for more grilling on the tax accord.) Later, he will meet with his Cabinet.

But depending on how Mr. Biden’s efforts go, senior officials say, Mr. Obama will most likely have to exert some of his own presidential muscle, either over the telephone or in private meetings, to get the measure passed. The president is scheduled to leave Dec. 18 for his annual Hawaiian vacation, and is hoping Congress will wrap up its business – including the tax deal and Senate ratification of a new arms treaty with Russia – before then.

Mr. Obama’s arm-twisting powers, though, are diminished. In the health care debate, Mr. Obama drew the consequences in stark terms for himself and the party. If the health bill fell through, he warned, it would undermine his ability to press other Democratic other priorities, like creating jobs and overhauling the nation’s immigration laws. Representative Raul Grijalva, the Arizona Democrat who now co-chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, recounted then how Mr. Obama told liberals that failure to pass the health measure would “weaken our presidency.’’

It would be difficult for Mr. Obama to make that case now. With Republicans set to take over the House, and the prospect of a slimmed-down Democratic majority in the Senate, Mr. Obama’s presidency is already weakened, and the liberal agenda is going take a back seat to Republican priorities, like cutting the deficit. Immigration overhaul seems a dim possibility; the DREAM Act, a measure that tackles only one sliver of the immigration issue by offering legal status to illegal immigrant students and members of the military, is fast going nowhere in the Senate, despite the strong support of the White House.

So Mr. Obama will rely on Republicans for support – and risk further angering his fractured Democratic caucus, whose members well remember the way President Bill Clinton ‘’triangulated’’ them out of legislative deals. On Tuesday, in a sign of the tough road Mr. Obama faces as he tries to bring angry Democrats over to his side, Mr. Grijalva and his progressive caucus co-chairman, Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, seemed to leave themselves little wiggle room as they announced their opposition to the tax plan.

“We call on our Congressional leaders in the House and Senate to hold firm on passing a middle class tax cut with no strings attached,’’ the two said in the statement, adding, “Tax breaks for billionaires don’t create jobs.’’

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As Democrats and Republicans struggle to agree on which bills to pass in Congress’ crowded lame-duck session, hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers may find themselves struggling just to make ends meet. That’s because Congress has not passed an extension for long-term unemployment benefits, the payments the federal government sends to laid-off workers who have [...]

As Democrats and Republicans struggle to agree on which bills to pass in Congress’ crowded lame-duck session, hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers may find themselves struggling just to make ends meet. That’s because Congress has not passed an extension for long-term unemployment benefits, the payments the federal government sends to laid-off workers who have [...]

As Democrats and Republicans struggle to agree on which bills to pass in Congress’ crowded lame-duck session, hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers may find themselves struggling just to make ends meet. That’s because Congress has not passed an extension for long-term unemployment benefits, the payments the federal government sends to laid-off workers who have [...]

As Democrats and Republicans struggle to agree on which bills to pass in Congress’ crowded lame-duck session, hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers may find themselves struggling just to make ends meet. That’s because Congress has not passed an extension for long-term unemployment benefits, the payments the federal government sends to laid-off workers who have [...]