Obama's economic speech -- not major, but more of an update

It's probably not something he could put on a Post-It note, but to call it a major speech is probably a stretch.

President Obama goes to Georgetown University this morning to give a speech on the economy. Although his staff is calling it "major" don't expect to hear anything new. Aides concede there will be no new policy announcements and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs used the phrase "update the American people" twice to describe the speech.

"I think the President wants the opportunity to update the American people on where we are, what we have to do going forward, and lay out the steps that are being taken to help our economy recover, and to build from recession to recovery," he said before repeating himself in his press briefing yesterday.

Doom

Setting the stage for the president's update, Obama economic aide Christina Romer told NBC this morning that there's plenty of doom and gloom yet to come.

"We know the economy's still sick. We know we've got several more months of job loss, for example. We know that the numbers on GDP are almost surely going to be very bad for this quarter and next," Romer said.

Any good news? Yes. The economy is still terrible and it's going to get worse.

But it's all going to happen this year, probably.

"For the overall economy I think we are likely to bottom out this year," she said on CNBC.

Public support

Despite the bleak news, the public still has much confidence in the president to find a way out. A new Gallup poll shows that 71 percent of Americans have a great deal or a fair amount of confidence in President Obama to do the right thing for the economy.

This compares with a paltry 47 percent confidence rating for Treasury Secretary Geithner and a chilling 38 percent mark for congressional Republicans.

The speech update is scheduled to begin at 11:35 (ET).