Confident Obama does just 1 practice session

By Ed Henry
CNN Senior White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Barack Obama apparently buys into that old slogan about never letting ‘em see you sweat.

Despite the pressure of his first speech to a joint session of Congress at a time of national crisis, two senior aides told CNN the president quietly had only one full dress rehearsal with a teleprompter at about 6 p.m. ET in the White House’s historic map room.

The significance is that predecessors like Bill Clinton and George W. Bush used to go through at least a few — maybe even several depending on the situation — dress rehearsals for a speech like this to get it just right. Just one session suggests a man feeling pretty confident despite the intensity of the crisis.