Three-quarters of Americans think the nation is on the wrong track, and merely one-third of Americans believe President Bush is doing a good job. In a democracy, this is the closest you will come to unanimity. I don't believe you could get more Americans to agree, say, that Elvis Presly is really dead. Bush is a uniter after all -- the country is almost completely united, against him and his adminstration.
So Bush's final State of the Union is very much unlike either Ronald Reagan's or Bill Clinton's last SOTU; they were both popular (very popular, by comparison). Both Reagan and Clinton used their last SOTU to put, or at least to attempt to put, a big exclamation point on their legacies.
Bush, by contrast, seems almost indifferent -- like even he knows there would be no point in trying hard. The speech itself seems strangely devoid of any poetry or inspiration. No soaring rhetoric; no lofty phrases; no call to arms. It is really boring.
The first part of the speech is a dull laundry list of domestic programs -- education, energy, job re training, and so on. The GOP electeds cheer and the Dems sit sullenly.
Bush seems a bit more energized talking about the success (or what I would say, "success") in the Iraq War. He praises the military, as he should -- the American military is the best in the world, and heroically soliders have done everything asked of them. It is civilian leadership -- both in Iraq and the U.S. -- who let them down; indeed, failed them.
He saber rattles against Iran, but very unfortunately, Iran has grown nothing but stronger under Bush's watch. He shakes a rhetorical fist at terrorism, but global terrorism has grown worse, not better.
In fact, the speech may only be notable for what it does not discuss or even mention. The huge deficit. The sagging popularity of the U.S. around the world. Trade deficit. Millions more in poverty, and millions more without health insurance. Foreclosures. Gitmo. Torture. Civil liberties (or, at the very least, trying to balance security and liberty).
This is -- or at least tries to be -- a positive blog. There is way too much negativity in politics. But the inescapable truth is, well, inescapable. Bush is an immense failure, and on so many fronts. If the state of our union is strong, it is despite, not because of, the Bush Administration.
When the speech is over, Bush seems relieved and glad. We even more so.