Is Anyone Listening?

Skutnik Watch

Ladies and gentlemen: The 2008 Skutniks.

As Jake Tapper blogs for ABC News: "Lenny Skutniks tell the tale of Mr. Bush's push for relevance."

Tapper explains: "Skutnik dove into an icy Potomac River in 1982 to save the life of the victim of a plane crash. President Reagan honored him with recognition at the 1982 State of the Union, and Skutniks have been a tradition ever since."

This year's crew "will include an Indiana mom who faced foreclosure on her home, an Army Staff Sergeant seriously wounded in Iraq but now home and his unit will not be replaced, the mother of a Cuban journalist who is held as a political prisoner, an ER nurse, an HIV-positive mother from Tanzania, the head of a university in Afghanistan, Bob Dole and Donna Shalala who headed the Wounded Warriors commission, and a hero of the Virginia Tech massacre."

Drinking Games

Lisa Friedman writes in the Los Angeles Daily News: "The state of our union is strong.

"I'll drink to that. And, come tonight, so will an entire subculture of young political wonks who have turned the hallowed annual presidential State of the Union address into one big excuse for a drinking game."

Previous Speeches

The Washington Post looks back on two of the initiatives Bush proposed in last year's address, regarding energy and health care. Peter Baker writes: "Bush used his speech to outline a plan to cut the projected consumption of gasoline by 20 percent over the next 10 years by expanding the use of alternative fuels and forcing higher fuel efficiency for vehicles. By the end of the year, after multiple twists and turns, it became the one major area where he and Congress agreed and enacted new policy."

Christopher Lee writes: "The most favorable reception that President Bush's proposed tax deduction for health insurance got on Capitol Hill last year was the GOP applause that followed the line about it in the State of the Union speech.

"It was all downhill from there, with administration officials falling short in their efforts to sell the idea to key lawmakers, failing even to get a committee hearing."

Deb Riechmann writes for the Associated Press: "Bound together, George W. Bush's State of the Union addresses are a history of the ups and downs of his presidency, of the times he got his way and the times his hopeful oratory was just that.

"Last year, Bush implored a skeptical Congress to embrace his plan to send thousands more U.S. troops to Iraq. Despite growing gloom in the country about the war, Democrats failed to stop him or to set deadlines for troop withdrawals. The military buildup went ahead without impediment and is credited with lowering violence in Iraq, at least for now, even as progress in political reconciliation has proved disappointing.

"Some of the ideas Bush has pushed in the annual speech have fallen flat and even backfired.