Out of Gas

"Here's another way of looking at it: the median American household will pay roughly $828 more in taxes in 2011 if the Bush tax cuts expire, according to the Tax Policy Center, a non-ideological think tank venture. The richest 1 percent of American households, in contrast, would have to pay an extra $64,154 a year when the tax cuts expire.

"With the economy slowing, the Congressional Budget Office this month projected that the federal budget deficit would actually grow worse this year, not better. In predicting that a surplus will return in 2012, moreover, Bush is not counting the long-term cost of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, nor is he taking into consideration likely congressional action to mitigate the expansion of the alternative minimum tax, which increasingly threatens the middle class."

The Scene

Michael Kranish and Susan Milligan write in the Boston Globe: "The House chamber held much less of the excitement and tension that marked previous State of the Union addresses.

"Instead, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers seemed already to have moved on from Bush's presidency, gossiping among themselves about the presidential race."

Carl Hulse writes in the New York Times: "Democrats never seemed so elated about the prospect of a major speech by President Bush. Or of having it finished.

"'I think everybody is ready to turn the page,' said Representative Mark Udall, Democratic of Colorado, as he and his colleagues poured out of Mr. Bush's last State of the Union address. . . .

"Democrats sat quietly while Republicans cheered many of the president's applause lines, no longer afraid of seeming to slight Mr. Bush. They snickered at some points and some called aloud for a return of troops from Iraq. 'Bring them home, bring them home,' they chanted.

"Even Republicans acknowledged the sense that an era was ending with Mr. Bush, still low in the polls and running out of time, stepping up to the teleprompters in the House one last time. One Senate ally said he sensed that the White House was going through the motions."

Tom Shales writes in The Washington Post: "However lackluster the speech, it was vigorously delivered. On CBS afterward, Katie Couric said the president appeared 'almost giddy at times.' . . .

"[M]ost of the network big shots, who'd been invited to a White House get-together with the president earlier in the day, remarked on his stubbornly jovial spirits."

Alessandra Stanley writes in the New York Times: "There was nothing mournful or valedictory about Mr. Bush's delivery of his seventh State of the Union address, a speech that acknowledged, however briefly, that the economy is in trouble. Mr. Bush, looking fresh and rested, made a point of sounding good-humored as he delivered less-than-glowing news."

Opinion Watch

The New York Times editorial board writes: "The nation is splintered over the war in Iraq, cleaved by ruthless partisan politics, bubbling with economic fear and mired in debate over virtually all of the issues Mr. Bush faced in 2002. And the best Mr. Bush could offer was a call to individual empowerment -- a noble idea, but in Mr. Bush's hands just another excuse to abdicate government responsibility.

"Monday night's address made us think what a different speech it might have been if Mr. Bush had capitalized on the unity that followed the 9/11 attacks to draw the nation together, rather than to arrogate ever more power and launch his misadventure in Iraq. How different it might have been if Mr. Bush meant what he said about compassionate conservatism or even followed the fiscal discipline of old-fashioned conservatism. How different if he had made a real effort to reach for the bipartisanship he promised in 2002 and so many times since."

The Washington Post editorial board writes that "the president's advisers said he had decided to offer a forward-looking program, not a reflective valedictory -- a wise choice, because an honest assessment of the past seven years would have been a tale of opportunities lost and enterprises bungled."

But The Post didn't think much of what Bush did talk about, either. For instance: "Mr. Bush endorsed the need for a new international agreement on climate change. But the greatest disappointment of the night was his failure to commit to working with Congress on legislation to create a mandatory carbon emissions reduction system in the United States -- without which no international accord will be possible. Like so much else, that, it seems, will have to wait for another president."

Fred Kaplan writes for Slate: "The sad thing about President George W. Bush's eighth and final State of the Union address is that he seems to have learned so little about the crises in which he's immersed his nation so deeply. . . .

"The president, once more, depicted the complex conflicts of our time as one-dimensional struggles between the forces of light and darkness. . . .

"The question comes to mind, as it has come to mind in all of these speeches when Bush recites this argument: Does he believe what he's saying? Does he believe that the violent battles for power in these lands really come down to freedom vs. tyranny? If so, no wonder this government has had such a hard time getting a handle on these dangers, much less trying to engage them. . . .

"Maybe the president believes that saying something makes it close to true. (Some of his former aides have told me they suspect this is the case.)"

Andrew Stephen writes for the New Statesman: "I glanced up at my Bush Countdown Clock the moment Bush started speaking, and it indicated a brutal reality: there were still 357 days, two hours, 50 minutes and 8.2 seconds to go before Hillary, Obama or one of their Republican rivals moves into the White House to replace the most disastrous US president in modern history. . . .

"Embattled as he now is in his bunker and with fewer and fewer allies remaining to sustain his morale, even Bush himself now seems to have virtually given up hope for his own presidency. I suspect that he has now reached the stage where he, just as much as the rest of us, can't wait for those 357 days to pass and for the 44th president to move into the White House and take charge. Goodnight, Mr President."

The White House press office is calling attention to this morning's Wall Street Journal editorial and its assertion that "even with only a year left, the Bush Presidency is far from over. With his low approval rating and a Democratic Congress, Mr. Bush's final State of the Union last night reflected his limited ability to shape legislation. But even a lame duck President has more power to influence events than anyone else on the planet."

More Reaction

Charles Kupchan writes for the Council on Foreign Relations: "President Bush's State of the Union was noteworthy for not being particularly noteworthy. ...

"[T]he United States faces a long list of pressing challenges around the globe, many of which urgently require new and innovative policy approaches. After tonight's speech, it appears such new approaches will have to await the next president."

Peter Beinart writes for the Council on Foreign Relations: "Bush was . . . . right to stress America's commitment to global liberty, a theme espoused by virtually every president since Wilson. But by providing no conceptual framework except democracy-promotion, he found himself with no language for discussing U.S. policy toward authoritarian powers that we cannot realistically isolate. It is an odd State of the Union speech that mentions Sudan, Zimbabwe, Belarus, and Burma, but ignores Russia and China. But that is the natural result of Bush's ideological straitjacket. If democracy promotion is America's sole global foreign policy framework, countries weak enough to pressure are worth discussing. Countries too powerful to pressure, by contrast, must be ignored lest they expose the limitations of the theme."

Laurie Garrett writes for the Council on Foreign Relations: "The call to reauthorize funding for PEPFAR at twice its current level, bringing it to $30 billion, for five years worth of HIV/AIDS programs in 15 countries sounds impressive, but it was included in the White House FY09 budget request, sent to Congress months ago. In both the House and Senate Democrats well surpassed the Bush administration request, counter-offering $50 billion. In effect, then, the president was asking Congress to reduce PEPFAR spending by $20 billion."

Reuters has reaction from presidential candidates. Said Barack Obama: "It was warmed over past State of the Union speeches. As I travel across the country, the American people want much, much more. They are anxious about their economic futures. They're seeing their homes foreclosed. They're seeing jobs contracting. They are concerned about being able to send their kids to college. What they want is leadership from the White House."

Service Employees International Union Secretary Treasurer Anna Burger said: "Given his dismal failure to address the concerns of working people in America, the best thing about the president's State of the Union address is that it is his last."

FISA Watch

Senate Democrats are standing up to Bush on warrantless wiretapping -- at least for now.

Paul Kane writes in The Washington Post: "The Senate yesterday left the fate of a new electronic surveillance law backed by the Bush administration up in the air, as a Republican-led effort to cut off a Democrat-led debate and proceed to a vote on the bill failed, mostly along party lines.

"Heightening the drama surrounding expiration of the existing surveillance law at midnight Thursday, the Senate also failed to approve a Democratic effort to extend the deadline by 30 days -- a move that the White House has opposed because the law already was extended last summer for a six-month run."

Torture Watch

Randall Mikkelsen writes for Reuters: "The United States used waterboarding in terrorism interrogations but no longer does, a former U.S. spy chief said in the Bush administration's clearest confirmation of the technique's use.

"U.S. officials have been reluctant to acknowledge the CIA's use of the simulated drowning technique, which human rights groups call an illegal form of torture.

"The remarks by former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte in an interview with National Journal magazine come as senators are expected on Wednesday to grill Attorney General Michael Mukasey on a promised review of the legality of interrogation methods."

Spencer Ackerman writes in the capital's newest publication, the Washington Independent: "[D]espite innumerable statements from the Bush administration about the value of the CIA's interrogation program, U.S. interrogators are still mostly in the dark--in the dark not only about al-Qaeda, but about how to effectively elicit vital national-security information from the detainees in its custody.

"Those with intimate knowledge of the program say that in many cases, U.S. interrogators haven't even been able to learn the basics about many of those they hold or have held, to say nothing of whatever crucial information they possess."

Karl Rove Watch

Arielle Levin Becker writes in the Hartford Courant: "Faced with outspoken opposition, Karl Rove won't be speaking at Choate Rosemary Hall's graduation after all.

"Instead, the former deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to President George W. Bush will visit the private school's Wallingford campus next month to speak with students.

"Headmaster Edward J. Shanahan announced the change of plans in an e-mail to the senior class Monday afternoon, quoting Rove as saying, 'I would not want 12 minutes of remarks to be used as an excuse by a small group to mar what should be a wonderful day of celebration for the members of the 2008 graduating class and their families, so I am delighted to instead accept Choate's invitation to speak on campus February 11.'"

In a Courant op-ed on Sunday, Shanahan had defended inviting Rove as graduation speaker: "[R]espect him or not, like him or not, he has been a central figure in the current government. He has also been a man committed to public service and the sacrifices associated with such service."

Bush's Bald Head Fetish

Here is a picture of Bush greeting Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) yesterday by rubbing his bald head.

Live Online

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Cartoon Watch

Pat Oliphant, Stuart Carlson, Lalo Alcaraz and Rex Babin on the State of the Union.