What if they held a State of the Union and nobody came? Certainly the room is filled tonight with everybody who is anybody in Washington (except for John McCain...). But this is a State of the Union that is being overwhelmed and overshadowed by the furious presidential race in both parties. The fights between Clinton and Obama and between McCain and Romney are showing how inconsequential President Bush has become. In their final States of the Union, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton (the only other presidents to have served two full terms since Dwight Eisenhower) could both look back on significant achievements and they could speak from a position of real popularity after having overcome their second term political challenges. George W. Bush? Not so much. So this State of the Union marks a real challenge for President Bush. He has to try to recast the past eight years at a moment that political events are making him increasingly irrelevant. Not an easy thing to do.
--Andrei Cherny