Out of Gas

Bush's sputtering State of the Union.
By Jacob Weisberg
Posted Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2006, at 3:32 PM ET

Admittedly, the State of the Union address has become a tedious ritual. According to calcified habit, presidents must begin by describing the country's condition as "strong," go on to point out the American "heroes" planted in the House gallery, and flit lightly over dozens of disparate topics between pauses for theatrical applause. This year's pandering nadir came during the brief passage on bioethics, when George Bush called for legislation banning the creation of "human-animal hybrids." In Washington, there is a lobby for everything except apparently mermaids and centaurs.

At the same time, the State of the Union is a political occasion that can still matter a great deal. It remains a president's grandest regular opportunity to tell the country what he wants to do and ask its support. For a leader who has become stuck, like Bill Clinton in 1999 after his impeachment vote, or Bush in 2006, the speech affords the tantalizing prospect of a fresh start. So long as he can propose a new agenda to a watching nation, no president is ever completely washed up.