Liveblog Special -- Strong? Please Tell Me The SOTU Is Strong!

Preamble. Well, here we go. I'm exhausted from work, but I have Dunkin' Donuts coffee. (Because I don't speak Fritalian.) And the crowd's filing in, so we should be close. (It's also 1952, so the clock tells me it's close, too.) All of this is fancy talk for I'm sleepy, and might not be totally coherent. But, then again, neither will the President, if recent form holds.

Hors d'oeuvres? In Baraboo, Wis., students have been banned from chanting U-S-A at sporting events? Why? Because it is now a coded message! "You suck ass" cannot be said, much less chanted repeatedly, at a high school, you see. Oh, kids. (Wait! Is it too late to pass a note to the Dems in the House?)

2000 (8 o'clock, don't you know). Game time! Laura looks nice. She always does. And the Supremes come in. Four of them, anyway.

2004. Apparently, instructions from the top: no funny stuff from the Dems tonight. We'll see. It'll be too bad if there isn't a joke or two.

2006. The word on the speech is that Iraq is getting shuffled back in the speech, for obvious reasons. People tuning in might be bent about this, to the point of throwing stuff at the TV in anger. But he's the President, and you're not. So there. Still--how exactly is he going to handle it? It'll be delicious, for sure.

2008. By the way, gang: comment box is open. If I run out of ideas, you are more than welcome to throw down. And... George W. Bush? Come on down!

2011. Nancy Pelosi reax shots. That'll be good. And he's getting to the stairs now.

2013. Nice clam clap from Steven Breyer. And nice applause for Nancy.

2015. Wait, what happened to Norwood?

2016. Not leave problems for the next generation. Ha! Cross the aisle? We'll see about that.

2018. It seems impossible to point out, from either side, that manufacturing jobs are being lost, thousands upon thousands, every month. Unemployment going down is nice, but what kind of jobs are being created?

2019. C-SPAN joke. Dorky.

2020. Why does John McCain always look like he has something up his sleeve? Because he does. Ted Kennedy looking pensive. Or sleepy. I'm with you, pal.

2022. Flexibility in education. Somewhere, teacher union bosses are gnashing teeth. Lukewarmish response from the Dems, but they pick up on the health care note.

2024. Tax deductability of health care insurance? Why do I think this is a big shell game? I get health care from work. Do I get to deduct for money I do not pay out of my own pocket? And for the uninsured? I need more on this one.

2026. Affordable care grants to the states? State legislators are licking their chops at that honey pot.

2027. Junk lawsuits. Speaking as a lawyer: bastard. Pat Leahy looks bemused.

2029. Temporary worker plan--still quite unpopular with the hard right folks, of course. But he may gets some help from the Dems on this one.

2030. Energy policy now. Which means ethanol. The Iowa caucuses have nothing at all to do with that, of course. Chuck Grassley looks like he is going to have a birthday party in his pants.

2032. 20% reduction in gas through CAFE standards? The Big Three are gonna love that. But he doesn't say the word Alaska in this speech. And good for him--he cops to global warming. That didn't take him too long.

2034. Judges should be confirmed, now. Yeah, George, that'll be the day.

2035. Here we go--terrorism.

2038. Greatest hits so far from the President. Nothing new, yet.

2041. Transitional government in 2005. More purple fingers. Then: blowback--including a giveaway in Afghanistan.

2045. "Let us find our resolve," he says. "New plan," he says. Rehash of a couple of weeks ago, pretty much.

2047. Looks like he's building an out--if the Iraqis don't come through, we can split.

2048. New recruits for terrorism? Well, you've done a good enough job of that. And if you split now, you forget 9-11. Nicely done. Jackass.

2052. Volunteer civilian service corps? What ever happened to FreedomCorps anyway?

2054. Big talk on Darfur. And also the great evil that is Minsk. (Which, admittedly, is old-school Russia. Unlike Russia, which is also, well... OK. They're old-school Russia too.)

2055. Speaking of Darfur: no mention of New Orleans tonight, thus far (and probably not at all). Maybe all of the talk in the run-up to the game on Sunday had everybody Katrinaed out.

2056. Mutumbo! Give me a finger-wag, man.

2058. Children's videos in basement. And working with John Walsh, too. That's a pairing you don't hear about a lot.

2100. And Lynne Cheney's a hero too! No, wait... he's wrapping up.

2102. And the state of the union is strong! Yes! We get it at the end. It was as he had to explain it first, so as not to get laughed out of the room.

Postamble. Nothing on Katrina, like I said. Side-stepped stem cells, too--and that one lost him the Senate, all things considered. Other than that, well, it was better than expected. Iran wasn't amped out of all proportion, but maybe he was just setting the table on that one. The Lebanon talk might be a check our Union's collective ass might be unable to cash. Health care and education? Jury's out. The budget's going to be a fight for the next few months, so you can't take too much out of this speech. In the end, though: he didn't fall flat on his face.

Pre-Webbamble. So the Democratic response is up next. Does he kick it up a notch? Should be interesting.

2115. Everyone come to Jamestown! Woo! And New Orleans! Yes!

2116. Dude has an impressive forehead, btw.

2118. Guy's talking like a normal person, it seems. Except when he extrapolates Andy Jackson to Wall Street.

2120. Show and tell! Worked for Ross Perot, right?

2122. Coming in for withdrawal. Well done, in the way he did it.

2124. "If not, we will show him the way." Kicked some butt there.

G'night. Well, that was mildly interesting. I'm beat. Time to zonk out to the soothing tones of... Chris Matthews? OK. Sleep not coming for a while. But I'm out for now. Later.