The Washington Post gives the backdrop of Bush's speech tomorrow night:
President Bush will deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday at the weakest point of his presidency, with dissatisfaction over his Iraq war policies continuing to rise and confidence in his leadership continuing to decline, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.Bush's weakness is causing American weakness. As we saw in stark numbers over the weekend, the Iraq war is having life and death consequences for U.S. soldiers. It continues to destroy the lives of people in Iraq -- 75 were killed in bombings today. The war that Bush chose to start is absolutely undermining his presidency. And, no matter how many speeches he gives to spin the country -- it's clear our President has no plan:
Iraq dominates the national agenda, with 48 percent of Americans calling the war the single most important issue they want Bush and the Congress to deal with this year. No other issue rises out of single digits.The president can't rally public opinion. No one believes him anymore.
The poll also finds that the public trusts congressional Democrats over Bush to deal with the conflict by a margin of 60 percent to 33 percent.
The president will use his speech to try to rally public opinion behind his troop deployment plan, but during the past 10 days he has made no headway in changing public opinion. The Post-ABC poll shows that 65 percent of Americans oppose sending more troops to Iraq, compared to 61 percent who opposed the plan when the president unveiled it Jan. 10 in a nationally televised address.
