45.5 Million viewers. Why do you think that is? Is it because Americans so love this man they can’t wait to hear a dynamic speech from him? Is it because Americans are rallying behind the Prez and his escalation of the war in Iraq? Is it because the economy is so great they have just fallen in love with him? Is it because they just KNOW he’s going to come up with some over the top fabulous healthcare plan for America? Is it because they think maybe, by some miracle, the man has mastered the English language and they want to witness it? Naw…that can’t be it. I’ll tell you why I watched it. Because I’m NOT going to take my eye off the ball. This asshole is bound and determined to spend the next two years fucking things up even more than he has already. It’s because the only confidence I have in him and Dickhead is my confidence that they are up to more evil. It’s because I want to see if he, and congress, have figured out yet that we Americans are sick of this shit and we’re paying attention. How about you?

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - President George W. Bush’s call for bipartisan support on a range of domestic issues while sticking to his guns on Iraq played well in the TV ratings, at least compared with his last two State of the Union speeches.

The live, hourlong broadcast of Bush’s address on Tuesday night to a joint session of the newly Democratic-controlled Congress averaged nearly 45.5 million U.S. viewers, Nielsen Media Research reported on Wednesday.

That was up considerably from the 41.7 million who watched last year’s State of the Union, in which Bush defended warrantless U.S. wiretaps of domestic phone calls and urged new energy initiatives, warning that America had become “addicted to oil.”

Even fewer, 38.4 million viewers, tuned in to his 2005 speech — the least watched of his State of the Union addresses — which dwelt at length on Bush’s proposals to revamp Social Security.

Bush tallied his biggest State of the Union audience, 62 million viewers, with a speech he gave in January 2003 as the nation geared up for war in Iraq.

On Tuesday night, Bush defended his unpopular decision to send more U.S. troops to Iraq while urging bipartisan action on such issues as energy, health care and immigration.

The Nielsen tally for his latest speech included viewers on the four major broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox — as well as the three leading cable news outlets and Spanish-language broadcasters Telemundo and Univision.

By comparison, the most watched broadcast in terms of regularly scheduled commercial programming on U.S. television on Tuesday was the Fox network’s hit talent show “American Idol,” which drew more than 31 million viewers.