The decider’s final State of the Union address is tonight.

It’s about the economy, and the war in Iraq, and other unresolved matters that have kept the nation on edge. But President Bush’s State of the Union address on Monday is something else, too: probably his last chance to seize the public’s attention and put it to use.

Bush will pressure Congress - particularly the Senate, where he senses trouble - to finish an economic stimulus package fast. He will announce steps he is taking to reduce and reform the use of earmarks - a common Capitol Hill practice of slipping pet projects into spending bills, saying that if the items are worthy, lawmakers should debate them in the open and hold a public vote.

The president will talk of improved security in Iraq and reassert that he decides when U.S. troops will come. He will offer some modest new ideas and recycle others as unfinished business. To the degree the speech favors the pragmatic over the bold, the White House offers a two-word explanation: Blame Congress.

Funny. The only time we truly have a democratic majority is when there’s blame to be laid.

I predict a SOTU like no other. I predict Keith Olberman will have to dedicate an entire hour for special commentary. What’s Bush got to lose? He’ll certainly use the time to push for a continued republican presence in the WH after he’s gone. And he’ll do it by bashing the “democratic” congress and speaking ill of Obama and Clinton, (who will also be in attendance tonight).

My fellow Americans; if it walks and talks, and has a ‘D’ behind it’s name, there is the source of all your woes!

And people will buy it.

UPDATE

From a related WaPo article, The Bushies will be “stacking the deck”:

But the emphasis is on people like James Barnard, chief financial officer of a Michigan machine shop that benefited from Bush tax cuts in 2003, and Staff Sergeant Craig Charloux, injured in a September raid on al Qaeda militants in Diyala province. Charloux is one of six members of the armed forces on the White House guest list.