Proving that a single reporter who bothers to check the facts is worth more than a sack full of chattering pundits, Madison, Wisconsin's WISC-TV provides a reality check on Bush's speech. So how truthful was the C-Student in Chief?
"We are now in the 41st month of uninterrupted job growth, in a recovery that has created 7.2 million new jobs so far," Bush said.
A WISC-TV analysis found this statement "needs clarification."
Bush doesn't count the job losses early in his administration. With that factored in, the true number of new jobs is 3.7 million.
Bush did no better in talking about No Child Left Behind.
"And because we acted, students are performing better in reading and math, and minority students are closing the achievement gap," Bush said.
WISC-TV found this "misleading."
Fourth grade reading scores since NCLB went into effect? Unchanged. Eight grade scores? Down. And that achievement gap? There was some relative gain by some minority groups, but only because white students did worse. In fact, in eighth grade every group did worse except Asian students.
But don't worry. Bush will still use the lack of success of his own plan as evidence to push for school vouchers.
So what about Bush's less than inspiring energy proposals?
"We must increase the supply of alternative fuels, by setting a mandatory Fuels Standard to require 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels in 2017," Bush said.
This statement "needs clarification."
Needs clarification in that to meet Bush's goal would take 25% more corn than the nation produces for food.
Time was also less than impressed by Bush's vague energy proposals.
What the president didn't do after all this ambitious call to arms was put forward any serious ideas — or even any unserious ones — about how to make it happen. Remember all that talk about hydrogen cars? Get yours yet? No, and you're not likely to for a very long time either.
The Kansas City Star also didn't think much of Bush's "new" ideas.
But his proposals were mostly familiar, and on energy, notably small-bore.
The Star also called Bush on his um, "bipartisan outreach," something that he seemed to have no concern for as long as his party held the majority.
But the mythical bipartisan place he tried to reach out to in his State of the Union address Tuesday was never like the one he romanticized in Texas. It's not what he's built in six years in Washington.
...the chasm between the parties is wide and deep, the politics between them are poisonous and Bush bears much of the blame.
When even Fox News says that Bush delivered a "flat" speech drawing only "requisite applause", you know things didn't go too well.