None of that seems to matter much to the president.

The title is from Howard Fineman's commentary Sticking to his guns.

WASHINGTON - George W. Bush wanted to be Harry Truman (patron saint of embattled presidents) in his State of the Union speech, but he may have reminded voters of Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove. You know the famous scene: the giddy pilot in a cowboy hat hops aboard his own payload to Armageddon.

Say this about the president: he is going to stick with his vision, his strategy and his decisions on Iraq – no matter what the world, the American voters, the new Democratic Congress, the ’08 presidential contenders or even his fellow Republicans want.

Nothing new:

Nothing he said was remarkably new – which, in and of itself was nothing short of remarkable.

Bush said, with all earnestness, that his goal in Iraq and the Middle East was – and our goal must be – to “remove conditions that inspire hatred” there. However, it is hard to find a dispassionate observer of the war who thinks that we have achieved that goal. Sadly, even many of our own military people say that just the opposite is true. Our presence has inflamed hatred, not doused it.

Without a trace of irony, he told the Congress: “Whatever you voted for, you did not vote for failure.” But most Americans have concluded that we already have failed.

And as for the "facts" the president shared. Glenn Kessler explains that they weren't facts at all but just more revisionist history and deception from an administration that knows little else. Christopher Preble at Cato@Liberty gives us a summary Kessler's fact checking and concludes with this.

Notably, Kessler’s article was not identified as a “News Analysis” — the typical flag that reporters employ when they wish to call attention to the fact that an article in the news portion of the paper (as opposed to the Opinion page) contains opinions. Kessler’s piece did not require such a designation because it was based not on opinion, but rather on a fair and accurate reading of the facts.

Which is more than can be said for the president’s speech.

Yes, there was more empty talk about energy conservation and health care but that's all it was empty talk. This was a speech for the cultists and the number of cultists has now fallen below 30%. For everybody else it was I'm going to do what I want so go to hell.

So what now? The other day conservative Republican Paul Craig Roberts said the following:

Nothing can stop the Regime except the immediate impeachment of Bush and Cheney. This is America’s last chance.

And via Hullabaloo we find out that the lawmakers in New Mexico may be taking things into their own hands.

On the same day that Bush delivered his state of the union address, eight state senators in New Mexico introduced a resolution (Senate Joint Resolution 5) that if passed would require their state government to send a petition to the U.S. House of Representatives asking that impeachment proceedings immediately begin against Bush and Cheney.

Over 100 citizens showed up for the introduction, and there were over two hours of citizen speeches at the announcement event. Reporters from every New Mexico newspaper and the Associated Press were there, as well as ABC and NBC cameras. What they saw was a bottom-up movement for impeachment, exactly what impeachment is supposed to be.

The original sponsor of the resolution, Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, says he has received over 1,000 favorable messages and two negative ones. That matches exactly the responses I've received for wearing an "Impeach Bush and Cheney" t-shirt around the country.

Impeachment may be the only answer. Two more years of the Bush/Cheney cabal is simply too dangerous.

Hostile Audience

As George W. Bush prepares to give his State of the Union message he is going to face a hostile audience not only in the Democratic controlled congress but as the Washington Post reports the American People.
Confidence in Bush Leadership Continues to Drop, Poll Finds

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.

And much of the dissatisfaction revolves around Iraq.

With a major confrontation between Congress and the president brewing over Iraq, Americans overwhelmingly oppose Bush's plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to the conflict. By wide margins, they prefer that congressional Democrats, who now hold majorities in both chambers, take the lead in setting the direction for the country rather than the president.

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 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.

And while he sill use SOTU to try to rally support for his "stay the course" with more targets policy headlines like this won't help.
U.S. Toll in Iraq Is 27 for Deadly Weekend

BAGHDAD, Jan. 21 — The United States military said that two marines died Sunday in western Iraq and that an additional seven service members died Saturday. The deaths brought the weekend toll to 27 and made Saturday the third-deadliest day for United States forces since the war here began.

And this:
Bombs kill at least 78 people in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least 78 people were killed and more than 150 wounded Monday after two nearly simultaneous bombs struck a predominantly Shiite commercial area in central Baghdad in the deadliest attack in two months, officials said.

And as I discussed below his out of touch health care initiative is dead on arrival. We can also expect to hear more empty words about energy independence; read tax breaks for oil companies and drilling in ANWAR. But Bush will find a hostile audience that has little faith in his ability to lead the country.

More broadly, Bush will be speaking on Tuesday night to a nation that is deeply pessimistic, with just 26 percent of Americans saying the country is heading in the right direction and 71 percent saying the country is seriously off track. That is the worst these ratings have been in more than a decade.

Bush's overall approval rating in the new poll is 33 percent, matching the lowest it has been in Post-ABC polls since he took office in 2001. Sixty-five percent say they disapprove of Bush.

Equally telling is the finding that 51 percent of Americans now strongly disapprove of his performance in office, the worst rating of his presidency. Just 17 percent strongly approve of the way he is handling his job.

Only two presidents have had lower approval ratings on the eve of a State of the Union speech. Richard Nixon was at 26 percent in 1974, seven months before he resigned in disgrace because of the Watergate scandal. Harry S. Truman was at 23 percent in January 1952, driven down by public disapproval of the Korean conflict and his firing of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

Just 29 percent approve of Bush's handling of the Iraq war, which is only one percentage point off his career low, recorded a month ago. Seventy percent disapprove. Similarly, Bush's approval rating on handling terrorism is at a near-low; just 46 percent give him positive marks, while 52 percent are negative.