THE SPEECH – AT 8:21 A.M. ET:  The president delivers his State of the Union address tonight.   We will be covering it.

Don't expect much, unless the president claims that he, not John Edwards, is the father of that illegitimate child.  I'm not betting on that. 

State of the Union messages are usually forgotten rather fast, and they often, as Karl Rove pointed out last night, result in a president's approval ratings going down rather than up.

The president is failing.  He is failing as a policymaker and as a leader.  He is not in control of his own party.  Indeed, as The Politico reports, his party is deeply divided:

President Barack Obama will deliver his State of the Union address Wednesday night to a deeply divided country — and a deeply divided party.

Amid plummeting polls, a wave of retirements and a sobering loss in Massachusetts, Democrats say they’re looking for leadership from the president.

But they want him to lead them in different directions.

Some want him to go down fighting on health care reform. Others say he should try one last time and then move on. Some applaud his plan for a partial freeze on federal spending. Others say it will kill the social safety net. Some say it’s time for Obama to reach across the aisle. Others want him fired up and ready to go all over again, but some wonder whether he’s lost his 2008 campaign magic.

The president's leadership skills are minimal.  Before becoming president, he'd never led anything other than a self-admiration society.

Attention tonight will probably focus on domestic policy.  But it's foreign policy that I worry about most.  A poor domestic policy can do damage, but that can be repaired.  A blind foreign policy can kill us.

What a difference a year makes.  One year ago, this president was being portrayed as a new deity, come to save us from our wicked ways.  Now he is seen as ready for the dustbin of history.

Only he can save himself, but that requires the realization that he must be saved.  I don't think it's dawned on him yet.  Maybe an e-mail from the kids would help.

January 27,  2010