The State of the Campaign

Today's New York Times quotes an unnamed Republican "close to the Bush campaign" who says the timing of the State of the Union speech -- one day after the Iowa caucuses -- is no accident. The goal is "to get people to focus on the president's positive agenda after two weeks of people beating his brains in and criticizing every aspect of his policies." Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York counters: "There's more excitement now in the Democratic primaries than there is in the State of the Union." Meanwhile, the online public interest journal TomPaine.com is encouraging readers to download a State of the Union Scorecard to rate the accuracy of this year's speech.