Bush Finishes Rehearsals

Jan. 31, 2006 — -- After he made the final edits to his State of the Union address this morning, President Bush headed to Capitol Hill with one political victory already under his belt.

Bush watched on television from the Roosevelt Room with Judge Samuel Alito as the Senate voted to confirm Alito as the 110th associate justice of the Supreme Court. Justice Alito will join his new colleagues in the House Chamber for tonight's presidential address.

Bush delivers his fifth State of the Union address tonight to both chambers of Congress, and aides say the tone will be "optimistic" and "hopeful" and offer a long-term vision and strategy.

The president met with his Cabinet on Monday morning to talk about some of the issues he will address in his speech, such as the war on terror, health care, education, the economy and energy.

"I can't tell you how upbeat I am about our future, so long as we're willing to lead," Bush said after that meeting.

Bush spent about 90 minutes on Sunday working on his speech, and spokesman Scott McClellan said he rehearsed after the Cabinet meeting.

McClellan said the president typically did not do run-throughs of the speeches on the days he delivered them, so Monday was likely the final formal rehearsal.

The president worked on the speech over the past two weekends. A week ago, he was joined at Camp David by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, and a White House official said the president had worked on the speech during that time.

The speech currently stands at Draft No. 31, but McClellan was quick to point out that even a one-word change could result in another draft. The speech is about 38 minutes long right now, not counting applause. Factoring in those interruptions, the speech should compare in length to last year's address, which ran 53 minutes.

Bush will hit the road quickly after the State of the Union and begin a series of policy speeches that will highlight specific issues touched on in the State of the Union.

He will recap tonight's address in Nashville, Tenn., tomorrow and tackle global competitiveness in Maplewood, Minn., on Thursday. That talk will kick off a series of four domestic-policy speeches the president will give over the next four weeks.

White House aides were reluctant to give away details of tonight's speech, but McClellan said the president would address "bold initiatives."

"The president earlier today and last week talked about some areas that we need to continue to focus on to keep America competitive, to address priorities that the American people care most about, like rising health care costs and our dependence on foreign sources of energy," McClellan said. "And he'll talk more about that [Tuesday] night in his remarks."

Today the White House was expected to announce names of the guests who will grace the first lady's box in the House Chamber.

Last year Bush had among his invites an Iraqi voter and the parents of a soldier killed in Iraq. Safia Taleb al-Suhail waved her purple finger to show she had voted in the recent Iraqi election, and she later provided one of the most moving moments of the evening.

As the president pointed out William and Janet Norwood, parents of Sgt. Byron Norwood, a soldier killed in the assault on Fallujah, Suhail turned and enveloped Janet Norwood in a strong hug that brought the loudest ovation of the evening. Bush was visibly moved as he watched the scene unfold.

The tradition of inviting guests to the State of the Union address goes back to President Reagan, who in 1982 invited Lenny Skutnik and Jeremiah Denton to watch the address in the House Chamber. Reagan highlighted Skutnik, a government worker who had jumped into the Potomac River to rescue victims of a plane crash, and Denton, who had been the first POW to come home from Vietnam.

Bush has included Afghan President Hamid Karzai, NFL quarterback Tom Brady, and Americans who represented policies his speeches addressed.