WASHINGTON - Beginning his final year in office with low approval ratings, a Democratic Congress and a nation fixated on choosing his successor, President Bush is preparing a State of the Union speech for tonight that will accentuate unfinished business and lay out modest goals.
Bush will use the speech to urge congressional action to stimulate the economy and to authorize a warrantless wiretapping program that provides legal immunity for phone companies that cooperated with administration surveillance efforts before laws were changed.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said the speech, would be "focused on the future," rather than providing a review of the president's first seven years in office, and would "reflect the president's mind-set that he is going to sprint to the finish."
But the central policy measures Bush plans to highlight, according to senior aides, are issues that have run into major objections: extending the eavesdropping legislation, perpetuating the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, and renewing the 2002 overhaul of education programs encompassed in the No Child Left Behind law, among others.
Bush was not presented with a draft of the speech, Perino said, until barely two weeks before its delivery, while he was traveling earlier this month in the Middle East - suggesting a less-than-intensive approach by the president.
But policy advocates across Washington - particularly longtime allies uncertain about the reception they might receive from the next president - have been busy seeking to gain a presidential nod, in a phrase or sentence, for their projects and goals.
The National Association of Manufacturers, for example, would like Bush to call for reducing corporate tax rates and a seek greater federal funding for bridges, roads, and railroads, said spokesman Hank Cox.
Cal Dooley, president and chief executive officer of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, said his trade group wanted to see Bush call for greater funding for the Food and Drug Administration, to increase inspection of imported food products.
White House officials acknowledged that the initiatives Bush would present as his new goals for 2008 would be relatively small policy proposals, some of which he could implement by executive order and avoid a tangle with Congress.
What aides called the president's "realistic" agenda will feature no new calls for past administration initiatives, such as overhauling immigration laws or Social Security. Likewise, Bush is not expected to detail plans for operations in Iraq once the ongoing troop surge ends in July.
A senior administration official involved in Iraq policy said the president was wary of preempting a scheduled report in March by Army General David H. Petraeus, the Iraq commander, and Ryan C. Crocker, the US ambassador to Baghdad.
"I don't think we can expect that he'll foresee what Petraeus and Crocker might report in the spring, so I don't think we're going to get any forecasts," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Instead, said the official, Bush will probably reiterate recent themes, emphasizing that troops are not being replaced as they return from Iraq, but warning of the consequences of a resurgence of violence.
Perino and other White House aides have emphasized that Bush does not see the speech as an opportunity to frame his legacy or to overcome negative assessments. By convention, the address is more a statement of themes and goals rather than a detailed look at the condition of the country.
But a president presenting the address in the lame-duck eighth year faces special challenges. With few exceptions, "such speeches don't count for much," said Leo Ribuffo, a George Washington University professor of American history. This one, he added referring the president's final year, "counts least of all."
Bush's speechwriters did not have to look back very far for guidance for this year's address. President Clinton in 2000 reported that the nation had never enjoyed "at once so much prosperity and social progress with so little internal crisis and so few external threats."
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