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It was only an "ic." But it has caused a bit of a rumble.

In the prepared text of President Bush's State of the Union speech, the president was supposed to say this: “Some in this Chamber are new to the House and Senate – and I congratulate the Democratic majority.” But as delivered, Bush called it the "Democrat majority"

And everyone seems to think they know just what that was supposed to mean. Wrote the Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire: "Dropping the 'ic' from the word 'Democratic' may seem insignificant, but it was almost certainly a deliberate move by Bush, who has used the phrase 'the Democrat Party' for months as a way of needling his opponents."

This morning's Washington Post hedges a bit: "Bush does this a lot, and while it's hard to say if the omission was intentional in this instance, it is a semantic tactic that's been part of Republican warfare for decades."

And why is that? What are the origins of this evil terminology? It's "a means of needling the opposition by purposefully mispronouncing its name," the Post explains, "and of suggesting that the party on the left is not truly small-'d' democratic."

Wow. That is offensive.

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Ratings Up For Bush: Well, President Bush's numbers are up somewhere. The AP reports that viewership for the speech was up by 9 percent since last year. Who else saw a bump? "American Idol," whose numbers were up by 8 percent. The Bush speech – running on nine different networks – drew more viewers (about 45.5 million) than "Idol," which, on a single network, clocked in at about 32.6 million. As for Fox's airing of the Bush speech, 8.4 million people tuned in. But NBC won the day with 9.3 million viewers according to Nielsen research.

Rumble In The Situation Room: Another big public appearance from the Bush administration is eating up headlines: Vice President Dick Cheney's appearance on CNN's "The Situation Room." The interview was "turned increasingly contentious as it wore on," writes the Post in a front pager. (Wonkette's description: "In Which Dick Cheney Nearly Kills Wolf Blitzer With His Bare Hands.") Either way, check out the interview. Here's a media related snippet:

Wolf Blitzer: His number two, Ayman al Zawahiri is –

Vice President Dick Cheney: Zawahiri is much, much more visible. Yes.

Blitzer: I mean, he’s on television almost as much as I am.

Cheney: Well, I don’t know if anybody is on as much as you are, Wolf …

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Ah, the morning after. Let's talk coverage, shall we? It was, according to Tim Graham of the conservative Newsbusters blog, "dominated by gloom for President Bush" on CBS. (Well, maybe not completely dominated: Bob Schieffer did say "this was a much better speech and a much better argument for his position than he made when he made the speech announcing the troop increase two weeks ago.") The fact that "CBS IS F------ SHILLING FOR THE POLITICO" had Wonkette "drinking the rest of this bottle," which strikes me as something of an overreaction. (Although, to be fair, DC-types are surely tired of hearing about the much hyped new Web site, which CBS News has partnered with.) Tom Shales, meanwhile, writes that it was the Schieffer show:

"Although Katie Couric is the presiding anchor on CBS, she increasingly relies on the expertise of Schieffer when covering big political events. They are now virtual co-anchors. While Couric read from prepared historical information about past State of the Union addresses, Schieffer did the up-to-date political analysis. In fact, he seemed to get even more screen time than Couric in the minutes leading up to the speech."

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The Skinny Today: Facial expressions are taken very seriously on State of the Union night. Plus, Scooter Libby is being sacrificed, says his lawyer. The Skinny is Hillary Profita's take on the top of the news and the best of the Web.

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Last year, Nielsen Research reported that the State of the Union address roped in 42 million viewers across eight networks -- ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, CNN, FNC, MSNBC, and Telemundo. It was a slight increase from the previous year's viewership, which was about 39 million.

A single network raked in 33 million viewers alone that night -- but it wasn't for the president's address. Those 33 million were watching what was on during the hour before the speech – Fox's "American Idol." A lead in show with that many viewers meant that Fox won the day for SOTU viewership.

That also meant the Washington Post's TV critic, (and pretty much every other TV critic in America) Lisa de Moraes had a barrel of laughs in the paper later that week, noting that while "Bush clocked his biggest numbers on the Fox broadcast network, that's not to say he did such a hot job retaining the 'Idol' audience." According to the stats she had, Bush averaged about 9.5 million viewers on Fox ("a lousy 29 percent retention rate, which would get him canceled faster than he could say 'Emily's Reasons Why Not' if he were a TV series," she writes.) By the second half-hour, the audience was down to 6.9 viewers.

In other words,(and this may come as a bit of a shock) the State of the Union address is not a ratings grabber.

Perhaps this year, as everyone (well, everyone in Washington) highlights the president's record-low approval ratings and Congress' growing frustration with the Iraq war plan, we'll see an upswing in viewership. Or maybe, a skeptical public is one that would rather tune out.

"American Idol," is on again this year during the hour before the speech. Re-runs of "Sex and the City" start at 9 pm (same time the speech starts) on TBS.

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The Skinny Today: With polls plummeting and a less-than-friendly Congress, President Bush will focus on a domestic agenda in tonight's State of the Union address. The Skinny is Hillary Profita’s take on the top of the news and the best of the Web.

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More Bush, Less Duke: Yesterday , NRO's Andrew McCarthy had some complaints about "60 Minutes'" interview with President Bush and today it's Marketwatch's Jon Friedman's turn. Friedman enjoyed the interview itself ("the footage of the embattled Bush was riveting"; "Pelley hammered the president with skill and tenacity") but argues the broadcast should have allotted more time for that interview, instead of giving over a chunk of the broadcast to the "melodramatic segment" with the parents of the accused Duke lacrosse players.

"This program shouldn't have to resort to segments that are longer on emotion than news," he said. He did suggest, however, that his may be a minority opinion: "Perhaps America craves the spectacle of furious mothers railing against a flawed legal system."

"The Great And Terrible [Steve] Jobs": On the Media's Bob Garfield, noticing that the unveiling of the iPod was received by the public much like, oh, I don't know, the Beatles' first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, asked Wired's Mac columnist Pete Mortenson this question: "When the 2,000 journalists are standing there in the midst of this frenzy, what happens to their skepticism?"
Said Mortenson: "As soon as he held up the actual iPhone, it all dropped away, and everyone wanted one. It's embarrassing, but you can't help but feel sucked into it."

Mortenson later suggested the most amusing aspect of all the breathless coverage: "What's really funny is that all of the incredibly positive coverage that the iPhone has received has come with barely anyone actually touching it. You know, it's a device that's about manipulation with your fingers, but at Macworld, Apple keeps it under lock and key. It's in a glass case, like a rare diamond. You can't really find flaws with something when you've only seen it demonstrated by the great and terrible Jobs."

The State of the Union is…: Gear up your State of the Union drinking game materials, America. Next Tuesday is the big day. And with that, the Atlanta Journal Constitution's Window on Washington blog has some news for you: "If history is instructive, it’s a good bet [President Bush will] assure us that the state of the union is strong."

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Let me make a shameful admission: I really, really enjoyed the State Of The Union last night. No, not the speech itself. What I took pleasure in was the over-the-top pomp and circumstance of the whole ridiculous extravaganza: The politics of the standing ovations; the carefully choreographed details, right down to the first lady's pink power suit; even the politicians jockeying for position in order to be seen in ostensibly casual banter with the president as he made his way from the hall. The speech may not be of much political import, but if you come at it with the right attitude, it can make for great theatre.



Much of America disagrees, however – even the political junkies. Writes Josh Marshall: "I have a confession: I'm not sure when the last time was when I watched the State of the Union address. I think I may have watched it in 2003. But I'm not even certain of that. Perhaps a glance through the archives would show that I watched a bit of it last year, I don't know…The truth is, I find it unwatchable."



Tom Shales finds it forgettable. "The address, televised on all the networks from the House chamber of the Capitol, was capably presented, well organized and sometimes lofty in tone. But it was also lackluster, ordinary and, most of all, generic. With only a few changes, the same speech could have been delivered a year ago, and maybe it was. Nobody remembers these things from one year to the next anyway." Nobody? I beg to differ on that: Both Dave Chappelle and I have fond memories of that lost-but-not-forgotten Mars initiative from 2004, and I may well never forget where I was the first time I heard reference to the chilling specter of human-animal hybrids. (OK, OK, they're a big deal. Sheesh.)



Still, we can have our fun, but, ultimately, there's not much to take from the State Of The Union beyond the theatre at its surface. Robert Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University, says the speech has become a ritualistic, "constitutionally mandated press release" – "there are moments when it all sounds like those teachers [talking to] Charlie Brown," he says.

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