Last year a confident, newly re-elected George Bush used his State of the Union address to Congress to pledge radical reform and his intention to cash in the substantial political capital he had amassed in the election (buoyed by the reality that this time he had an undisputed mandate). How times have changed. On Tuesday night there was a strong whiff of an end-of-term presidency about his speech. Yet Mr Bush has three more years to serve - more time than John F Kennedy actually served in the White House, as the New York Times noted pointedly.
Buffeted by polls that show deep public unease about his handling of both domestic and foreign policy, President Bush effectively shelved his flagship policy, the reshaping of the pension or social security system, with the classic setting-up-of-a-bipartisan-committee ploy. The speech emphasised incremental reform on issues like healthcare, making tax cuts permanent, enhancing the training of technologists, and extra research into alternatives to oil. There was no reference to his cherished structural reform of the tax system. And the speech was long on self-justification on phone tapping and Iraq. But, as the French say, "qui s'excuse, s'accuse" - making excuses is an exercise in self-incrimination - and the speech will do little to change the popular mood. His advisers have clearly convinced Mr Bush that a more modest and politically realisable legislative programme is better suited to the mid-term congressional elections this autumn, but it will scarcely add lustre to his long-term legacy.
The president insisted somewhat unconvincingly on Iraq that "I am confident in our plan for victory, I am confident in the will of the Iraqi people, I am confident in the skill and spirit of our military" and repeated his case for a robust US internationalism. "In a complex and challenging time, the road of isolationism and protectionism may seem broad and inviting," he argued. "Yet it ends in danger and decline. The only way to protect our people, the only way to secure the peace, the only way to control our destiny is by our leadership - so the United States of America will continue to lead." That involves, he said, supporting democracy, because free peoples are no threat to the US, and fighting terrorism.
All well and good, but the slight, passing reference to "friends and allies" suggested that Mr Bush's unilateralism remains largely undiluted. Allies will, however, take some comfort in his acknowledgment that "America is addicted to oil". Although still weak on solutions, Mr Bush's admission is, as addicts know well, a very important first step.