The unofficial State of the Union, by the unofficial numbers:

Bipartisan standing ovations: 32

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After Barack Obama's speech, he goes to the GOP side of the aisle to shake hands, including with people in John McCain's row, like Mel Martinez and Dick Lugar.

But McCain turns away, speaking with Lindsey Graham and Richard Burr.

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The guest list for first lady Michelle Obama at tonight's joint session of Congress includes a broad cross section of American, the famous and not-so-famous.

Mrs. Obama's guests includes: Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden; Govs. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio) and Jim Douglas (R-Vt.); Maypr Bob Dixson of Greensburg, KS., who is leading an effort to rebuild his city after a devastating tornado last May; Valerie Jarrett and Phil Schiliro, senior aides to President Obama; Leonard Abess, CEO of National City Bank, who is donating millions of dollars in to his employees; Richard DeCoatsworth, a Philadelphia, Pa., police officer who was shot in the face by a suspect but still managed to help capture him; SPC Jonathon James, who was injured fighting in the Watapor Valley, Afghanistan; Marine Sergeant John Rice, who lost a foot to a landmine explosion while on patrol in Iraq; Shannon Kendall, wife of Army Major Ryan Kendall, who has done two tours in Iraq; Lily Ledbetter, a Florida woman at the center of a major gender pay discrimination lawsuit; and a handful of students, current and former government officials and small business owners.

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Sen. John McCain brought his 97 year old mother Roberta to the non-SOTU tonight. The two had dinner at the Capitol and then Roberta will watch the speech in the House chamber, McCain aides said. The two just walked through the Capitol Rotunda; his mother is wearing black.

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An hour before Barack Obama's speech to the nation, the Capitol is roaring with hordes of reporters, TV cameras and lawmakers with their guests taking in the scene.

Outside the House chamber, where Obama is set to deliver his speech, scores of cameras are already set up in Statuary Hall, where lawmakers will give their instant analysis at the end of the president's remarks. There's barely room to move in the House press gallery, and the Senate's photo gallery is so packed that photographers are literally setting up shop in the hallway.

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Okay, I meant to get to this earlier, but deadlines and such got in the way. But I have still not heard whether Bush has been charged with the crime he committed against writing in his State of the Union Address. It might not have been a “high crime,” but it was at least a misdemeanor.

Quite simply, this speech has to go down as one of the worst Bush has ever given —a marked departure from the high poetry that poured from the podium in his earlier years. And if Michael Abramowitz is to be believed, Bush has nobody to blame but himself. In this Monday profile of his speechwriters, headlined “For Speechwriting Team, Bush Is Editor in Chief,” we learn that Bush “calls up and he really drills down. He looks at transitions, he looks at everything." That’s from speech-writer William McGurn. A quick look at those transitions will let you know why McGurn was so quick to pass the credit upward.

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I think House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, as usual, sums up Bush's last State of the Union address pretty well:

"At a time when the challenges facing our country and our economy have  never been greater, the American people are looking for a new direction  and new leadership from Washington. But tonight all the American people  heard from the president was the same old rhetoric and the same old  ideas. The time has come to reject the status quo, and to trade no ideas for new ideas; lethargy for leadership."

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And gosh, she was terrifically boring. Today, I went from Barack Obama to George Bush to Kathleen Sebelius, and I seemed like I was going downhill in rhetorical ability-o-meter. Wow.

Here's the text of Sebelius' speech, which was actually pretty good if you read the text. That is, if you stayed awake through her delivery:

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Bush's speech ran 52 minutes (started at 9:10 p.m., ended at 10:02 p.m.) and drew about 20 standing ovations, although a lot of those were either half Republican or half Democratic. The biggest applause lines were for praising U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, veterans and more troops.

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In what has otherwise been a pretty flat speech for the president, he finishes up with a nice rhetorical flourish:

"The secret of our strength, the miracle of America, is that our greatness lies not in our government but in the spirit and determination of our people. When the Federal Convention met in Philadelphia in 1787, our nation was bound by the Articles of Confederation, which began with the words, 'We the undersigned delegates.' When Gouverneur Morris was asked to draft the preamble to our new Constitution, he offered an important revision and opened with words that changed the course of our nation and the history of the world: 'We the people.'

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Bush had some stark language on Iran in tonight's speech, but after the recent National Intelligence Estimate suggested Iran's nuclear program wasn't going to produce a weapon soon, it took all momentum from the "bomb Iran now" crowd, so don't expect any U.S. military action soon. Hopefully.

"We are also standing against the forces of extremism embodied by the regime in Tehran. Iran's rulers oppress a good and talented people. And wherever freedom advances in the Middle East, it seems the Iranian regime is there to oppose it. Iran is funding and training militia groups in Iraq, supporting Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon and backing Hamas' efforts to undermine peace in the Holy Land. Tehran is also developing ballistic missiles of increasing range and continues to develop its capability to enrich uranium, which could be used to create a nuclear weapon.

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The passages on Iraq are clearly the biggest, most important part of tonight's speech, as they were for Bush last year. The president is clearly buoyed by the military and security progress in Iraq, although he made very little mention of the repeated failure by the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to reach any of the political benchmarks that had been hoped.

"When we met last year, many said containing the violence was impossible. A year later, high-profile terrorist attacks are down, civilian deaths are down, and sectarian killings are down.

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Bush has actually gotten his biggest applause of the night when talking about Social Security-Medicare-Medicaid and immigration reform. And he didn't even say he was going to do anything. He just called on Congress to do something. And his call for a real bipartisan agreement on immigration was his most forceful of the evening:

"There are two other pressing challenges that I have raised repeatedly before this body and that this body has failed to address: entitlement spending and immigration.

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There's a little gamesmanship going on here tonight. When Republicans like a Bush applause line such as vetoing tax increases, they stand up and applaud. When Democrats want to poke some fun at a Bush line, like being for fiscal responsibility, they sarcastically stand up. I love this kind of stuff.

UPDATE: From my Crypt colleague Marty Kady, who notes that Republican appropriators didn't join into the overwhelming happiness over earmark reform. Figures.

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President Bush will never say the word "recession," nor "downturn," nor "slowdown," nor anything negative about the economy, until he is forced to. He will acknowledge "concern about our economic future" or a "period of uncertainty," but that's as far as he will go.

Let's also note that there is not yet a recession (two or more quarters of decline).

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So far, our B- or C-list star of the night has to be Gary Sinise, who stars on the CBS show "CSI: N.Y." Our own Josie Hearn saw him come with a bunch of House members. Why he is here is beyond me. And who watches "CSI: N.Y." or any of those shows is also beyond me. But maybe that's my liberal MSM elitism leaking into my reporting. Or it could be that I watch too much sports on TV. Whatever.

UPDATE: Marty Kady has just spotted John Ratzenberger, better known as "Cliff Clavin," the lovable loser mailman on "Cheers." Again, no idea what he is doing here.

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Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) walked into the speech like they hadn't seen each other in decades, which is funny after today's excitement.

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Joe Biden (D-Del.) strode into together, chatting very amiably. Biden has not endorsed anyone yet.

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Along with former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kansas), who was severely injured in Italy in World War II, there are a couple of other heroes sitting with first lady Laura Bush. Remember these people (I will) when you want to complain about your life:

1st Lt. Andrew Kinard, USMC (Spartanburg, S.C.) 

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