'O'mission accomplished:
WASHINGTON (AP) _ There were 5,200 words about dozens of subjects in President Bush's State of the Union address. Some people are intrigued not by what he said _ but what he didn't say.
About the environment, for example. In his 54-minute speech, Bush never mentioned it.
He spoke with pride about the capture of Saddam Hussein but did not refer to Osama bin Laden, accused mastermind of the deadliest terrorist attack on America and the target of a more than two-year-old U.S. manhunt.
He talked about creating jobs but not about the loss of 2.3 million jobs since he became president.
There was no mention of the costly space initiative Bush had announced earlier this month.
And he did not talk about Iraq's alleged cache of still-missing weapons of mass destruction that the administration had cited as justification for going to war. The closest he came was to say that investigators have identified ``dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities.''
``I was aware as I listened to him that there were certain subjects he was just avoiding,'' said presidential historian Henry Graff. ``You don't look for trouble if you can avoid it. Unemployment is a very tough one for this president to defend.''
He said it was natural for Bush to steer away from subjects where he felt weak, but that some omissions were glaring. Like bin Laden.
``That puzzled me. I would have thought he'd have had something to say about him, either that we're about to hang him or he's near our big net, that we'll catch him or something of the sort,'' Graff said.
The White House said Bush did not intend to address every subject.
``The State of the Union is not a laundry list of every priority,'' White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Friday. ``There are a number of other priorities, as well, not all of which received the attention in the State of the Union they are receiving through the actions of this administration.''
He said Bush's upcoming budget would reflect the administration's priorities, while the State of the Union ``reflects the big goals we're uniting the country around.''
Still, Norm Ornstein, political analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, was struck by Bush's omissions. ``There were things I was waiting to hear and I didn't hear any of them, and it was certainly striking. That checklist is a long one.''
The absence of any reference to Bush's goal of establishing a manned presence on the moon as a way station to Mars ``cheapens the whole notion to begin with and it shows that it was just a political ploy,'' Ornstein said. Various polls show that Americans are lukewarm or opposed to Bush's space proposal.
Ornstein said it was noticeable that Bush did not mention his concept of an ``ownership society'' that promotes the idea of Americans owning and managing their own health care plans, retirement plans, small businesses and the like.
``They decided to shift to a much more political, campaign speech ... to bolster those conservatives, throwing some red meat at them with things like gay marriage and abstinence.''
He said the White House had decided against ``raising red flags of big spending programs that they don't like, like space exploration.''
More than two months in the making, the speech went through more than a dozen drafts before a final weekend of retooling at Camp David by Bush and top advisers.
The White House is deluged with requests from advocates inside and outside the government for a mention of their projects in the speech.
``I don't know how many times I've heard, 'I just need one line, that's all it takes,''' said a senior administration official. ``It's pretty prized real estate, the State of the Union.''
Environmental groups were unhappy that their issues were ignored.
``The fact that President Bush avoided mentioning his administration's environmental policies could be seen as a tacit admission that his record is deplorable and the issue is a vulnerable one for him, said the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. ``Polls show that the majority of Americans believe he is more interested in protecting his corporate campaign contributors than public health and the environment.''
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