I kept hearing newsreaders and pundits referring to President Bush’s “State of The Union” address tonight as his sixth such address, but that just didn’t sound right. If tonight marked his sixth SOTU speech, that would mean that he has two more to give, right? Two terms = eight years = eight SOTU. And I know that two years from now, he won’t be the President, as the next President will take office on January 20, 2009 - which means that THAT President will give the address two years from now, not George Bush. So knowing that he has only one more SOTU speech, I wondered why the press kept calling tonight’s his “sixth,” and I found the answer at the ever-helpful USA-President.info site: his 2001 speech (delivered February 27, 2001) is not officially listed as a formal State of The Union address:

Note that this speech is not officially listed as a State of the Union Address. Regardless, it was perceived as being a State of the Union Address by the press and the public at the time it was delivered and is commonly remembered as being a State of the Union Address.

He didn’t use the phrase “the state of the union” in that speech, but for all intents and purposes, it WAS a State of The Union address - President George W. Bush’s first one. Which makes tonight’s address his seventh SOTU, and next year’s (2008) his eighth and last. Whew. OK. Now the numbers make sense.