For years, George W. Bush and his administration expressed frustration that he received little credit for the nation’s strong economy because of public discontent about the Iraq war.

Today, the president gets little credit for improved security in Iraq, as the public increasingly focuses on a struggling U.S. economy.

Such is the life of a lame duck, wildly unpopular president.

As Bush prepares to deliver his final State of the Union address tonight, he will come before Congress able to report some progress in tamping down violence in Iraq. That’s certainly a first.

Yet by and large, the public appears to have moved past the Iraq war - and from the debacle that is President George W. Bush.

That said, here’s a way to make the State of the Union more interesting. We’ve come up with an over-under on the following:

• Standing ovations: 10 (he’s a lame duck)
• Uses of “progress” in reference to Iraq: 6
• Number of blatant lies added to the 935 false statements already made about Iraq by his administration: 5
• Number of world leaders’ names bungled: 4
• Shots of a brooding Hillary Clinton: 4
• Times George W. Bush mentions bad credit home loans: 3
• Times he talks about energy independence: 2
• Times he says nu-cue-lar: 2
• Occasions in which you lose track of what the hell he is talking about and flip over to ESPN: 1 (probably for good)