Bush to defend Iraq plan

President George W. Bush will try in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday to rally skeptical Americans behind his latest Iraq plan and revive a domestic agenda resisted by the new Democratic-led Congress.

With polls showing him at the weakest point of his presidency, Bush was preparing to deliver his annual address to a nation increasingly opposed to the Iraq war and unsupportive of his drive to send in 21,500 more troops.

Bush will be in the uncomfortable position of addressing a Congress entirely controlled by Democrats for the first time since he took office, a stark reminder of how much the political landscape has shifted since November's elections.

Hoping to divert public attention back to domestic matters, Bush plans to dangle a list of new and recycled proposals on health care, energy, education and immigration and urge bipartisan efforts to advance them.