As has been the custom, the White House invited a mix of prominent and ordinary citizens to sit with first lady Laura Bush during the president's speech. Monday night's guests included a single mother from Tanzania who benefited from the U.S. global AIDS initiative, the co-chairmen of the president's commission on health care for veterans, and several soldiers who served with valor in Iraq and elsewhere. In one poignant sign that his time is short, Mr. Bush's twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara, were seated in the first lady's box – the first time they had attended their father's State of the Union address. In a nod to New Orleans, the president also invited jazz trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, whose father's body was found months after Hurricane Katrina, to sit in the first lady's box. In September 2003, Irvin Mayfield was appointed cultural ambassador for the city of New Orleans by the U.S. Congress.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne was minding the store while the other Cabinet members were at the Capitol listening to President Bush deliver his seventh and final State of the Union address. It's a long-standing tradition for a member of the Cabinet to miss the speech as a precaution against a catastrophic attack or accident. Last year, Al Gonzales, who was attorney general, filled the role as designated watchdog.

The State of the Union is one of the major annual set pieces on Capitol Hill, and the complex was buzzing with receptions, preparations and political talk. The Arab television station Al-Jazeera for the first time had a camera station in Statuary Hall, where lawmakers flock after the address to deliver reactive sound bites to television stations back home.

From wire reports