As you’re watching the president’s State of the Union address tonight, it’ll be handy to have the White House’s talking points about the speech in hand to know what you’re seeing.

A Republican pal makes a good point sizing up what happened today in the Scooter Libby trial. Contrary to what some have said, I don’t think there were any new facts alleged today. The key is that Libby has decided to base his defense in large part on an attack on the White House — specifically on Karl Rove, almost certainly on other top advisors and conceiveably even on the president himself. The logical inference from that decision is that Libby and his lawyers have decided that President Bush will not pardon their client.

Why the White House would have decided that or why they would have chosen to make that decision clear to Libby is a bit hard to fathom. But it’s hard to figure why Libby would have gone so hard against Rove if he thought a pardon were still in the offing? Thoughts?

In a narrow political sense, Rove’s guilt wouldn’t exculpate Libby. And taking the rap for other guilty parties wouldn’t absolve him either. Perhaps they’re angling for some sort of politically-tinged jury nullification.

I’ll be curious to see what these folks have to say about this parting of the ways.

Get your early excerpts of the State of the Union address here.

Can’t we all get along?

The headline from MSNBC: “Bush to plead for bipartisanship amid opposition to Iraq ‘surge'”

I don’t know if you were watching at home but as the president walked into the House chamber the first Dem to glad hand him and get a word was none other than Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). He seemed to be pressing some point. And President Bush didn’t seem too interested.

If you’re planning on sending in your video response to the State of the Union, the instructions for what to do are right here.

What a strange man. After disarmingly gracious opening remarks about Nancy Pelosi’s speakership, the president congratulates the ‘Democrat majority’ — words most every Democrat takes as a calculated insult. The prepared remarks say “Democratic majority”. But apparently he couldn’t help himself.

I’ll be posting my response after Sen. Webb (D-VA) gives the Democratic response. Send us your video response? See the instructions on the right.

My thoughts on the president’s speech — and also Jim Webb’s.

Want to send us your video response? See the instructions on how to do it here.

And see State of the Union responses from fellow TPM Readers here.

In my little video blurb below I asked readers to send in the text of this one passage of Sen. Jim Webb’s speech which I thought was the most powerful language of the evening.

Here it is …

Like so many other Americans, today and throughout our history, we serve and have served, not for political reasons, but because we love our country. On the political issues — those matters of war and peace, and in some cases of life and death — we trusted the judgment of our national leaders. We hoped that they would be right, that they would measure with accuracy the value of our lives against the enormity of the national interest that might call upon us to go into harm‘s way.

That’s the heart of it. It damns George W. Bush in ways that very little else can.

Late Update: I’m told by a source close to Webb that the senator wrote the speech himself.