Seven years have passed since Bush arrived in Washington, fresh from the Texas governor's mansion, with a sweeping domestic agenda and a grand promise to be a "uniter, not a divider." But with the nation bitterly divided over the war, and many Americans already looking past Bush to the 2008 presidential race, he arrived in the House chamber on Monday night a politician with much less ambitious plans.

Bush is grayer now than he was then. And he is realistic, White House aides say, about what he might accomplish in his 51 weeks left.

In one poignant sign that his time is short, Bush's twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara, were seated in the first lady's box. It was the first time they had attended one of their father's State of the Union addresses.

Looking ahead, on domestic affairs, Bush called on Congress to reauthorize his signature education bill, No Child Left Behind, and to pass pending trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea. He asked lawmakers to make his tax cuts permanent and implored them to renew legislation permitting intelligence officials to eavesdrop on the communications of terrorism suspects and to provide legal immunity to phone companies that have helped in the wiretapping efforts.

Yet even as Bush issued that call, lawmakers were at an impasse over the bill on Monday night, as the Senate rejected two measures that would have shut down

debate and forced a vote on two competing proposals — a plan backed by the White House and a short-term effort by Democrats to extend by a month the existing eavesdropping law, which is set to expire Friday. Bush does not want a short-term extension.

And though there is little to no chance that the Democratic Congress will tackle Social Security or illegal immigration, his two major domestic priorities, Bush could not resist urging them to do so. His counselor, Ed Gillespie, said Bush saw that as his presidential duty.

"The president understands that nominees on both parties are going to have their own proposals and ideas on these fronts," Gillespie said, previewing the speech. "That's where we are in the cycle of things."

Gillespie said Bush held the view that "to stand before Congress and not mention the need to address the concerns and the problems of immigration and entitlements would have been irresponsible."

On foreign affairs, the speech was as notable for what it did not mention as for what it did. Bush left out any mention of North Korea; he had hoped that by now North Korea would have disclosed all of its nuclear programs, giving the Bush administration a foreign policy achievement. But the North missed the Dec. 31 deadline for disclosure.