Despite seven years of failed policies and missed opportunities, President George W. Bush used his final State of the Union address Monday night to alternately admonish and threaten Congress, issue stern warnings to the leaders of Iran and to take credit for ephemeral successes in Iraq. Mixed in was a laundry list of program cuts, new initiatives and law changes that, despite the president’s demands, have little chance of becoming reality.

The president began by acknowledging the country’s economic slowdown and urged lawmakers to quickly pass a stimulus package negotiated by his administration and House leadership. That package focuses on tax rebates and business incentives but does not include the more beneficial extension of unemployment benefits and other assistance or state fiscal relief.

President Bush warned lawmakers against loading up the stimulus bill, which he said would delay or derail it. In his next sentence, however, he told Congress to make his tax cuts permanent. Extending tax cuts that expire in 2010 will do nothing to help the economy now and it would further contribute to the growing budget deficit.

Suddenly becoming a fiscal conservative, President Bush vowed to veto any appropriations bill that does not halve earmarks, the spending lawmakers insert into bills for local projects. It is an odd request from a president who signed dozens of spending bills that contained billions of dollars worth of earmarks when Republicans controlled Congress.

The president also for the first time spoke of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To do this, however, he called for an agreement that included every major economy and gave no country a free ride. Bringing developing countries such as China and India into an international agreement is a worthy and necessary goal, but it should not be an excuse for U.S. inaction.

The president devoted much of his speech to the war in Iraq, which will be a cornerstone of his legacy. While attacks are down as a result of the U.S. military surge, the president overplayed the positives in Iraq while sidestepping a real troop withdrawal. He touted a grass-roots Iraqi surge that includes 80,000 citizens fighting the terrorists. These citizens are in reality neighborhood watch groups, hired by the U.S. military for $300 a month, according to the Washington Post.

The number of Iraqi soldiers and police was also overstated and U.S. and Iraqi officials have repeatedly said that these forces, no matter their numbers, are years away from securing the country.

Amid a list of successes in Afghanistan, the president mentioned that more U.S. troops will be sent there. He blamed Iran for undermining efforts at democracy in several Middle Eastern countries and three times warned that country to give up its nuclear ambitions, despite a recent U.S. intelligence estimate that Tehran had stopped its military nuclear enrichment program.

Coupled with calls for $300 million for school choice, the termination of 151 federal programs, expanded consumer choice to help the uninsured and a request for ideas from lawmakers to fix Social Security, it added up to a mix of problems that are much more likely to be left for Mr. Bush’s successor than to be resolved in an election year by a president who would rather issue ultimatums than negotiate compromises.