Still wondering how so many people can love a president who did so wrong and lied so long?

Rewind the tape of Tuesday night’s “State of the Union Show.” It’s not that President Clinton’s that good; his persecutors are that bad.

Although he’s plenty good. Something for everyone, much of it lifted right out of the Republican Bible. Saving Social Security through fiscal restraint, holding schools accountable, stronger defense — all delivered with style, passion, humor. Topped off with Rosa Parks and Sammy Sosa.

Contrast that with what viewers saw of his critics. The camera shots of Rep. Dick Armey, looking as though he’d just polished off the shellfish platter at the Red Tide Cafe. The empty seats where Bob Barr and Henry Hyde should have been. The official GOP response by two “fresh faces” in Congress, Jennifer Dunn (utterly pointless IRS story) and Steve Largent (married his high-school sweetheart who was a cheerleader). Against that combination of sullen, rude and inane, the only thing that prevents Mr. Clinton’s approval rating from topping 100 is the mathematic impossibility.

But the president’s polls did nudge 75 percent Wednesday morning and the points weren’t just for style. There’s the substance, too. Strengthening the safety-net programs working Americans are counting on for their old age, initiatives in education, the environment and crime — Mr. Clinton not only hit on every “kitchen table” issue, he gave the impression he poured the coffee and made the sandwiches.

Most importantly, he talked to the American people as though they are intelligent adults, able, for example, to understand and accept that Social Security is a social contract calling for a shared sacrifice; it is not an individual retirement account. Republican leadership can repeat its simple-minded demand that the surplus go to across-the-board tax cuts all it wants; the surplus belongs to Social Security and the public knows it.

Of course it’s all too much, the price tag on the president’s evening playing Santa is far too high. There is no way the nation is going to spend billions meeting every need, satisfying every whim. Mr. Clinton merely laid out what he wants America to have; now it’s left to Congress — the Republican-controlled Congress — to take it away.

The fundamental mistake the impeachment-obsessed have made all along is the assumption that the public looks at the president and sees nothing but a lying philanderer. The public sees that, but it also sees a guy who has enough nerve to hang in there, who still wants to do the job, who knows how to behave on TV. Against that, the bilious Mr. Armey doesn’t stand a chance.