President George W. Bush stepped to the rostrum Tuesday night facing low approval ratings, economic worries and an increasingly unpopular war.

He left the joint session of Congress having successfully avoided the negatives that have plagued his last year in office while putting his opponents on the defensive, said Steffen Schmidt, political science professor and WOI’s “Dr. Politics.”

“He did kind of a judo move forcing the Democrats to get up and applaud on things they would have rather not,” he said. “It was a well-crafted performance.”

One of Bush’s main focuses in the address was an energy initiative to focus on alternative forms of energy – including ethanol.

“It is, I think, a signal that in places like Iowa State University we have a kind of green light to go ahead and come up with innovative ways of producing energy,” Schmidt said.

He said that historically, State of the Union Addresses do not give presidents much of a boost in public opinion polls. Bush did not do himself any favors by failing to address the ongoing war in Iraq, an issue Schmidt said many Americans are worried about.

“I don’t feel like he accomplished the goal of making people feel like he’s got that under control,” he said.

Schmidt said although Bush failed to address the negatives of the war in Iraq, he felt that he did a good job of addressing the danger of terrorism.

“I think he made a very good case for the fact that there is still a lot of danger from terrorism,” he said.

ISU students on both sides of the political aisle also waited to see what he’d have to say on the topics of interest to them.

Daniel Frohardt, senior in construction engineering and vice president of the ISU College Republicans, said he expected Bush to speak on the growing economy, immigration reform and the war in Iraq.

“Obviously the war in Iraq is the biggest thing,” said Frohardt. “I think he’ll have lots of positive comments about how we’re doing over there.”

The ISU Democrats watched the speech with the national group Drinking Liberally out Legends American Grill, 119 Stanton Ave. They said Bush addressed major issues, but not to their satisfaction.

“He says he’s against activist judges legislating from the bench, and uses desegregation as an example of freedom in the United States, but desegregation was decided by those judges,” said Fred Lucas, senior in philosophy.

Jonathan Mullin, graduate student in physical chemistry said, “Coming from a research perspective, I haven’t seen a lot of his initiatives bear fruit in alternative fuels yet.”

Drew Larson, President of ISU Democrats, said that ethanol is not the end of line, but it is something that will give the country time to find other sources of renewable and sustainable energy.

Larson, senior in accounting, also called the Bush administration’s practice of wiretapping Americans who were suspected of terrorist ties unacceptable.

“After we talk about liberty, we clearly want all those things – liberty, rule of law, and it seems to me that these things are being forgotten at home,” he said.

Bush received many standing ovations from Congress during the discussions of health care, tax and budget cuts, education, technology, Katrina and stem cell research.