WASHINGTON, Jan 24: Major US newspapers were sceptical on Wednesday over President George Bush's appeals for bipartisanship, noting that in his State of the Union speech he said nothing about changing his deeply unpopular Iraq policy.

With his job approval ratings sinking to new lows, the Bush speech competed for front-page space in many papers with the Oscar nominations, ice hockey's all-star game and American football's Feb 4 Super bowl extravaganza.

The main Washington Post story described Mr Bush as `politically wounded but rhetorically unbowed’; and giving `no ground on decision to dispatch more troops despite bipartisan cascade of criticism’. This was Bush's last chance as president to shape policy, the newspaper's main editorial read. At this time next year primary elections for the 2008 presidential candidates will be underway, “and Mr. Bush's relevance will be fading,” the editorial read.

Bush, elected in 2000 and re-elected in 2004, can no longer run for president and leaves office after the 2008 presidential elections.

Bush “offered at least a reasonable basis for further discussion” on key domestic issues. Congress “should engage, not reflexively dismiss” the president, the editorial read.

The Los Angeles Times lead analysis piece asked: “Can this presidency be saved?” Bush “gave more attention than he has in past speeches to domestic issues,”which was potentially more appealing to the opposition Democrats that control Congress.

“But Bush's plans may be too modest to accomplish the broader challenge facing him: how to rescue the last quarter of his presidency from irrelevance and patch his tattered legacy.” The New York Times editorial said that Bush has never shown “interest in bipartisanship, and his domestic agenda was set years ago, with huge tax cuts for wealthy Americans and crippling debt for the country.” In the speech Bush “gave no hint” of changing, offering instead “a tepid menu of ideas that would change little.” The Iraq comments “added nothing to his failed policies,” the piece read.

For USA Today, the widest circulation newspaper in the country, Bush's tone “was less confident and his promises considerably more constrained.” The main Chicago Tribune analysis piece sought to bring two of the day's lead stories together.

It was no small irony that could be channelling (former vice president) Al Gore on energy policy on the very day that Gore's documentary film on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth,” was nominated for an Oscar,” the article read. Though Bush “has mentioned energy independence seven straight years, his proposals have advanced only sporadically.

“Now the president's tone is far closer to the man he denied the White House in 2000, with talk of 'hybrid vehicles,' 'bio diesel' and 'solar and wind energy.’” Bush defeated Gore by a razor-thin margin in the 2000 presidential election.—AFP