Bush's past history would indicate that he doesn't give a damn about the Space Program. He never visited JSC while he was governor of Texas even though there was a political advantage in doing so. For months, he left Goldin as administrator of NASA even though it was evident that Goldin was incompetent. He fired Goldin only after the ISS became a blatant embarrassment and then replaced him with an accountant / trouble shooter (who has since proven to be a much better administrator than Goldin). Bush's "Space Initiative" is uninspiring to say the very least. The nonsense about using lunar resources to get to Mars indicates that Bush's advisors did not bothered to study the problem with any real depth. It is reasonable to conclude that the "Space Initiative" is a pork barrel exercise and nothing more.

Now having said all of this, it's quite possible that Frank is right. NASA maybe so insignificant from Bush's perspective that it does not merit mention during the State of the Union Address. Bush may perceive NASA as a lose-lose proposition, i.e. there is no policy that he can advocate that will not hurt him politically. From his vantage point, the best option towards NASA is to ignore it. At least he's issued a policy that will get us away from the wretched ISS.

Gary