It all depends on what the definition of "is" is.

I'm aware the politicians often preach what they think their crowds want to hear. I'm aware that many politicians on both sides of the fence say things that they don't necessarily mean (Such as "I invented the internet").

However, when the main talking point of your SOTU address - one that makes headlines across the world - turns out to be misinformation, then there is a problem.

From Knight Ridder:

One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports over there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally.

What the president meant, they said in a conference call with reporters, was that alternative fuels could displace an amount of oil imports equivalent to most of what America is expected to import from the Middle East in 2025.

But America still would import oil from the Middle East, because that's where the

greatest oil supplies are. ...

When asked why the President used the words "the Middle East" when he didn't mean them, one official said Bush wanted to dramatize the issue in a way that 'every American sitting out there understands.'

So, basically, what one can glean from this explanation is that the president, whose administration one might say has mild credibility problems, is telling us, "Listen to what I mean, not what I say." Perhaps what's more disturbing is how the correction comes quietly, and through secretaries and advisers, while the statement itself was broadcast from the nation's largest pulpit.

h/t The Moderate Voice