One of the great ironies of President Bush’s speech tonight is deftly noted here. The irony is this: A president who has repeatedly said he doesn’t listen to opinion polls is clearly being driven by opinion polls in deciding to make this speech now.

The administration often denies paying heed to opinion polls, and Mr. McClellan struggled a bit to explain why Mr. Bush needed to make a prime-time speech now.”It’s a very significant speech by the commander in chief at a critical moment in the war on terror,” he said.

Our live-Slog of the speech begins at 5 p.m. PST.