It should be an interesting State of the Union speech on Tuesday night. We get to see the president of the United States pull off one of the great feats of prestidigitation known; talking out of both sides of his mouth.

Only a liberal can believe you can cut spending and increase spending at the same time while reducing the deficit. The New York Times :

President Obama will outline an agenda for "winning the future" in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, striking a theme of national unity and renewal as he stresses the need for government spending in key areas and an attack on the budget deficit.

Mr. Obama previewed the themes in a video e-mailed Saturday evening to supporters who had helped in his election campaign. But the video made plain that his speech would be geared more broadly toward the political center, to independent voters and business owners and executives alienated by the expansion of government and the partisan legislative fights of the past two years.

"My No. 1 focus," he said, "is going to be making sure that we are competitive, and we are creating jobs not just now but well into the future."

So we are to forget who presided over that "expansion of government" thing for the last two years? Are we to forget who is responsible for slow job growth, anti-competitive regulations, and the creation of a mountain of debt that is stymieing the economy?

If you're a liberal president with a sycophantic press, anything is possible - including the belief that you can cut the deficit by increasing spending:

In his speeches, policy choices and personnel appointments, Mr. Obama has signaled that after two years in which his response to the economic crisis and his push for passage of the health care bill defined him to many voters as a big-government liberal, he is seeking to recast himself as a more business-friendly, pragmatic progressive.

That means emphasizing job creation, deficit reduction and a willingness to compromise in a new period of divided government. But it also means a willingness to make the case for spending - or investment, as many in his party would prefer to call it - in areas like education, transportation and technological innovation when it can be justified as essential to the nation's long-term prosperity.

Pork, more pork, and some bacon on top. Education spending has already increased an astronomical 60% since 2008, we've already seen there are no "shovel ready projects" to speak of, and subsidizing green companies has been such a bust that it has made a cruel mockery of Obama's promise to create "millions" of green jobs.

This is a recipe for further disaster. The President hasn't a clue and is offering more of the same while trying to sound more moderate. It will probably work because the media won't remind us of the titanic failures of this administration so far, while they will trumpet his statesmanship and bi-partisanship to the skies.

How depressing.