Two presidents made headlines last week: The current one, for delivering his final State of the Union Address, and the former one, for making miscues on the campaign trail.

Which was deemed more newsworthy? For the press, the choice was obvious: Bill Clinton garnered an extraordinary amount of press attention -- more so, in fact, than any of the Republican candidates running for president, according to one news survey.

That simply highlights the media's over-the-top obsession with Clinton. What really struck me was the difference in tone from the recent Bush and Clinton coverage. The sitting president was delivering his final State of the Union, capping off his failed presidency, which has provoked deep despair among most Americans about the future of the country. And for that, Bush has been tagged the most consistently unpopular president in modern history.

Yet the reaction from the press and pundits last week when marking the final chapter of the Bush decline was mostly to shrug their shoulders and look away. The media has, throughout Bush's gruesome political collapse, shown very little interest in taking part in the usual Beltway pastime of dissecting the miscues, assigning blame, and yes, doing a little bit of grave-dancing.

When it comes to Bush's two-year decline, the press has remained oddly detached. By contrast, the recent coverage of Clinton has been dripping with emotion; with disdain and contempt that bordered on vitriol.