On his presidency:
When people take an objective look, they’ll say - hopefully they’ll say, one, he protected the country; two, he left tools behind so that future presidents could have the intelligence necessary and the means necessary to respond to intelligence to protect the country; he developed missile defense systems that helped deal with rogue regimes; that he changed the relationship with India; that he was able to have a friendship with China, Japan and Korea all at the same time; that he relied upon multilateral diplomacy to deal with very difficult issues, dealing with rogue states that are nontransparent nations, such as Iran; that he proposed a vision for a two-state solution in the Middle East that is now widely accepted; that democracy has advanced; that he had good relationship with Mexico, in spite of the difficulties of the immigration issue; that he recognized the threat of narcotrafficking, initially in Colombia - by the way, following up on my predecessor’s initiative in Colombia - and that he stood strong with President Uribe as he began to be effective; and then waged - help other countries wage the same war, primarily in Mexico right now; that he believed strongly in trade.
One of the things that will happen is there will be protectionist sentiments and people will look back and hopefully they will recognize as they look back that protectionism is not good for the world economy or our own economy, and say, well, George Bush was strongly for free trade and got - was not only for free trade, but actually got a lot done in free trade. Interestingly on the environment - and I’m going to give a speech on this later - that the air is cleaner and the water is purer since I’ve been president.
So hopefully when people look they’ll say, gosh, it’s an interesting presidency.
On preparing for the presidency:
You learn. You don’t have any choice. I mean, you can prepare, of course, by who you know, and going to convince the American people that your philosophy and point of view is the right philosophy, so you have the - you’re prepared in the sense that the American people have embraced you, embraced your candidacy. You - a president will be defined by the unexpected events and by, you know, what he’s able to accomplish legislatively, but the president will also be defined by the team. And I will say this, I think President-elect Obama is off to a very good start with his team.
On partisanship:
War creates tensions, and when the war didn’t go exactly the way some had hoped, it created a certain sense of vitriol in the system. Plus, I think there were some - well, there are some in this town who believe that the best way you can advance your own cause is to destroy somebody else. I can handle it, and I have handled it. I’m just - but nevertheless, I’ve been disappointed at name-calling. And the reason why, I think it’s beneath the dignity of the process, and I know it sends discouraging signals to others.
I have done my best not to use my perch, my office, to personally attack people. I’ll darn sure defend what I believe is right and I don’t mind saying I think this person is wrong, but I try to do it respectfully. I’ve also been very disappointed that my friends have been attacked - unmercifully at times. That’s hurtful to know good, decent, honorable people have been put through the wringer here in Washington.
On the Republican Party:
First of all, I’m very optimistic about our party because most people agree with our philosophy. And we have been through down cycles before. I remember 1964 very well and Lyndon Johnson landslided Barry Goldwater. And they were writing, “The party is gone; the Republican Party as we know it has had it.” And sure enough, in ’66, there was a resurgence. …
We can win by showing that our philosophy is more compassionate and more effective and can work better than the other folks’. And by the way, the Democrats will now have a chance to show what they can do. And sometimes it’s easier to be on the outside criticizing than when you’re given the mantle, and to make your policies work…. We’ll come back.
On what Americans don’t know about him:
Well, I don’t know, it’s hard - gosh, I don’t know. You know, there’s - I hope they know I’m a sensitive person that cares deeply about our fellow men, regardless of whether they support me or not, that - I think they do know that I’m a person who refuses to compromise my principles in order to chase popularity.
On the end of his presidency:
Well, I mean, you know, you kind of envision kind of riding off into the sunset on a very smooth trail, you know. And this financial situation has kept us bound up in Washington and dealing with serious issues. I mean, the financial situation has consumed a lot of our time - a lot. And we’re still dealing with it.
Take the auto issue. We’ve had a lot of people working really hard throughout our government to try to come up with the right answer, and I think we did. And even though I’m not in every single meeting, I am very aware of what’s taking place and I’m constantly being briefed. And it’s just the reality of this presidency. It started rough - “rough” is not the right word - it started with a significant challenge; it’s had significant challenges throughout; and it ends with a significant challenge. And we can handle it.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.