THOMAS: Interview with President Bush

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By Cal Thomas TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think, you know, it is clear that we are in an era where the homeland is under threat, and that will become very evident to him as time goes on. And I´m confident it already is evident to him.

And so what you´ve got to worry about is, it´s not unexpected that the enemy wants to hit us, but you got to worry about how they intend to try to hit us.

And, inevitably, a crisis will arise over who knows where, and the United States will be drawn into it. There will be natural disasters -- no telling how many hurricanes I´ve been through -- a lot -- or tornadoes or fires. So he´ll have to be ready to deal with those.

Q: Harry Truman went home without any money. Dwight Eisenhower retired to his farm in Gettysburg. Only recently have ex-presidents started making a lot of money -- six-figure speeches, that sort of thing. What are you going to do? Probably write the book, right?

THE PRESIDENT: I am going to write a book. I am going to set up an institute at Southern Methodist University to talk about many of the ideals we´ve been discussing here in this interview. I´m concerned about a country that says that isolationism is okay -- it´s not okay as far as I´m concerned -- or protectionism is the way to go from an economic perspective. I worry about people saying, ‘well, you know, we shouldn´t be in the lead on certain issues.´

I will use the institute as a place to herald dissidents and freedom fighters, and Laura will use it as a place to talk about women in Afghanistan or women in the Middle East. I´ll use it as a place to talk about education reforms in the Middle East, for example, so that the American people can see some of the positive things taking place. I´ll use it to continue to advance the faith-based initiative at home. I can see us using this institute as a platform to encourage people to love a neighbor, whether it be at home or in an AIDS clinic in Rwanda.

I am very much interested in staying involved with the Malaria Initiative as a way to show the American people that we´re living the adage, ‘to whom much is given much is required.´

I do want to continue to advance the No Child Left Behind agenda, because, again, I want to repeat to you, when I was governor of Texas, it was just so much easier to move certain children through the school system -- such a process-driven world. ‘How old are you,´ they would ask. Well, if you´re this age, you´re supposed to be in this grade. And we started a major change, along with other reformers, that basically said, we want to ask not the question, ‘how old are you,´ but the question is, ‘can you read?´ And if not, why? Why can´t you read? The gateway to reform in public education is accountability, and I want to continue the accountability agenda.

So there´s a lot I want to do through this institute, and it will be attached to a museum and archives on the Southern Methodist University -- that´s where Laura went to university and I´m really looking forward to it. It´s a wonderful urban campus, right there in Dallas, and not very far from the house that I now own.

Q: Very nice. Okay, well, let me do a two-for-one here. A farewell address?

THE PRESIDENT: Thinking about it.

Q: And biggest do-over? Knowing everything you know now, what would you have done over again?

THE PRESIDENT: I probably, in retrospect, should have pushed immigration reform right after the ´04 election and not Social Security reform.

Q: Because?

THE PRESIDENT: I campaigned on Social Security reform. A lot of politicians ignore it because they´re afraid it´s the third rail. I happen to believe not talking about it is the third rail. I also was very firm in my desire to get the Congress to think about a defined contribution plan as a part of a Social Security modernization program, all aiming to encourage ownership.

And I knew it was going to be a hard issue, because generally legislative bodies don´t react until the crisis is upon us, even though there is a funding crisis that is pretty evident to a lot of people who study the issue.

And so if I had to do it again, I probably would have run the immigration policy first, as a part of a border security/guest worker/compassionate campaign. See, I happen to believe a system that is so broken that humans become contraband is a system that really needs to be re-examined, seriously. I know there´s a lot of concern about our borders, and there should be. And we´ve done something about that. On the other hand, I don´t see how you can have comprehensive border security without a program that recognizes that there will be people doing jobs Americans aren´t willing to do, and therefore there ought to be a way for them to temporarily come here on a verifiable basis in a way that would cause them not to have to sneak here or pay for a coyote or get stuffed into an 18-wheeler, or try to walk across the desert and die.