by Mike Memoli

President Obama is en route to Texas now, where he's scheduled to speak at a pair of fundraisers and deliver remarks on higher education at the University of Texas. And again, in a state where his job approval rating is perilously low, he'll find few prominent Democrats there to greet him.

Just like last week when the president traveled to Georgia, the Democratic nominee for governor will not be on hand for any of the events featuring his party's leader. Former Houston Mayor Bill White, who some believe is Texas Democrats' best shot of winning back the governor's mansion since George W. Bush won the office in 1994, is curiously across the state sticking with his schedule, his campaign has said.

Much has been made this year of how certain Democratic candidates don't want to be seen with Obama, given his poor numbers in a given state or district. Peter Nicholas spoke last week with another Texas Democrat who planned to avoid the event: Attorney General nominee Barbara Ann Radnofsky. She said Obama hasn't done enough to take on Wall Street. As for White's decision not to be on hand, the White House says it understands.

"I don't think that it says anything broadly about the President's coattails," deputy press secretary Bill Burton said on Air Force One today. "He thinks that candidates should make their own decisions about how best to spend their time. He definitely does not take that as an insult."

The efficacy of this strategy is unclear, however. Texas news organizations have all pointed out how White is seemingly distancing himself from Obama, perhaps a headache the campaign deems preferable to the candidate being seen with him, but a headache nonetheless. And Gov. Rick Perry's (R) campaign is making hay of the visit, regardless of whether White is there -- even launching this web video parodying a famous viral clip from the 2008 campaign.

by Mike Memoli

In a recent story on whether former President Bush would be a factor in the 2010 elections like he was in 2006 and 2008, I referred to a poll conducted by Benenson Strategy Group that tested the potency of an anti-Bush message for Democrats this year.

There was good news and bad news for the party in its findings. On the one hand, when respondents were asked to choose between a candidate who supported President Obama's economic policies or one who would return to those of his predecessor, they chose the former by a 15-point margin.

The bad news was that only 25 percent of those surveyed thought Republicans in Congress would return to the Bush agenda if elected, meaning that as things stand today, Bush-bashing was no magic bullet for Democrats in a toxic political climate.

Faced with these numbers, Democratic strategists could have looked at other messaging scenarios. But instead, based on what we've heard from candidates and even Obama himself of late, it seems they've decided that to move the needle back in their direction the party needs to make an aggressive push aimed at convincing voters that the current GOP would govern no differently than it did with Bush in the White House.

by Mike Memoli

NBC announced today that it had secured the first major interview with former President George W. Bush ahead of the release of his coming autobiography, called Decision Points.

The date the interview will air is significant: November 8, just after the midterm Congressional elections.

As I recently noted in print, Democratic strategists concede that Bush is no longer the sure-fire campaign foil he proved to be in 2006 and 2008. But some were hoping that new details of the book coming in the final stretch of the campaign might provide some late fodder that could make Republican candidates squirm.

The special will air on the eve of the book's release, November 9. How much of the book leaks before then is an open question, but a former Bush aide recently told the Swamp that all promotional activities would be held for after the election.

The NBC release announcing the interview is available after the jump.

by Mike Memoli

Former President George W. Bush is enjoying retirement. But he wants you to know that he has been quite busy since leaving the White House last year, and discusses his activities in a posting on his new Facebook page.

In what he calls his "Inaugural Address" on the social networking site, Bush promotes his work raising money for earthquake relief in Haiti and his upcoming memoir, but it's the work of the George W. Bush institute that gets most attention.

"I may be done with politics. But I am not done with policy," says the 43rd president, looking a tan and rested.

The institute is focusing on four subject areas: education reform, global health, economic growth and human freedom. You can read the full transcript of his remarks after the jump.

by Jill Zuckman

The son watched his father, vowing not to repeat his mistakes.

The weekend before George W. Bush defeated Texas Gov. Ann Richards in 1994, he stood in the backyard of his Dallas home hitting tennis balls into the swimming pool for his dog to fetch and ruminated about the future with his media strategist, Don Sipple.

"At one point, Bush talked about his father, and he said 'Sip, my man, don't underestimate what you can learn from a failed presidency,' " recalled Wayne Slater, a political reporter for The Dallas Morning News and one of Bush's earliest biographers.

With that harsh assessment long before he took office as the 43rd president of the United States, Bush had decided he would do things differently from his father. But as he prepares to leave office after eight years, there are many similarities he might have wished to avoid as part of just the second father-son presidential duo in history.

. George H.W. Bush won accolades for his handling of the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and forcing Iraq out of Kuwait. His son calmed a frightened nation in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, taking up a bullhorn to promise that the world would soon hear America.

And both saw their presidencies swamped by a sea of public dismay. After the second Bush presidency, another favorite son, the president's younger brother, Jeb, has signaled to friends and family that he is finished with politics, leaving it to the next generation many years down the road, perhaps even his firstborn son, George Prescott Bush.

George H.W. Bush was castigated for being out of touch as the economy foundered and he seemingly could not relate. His son was pilloried for poor handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Later he was criticized for an ideological rigidity that delayed early, forceful intervention as the economy careened into a ditch far deeper than during his father's tenure.

As George W. Bush prepares to return to Texas, historians will be judging his legacy and judging him in the context of his father's single term as president.

"The likelihood is that the father will be looked upon as a steadier hand and better prepared for the job," said Bruce Buchanan, a professor of government at the University of Texas who specializes in the presidency.

See the rest of the story on the legacy of Bush 41 and Bush 43 in Tribune newspapers and here in the Swamp:

by Mark Silva and updated.

President George W. Bush made his last expected journey aboard Air Force One as president today, traveling to Norfolk, Va., for the christening of an aircraft carrier named for his father, the 41st president - the nuclear-powered USS George H.W. Bush

The president and First Lady Laura Bush were joined by their son-in-law, Henry Hager, on the South Lawn of the White House, and Secretary of State Condi Rice and brother Marvin Bush flew with them aboard Marine One to Andrews Air Force Base. Air Force One went wheels up from Andrews at 9:12 am EST and landed at Norfolk Naval Station at 9:41 am. It was chilly at Chambers Field.

After meeting up with the rest of the christening party, Marine One made another run, to the flight deck of the carrier George H.W. Bush. (CVN 77). The white-top presidential helicopter touched down at 11:03 am, and the president stepped off with his father, his mother and his wife. Both "41" and "43" saluted stepping off the chopper.

Bush "41'' was walking with a cane and wearing an overcoat, purple scarf and red tie. They were joined by the president's sister, Doro Bush Koch, who was sponsoring the ship at the christening, delivering the signal that she was ready to sail.

To prepare for the day, the president said, he had been reading his father's old letters. "I thought it was especially interesting to read one that he wrote in the late 1940s,'' he said, "He sent it to a friend -- and here's what he said, he said:

"'You should see Georgie now. Whenever I come home he greets me and talks a blue streak, sentences disjointed of course... He tries to say everything, and the results are often hilarious.,''' Bush read to laughter among his audience.

"Some things do not change,'' the president said.

After the christening, the president met privately with some Navy SEALs at Norfolk, and then made his way to Marine One. At 2:47 pm, the 43rd president of the United States climbed the steps to board Air Force One for the last scheduled time.

At the top of the stairs, he turned, waved, gave the thumbs up and saluted.

At 2:57 pm, bound for Andrews one more time, Air Force One went wheels up for the final planned flight of Bush 43.

For more on what both father and son said at the christening of the carrier attended by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and others, read on:

by Mark Silva

We've seen President Bush in classrooms before - we saw him there on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, at Emma Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla., listening to second-graders reading.

And we saw him there again today, at the General Philip Kearny School in Philadelphia, celebrating the seventh anniversary of his signing of the No Child Left Behind Act. - on what is expected to be his second to last journey aboard Air Force One as president.

And this morning, the president was telling second-graders in Philadelphia the same thing he told second-graders in Sarasota on the morning of 9/11.

"Reading more than they watch TV?... Anybody do that?" the president asked the schoolchildren that morning in 2001.

"Make sure you read more than you watch TV,'' Bush told the schoolkids this morning.

(Read on about the mornings with the second grade -- (Photo, right, of Bush getting word of a second airliner hitting a second tower of the World Trade Center / AP)

By Peter Wallsten and updated at 4:05 pm with Bush statement

Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and brother of President Bush, has decided not to run for the U.S. Senate, ending weeks of speculation that he would preserve a Bush family power center in the nation's capital.

Unlike his older brother, Jeb Bush (pictured at left in an AP photo by John Raoux) left office with high approval ratings and a reputation as a master of policy. He was considered the GOP's strongest contender for the open seat being vacated by Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.).

He spent much of this day calling friends and supporters to give them the news, according to one Republican close to the Bush family.

"There was a lot of support, and support from interesting places," Bush said in an interview, "but this would have been a bit detour in my life."

Republicans from Washington to Miami and Texas - including Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush, had hoped that the younger Bush would jump into the race.

Former President Bush told Fox News over the weekend that he saw the Florida Senate seat as a possible precursor to another family member winning the White House in the future.

"After thoughtful consideration, I have decided not to run for the United States Senate in 2010,'' Bush said in a statement released by his office this afternoon. ""While the opportunity to serve my state and country during these turbulent and dynamic times is compelling, now is not the right time to return to elected office.''

(Jeb Bush sits fourth from the right, rear row, in this Bush family photo taken at Camp David at Christmas. President Bush sits in the middle, their mother and father, the former president, to the left of the president. White House photo by Eric Draper.)

by Frank James

Reports that President-elect Barack Obama intends to make Leon Panetta director of the Central Intelligence Agency not only surprised some key Capitol Hill Democrats but left them questioning the former congressman and Clinton Administration official's bona fides for the post.

For instance, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who will be the new chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, didn't sound pleased. As CNN reported:

(CNN) -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Senate's incoming Intelligence committee chair, slammed President-elect Barack Obama's choice of Leon Panetta as director of the CIA Monday.

"The President-elect will now have a chance to make his arguments," the spokesman said. "Her next move is to listen."

by Frank James

Andrew Cordesman, one of the Washington's top national-security experts, asks and attempts to answer some questions on a lot of people's minds right now: how does the fighting in Gaza stop and what can the U.S. do to help end it?

He calls the crisis a "strategic liability" for the U.S. since it places the U.S., viewed as Israel's strongest ally, at odds with so much of world opinion, especially but not only in the Arab world. And whatever differences in Mideast policy the global population had hoped from a President Obama, are quickly being dashed by the consistency of U.S. policy across administrations.

A snippet from his analysis:

Hard-line Islamist extremist movements, the Hezbollah and Iran, and other opponents of the US have all begun to capitalize on the fighting. Moreover, moderate Arab governments have become targets as well as the US. This pushes such Arab regimes - which have no more love for Hamas than Israel and the US to distance themselves from the US as well as support of Fatah and the peace proposals of the Arab League. It also puts new pressure on Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations.

by Mark Silva

Jeb Bush should run for president, according to his father, a former president. But for starters, former President George H.W. Bush says, his son, the former governor of Florida, could make a reentry to political life with a run for that Republican-held Senate seat opening in the Sunshine State.

"I'd like to see him run," the 41st president said of son John Ellis Bush, aka "Jeb!" On the campaign trail, in an appearance on FOX News Sunday. "I'd like to see him be president some day.''

Jeb Bush might already have been president, had he won his first bid for the governor's office in Florida in 1994, which he lost, and had his older brother lost his first bid for governor in Texas that year, which he won. Fate is funny. It tends to favor the winners.

The former president, while voicing frustration over the extent of the criticism his son the president faces, does concede that "there were some things that clearly he deserved criticism for.'' And, as for Bush 43's successor, President-elect Barack Obama, the former president says the incoming president is so articulate that sometimes it sounds like Shakespeare has written his lines for him.

Now the fluently Spanish-speaking retired Florida governor, all of 56 years old, is taking a hard look at the Senate seat of Florida's Mel Martinez, who fled Cuba as a child in the "Pedro Pan'' airlifts and will not seek a second term in 2010. And his father says Jeb is suited for that and more.

""As president, it's about service, service for the greatest country on the face of the Earth and the honor that goes with it," Bush said on FOX today. "I think Jeb fits that description.

"Right now is probably a bad time, because we've got enough Bushes in there,'' dad conceded, but in the meantime, ""If Jeb wants to run for the Senate from Florida, he ought to do it. He'd be an outstanding senator. This is a guy that really has a feel for people, the issues in Florida and nationally. And his political days ought not to be over, says his old father."

by Mark Silva

Dan Bartlett, former counselor to President Bush and a longtime advisor, allows that one of the things that Bush regrets most about his time in Washington was his inability to "change the tone'' here.

"We've obviously come up short in that regard,'' he says.

The cynicism, the partisanship - factors which the former Texas governor had claimed some success in confronting back home - remain.

"Whether you describe it as a mistake or missed opportunity... one of the things that President Bush has acknowledged that he regrets most is... changing the tone in Washington,'' Bartlett said in an interview on MSNBC's Morning Joe. "It takes two to tango. I'm sure there are decisions that we made along the way that exacerbated that situation... But I think.... he generally felt that he could help change the tone in Washington.....

Asked about Bush's biggest missed opportunity, Bartlett said: "I think fundamentally the tone in Washington, the cynicism, I think he felt he had a real opportunity to change that tone, and we've obviously come up short in that regard.''

Bartlett, like many others, also allows that the search for peace in the Middle East has been "frustrating.'' But he insists that is nothing to do with any lack of interest on Bush's part.

"President Bush's fundamental assessment was,.. there was never going to be a peace agreement unless you had two parties that really wanted peace,'' he explained of Bush's initial refusal to have anything to do with former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at the start of Bush's first term.

"The new process has been frustrating, no doubt about it,'' he said, "and at the end of the day it is going to require two parties that want peace.''

by Mark Silva

For a president who achieved a record peak in public approval in the weeks following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, George W. Bush's second-term slide has landed him in an equally historic position among modern-day presidents.

At the bottom.

"The president's approval ratings slid over time to historic lows,'' the Pew Research Center reports. "His approval last hit 50 percent as he started his second term. It stood at just 24 percent in early December.

In a Pew survey conducted Dec. 3-7 among 1,489 adults, Pew reports, "the public paints "a harshly negative picture of Bush's tenure. Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) say his administration will be remembered more for its failures than its accomplishments, and a plurality (34 percent) says Bush will go down in history as a poor president. Fully 68 percent say they disapprove of Bush's performance and most of those - 53 percent of the public - say they disapprove strongly.

"That is the highest rate of strong disapproval measured by Pew surveys in Bush's eight years in office,'' Pew notes.

"Just 11 percent said Bush will be remembered as an outstanding or above average president - by far the lowest positive end-of-term rating for any of the past four presidents. Yet Bush's impact on public opinion over the past eight years is seen in ways that go well beyond his personal unpopularity.

See the full report on Bush's decline at the Pew Center.

by Mark Silva

So, when the first lady says she wasn't amused by the shoes thrown at her husband in Baghdad a while back, but suggests that the gesture itself is a sign of how much freer Iraqis are now than they were under Saddam Hussein, what's the headline?

''First Lady: Shoe 'Assault' Shows Freedom in Iraq,'' reads the headline at FOX News.com, at the network that delivered the interview with First Lady Laura Bush on FOX News Sunday this morning.

"Laura Bush: 'Not amused' by Iraq shoe throw,'' reads the online headline at the Agence France Presse site.

There's probably a third headline in here somewhere, which is merely another sign of how free the press is to interpret the importance of the simplest of words.

And indeed, given the first lady's various words, this is our choice for a headline: President Bush ''doesn't feel sorry for himself very much.''

"Well, no, of course I wasn't amused,'' Bush told FOX's Chris Wallace iof the shoe-tossing in the interview aired today. "It was an assault. And that's what it is. And it would be an assault to anyone for -- if anybody had been there...

President Bush carried dog Barney as he arrived for his vacation with First Lady Laura Bush on Friday in Waco, Texas. AP Photo by Evan Vucci)

by Frank James

The Bush Administration once again comes off looking poorly in the latest installment of the New York Times series called "The Reckoning" for pouring fuel on the raging fire that was the housing bubble, then waiting to long to mount a serious and effective effort to put the fire out.

In a lengthy report, the NYT recounts how home ownership was an important piece of President Bush's "ownership society" agenda which, when mixed with his anti-regulatory ideology, created a witches' brew of too few regulators and regulations watching over too much credit sloshing through superheated financial markets.

An excerpt:

There are plenty of culprits, like lenders who peddled easy credit, consumers who took on mortgages they could not afford and Wall Street chieftains who loaded up on mortgage-backed securities without regard to the risk.

But the story of how we got here is partly one of Mr. Bush's own making, according to a review of his tenure that included interviews with dozens of current and former administration officials.

by Frank James

Not surprisingly, reports are that the journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush's head last weekend in Baghdad was beaten.

The judge who visited Muntadhar al-Zeidi said he bore signs of being beaten.

Olivier Knox, a journalist with Agence Presse France who was at the press conference where the shoe-throwing took place, said on public radio's Diane Rehm Show this morning that he saw blood on the floor at the place where al-Zeidi was pounced on by the Secret Service and Iraqi security. He assumed it was al-Zeidi's.

Knox also said that in talking to people in the White House he learned that the Secret Service had noticed al-Zeidi acting suspiciously beforehand -- not taking notes, fidgeting and repeatedly stealing glances at security officials. The Secret Service wanted to station an agent in the aisle next to al-Zeidi, Knox said. But Iraqi security vetoed that idea.

Here's an excerpt of an Associated Press story:

BAGHDAD (AP) -- The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush during a news conference was beaten and had bruises around his eyes and other parts of his face, a judge said Friday.

Judge Dhia al-Kinani, the magistrate investigating the incident, said the court has opened a probe into the alleged beating of journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi during the news conference.

President George W. Bush pauses during a statement on the auto industry at the White House on Friday, December 19, 2008 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

by Frank James

President Bush has decided to bailout the Detroit Three automakers with a $17.4 billion rescue package of bridge loans to give the struggling automakers more breathing room to restructure and to avoid a collapse that some had warned could come early next year if they received no help.

In doing so, the president rejected the idea that had been discussed in recent days of a so-called structured bankruptcy for the auto industry, at least for now.

Bush explained that even a structured bankruptcy might send the auto makers into a unstoppable death spiral because of their weakened state and likely increased consumer unwillingness to buy their products.

But the president made it clear that the bridge loans were coming with tough terms. He said the automakers needed to submit workable plans for restructuring by March 31 and that if they didn't the federal government would require its loans to be repaid immediately.

In addition, he said his administration expected all the auto industry players -- management, creditors, dealers, workers and bondholders -- to make significant concessions in order to make the rescue work.

In announcing the bailout, Bush echoed comments he made during an interview at the American Enterprise Institute yesterday when he said the perilous state of the economy argued against allowing the companies to go bankrupt, even though he remains a stalwart believer in free-market capitalism.

Speaking from the White House West Wing's Roosevelt Room this morning, he said:

"If we were to allow the free-market to take it's course now, it would almost certainly result in a disorderly bankruptcy and liquidation for the automakers. Under ordinary economic circumstances, I would say 'This is the price that failed companies must pay.' I would not favor intervening to prevent the automakers from going out of business."

"But these are not ordinary circumstances. In the midst of a financial crisis and a recession, allowing the U.S. auto industry to collapse is not a responsible course of action. The question is how we can best give it a chance to succeed.

by Frank James

President Bush suggested strongly that billions of dollars in help for the auto industry would be forthcoming from the White House in the near future, saying in part that he felt obliged not to leave President-elect Barack Obama an acute economic disaster like a newly collapsed auto industry after the inauguration.

"I thought about what it would be like for me to become president during this period. I believe that good policy is not to dump on him a major catastrophe on his first day of office," Bush said.

Bush made his auto-industry comments during a wide-ranging interview on friendly turf, the conservative American Enterprise Institute. The session was billed by the White House as another chance for Bush to justify an often controversial presidency and legacy as he prepares to leave office in just over a month.

The president repeatedly emphasized to his conservative audience that he still shared their faith in free-market capitalism and said that in ordinary times he would be inclined to let the economy sort out its current problems on its own.

"This is a difficult time for a free-market person," Bush said. "Under ordinary circumstance, failing entities should be allowed to fail. I have concluded these are not ordinary circumstances."

by Frank James

President Bush has been determined to make his transition to President-elect Barack Obama an unalloyed success. One day, historians may paraphrase Shakespeare in saying nothing became Bush's presidency like his leaving of it.

To that end, Peter Baker of the New York Times reports that the Bush White House is to an unprecedented degree leaving cheat sheets for the incoming administration on how to handle a wide range of emergencies that could arise early in the presidency.

The New York Times reports:

WASHINGTON -- The White House has prepared more than a dozen contingency plans to help guide President-elect Barack Obama if an international crisis erupts in the opening days of his administration, part of an elaborate operation devised to smooth the first transition of power since Sept. 11, 2001.

The memorandums envision a variety of volatile possibilities, like a North Korean nuclear explosion, a cyberattack on American computer systems, a terrorist strike on United States facilities overseas or a fresh outbreak of instability in the Middle East, according to people briefed on them. Each then outlines options for Mr. Obama to consider.

by Frank James

The White House has delivered its last Barneycam Christmas video and, needless to say, the incoming Obama pooch will has a tough act to follow. Scottish terriers look like they've got it all figured out, don't they?

Weirdly, one of the strongest reactions I had after watching it was, do the Bushes really let the dogs sit on White House antiques? Maybe it's not really an antique couch that President and First Lady Laura Bush are sitting on with the dogs, after all. My mother, who kept her living-room sofa sheathed in plastic till her dying day, would have been horrified, either way.

Also, ever since Barney bit that reporter, I can't look at him the same way. Cute he may be but we know he's capable of dark deeds. Word is, he's never been the same since the president dropped him.

by Julian E. Barnes

In movies, Secret Service agents leap in front of bullets aimed at the commander in chief. But in Baghdad, agents failed to block not one, but two shoes hurled at President George W. Bush during a weekend news conference.

So a day after Bush dodged flying footwear, Secret Service officials faced questions Monday about how an angry television reporter was able to throw his shoes before agents moved into the line of fire.

Secret Service officials said they are reviewing the incident and procedures used by agents guarding Bush during his visit to Baghdad. But they defended the agents' actions, arguing they reacted appropriately in a situation in which all of those present had undergone intensive security screening.

Nonetheless, some former agents and security experts who reviewed tapes of the incident predicted the assault would lead to minor changes in procedures for safeguarding the president.

"They will probably make a decision to have more close-in agents, right around the president," said Ronald Williams, a former Secret Service agent. "They will make some adjustments, so if a shoe is thrown again, they can intercept it, or at least give the president cover."

See the story about the Secret Service's response to the shoes hurled at President Bush in Iraq in the Tribune and here in the Swamp:

By Jim Tankersley

Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), a Western Latino with deep grounding in water and land issues, is President-elect Barack Obama's choice to lead the Interior Department.

Two senior Democrats said Obama will name Salazar to the post, rounding out the energy and environmental policy team announced on Monday in a Chicago press conference.

Salazar's family helped settle what is now New Mexico in the 1500s. He was raised on a ranch in the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado and grew up to become an attorney with expertise in water law. He led Colorado's Department of Natural Resources and was state attorney general before winning a vacant Senate seat in 2004 and entering Congress in the same freshman class as Obama, the former junior senator from Illinois.

The Colorado senator campaigned vigorously for Obama in the swing mountain state this fall, with Salazar barnstorming rural areas in a recreational vehicle on a multi-day tour, preaching alternative energy development and its potential to revitalize rural economies.

Children play with shoes owned by famous shoe thrower, President Bush's attacker Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zeidi outside his apartment in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Dec. 15, 2008. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

by Frank James

It was hard to resist this picture. Was this an instance of some older person egging the kid on to throw the shoe or was this a spontaneous act? Or were the kids throwing the shoes when the photographer happened on the scene?

Whatever the case, it does make a compelling picture, an Iraqi kid throwing a shoe that actually belong to the world's most famous shoe thrower, journalist Muntadar al-Zeidi. And then there's the little kid who appears to be smelling an al-Zeidi shoe. Again, some photo. How long before some of these shoes wind up on eBay?

A man beats with a shoe a mock poster of US President George W. Bush with a "War criminal" written in Arabic during a protest in Najaf, Iraq, Monday, Dec. 15, 2008. (AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani)

by Frank James

On the way to Afghanistan last night, President Bush joked with reporters aboard Air Force One about the shoes seen 'round the world.

It seemed like he actually made fun of himself at one point, saying he didn't know what the man shouted but that he "saw his sole." That was an obvious allusion to one of the strangest things an American president has ever said about another foreign leader when, after their first meeting, Bush said he saw Vladimir Putin's soul.

Bush then acknowledged that the shoe-throwing incident was one of the "bizarre incidents" of his presidency, saying he had experienced other such moments during his tenure.

Another example he offered was the Falun Gong protester who interrupted a White House South Lawn welcoming ceremony for Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Actually, the Falun Gong protester didn't really seem that bizarre. Extraordinary at such an official event, yes, but not bizarre. The president passing out after choking on a pretzel, now that qualified as truly bizarre.

Also odd was Bush's complete refusal during his exchange with reporters on Air Force One to acknowledge any anger or unhappiness in Iraq or the Muslim Middle East with the invasion he ordered and its aftermath.

A sister of Iraqi journalist Muntada al-Zeidi watches video of her brother throwing shoes at President Bush. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban.)

"I don't think you can take one guy throwing shoes and say this represents a broad movement in Iraq," Bush said in response to a question. "You can try to do that if you want to. I don't think it would be accurate."

The White House reporters didn't follow up, perhaps knowing too well by now they weren't going to get him to admit something if he didn't want to since this president is well known by now for his stubbornness.

But the president's refusal to admit a reality fairly obvious to most observers, even in the 11th hour of his presidency, was clearly another bizarre Bush White House moment. Perhaps U.S. intelligence officials will brief him about the rallies in Iraq calling for the release of the shoe-thrower as a "hero."

by Mark Silva and updated.

President Bush customarily takes two questions per side, two from each nation's journalists, when he holds a joint press conference with another nation's leader.

But this is the first time that Bush has taken two shoes from one side: The president quickly and successfully ducked the shoe-tossings -- ostensibly from a journalist in the Iraqi-seating -- at a press availability with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki today during Bush's surprise visit to Baghdad.

During his farewell trip to Iraq -- his fourth since the U.S.-led invasion that he ordered in March 2003 -- Bush stood side by side with Maliki to field some questions.

Bush was on his feet today, for sure: He displayed some quick defensive reflexes when a journalist shouted in Arabic -- "This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog" -- and hurled one of his shoes at the American president. Bush narrowly avoided being hit.

Before guards could wrestle the hostile interrogator standing a little more than 10 feet away from the president to the floor, the angry man got off a second shoe and shouted: "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq." The Iraqi prime minister aided in the defense this time, holding up a hand to shield Bush.

Bush, uninjured, laughed off the incident: "All I can report is it is a size 10.''

And afterward, as Bush flew from Baghdad to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan for another lap of his farewell war tour, the president met reporters aboard Air Force One with a double-entendre about the shoe and his own famous remark about once having looked into former Russian President Vladimir Putin's eyes and seeing his soul.

Of the shoe-tosser in Baghdad, Bush said: "I didn't know what the guy said, but I saw his sole."

by Christi Parsons

President Bush today made a surprise, farewell trip to Baghdad, where he said the war in Iraq has been difficult but necessary for the cause of world peace.

Bush met with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and other leaders, emerging afterward to praise their recent agreement on the continued presence of American forces in Iraq and its potential to advance freedom in the country.

The agreement is "a reminder of our friendship," he said, according to a White House transcript, and "a way forward to help the Iraqi people realize the blessings of a free society."

"The work hasn't been easy," Bush said, "but it has been necessary for American security, Iraqi hope and world peace."

The visit comes just more than a month before Bush will turn over management of the war to President-elect Barack Obama and his new administration. Six years after the war began, the president who launched it is making what is expected to be one final tour of a nation where almost 150,000 American troops are still deployed.

The president left Washington on the unannounced trip on Saturday night, arriving for a greeting ceremony before a series of meetings with Talabani and other Iraqi leaders.

by Frank James

President-elect Barack Obama has frequently reminded the nation that there's only one president at a time. And he and future first lady Michelle Obama just received some proof of that.

The Bushes declined their request to move into Blair House, the official White House guest house, on Jan. 5 so that the Obama daughters can start school at Sidwell Friends at the start of the year. The Obamas don't get to move into the White House until Jan. 20.

As the Associated Press reports:

CHICAGO (AP) -- President-elect Barack Obama asked the White House if his family could move to Washington earlier than normal, but aides say the White House couldn't give them the official guest house as early as his family wanted.

The Obamas had asked White House officials to move into Blair House about two weeks before the traditional date so their two daughters could start their new school when classes resume Jan. 5. Obama aides say the White House told them that the request cannot be met because the current administration still has plans for the historic government home across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.

by Mark Silva

Every once in a while, someone has a little fun at the expense of, well, the president of the United States. And every once in a while, some of that fun comes around in the form of, what else, email.

We found this missive, having a little fun with the building of the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas, Texas, somewhat entertaining. To paraphrase Dr. Strangelove, our source is the Internet.

Suspend your partisan ties for the moment, and take a virtual tour through the library that the retiring president is planning at the alma mater of the outgoing First Lady, Southern Methodist University. And, when you're finished, design your own room.

There is...

"The Hurricane Katrina Room, which is still under construction.

"The Alberto Gonzales Room, where you won't be able to remember anything.

"The Texas Air National Guard Room, where you don't even have to show up.

"The Walter Reed Hospital Room, where they don't let you in.

"The Guantanamo Bay Room, where they don't let you out.

"The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room, which no one has been able to find.

by Frank James

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell was up at Harvard University last week talking about the importance of intelligence when he dropped a little tidbit I hadn't seen before.

"It's quite a thrill for someone to be able to go in and sit down and speak with the president of the United States every day. We do it six days a week. The president-elect is doing it seven days a week. I don't know if there's a little competition there or not - (laughter) - but it's seven days a week. And the sessions last somewhere between 30 minutes to almost an hour. And the subjects are absolutely incredible. The speed with which these two particular gentlemen absorb information and move on is astounding. But we go through a great deal of substance on any topic you can imagine in the context of national security or potential threats to the United States."

Apparently with Obama, there's no day of rest when it comes to daily intelligence briefings.

by Mark Silva

A kiss is just a kiss.

But just remember this: Barbra Streisand would sooner smash her platinum records than be associated with the policies and practices of President George W. Bush.

So a sociable peck on the cheek shared by the award-winning singer and actress and the 43rd president at a ceremony celebrating the arts should be considered as nothing more than that: The Way We Weren't.

by Frank James

President Bush evidently tries to keep a sense of humor about his low popularity with most of the American people.

In Philadelphia Saturday to attend the annual football classic, the Army-Navy Game, Bush also made a stop at the venerable Union League Club on Broad Street where his portrait of him was unveiled to go along with those of the other presidents.

He opened his remarks by saying:

Good morning. Welcome to my hanging. (Laughter and applause.) Thank you for coming and thank you for your warm welcome.

by Mark Silva

"There's been some disappointments,'' President Bush said in the latest of a series of interviews that he is granting on his way out of office, interviews in which questioners are questioning what Bush regrets about his presidency.

Like what, asked Nadia Bilbassy-Charters of MBC TV (the Middle East Broadcasting Center), in a televised talk with Bush in the Oval Office, Colonnade and Map Room of the White House last week. The White House released a transcript today.

"Well, like, Abu Ghraib was a terrible disappointment,'' Bush said of the American-run military prison in Iraq where guards had humiliated their prisoners. "And admittedly, I wasn't there on the site, but I was the Commander-in-Chief of a military where these disgraceful acts took place that sent the absolute wrong image about America and our military.

"You know, parts of Iraq -- it's taken longer than I thought it would,'' he added. "On the other hand, I am pleased to see a multiethnic society begin to emerge. I talked to the leaders of Iraq yesterday and today and congratulated them on doing some hard work. And I love to hear their spirit in their voice.

"And so I'm confident history will say, oh, Bush could have done it better here, or, Bush could have done it better there,'' the president said. "But I think from the strategic point of view, I'm confident that the idea of moving liberty in the region, a two-state solution to help the Israeli-Palestinian issue, the liberation of Iraq, and the follow-up with -- to help the Iraqis realize their sovereignty -- a strong push-back against Iran -- I believe when people objectively analyze this administration, they'll say, well, I see now what he was trying to do.''

by Mark Silva

The lame-duck President Bush has pretty much nowhere to go but up from here, in his public approval ratings, that is.

And that's pretty much where lame-duck presidents have gone during the time between the elections of their successors and their departures from office - up.

Bush's bleak job approval at the moment - 28 percent in the latest daily Gallup Poll - is not as bad as his 24-point low. And if history is any guide, George W. Bush may well be buffing up those numbers before he departs for Texas. Or, like LBJ, he may be wearing the albatross of a war, and now a tanking economy as well, that holds those outgoing numbers in check.

"It is common for presidents who are about to leave the White House to receive a bump in their job approval ratings between Election Day and Inauguration Day,'' Gallup's Jeffrey Jones writes. "Of the eight post-World War II presidents who left office after serving two terms, declining to seek an additional term, or being defeated for re-election, six saw increased job approval ratings in their final two-plus months in office.

"The last three presidents, and four of the last five who departed at the end of a term, saw significant rises in their ratings. Some of these increases were evident beginning with the first poll conducted after the election.''

Bush's own father saw "the largest spike'' in approval during lame-duck season. Only 34 percent of Americans surveyed approved of the job that the 41st president was doing in October 1992, just before Bill Clinton defeated him. Immediately after that vote, Bush's approval jumped to 43 percent in the Gallup Poll and kept going to 56 before he was finished - "a remarkable increase of 22 percentage points.''

Ronald Reagan was running at 51 percent approval before the 1988 election for his successor, his vice president, Bush. And Reagan climbed to 63 percent at the end - a fine departure.

Bill Clinton gained nine points as a lame duck, Gerald Ford eight, and even Lyndon Johnson, besieged by the war in Vietnam and forfeiting a chance to seek reelection, gained seven points on the way out.

by Frank James

First Lady Laura Bush had the media in the residence part of the White House today to show off the holiday decorations, discuss her and President Bush's plans for the holidays, their impending return to Washington and the tour they gave the White House's next occupants, the Obamas.

Among the nuggets she divulged.

-- The presidential family intends to be "careful" in its gift-giving this year (Sorry Jenna and Barbara) to reflect the mood in the country. it will be more a time for family members to enjoy each other's company that to give gifts.

-- The money saved instead will go towards the family's likely post-White House house purchase in Dallas.

-- When Mrs. Bush showed Michelle Obama the family quarters, she pointed out a window in the First Lady's dressing room that allows the first lady to spy, I mean, look down on the Rose Garden and the Oval Office to see what the president is doing.

-- They actually make brie cheese in Texas, some of which will be on the menu at the White House holiday receptions this year. (Is there a good Texas Chardonnay as well?)

by Mark Silva

Is the White House acutely aware of just how much time President George W. Bush has left in his term?

Say, 49 days?

En route to North Carolina today, the press secretary was asked if Bush is planning a lot of appearances such as today's, where he is taking part in a roundtable discussion in Greensboro with children of prisoners and their mentors to talk about one of Bush's "faith-based initiatives,'' the President's Mentoring Children of Prisoners Initiative.

(They have brought Cynthia McFadden of ABC's Nightline along for the trip. She is preparing a report on the faith-based initiative that has pumped more than $2 billion a year of federal funding into charity-run social services. She will get some time with Bush for a piece probably running on Monday.)

"Over time we've done different speeches since, I think August, talking about the president's record on judicial nominees, and on keeping America safe, on the faith-based -- remember we did the faith-based conference,'' Press Secretary Dana Perino said today. "So, we have looked to opportunities for the president to be able to talk about some of his legacy items, some things that he will be remembered for. He talked about that a little bit yesterday. You saw the Charlie Gibson interview.

"So, now is the right time for us to be able to identify some opportunities where the President can either give a speech, or do a roundtable like he's doing today... He's giving a speech on the Middle East on Friday. So there's a lot of different opportunities, and you'll sort of see them between now and, I guess, 49 days from now.''

But then, who's counting?.

President George W. Bush with First Lady Laura Bush on World AIDS Day at the White House, Monday, December 1, 2008. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

by Frank James

The conventional wisdom is that President Bush doesn't have a lot of unequivocal successes to point to as part of his presidential legacy. And, indeed, lately he hasn't had a lot to crow about.

But his effort in combating AIDS/HIV is viewed as a major achievement. First passed in 2003 and reauthorized In July, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief or Pepfar authorizes up to $48 billion on medicines and other medical care for people with HIV/AIDS in 15 targeted nations. As of today, more than 10 million people have been helped.

As the New York Times reported in January:

With a year left in office, Mr. Bush confronts an America bitterly split over the war in Iraq. His domestic achievements, the tax cuts and education reform, are not fully embraced by Democrats, and his second-term legislative agenda -- revamping Social Security and immigration policy -- lies in ruins.

"It's a good thing that he wanted to spend the money," said Mr. Kerry, an early proponent of legislation similar to the plan Mr. Bush adopted. "I think it represents a tremendous accomplishment for the country."

Bush, joined by First Lady Laura Bush, marked World AIDS Day today with a brief statement he made in front of the White House's North Portico which was bedecked with a large red ribbon to mark the observance of global AIDS efforts:

by Mark Silva

President Bush usually is reluctant to talk about his own legacy, suggesting that historians will sort all of that out long after he is gone. But suddenly, with a chance to create his own entry in the archives of the Library of Congress, Bush sees a very clear legacy in his own mind.

The retiring leader, a born-again Christian who says he has "been in the Bible every day since I've been the president,'' declares that he is proud of something his father, too, can declare: They have not sold their souls.

Now, as interviewers go, you've got your Barbara Walters and a certain expectation about the questions that are likely to come your way. And if you're sitting in the Bush White House, you're more likely to steer clear of Keith Olbermann and perhaps opt for Sean Hannity.

But this one's in a class by itself: Doro Bush Koch, the president's sister, interviewing President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush for StoryCorps, the national oral history initiative, headed for the archives of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

The interview was held Nov. 12 in the White House residence, a week after elections that handed power to the Democratic Party - to President-elect Barack Obama --and an excerpt aired yesterday on National Public Radio as a run-up to today's StoryCorps "National Day of Listening.''

Listen to what Bush had to say of his legacy:

"How do you want to be remembered,'' sister Doro asked the president, "and what are you most proud of?

"I would like to be a person remembered as a person who, first and foremost, did not sell his soul in order to accommodate the political process. I came to Washington with a set of values, and I'm leaving with the same set of values. And I darn sure wasn't going to sacrifice those values; that I was a president that had to make tough choices and was willing to make them. I surrounded myself with good people. I carefully considered the advice of smart, capable people and made tough decisions.

by Mark Silva

There's something inherently sad about watching a retiring President George W. Bush pardon his last turkey.

The president pardoned 14 others, and commuted the prison sentences of two more, this week with an exercise of constitutional authority that he rarely has asserted during his two terms in office - only his father, in modern times, has granted fewer acts of clemency, though he had just one term as president.

It is the extra-constitutional acts for which this retiring president may be best remembered - the sweeping war powers he asserted under authorizations of military force granted by Congress after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and in the invasion of Iraq, the far-reaching executive powers he asserted with the secret authorization of domestic surveillance, the questionable assertions of "executive privilege'' he made in withholding the testimony of aides in the face of congressional inquiries of the firings of prosecutors and other matters.

So, somehow, the ceremonial pardoning of a turkey which will in turn star in a Disneyland Thanksgiving Day parade following the presidential sendoff from the Rose Garden today has an air of triviality to it - with the added sentimentality of a president performing this traditional rite for the last time. Bush, who has vowed to "sprint'' to the finish line, said the pardoned turkeys, Pumpkin and Pecan, will not be "trotting'' to their own.

"This is my final Thanksgiving as the president,'' Bush said today. "Over the past eight years, I have been given many reasons to be thankful. I'm thankful to our men and women in uniform and I am incredibly proud to have been their Commander-in-Chief. I am thankful for the armies of compassion volunteers who feed the hungry and shelter the poor. I am thankful for the teachers and nurses and pastors police officers and firefighters, and others who serve their neighbors and better their communities.

by Mark Silva

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around the Justice Department, with word that President Bush has offered clemency to several convicts, as presidents are wont to do near the ends of their terms.

Yet, this president has been exceptionally sparing with his pardon power, and the list rolled out by Justice this week looks a lot like previous George W. Bush-clemency lists: Generally low-grade offenders.

There is no Lewis "Scooter'' Libby, the vice president's former chief of staff, in this lineup, though Bush already has commuted his prison sentence for obstruction of justice in the CIA leak investigation - no full pardon here. There is no Michael Milken, the junk-bond financier who did jail time for financial wrongdoing and has been seeking a pardon to clear his name for some time now.

There are a lot of relatively petty crimes behind this new crop - though P.S Ruckman Jr., an expert in presidential pardons at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Ill., says that one of the 16 to whom the president granted clemency was on his "Pardon watch:'' John Forte, whose sentence for possession with intent to distribute cocaine has been commuted. Bush granted pardons to 14 and commutations of sentence to two this week.

There are three Texans on the outgoing president's clemency list - and Ruckman previously has noted that the president's home state has topped this White House's pardon roster for some time now.

Before this round, the president had signed just 157 pardons and six commutations of sentences.

Requests for pardons and commutations have piled up at Justice, with a few thousand pending. But in modern times, only Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush, has offered less clemency - 74 pardons and three commutations

Here's the read-out on the latest list from the Justice Department:

by Frank James

There's been some thinking since Election Day that President-elect Barack Obama would want to emulate President Franklin D. Roosevelt in terms of staying out of the way until he was officially in office.

Roosevelt famously rejected the entreaties of President Herbert Hoover to help deal with the Depression. FDR didn't want his policies to be tainted by an association with his increasingly unpopular predecessor.

But the world Obama must deal with is much different than the one Roosevelt faced. It's much more connected with information and money moving far faster because of technology than was possible in Roosevelt's time.

So, as I wrote yesterday, Obama has clearly decided to seize the bully pulpit aspect of the presidency since President Bush's influence has waned to such a degree that it seems like the current Oval Office occupant has already mentally packed up his presidency and is just waiting for the movers to show up.

Peter Wallsten of Tribune's Washington Bureau has a story that elaborates on this theme.

"There's no question that Bush is still president, but people are looking for signs to see what's going to happen going forward," said an Obama aide who, like others, requested anonymity when discussing deliberations inside the transition. "We're going to attempt to do that in this period."

by Mark Silva

President Bush has gone to Peru.

But Bush, making his last scheduled trip abroad as president, has not gotten away from the economic crisis that has beset his nation and many others near the close of his presidency.

"Thanks for letting me come by,'' Bush said today in Lima, in that characteristically familiar way the retiring president has of greeting fellow world leaders.

But there was nothing casual about the president's remarks to the assembled leaders of 20 other nations at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. The annual summit for Pacific-rim nations convenes at a time when even the fastest growing economies in the world, such as China's, are suffering from a global slowdown in business.

"This summit comes at a serious time during economic turmoil,'' Bush said today. "It is -- also comes at a time of unprecedented cooperation. A week ago in Washington, you might have heard that I had the honor of hosting a summit in what will be the series of international summits to address the financial crisis. I didn't believe we could solve all problems in one meeting, but I did believe it was important for us to host the initial summit to get it started, to lay the foundation for successful -- for meetings.''

See the rest of Bush's remarks, in a transcript, with notes, provided by the White House today:

A protester uses his sandal to strike an effigy of U.S. President George. W. Bush as thousands of followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr converged on Firdous Square in central Baghdad, Iraq for a mass prayer to protest a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security pact on Friday, Nov. 21, 2008.(AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

by Frank James

Shiite followers of the Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a persistent thorn in the Bush Administration's side, held a large demonstration in Baghdad's Firdous Square to protest the agreement between the U.S. and Iraqi governments that would allow the American military to remain in Iraq until the end of 2011.

Sadr has been mostly quiet during the period of the U.S. and Iraqi security surge. But the agreement gives him the perfect opportunity to rally his supporters around assertions of Iraqi nationalism.

Thousands of followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr bow in prayer as they converge on Firdous Square in central Baghdad, Iraq to protest a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security pact on Friday, Nov. 21, 2008. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Here's a little color from the demonstration as reported by the Associated Press:

Chanting and waving flags, thousands of Muqtada al-Sadr's followers filled Firdous Square to protest a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security pact that would allow American troops to stay for three more years. The Bush effigy was placed on the same pedestal where U.S. Marines toppled the ousted dictator's statue in one of the iconic images of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Before it fell, the effigy held a sign that said: "The security agreement ... shame and humiliation."

by Frank James

There's this CNN video flying around the Internet from the G20 meeting last weekend that shows President Bush walking on the stage for the "class photo" and no one shaking his hand.

Rick Sanchez, the CNN anchor, said it looked like Bush was snubbed because he's unpopular and a lot of people on the web have adopted that interpretation.

It's an example of people seeing what they want to see.

Here's an alternate explanation. The G20 has a weird protocol where the leader of the host nation doesn't shake hands while walking on stage for the final photo op with other leaders.

Each of these events is choreographed to the nth degree including where all the leaders stand. Looking at the video, it would also be possible to come to the view that many of the world leaders were feeling weighed down that day since they walked along the stage with their heads bowed.

But what they're actually doing is looking for their marks which are taped to the carpet on the floor.

Just another example of why what you see is not always what you think you see.

by Frank James

President Bush (remember him?) is making the rounds of the federal bureaucracy doing something of a farewell tour.

Today, he was at the Transportation Department talking up all that employees there and his administration have done to improve the nation's transportation system, such as better management of the New York City airspace, improvements that should have the salutary effect of making life better for holiday travelers, the president said.

Of course, because of economic slowdown, the airlines will be flying fewer planes so don't expect the airports to be any less crowded.

Anyway, the president started off with a joke which contained a kind of heckuva job compliment to the department's employees :

I appreciate you giving me a chance to come by and visit with you today. I want to thank you very much for the great job you are doing to make sure that across America our railroads and highways and airways are working to keep our citizens moving. You have done a terrific job, as far as I am concerned. The past eight years I have not seen a traffic jam -- (laughter) -- waited for an airplane -- (laughter) -- or had my bags lost. (Laughter.)

Yes, it's good to be the king. In Washington, he's the guy who creates the traffic jams.

I'm sure he didn't mean to rub anyone's face in it.

No doubt a lot of people next week will be wishing they could travel by private jumbo jet and motorcades with police escort to grandma's house.

by Mark Silva

It's foggy this morning at Foggy Bottom, where an international press corps has assembled at the State Department for a summit of international leaders -- presidents and prime ministers of some 20 nations and organizations - focusing on a global economic crisis that spans from China to Western Europe.

President Bush convened this Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy, staged at the National Building Museum across town, and welcomed fellow leaders there this morning after an opening dinner last night in the State dining room of the White House. The summit is expected to wrap up with a statement of mutual understanding mid-afternoon.

"I am pleased that we're discussing a way forward, to make sure that such a crisis is unlikely to occur again,'' said Bush, calling on leaders to resist the temptation to tamp down on free trade among the nations.

"One of the dangers of such a crisis as this is that people will start implementing protectionist policies,'' Bush said in a brief public statement at the National Building Museum this morning. "We had a good frank discussion last night and I look forward to the discussions today. ''

"Frank discussions:'' Legendary diplomatic code-word around the White House for talks that may not be going so well behind the curtains.

by Mark Silva

This is the line that jumps out of the agenda for the Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy that President Bush is convening:

3:05 pm (EST) Saturday: "President Bush makes a statement...''

"Interpretation will be provided.''

That's not Texan to English, however.

That's English to Arabic and Chinese and French and German and Japanese and Russian and much more for the leaders of the G-20 nations assemlbing in the State Dining Room of the White House tonight for a summit dinner and then attending meetings Saturday morning at the National Bulding Museum.

It will be the first of many such talks about the global economic crisis -- with 15 nations in Europe already recording the official recession-defining two quarters of declining growth and the United States solidly in its first quarter of decline. But it will be the last chance for Bush to preside over such an assembly.

President-elect Barack Obama is sending his own representatives to the summit to report back.

With their own interpretation of events.

by Mark Silva

President Bush, his job-approval hovering around 25 percent in most polls, has spoken out before about what he regrets most during his presidency -- those defiant words about hunting down the terrorists "dead or alive,'' for instance.

Now, near the end of his terms, with a successor in lne, he is repeating that lament, yet waxing nostalgiac about the good deeds -- most notably his aid for Africa.

Of his meeting this week with President-elect Barack Obama, Bush said in an interview today with CNN aboard the USS Intrepid in New York: "To the extent he asked my advice, and he may want to ask it again, and the best way to make sure he feels comfortable asking it again is for me not to tell you in the first place what I advised him.

"So, we had a very private conversation,'' Bush said. "It was relaxed. It was interesting to watch a person who is getting ready to assume the office of the president. This will be a fantastic experience for he and his family....

''My choice didn't win,'' Bush said in his first media interview since Election Day. "I was for John McCain. I felt he battled hard. But I meant what I said after the election, that the election of Barack Obama is an historic moment for our country. ''

On that question of regrets, the retiring president told CNN's Heidi Collins: "You know, I regret saying some things I shouldn't have said.... Like, dead or alive, bring them on. .. And, by the way, my wife reminded me that, 'Hey, as president of the United States, you better be careful of what you say.' I was trying to convey a message. I probably could have conveyed it more artfully.''

See the rest of the talk here, courtesy of CNN:

(Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

by Frank James

President Bush landed on another aircraft carrier today, the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum which is permanently moored at a pier on the West Side of Manhattan.

Today's carrier landing by Marine One helicopter made a lot more sense than his last one by combat jet on the USS Abraham Lincoln where the president infamously appeared before the big "Mission Accomplished" banner in a premature victory lap for the Iraq War.

It allowed the president to appear on Veterans Day at the re-dedication of the World War II vintage carrier-museum which was recently overhauled without having his motorcade tie up New York City traffic. An unpopular lame-duck administration has to accomplish its missions where it can.

President Bush meets with USS Abraham Lincoln crew members. May 1, 2003. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque.

by Frank James

President Bush was said to be seeking a horse-trade from President-elect Obama during their White House meeting yesterday. The current president evidently offered to support a bailout for the auto-industry if the future president supported the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

In terms of domestic politics, it doesn't seem that Bush's pushing of the free-trade pact at this particular moment would help the Republican Party rebuild its image in states with large numbers of union workers and lots of anti-free trade agreement feeling, like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. That he's tying it to possible help for the auto industry makes even less sense.

Meanwhile, it's hard to see any benefit to Obama to make a deal of this sort with the sitting president. He received strong organized labor support during the presidential campaign and there's visceral opposition to such free-trade agreements in the Midwest where he did particularly well, especially because of the economic downturn.

Obama has opposed the Colombia free-trade pact because of violence against unions. Not much has changed in Colombia on that score.

The president must know all this, of course. Maybe this was Bush's way of saying no without saying no. Or it may have been an opening negotiating position. But it seems like a non-starter.

(White House photo by Eric Draper.)

by Frank James

President Bush and President-elect Obama sat in front of the fireplace in the world's most famous office. Often when we see a photo of the president sitting in the arm chair, it's with a visiting foreign head-of-state and the photographers take the photo with the fireplace in the background.

But Eric Draper, a White House photographer, took the photo from behind the president and president-elect, to show the "Resolute" desk. It was used by presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt but not in the Oval. In that office, it's been used by Kennedy, Carter, Reagan, Clinton and Bush 43, the White House's present occupant. It's hard to imagine Obama choosing to use any of the other available presidential desks.

.

President-elect Obama lifts daughter Sasha, out of his vehicle as daughter Malia, looks on, as he dropped them off at school in Chicago, Monday, Nov. 10, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

by Frank James

In his fun little paperback book, "What Do We Do Now?" written as a workbook for presidential transitions, Stephen Hess, one of Washington's top experts on the presidency, has some advice for a president-elect like Barack Obama since these get-togethers tend to take a certain shape.

Obama, known for his smarts and deliberateness, probably has already worked through in his mind what he wants to ask Bush and how he plans to ask it. But Hess's advice is really meant to give the rest of us a better sense for how these meetings work.

-- Have your staff "game-play" what the president will want from you and possible responses.

-- The White House press corps will expect a statement of how useful the meeting has been.

It's a safe guess that the economy and national security will take up a lot of today's session and that there may even be a meeting of the two economic and national security teams after Bush and Obama meet privately.

by Frank James

The Associated Press has a little news segment on the difficult state of affairs President Bush leaves his successor to deal with.

We all know the litany by now: the ailing economy and financial markets, Iraq, Afghanistan, global warming and so on.

The video includes a snippet of what looks to be a Bush press conference in the White House East Room in which he says his view of his job was "to confront problems, to not pass them on to future Congresses. Or a future president."

Obviously the president missed the mark on that goal.

The video led me to think. did Bush accomplish anything that could be viewed as helpful to his successor?

by Mark Silva

The global economic meltdown is beginning to sound somewhat like the crisis of global warming, something which every important industrial nation in the world must do something about, but a problem which everyone is not willing to address in the same fashion.

President Bush, who had called for a world summit of the nation's industrial powers on global warming before he left office at the end of this year, instead will be leaving with a summit on the global economy.

The leaders of some 20 nations and international organizations will assemble in Washington, starting on Nov. 15, the White House announced this week. Today, in his weekly radio address, the president explained his summit.

"This summit will be the first in a series of meetings aimed at addressing this crisis,'' he said. "The summit will bring together leaders of the G20 nations -- countries that represent both the developed and the developing world. And the summit will also include the heads of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Financial Stability Forum, as well as the Secretary General of the United Nations.

"During this summit, we will discuss the causes of the problems in our financial systems, review the progress being made to address the current crisis, and begin developing principles of reform for regulatory bodies and institutions related to our financial sectors. While the specific solutions pursued by every country may not be the same, agreeing on a common set of principles will be an essential step towards preventing similar crises in the future.''

Of course, Bush will officially be a lame-duck president at this juncture, with little or no influence over a lame-duck Congress whose balance of party power may well be tipped by the same elections naming Bush's successor, so whatever solutions are floated at this summit are likely to serve more as recommendations for the next crew.

by Mark Silva

President Bush has been sparing in the exercise of his pardon power, but more of his clemency - 157 pardons and six commutations of sentences - has gone to convicts in his home state of Texas and his younger brother's home state of Florida than to those in any other states.

P.S. Ruckman Jr., a professor of political science at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Ill., who keeps track of all matters of clemency, also has found that eight of the top-10 states on Bush's list of pardons and commutations are "red states'' in the political calculus of presidential votes.

Now, it's difficult to see where pardoning criminals might enhance a president's reputation or party's chances in any one state. And the most famous of Bush's pardons, the commutation of prison time for Lewis "Scooter'' Libby, the vice president's former chief of staff convicted of obstruction of justice in the federal investigation of the leaking of the identity of a CIA agent whose husband had debunked one of the Bush administration's contentions for the invasion of Iraq, is a District of Columbia case.

So it's probably just a matter of population - Texas, home state of the former governor who was elected to the White House in 2000, and Florida, home state of the former governor, Jeb Bush, elected in 1998 and 2002, are big states, and they have a lot of criminals - that Ruckman's review of the presidential pardon power has turned up this accounting of Bush's pardons and commutations.

(But, then, the two biggest states of all, California and New York, have a good share of criminals as well, and they are decidedly blue states, and look where they sit on the list. And, then, as Ruckman has found, presidents grow most generous with their pardons at the ends of their terms, so Bush still has time to balance out the map).

This is the count, so far:

by Mark Silva

The White House, which pushed Congress earlier this year to enact an "economic stimulus,'' placing tax "rebates'' in the pockets of millions of Americans, says it's open to congressional talk of a second stimulus

"I think we just need to wait and see,'' White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said today, en route to Louisiana with President Bush to talk about what the government already is doing to try to revive the economy. "We're open to ideas and we'll take a look at what comes our way.''

Earlier this year, before the financial meltdown that has seized the financial markets, and before anyone around the White House was even willing to talk about any chance of a recession, the president called the tax rebates a "booster shot.''

"When the money reaches the American people, we expect they will use it to increase consumer spending and that will spur job creation as well,'' Bush said in March, before hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost this year. "My message to the American people is this: I know this is a difficult time for the economy,'' he said then, "but we recognized the problem early and provided the economy with a booster shot.''

"We're continuing to have conversations with members of Congress and we're open to ideas that they would put forward that would -- both Democrats and Republicans alike -- that would stimulate the economy and help us pull out of this downturn faster,'' she said.

"We'd like to see the details of what would be proposed, because there are several programs that have been recommended that are coming in a cloak of being stimulative, and we don't think that those would actually stimulate the economy,'' the White House spokeswoman added. "So anything that we would do, we would have to take a careful look at, and I'm sure the Fed Chairman would want to make sure that those elements of a program would actually stimulate the economy and meet that test...

"Obviously, we were open to a stimulus package last January and one of the things that we agreed with (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi on was that the program needed to be targeted, temporary, and timely,'' she said. "We do think that it will have the effect of helping prevent what could have been even a worse downturn in our economy.''

Does Bush, for his part, believe a second booster shot is needed?

"I haven't spoken to him about that in particular,'' he said. "I think what he would look to is -- all of his advisors... to advise him best as to whether or not they think, collectively, that there is a need for a stimulus package right now.

"So we'll remain open to the idea and then we'll just have to see when Congress gets back, if they decide to move forward, what sort of package they want to draft into legislation -- whether it be principles or actual legislation -- and then see if it actually would stimulate the economy.''

by Mark Silva

President Bush, announcing a government move to purchase one-quarter of a trillion dollars of shares in struggling banks, vowed today that this will be a temporary action to regain some stability for banks, businesses, borrowers and lenders alike.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson "will make clear that each of these new programs protects taxpayers,'' the president said this morning, in his third appearance in the Rose Garden in five days.

"The government's role will be limited and temporary,'' Bush said. "These measures are not intended to take over the free market, but to preserve it.''

With the purchase of bank shares, the U.S. is joining European partners in injecting new capital into banks which have frozen lending in a system clogged by bad mortgage-related assets.

The U.S. money is coming from the $700 billion that Congress authorized the Treasury to invest in bad mortgage assets - with the Treasury Secretary having authority over the first $250 billion and then requiring approval of White House and Congress for the disbursement of the remaining bailout money.

Bush had met with his economic advisers this morning before announcing the newest twist in the federal government's series of actions to stabilize the economy - starting with a bailout of failing banking and insurance firms, continuing with injection of capital into the market and now a move to bolster the banks.

"We discussed the unprecedented and aggressive steps the government is taking,'' Bush said. "Federal agencies have moved decisively... and the United States has worked with partners around the world to coordinate our activities to get our economies back on track.''

"These are wise and timely actions,'' Bush said, "This new capital will help struggling banks... so they can resume lending.''

This is a "short term measure'' designed to allow the banks to repurchase these shares later, Bush said.

Among the new moves, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. also will temporarily guarantee most new lending, and will insure all non-interest bearing transaction accounts, which businesses use to meet expenses. "Every dollar,'' Bush said. "We will give small business owners piece of mind, and bring greater stability to the banking system.

"I know Americans are deeply concerned about the stress in our financial markets and the impact it is having on their retirement accounts... college savings and other investments,'' the president said. "These efforts are designed to directly benefit the American people by helping stabilize the overall financial system... ..It will take time for them to have their full impact.''

by Mark Silva

President Bush, meeting with representatives of the world's major industrial nations, maintains that they are making concerted efforts to confront a global freezing of lending that is dragging down markets worldwide.

"I'm confident that the world's major economies can overcome the challenges we face,'' Bush said in an address from the Rose Garden this morning, his second in two days aimed at delivering a message of action and confidence.

"There have been moments of crisis in the past when powerful nations turned their energies against each other, or sought to wall themselves off from the world,'' Bush said. "This time is different. The leaders gathered in Washington this weekend are all working toward the same goals. We will stand together in addressing this threat to our prosperity. We will do what it takes to resolve this crisis. And the world's economy will emerge stronger as a result.''

Bush, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met this morning in the West Wing with the finance ministers of the other G-7 nations - Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Japan. They also met with the president of the Eurogroup of countries, the directors of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and chairman Financial Stability Forum.

"In my country, it is important for our citizens to have understood that which affects Wall Street affects Main Street as well,'' Bush said in the Rose Garden following the G-7 finance ministers' meeting. "And all of us recognize that this is a serious global crisis and, therefore, requires a serious global response for the good of our people...

"The United States has a special role to play in leading the response to this crisis. That is why I convened this morning's meeting here at the White House, and that is why our government will continue using all the tools at our disposal to resolve this crisis. At our meeting, Secretary Paulson and I described the bold actions the United States has taken over the past few weeks:

"To help thaw frozen markets, the Federal Reserve has taken unprecedented measures to boost liquidity,'' he said. "The Securities and Exchange Commission has cracked down on abusive practices in the markets. Federal agencies have significantly expanded the amount of money insured in bank and credit union accounts. My administration worked with the Congress to pass legislation authorizing the government to recapitalize banks by purchasing troubled assets or providing insurance or purchasing equity in financial institutions. These extraordinary efforts are being implemented as quickly and as effectively as possible.

"The benefits will not be realized overnight,'' he said. "But as these actions take effect, they will help restore stability to our markets and confidence to our financial institutions.''

by Mark Silva

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. - For President Bush, the end is near. On Sunday, he will have 100 days left in his presidency.

He warned everyone that he would be "sprinting'' to the finish, but nobody had an international financial meltdown in mind when Bush vowed that he would be working to the very end.

Bush may be down in the polls - with 25 percent public approval, his all-term low, in the latest Gallup Poll - but he still finds comfort in certain quarters. The Simpsonville Little League Softball team, the world champions, where happy to see him.

The team greeted Bush at his landing Friday night at the Charleston Air Force Base. Another couple hundred people were assembled behind a fence on the tarmac on an overcast evening at the end of a rainy day - one assumes this was the family and extended family of the 2008 World Series of Little League Softball champions.

Bush had seen some admirers along the road on his way out of South Florida on this day, people standing on corners along the route of the presidential motorcade in Coral Gables and waving American flags and cheering - the supporters far outnumbering the few protesters along the motorcade route, quite the opposite ratio of that most recent Gallup Poll on presidential approval, which put Bush just one point above Richard Nixon's all-time low (24 points) before resignation in 1974 and jut three points above Harry Truman's low in 1952, the all-time low in Gallup surveys.

And, in the aftermath of three tortuous weeks of economic turmoil, the president was ready for some crowd-love. He and first Lady Laura Bush had gone separate ways in their travels this day, the pair splitting up at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland in the morning and reuniting in Charleston in the evening. And the two worked the crowd from left to right before posing with the ball team for photographs - and then taking off by helicopter for a Republican Nation Committee fundraiser on Kiawah Island.

The party was raising $1.4 million at the evening fundraiser at the Sanctuary at Kiawah Island, a low-lying . Marine One, the president's helicopter, landed on The Ocean Course, a golf course set by the open sea, and then rode by motorcade to the resort hotel.

It's safe to say that the 100 people assembled at the hotel were as happy to see the president as the softball team was, but the fundraiser was closed to the press, so we'll take it on faith.

By day's end, the president was returning to Washington, arriving well after dark, and preparing for an early morning meeting with the finance ministers of the G-7 nations this morning in the West Wing.

And then, another Rose Garden appearance just after 8 am EDT to offer a nation some reassurance in the midst of the worst stock market turmoil in decades.

The financial crisis was awaiting him in Washington, upon his return from the fans in South Carolina. That 25 percent approval factor may come back into play this morning, with not all Americans as happy to see the president this morning as was the Simpsonville Little League Softball team.

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by Mark Silva

CORAL GABLES, Fla. - Sitting near the home of Sergio Pino, a Miami-area developer playing host to a $500,000 fundraiser for the Republican Party's congressional candidates this afternoon in the gated, mansion-studded community of Cocoplum:

This is the first of two fundraisers that President Bush is attending for his party's candidates today. About 90 people are attending the fundraiser here in Cocoplum, which is off-limits to the reporters traveling with Bush. The second, tonight at the Sanctuary at Kiawah Island in South Carolina, will raise $1.4 million for the Republican National Committee, with about 100 people expected at the evening event.

The president's party, for sure, is fighting against the stream in an economy which, as the president conceded in the Rose Garden this morning, is causing anxiety upon anxiety for the American people. Bush plans another Rose Garden appearance Saturday morning to offer yet more assurances that the government is taking action.

Aboard Air Force One en route to Florida, the president's press secretary was asked if Bush has voiced any concern about the political fortunes of Republican presidential nominee John McCain in recent weeks.

"The president is convinced that John McCain still has time to close up this race,'' Dana Perino said, noting that Bush was down once in his own race, she noted, and "came back to win.''

Asked about Bush's "communications strategy'' in the economic crisis underway, Perino said: "We know that people are very anxious'' about what is happening. But Congress has acted on the rescue that the White House sought and Treasury is "moving at all deliberate speed.... The federal government is going to do what it takes.''

"If he wasn't talking all the time... the questions from the media would be, why isn't he talking?'' Perino correctly said of the repeat appearances by the president. "It is important that they know the leader of the free world has his full attention focused'' on the problem.

This morning, she said of his Rose Garden appearance, "he was reassuring, realistic and pragmatic'' and also "robust'' about what the government is doing. Asked about the TV commentators who were saying after the address this morning that the market was falling even while the president spoke, she said, "I guarantee that, if we weren't out there,'' the same people would be asking why.

Meanwhile, the president is out here raising money for the day, nearly $2.5 million for a campaign that is coming face to face with the economic problem confronting the nation. Here in Coral Gables, however, for the moment, there is no sign of anxiety.

by Mark Silva

President Bush, addressing the nation at a "deeply unsettling period for the American people,'' vowed today that the government will solve the underlying problems of the financial meltdown that was dragging the Dow Jones Industrial Average down even as the president spoke this morning.

"Here's what the American people need to know, that the United States government is actin,'' Bush said this morning, noting a "e range of tools at our disposal.. We are using these tools aggressively.''

It's not only action that the White House is attempting to tout, but also confidence.

"Our system of credit is frozen... Creating uincertainty throughout our economy,'' Bush said. "That uncertainty has fed anxiety, and that is understandable, but anxiety feeds anxiety.''

Bush, speaking from the Rose Garden before a day-trip to Florida and South Carolina for Republican Party fundraising and a meeting with South Florida Cuban-American leaders, is attempting to assure Americans that the government is taking every action possible to stabilize the nation's staggering financial markets.

"We can solve this problem and we will,'' the president said, spelling out actions underway by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury.

This includes the $700-billion authorization that Congress has given the Treasury to purchase bad mortgage-related assets from banks and other financial institutions.

"$700 billion is a significant amount of money... It is aggressive. It is the right plan... It will adapt as the situation changes, and it is big enough to work.''

"Some Americans are concerned about whether their money is safe,'' he said,, with an assurance that a boost in federal bank insurance that came with the $700-billion bailout will protect bank account holders. ""Every penny of that money is safe."

It's not only the United States that is acting, Bush said, but also the central banks of Europe, working in a concerted effort to free a frozen credit market.

"The world is sending an unmistakable signal, we're in this together and we'll come through this together.''

"This is an anxious time, but the American people can be confident in our economic future,'' Bush said. "Our economy is innovative, industrious and resilient.... We all share a determination to solve this problem, and that is exactly what we're going to do.''

by Mark Silva

President Bush will step out today for a pep-talk about the economy, a badly stumbling economy that he had called fundamentally "sound'' not many months ago.

He will be talking at an office products company in suburban Chantilly, Va., about the economic stabilization act which Congress has passed at his insistence, a $700-billion bailout of the nation's bankers that may take some time to show political profit.

Bush's own bottom-line has reached a new low at the same time, with the president's public approval rating dropping to 25 percent in the latest Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, since passage of the bailout. This marks the lowest point of Bush's presidency and it stands only three points higher than the all-time low in the history of Gallup's post-World War II polling of presidential approval.

With the president's sinking public approval comes a lack of confidence in his ability to handle the economy. A separate CNN poll has found that fewer than 30 percent of those surveyed voice confidence in Bush's ability to deal with the economy.

Confidence in the candidates for president is split, with 50 percent voicing confidence in Republican John McCain's ability to handle the economy in that CNN poll and 68 percent voicing confidence in Demcorat Barack Obama's ability - which speaks to the reason that Obama has gained an overall advantage in national opinion polling in the midst of the current economic crisis.

As for Bush, however, he may have had the political capital to pass the bailout - he also had a national sense of urgency on his side. But his ability to convince Americans to remain confident about the outcome of the government's intervention in the economy may be another story.

The president's approval rating in the Gallup Poll stands just one point higher than Richard Nixon's lowest job approval rating of 24 percent, measured in the summer of 1974, before his resignation. It stands just three points higher than Harry Truman's all-time Gallup low job-approval rating of 22 percent, measured in 1952.

"The current poll recording Bush's low job approval rating was conducted after Congress passed the economic rescue bill on Oct. 3,'' Gallup's Frank Newport notes.

"Americans recognize the economy as the nation's top problem, but apparently, the passage of this bill -- which the Bush administration had heavily advocated -- did nothing to affect Bush's approval ratings. Indeed, only 55 percentof members of Bush's own party approve of him in the poll, perhaps a reflection of some pushback from conservatives who do not strongly support the economic bill. Nineteen percent of independents and 5 percent of Democrats approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president.''

The ratings come from a survey of 1,011 adults conducted Oct. 3-5 and carry a possible margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

by James Gerstenzang

Mentioning neither William Ayres and the Weather Underground nor the Keating Five, the two hot topics du jour of the presidential campaign, President Bush managed nevertheless to quietly slip himself into the campaign on Monday by delving into a secondary issue: What standards a president should apply when picking judges.

Bush did not have to say about whom he was speaking. He never said "Obama" or "McCain," "Democrat" or "Republican."

But speaking to a conservative legal gathering in Cincinnati, he injected the subject of judicial appointments -- from the district court level up to the Supreme Court -- into the debate, and made it clear that in considering election choices, the president's role in nominating jurists must not be overlooked.

But the president was using a double-edged sword. It is a topic that can energize activists in both parties, (as our colleague Jim Gerstenzang notes of Bush's judicial comments in Countdown to Crawford).

"The lesson should be clear to every American, and that is: Judges matter," he said. (If anyone doubted that, he offered this statistic: He has nominated more than one-third of the judges now holding lifetime appointments on the federal bench.)

No surprise in his instructions: Find judges who will "interpret the Constitution and not use courts to invent laws or dictate social policy."

And no surprise that they fit nicely with John McCain's approach.

As for the process of nominating judges and confirming them in the Senate, it's "broken," Bush said. Lawyers are declining nominations out of concerns about the delays they might face in gaining a vote in the Senate -- and the "ruthlessness" of the confirmation process.

by Mark Silva

Look who's getting sentimental.

President Bush, away at his Crawford, Texas, ranch this weekend, where he has spent more than a year of his presidency, in the count by days, stopped off at his childhood home of Midland on Saturday.

"I's an amazing experience to come back to a place where you were raised,'' Bush told reporters traveling with him. "Laura was raised in Midland, I was raised in Midland, this is -- this is one of the three homes I lived in, and I kind of remember it.... The bedroom -- actually I do remember the wood on the wall that -- in the bedroom.

"You know, I love Midland, and Texas. We've got a lot of friends here,'' the president said. "I learned a lot of values that I hold dear here. It's good to see mom's -- Laura's mom here. And it's the first time I've been back here since I've been the president, and it's -- it was just a very heartwarming experience.

"You know, I've told my friends here, I said, you know, I'm not going to change as a person because of politics or Washington -- that's what I said when I left,'' he said. "I think they appreciate that

"I want them to know that, you know, even though I had to deal with a lot of tough issues, that I'm still the same person that they knew before and that, you know, I'm wiser, more experienced, but my heart and my values didn't change.

"So it's great to see our friends,'' Bush said. "You know, we got a couple more hard months to go, and obviously we've got to deal with this financial situation.

"Congress took a big step in the direction of at least giving us the tools necessary to bring some stability into the marketplace. Got to get credit for them of course so that people feel -- feel comfortable about conducting business. So there's a lot of work to be done.

"In the meantime it's good to come back here to where it all started for us,'' Bush said, with a parting joke for the pool. "You're welcome to pay the fee to go in and see the house.''

by Mark Silva

Two weeks ago today, the secretary of the treasury rolled out a three-page proposal asking for the authority to spend as much as $700 billion in public money on bad securities.

Yesterday afternoon, the House approved a bailout (rescue, as leaders will have it) of banks and financial institutions struggling with mortgage-related securities "clogging'' the arties of the nation's credit markets and threatening, as Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had warned congressional leaders, a "heart attack'' in the economy.

In the annals of presidential lobbying and legislative action, the passage of a $700-billion federal bailout of the financial industry -- a 400-plus-page legislative extravaganza capped with more than $100 billion in tax relief and other goodies to force it through a House that wouldn't buy it on the first run -- must be some kind of record.

Bush waited for the bill to clear the House on Friday, then stepped out to the Rose Garden on a spectacular, sunny fall day to praise Congress for decisive action and walked through the White House complex to emerge from the east door of the East Wing, cross the driveway between the White House and the Treasury and climb the stone steps of the Treasury, where Paulson awaited the president.

Paulson, standing on the steps, had gone through his own marathon two weeks of financial crisis and congressional lobbying. Asked how he felt now that the bill had passed, he said, simply: "Better."

Bush and Paulson went inside and thanked employees of the Treasury for all their hard work. Sometimes, Bush told reporters later, people in government never get thanked enough.

And then, within two hours of passage of the bailout, Bush returned to the White House and signed the measure into law.

It will take much longer, however, for the implementation of this rescue to have its itended effect, the White House says. Today, in an address to the nation on the radio, the president said, "the benefits of this package will not all be felt immediately. The federal government will undertake this rescue plan at a careful and deliberate pace to ensure that your tax dollars are spent wisely.''

It will take longer than two weeks to spend all this money, and perhaps months to tell whether the economy has been rescued or not.

by Mark Silva

President Bush, insisting that Congress act on a stalled financial market rescue, said today that the nation's economy is "in an urgent situation, and the consequences will grow worse each day if we do not act...

"If our nation continues on this course,'' Bush said, "the economic damage will be painful and lasting.''

The morning after the House narrowly rejected the $700 billion financial market bailout that his administration is trying to push through Congress - and the Dow Jones average suffered a 7 percent slide on the New York Stock Exchange, the largest point-slide ever, and biggest percentage dip since the Black Monday of October 1987 - Bush is making a renewed pitch for his plan.

"I'm disappointed by the outcome, but I assure our citizens and citizens around the world that this is not the end of the legislation,'' Bush said in a statement delivered from the White House. "It matters little what path a bill takes to become law. What matters is that we get a law.''

The measure is essential to help lenders "resume the flow of credit to consumers and businesses and allows the American economy to get moving again.,'' Bush said. "I realize that this is a difficult vote for members of Congress... But the reality is that we are in an urgent situation and the consequences will grow worse each day if we do not act.''

The bill authorizes the Treasury to spend up to $700 billion on bad mortgage-related assets, freeing banks and other financial institutions of frozen assets that are "clogging'' the system.

"That no question is a large amount of money,'' Bush said. "We're also dealing with a large problem... but to put that in perspective, the drop in the stock market yesterday represented more than a trillion dollars in losses.''

"Ultimately we expect most if not all of the tax dollars we invest will be paid back,'' Bush said of the $700 billion.

"We're facing a choice between action and the real prospect of financial hardship for millions of Americans,'' he said.

"Congress must act ... Our economy is depending on decisive action for the government,'' the president said. "The sooner we address the problem the sooner we can get back on the path of growth of job creation... I am confident that we will deliver.''

by Mark Silva

"I fully understand that this will be a difficult vote,'' President Bush said this morning of the vote facing the House today and the vote facing the Senate later this week.

That is the vote for a $700 billion investment of public money in a national financial crisis that threatens to freeze credit and thrust the nation into what he has said could be a "long and painful recession.''

The agreement reached by congressional leaders over the weekend envisions recovering much of the money invested, or all of it, by reselling the toxic mortgage debt that the government will be buying when the market turns around - and also by requiring the banks that benefit from this bailout to make up any remaining cost after five years if all the money is not recovered.

Nevertheless, the prospect of putting as much as $700 billion in taxpayer dollars on the line is causing members of both parties in Congress to question the greatest government intervention in the economy since the Great Depression. The House is expected to vote as soon as today, the Senate as early as Wednesday.

The congressional leaders' agreement -- and the president's message from the South Lawn of the White House this morning - is timed to ensure the tock market reopening today that stability will be restored and consumer confidence will be bolstered.
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"Every member of Congress and every American should keep in mind, a vote for this bill is a vote to prevent economic damage for your community,'' the president said at a podium propped on the South Lawn this morning just after 7:30 am EDT.

Bush called the bill, which his administration sought and which was modified by leaders, "an extraordinary agreement to deal with an extraordinary problem in our economy... a bold bill that will help keep the financial crisis from spreading throughout our economy.

"I appreciate the leadership of members on both sides of the aisle who came together when our nation was counting on them.

"The bipartisan financial rescue plan addresses the root cause of the crisis,'' Bush said, his administration arguing that bad debt is "clogging'' the financial system and threatening to force the gears of the economy to "grind to a halt.... The federal government will be authorized to purchase these assets from banks and other financial institutions which will help free them to continue lending.

The plan "will help restart the flow of credit, so American families can meet their daily needs.. ..We will make sure that the American government is serious about restoring confidence.

"This bill commits up to $700billion of taxpayer dollars,'' the president said. "However, both the nonpartisan Congressional Budge Office and the Office of Management and Budget expect that the ultimate cost will be far less than that... In fact we expect that over time much or all of the money will be paid back.''

by Mark Silva

He has gone on national television, he has delivered statements from the White House -- one while seated between the Republican and Democratic nominees for the presidency in the West Wing this week -- and now President Bush is on the radio selling a $700-billion bailout for banks and other financial institutions which he insisted this week is necessary to avert "financial panic'' and a "long and painful recession.''

As congressional leaders negotiate into the weekend on a plan that they hope to produce before the markets open Monday, the president insists that this rescue is not about Wall Street, but rather about Main Street. All the toxic mortgage debt "clogging'' banks and preventing them from lending money could lead to a credit freeze at every level, the administration warns: Home loans, car loans, student loans and credit cards.

"I know many of you listening this morning are frustrated with the situation,'' the president said on the radio today. "You make sacrifices every day to meet your mortgage payments and keep up with your bills. When the government asks you to pay for mistakes on Wall Street, it does not seem fair. And I understand that.

"And if it were possible to let every irresponsible firm on Wall Street fail without affecting you and your family, I would do it. But that is not possible. The failure of the financial system would mean financial hardship for many of you.

"The rescue effort we're negotiating is not aimed at Wall Street -- it is aimed at your street.,'' the president said. "And there is now widespread agreement on the major principles. We must free up the flow of credit to consumers and businesses by reducing the risk posed by troubled assets. We must ensure that taxpayers are protected, that failed executives do not receive a windfall from your tax dollars, and that there is a bipartisan board to oversee these efforts. ''

That agreement, however, is largely among members of the Democratic leadership of the Congress and the Bush administration. And Democrats are calling on Bush's own party -- the House Republicans in particular -- to get in line with an agreement that can be presented as bipartisan. They're going to need a lot of votes to pass this one and then explain why they have committed the federal government to such a bailout..