George W. Bush is not generally prone to introspection. "I really do not feel comfortable in the role of analyzing myself," he once said.
But with only weeks left in his presidency, the self-analysis has begun. After a year of relentless criticism from both parties, the departing president has embarked on a valedictory tour, touting his record in television interviews and public appearances while admitting, with some hesitation, that things did not always go as planned.
Bush asserts success in combating AIDS in Africa, preventing new terrorist attacks on U.S. soil and snatching a measure of victory in Iraq. And in a speech on the Middle East yesterday, the president sketched out a strikingly optimistic portrait of a region that has embroiled the United States in war and conflict for the past eight years.
"The Middle East in 2008 is a freer, more hopeful and more promising place than it was in 2001," he said at the Saban Forum in Washington.
Bush has also been notably open in recent weeks about his low popularity, his reliance on religious faith and his keen desire to steal away from the limelight after Jan. 20. He has admitted to a few previously unacknowledged errors, telling one interviewer that he was "unprepared for war" when he entered office and that his "biggest regret" was the failure of intelligence leading up to the Iraq invasion.
Yet even those remarks underscore Bush's enduring confidence in the path he charted through two wars, a major natural disaster and a global economic meltdown. While conceding faulty intelligence before the Iraq war, he declines to say whether he would have acted differently. While saying he is "sorry" for the economic crisis, he says most of the problems began before he took office.
And Bush shies away from one of the most damaging episodes of his tenure: the bungled federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The storm left thousands stranded in a drowning New Orleans, setting Bush on course to become the least popular U.S. president in modern history.
"There is a natural inclination among all presidents to focus on accomplishments," said Norman J. Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute. "But here you have a president in George Bush who hates to admit mistakes, who hates to admit errors, and that is something that has been a basic problem for him."
To be unyielding is a matter of principle
For Bush, to be unyielding is a matter of principle. "The thing that's important for me is to get home and look in that mirror and say, 'I did not compromise my principles,' " Bush said in an interview with ABC News. "And I didn't. I made tough calls. And some presidencies have got a lot of tough decisions to make."
The campaign to burnish Bush's legacy follows the Nov. 4 victories by President-elect Barack Obama and other Democrats, who made condemnation of Bush's policies the centerpiece of their campaigns. About two months ago, White House counselor Ed Gillespie began meeting with agency heads as part of an effort aimed at compiling the major accomplishments of the Bush administration.
The campaign so far has included a series of television interviews, speeches and other appearances in recent weeks focused on some of Bush's favorite programs, such as initiatives to provide HIV/AIDS medicine to the developing world and to include faith-based groups in federal assistance programs. Still to come are events focused on the No Child Left Behind Act, the bipartisan education reform package approved during his first term, according to aides.
"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," White House press secretary Dana Perino said this week.
Pete Wehner, a former Bush aide who is now a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said there is "an empirical case to be made" in favor of Bush on a range of issues, such as the improving situation in Iraq, humanitarian relief programs and tax policies. But the president had little chance to defend his record over the past year while sitting on the sidelines during the race between Obama and GOP nominee John McCain, Wehner said.
"Bush was a punching bag because he wasn't going to do anything to disrupt McCain during the election," Wehner said. "There wasn't any punching back. I'm sure they are eager to make their case now that the election is past."
In yesterday's speech at the Saban Forum, an annual Middle East conference sponsored by the Brookings Institution, Bush offered a sweeping and optimistic defense of his policy in the troubled region, often minimizing or ignoring uncomfortable developments.
He said unseating Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was justified and portrayed Iraq as "a powerful example of a moderate, prosperous, free nation." He asserted that "important progress" had been made in the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and he hailed negotiations over Iran's nuclear ambitions — talks that he resisted early in his administration.
He also acknowledged, but played down, the setbacks that have bedeviled his administration in the Middle East. "As with any large undertaking, these efforts have not always gone according to plan, and in some areas we have fallen short of our hopes," Bush said, adding that the war in Iraq "has been longer and more costly than expected."
Many of Bush's recent appearances have focused on faith-based programs, international aid efforts and other hallmarks of the "compassionate conservatism" that he embraced when he first ran for the White House in 2000. First lady Laura Bush has joined her husband at several of these events and is scheduled to appear in New York next week to talk about human rights abuses in Burma and Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, Bush flew to Greensboro, N.C., to visit a local Big Brothers Big Sisters office that participates in an administration initiative pairing adult mentors with the children of prisoners in an effort to deter them from crime and drug use.
Empathetic language
As he has frequently in recent weeks, Bush used empathetic language in discussing the program and its aims. "By helping a child, you can really help the country," Bush told reporters at the center. "You help yourself by loving, but you help America — one heart, one soul at a time."
The event also provided an opportunity for Bush to highlight his larger faith-based initiative, which funds the mentoring program, and to sit down for an interview with ABC's "Nightline" to discuss the role of faith in his presidency.
"What the president and the White House seem to be doing is to stress the ways in which he was a compassionate conservative," said Sean Wilentz, a presidential historian at Princeton University. "It's like going back to the top. They're trying to find all the ways in which that vision was advanced during the last eight years, because that's the note they want to fall back on."
Bush and the first lady have also touched on personal issues in several interviews, including their hopes for a quiet retirement and their strong relationship during their time in the White House. The president has talked about his role as "comforter in chief" for victims of hurricanes, tornadoes and other calamities.
During a forum this week on World AIDS Day, Bush even joked about his lack of domestic popularity by recounting a warm reception he received during a trip to Africa.
"I mean, people literally lining the roads in Tanzania, all waving and anxious to express their love and appreciation to the American president who represents the American people," Bush said. "It was good to see them all waving with all five fingers, I might add."
