President George W. Bush, nearing the end of his final term in office, says he most wants to be remembered as someone who came to Washington and didn’t lose his values.
Someone who didn’t sell his soul to the political process.
Somebody who liberated 50 million people and helped achieve peace.
So he told his sister, Dorothy Bush Koch, in an interview for StoryCorps, the national oral history initiative. An excerpt of the interview aired on National Public Radio on Thanksgiving Day and the White House released excerpts on Friday. The entire interview will be archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
“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,” Bush said in the interview. “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.”
“I’d like to be a president (known) as somebody who liberated 50 million people and helped achieve peace; that focused on individuals rather than process; that rallied people to serve their neighbor,” the president added.
He mentions his HIV/AIDS and malaria initiatives in Africa, and the Medicare prescription drug benefit as two programs he is proud of.
Asked about his “No Child Left Behind” education law, Bush called it one of the “significant achievements of my administration.”
“We said loud and clear to educators, parents, and children that we expect the best for every child, that we believe every child can learn, and that in return for federal money we expect there to be an accountability system in place to determine whether every child is learning to read, write and add and subtract,” Bush said.
Bush hands over power to President-elect Barack Obama on Jan. 20, 2009.
As he heads into the final weeks of his presidency, Bush’s job approval ratings remain low. Only about 26 percent approve of his performance, while some 70 percent disapprove.
Bush’s decision to take the United States to war in Iraq is widely unpopular. A Quinnipiac University poll in early November found that 58 percent disagreed with decision.
For more Reuters political news, click here.
Photo credit: Reuters/Ho New (Bush talks by phone to troops in remote locations on Thanksgiving); Reuters/Jason Reed (Bush pardons national Thanksgiving turkey, Pumpkin)
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I seem to remember Bush having a net worth of a few million when he took office.”
You remember wrong.
Bush had 15-20 million of net worth in 2000, thanks largely to the Texas Rangers team.
He has been personally generous to charities, more so than Gore or Obama.
I also like this comment: “George Bush will be remembered as a heroic man who led a pack of yapping-at-the-heels dog Democrats to victory in spite of their vicious selves.”
It’s funny how all those who in 2002 voted for war, including Clinton, Biden, Hagel, and many others … became turncoats against their own position. The Democrats were wrong about the surge, were wrong to protect fannie mae, and are wrong today in trying to shovel money into failures like the big 3 bailout.
But the Dems got away with it because they could always blame Bush no matter how irresponsible or wrong they were!
Had President Bush been a weaker man, we’d have lost in Iraq.
- Posted by Travis MonitorThank you, President Bush for persisting and WINNING in Iraq. I think his inner core values are sound and his policies will proved to be sound over time as well.
Looking at personal finances…I seem to remember Bush having a net worth of a few million when he took office.
- Posted by Joe AYet surprise, surprise…even with presidents supposedly having to put their affairs into trusts during their terms, it turns out Bush exits office with 20 plus million net worth. Interestingly…most of it seems to be in cash now (what did he know that the rest of us didn’t). Furthermore…if he’s in cash, how did that initial 2-3 million grow into 20 + million. Ah yes, American, home of the brave, the free…and the corrupt.
Isn’t a little late for that?
- Posted by AnubisMr. Bush had the Midas touch in reverse - everything he touched fell apart.
- Posted by CGGeorge W Bush will remembered as the President who so politicized every department of the Federal government, it nearly brought the Nation to collapse — Just think, the Justice Department, FEMA, Labor, SEC, the failure to separate church and state. Please add to that the war in Iraq, which was totally unnecessary when the Nation had one war going already. I think that he has already started writing his legacy and Obama’s too for that matter. I just hope that SMU has enough storage space and deodorizer for his mess.
- Posted by Lydia WilliamsBush will be remembered as a liar and and stupid. The only reason he was not impeached is that Cheny is worse. That twosome has left this contry in shambles and we will be a long time in shamables. Shame on them for the the rest of their lives.
- Posted by lady wingnutThis man has no legacy. He’s been a failure in almost every venture he pursued. He set the Republican party back 30 years. His legacy will be turning the house, senate and Presidency over the the opposing party.
He can spend his leisure time hunting with Dick Cheney.
- Posted by Mark Giuseffi[...] Measure Success? By Morse Driving to Philadelphia Thursday morning, I heard an excerpt from this interview with Bush on how he’d like to be remembered. In between barbs at his wife for her apparent inability to [...]
- Posted by How Do You Measure Success? « Media Needlehmmmm
- Posted by patsyperhaps should have contemplated that 8 years ago. He may have a short memory span, but history’s is REALLLLY long
sorry obamainics even with all the media swooning ,after seeing the people he is choosing for his cabinet the only change you can guarantee is the movies coming out of hollywood, the terrorists will again be the bad guys and the president will be guess who?the hero.and the nasty mr bush will be hiding in the swamp from the peach activists .
- Posted by brian leeBush = bad.
Just Say No! 2 Sara Palin in 012.
- Posted by bOBBush was Clinton, 2. Obama is Clinton 3. Some of the most corrupt politicians in American history. Probably spokesmen for the same rich, elite, power mongers. Expect hyperinflation, soon. Maybe nukes from IRAN, in a few years. mensunion.org would strike to force them to be replaced, but the movement hasn’t geared up. Too many addlebrains, too many people on the dole, the economy has to crash first. I’ve got my mountain cabin outfitted with solar panels, woodstove, spring, well, greenhouse, solar rooms, gas, silver. I’m insulated from the coming hard times. Best regards, Sportacus wolfpack@swcp.com
- Posted by Sportacus DerwolfinMama Jones,
Think out of the left wing box for a minute. Pakistan has nukes. If we had invaded them, our troops would have been vaporized. How quickly would we have abandoned the war on terror after that? As it is, Bush has achieved victory in Iraq and a new democracy with a progressive constitution has been planted in the middle east. Will that help make them a more peaceful people? Let’s hope so.
Saudi Arabia is a country on whom we depend for oil. We can’t invade them because that would be biting the hand that feeds you.
If we want to take them on, and I agree we need to, then the first thing we need to do is end our dependence on their oil. We do that by getting other sources of oil while we develop alternative energy technology. Only when we do that will we be in a position to tell the Saudis to kiss our ass and stop building madrassas around the world. Unfortunately, Dear Leader Obama would have us put on a sweater and shiver in the dark rather than put up an oil derrick next to a caribou. I guess we’ll have to wait for Sarah Palin to be elected in 2012 for that to happen.
- Posted by Odysseuskilroy, this assertion that President Bush killed more Iraqis then Saddam reveals the true extent of your hatred and ignorance. President Bush is a good man who kept us safe, his first responsibility as CIC-There is not a whit of reason to list the accomplishments of this man because you have totally bought into the 8 years of hate the left dominated MSM has been feeding you.
- Posted by MMGeorge Bush will be remembered as a heroic man who led a pack of yapping-at-the-heels dog Democrats to victory in spite of their vicious selves.
- Posted by Donald KingsburyWorst President Ever!!!
WMD = Dubbya of Mass Destruction
There have been known tyrants that seem better than Bush. After all Saddam never killed as many Iraqis as W. Every U.S. soldier I know says that the Iraq war is a clear cut case of PROFIT over PEOPLE. That being the case I hope that we never have another fake conservative in the office again. I hope that we never have another false Christian in office again. I hope we never have another anti-humanitarian in office again. W was never an Adolf Hitler, but he is the closest thing that America has to one.
NYTs seems to have the same article as this one but does not allow for commenting. In every peer reviewed article GWB gets hammered with discontent by the majority. “Mission Accomplished.”
Please world, don’t let this one go. Do what must be done.
- Posted by Kilroy[...] Bush considers his legacy. [...]
- Posted by Did not sell his soul » Caput Stercibush did not cause the financial problems we’re now experiencing. the dims set up the whole thing by encouraging, promoting, even mandating loans to folks who are unable to repay then, he has kept us safe fron terrorist attacts for 7+ years, and freed over fifty million people. now it’s obvious that he’s had his low points, too. but in this era, an approval rating in the 20s is not bad if your viewed by a public that gets the bulk of their news from biased sources. give it a few years and even bush won’t look so bad.
- Posted by s. boliviarThe sad thing is Bush now seems to be hated for the financial downturn, instead of the decision to invent silly stories to invade other countries.
The only way I figure makes the invasion make sense is to make the US government more unpredictable - Invading Iraq, which had nothing to do with the Twin Towers attacks (if you wanted to invade a country, Pakistan or Saudi Arabia would have made more sense).
I guess the signal is, if you say, bomb the Washington monument, we will nuke your desert into a giant glass fruit bowl.
- Posted by Mama Jones[...] the world slides into a financial sinkhole, George W. Bush wants us to know he’s a good president. “I would like to be a person remembered as a person who, first and foremost, did not sell his [...]
- Posted by The Mahablog » Gobble, Gobble