WASHINGTON - The word of the day at the White House was winsome.

Not as in ‘you win some, you lose some,’ but just plain winsome as a description of President George W. Bush’s mood five days before he relinquishes the presidency to Barack Obama.

“He’s not tired.  He just has a ton of energy,” Ed Gillespie, counsellor to Bush, told reporters. “I would say that he’s gotten a little more winsome.”

That raised the question of whether Gillespie had actually meant wistful since the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of winsome is: “generally pleasing and engaging often because of a childlike charm and innocence” or cheerful, lighthearted.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino later said perhaps reflective or wistful were the presidential sentiments. “I think wistful might have been the word.”

Presidential emotions were on display ahead of Bush’s farewell address to the American public.

When Bush praised long-time friend Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice he recalled that “during the darkest of days, she always had a sense of optimism and constantly reminded me of what is possible and what will happen if we don’t lose confidence in fundamental truths.”

Bush, who turns into a former president at noon on Jan. 20, will leave behind for his successor a note in a desk drawer,  in the tradition of those who left the Oval Office before him.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Yuri Gripas (Bush attending State Department ceremony)