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)

Don’t look for Condoleezza Rice to get all sentimental about waving goodbye to Washington after the Bush administration leaves office on Jan. 20.

It’s no secret that the Secretary of State plans to go back to California. But will she miss life in the U.S. capital?

“No,” Rice said, laughing, in a CNN interview.

She has been a top adviser to President George W. Bush for eight years — first as national security adviser before moving to the State Department in 2005.

Before joining the Bush administration, Rice was provost at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and she’s ready to return to the Golden State.

“It’s not that I haven’t loved being here,” Rice said, referring to Washington.

“But the truth of the matter is, from the first time that my family crossed the Kansas border into Colorado when I was six, I knew I should live west of the Mississippi,” said Rice, who was born in Birmingham, Alabama. “I just love the West. It’s open and it’s different and it’s entrepreneurial.”

Rice said she is fond of some of the cities in the East but ”really, really loves being West.”

Tis the season to be, er, generous with taxpayers’ money.

The White House and Democrats in Congress are busy putting the finishing touches to a whopping $15 billion Christmas present for the U.S. auto industry. The two sides have been haggling for several days over the terms of the bailout to rescue the “Big Three” Detroit car manufacturers but are now reported to be close to agreement.

 House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi told NBC’s “Today” breakfast television show that if Congress approved the agreement a “car czar” charged with restructuring the industry could be appointed as soon as this week. She said she favored former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker for the post although he may already have his hands full — President-elect Barack Obama has named him as his senior adviser on jolting the economy out of recession.

 Obama has been critical of the Bush administration’s efforts to tackle the mortgage foreclosure crisis that has seen hundreds of thousands of Americans lose their homes. The issue will be under the spotlight at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT), when the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee holds a hearing on the role of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the financial crisis.

 More gloomy housing data may come from the National Association of Realtors, which issues its Pending Home Sales Index for October and monthly Housing Forecast at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT).

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice travels to Panama City on Tuesday for a one-day meeting of foreign and commerce ministers that have negotiated free-trade deals with the United States. It will be attended by ministers from Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama and Peru.

 But the political meeting likely to grab the most media attention on Tuesday will be taking place in Chicago, where Obama is due to meet Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore to discuss energy and climate change.

Obama and Gore, who has indicated he is not interested in a position of climate “czar” or any cabinet post, will talk about how energy and climate policies can stimulate the economy and create jobs, a statement from Obama’s office said.

George W. Bush heads to Peru this morning for his last scheduled trip abroad as U.S. president. Accompanied by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, he will attend an Asia-Pacific summit in Lima, Peru, where he will seek support for global financial reforms.

The 21-nation APEC grouping accounts for nearly half the world’s trade. U.S. officials have rejected characterization of the visit as a swan song for a lame-duck president with record low approval ratings.

Back in a chilly Washington D.C., the country’s attorney general, Michael Mukasey, 67, was reported to be resting comfortably in hospital after collapsing while delivering a speech at a hotel in the capital.
Video showed Mukasey slurring his words about 15 minutes into his speech and then slumping forward onto the podium before members of his FBI security detail rushed to his side. The cause of his collapse has not been made public.

With Bush out of town and Congress not in session, the biggest news may come from fresh leaks on President-elect Barack Obama’s picks for the top jobs in his new administration.
The Washington Post said the leaks were challenging Obama’s famous ability to impose discipline and control over his presidential campaign. Obama plans to announce his foreign policy team after Thanksgiving on Nov. 27, according to a Democratic official.

The latest name doing the rounds is that of retired Gen. James Jones. Democratic party sources said he was the leading contender for the key post of White House national security adviser. Hillary Clinton remained on track to be named as secretary of state.

U.S. stock markets plunged to fresh lows on Thursday but Dow Jones futures were up on Friday, pointing to a rebound from the previous day’s losses.

CRAWFORD, Texas - Condoleezza Rice, ever the sharp diplomat, found some nice — and some would even say effusive — comments about the man who was just picked to be the vice presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket for the November election.
 
Rice, a Republican who plans to back John McCain, offered the kind words about Sen. Joe Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as she traveled again to the Middle East to try to broker peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.

“I am not going to comment on the politics of it. I’ll just say that Sen. Biden is obviously a very fine statesman,” she told reporters aboard her plane as she flew to Israel.
 
“I’ve known him for a long time. He’s been a really very supportive committee chair for — and before that, ranking member for the State Department and for our diplomatic efforts,” she said. “And so he’s a — you know, he’s a true, true patriot.”
 
The White House was a bit more circumspect. Spokesman Tony Fratto said that it was an honor for anyone to be a presidential or vice presidential nominee but that was really about as far as he went.
 
“It’s a great honor for anyone who has that opportunity to run in a national election like that, to aspire to represent the country; and so a very personal thing for him and his family,” Fratto told reporters in Crawford, Texas. “Obviously, we’re — we would be happy for him.”
 
Asked about Rice’s proclamation that Biden was a “great stateman” and “true patriot”, Fratto replied that, “He’s done tremendous work over a long period, and I know he has been supportive of Secretary Rice’s State Department.”  

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Ho New (Rice arrives in Tel Aviv.)