Bush says he acted in U.S.’s best interest

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush, delivering a televised farewell to the nation Thursday night, attempted to summon a collective sense of “gratitude” for years of safety after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that shaped his presidency.

In a measure of the impact the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon had on his administration, Bush touted one signal success during his time in office: No further attacks occurred.

The president acknowledged that his anti-terror policies had prompted “legitimate debate.” But, he said, “there can be little debate about the results. America has gone more than seven years without another terrorist attack on our soil.”

He also acknowledged “setbacks” in office that he did not detail. “There are things I would do differently if given the chance,” he said. “Yet, I have always acted with the best interests of our country in mind ... You may not agree with some tough decisions I have made. But I hope you can agree that I was willing to make the tough decisions.”

Speaking from the East Room of the White House, Bush noted that he had first addressed the nation from the White House on Sept. 11, 2001. “As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 9/11,” Bush said. “But I never did. Every morning, I received a briefing on the threats to our nation. And I vowed to do everything in my power to keep us safe.”

The president’s prime-time address, broadcast by television networks, marked his final planned public appearance before traveling to the Capitol on Tuesday for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama. He spoke not only to a television audience, but also to an invited audience that included his wife, Laura Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and relatives of Sept. 11 victims, including the mother of a police officer whose badge he said he still keeps.

It was one of several self-assessments that Bush has offered in recent days in interviews and in a news conference, efforts to shape perceptions of his controversial administration and its legacy.

Earlier this week, with his 47th and final planned news conference at the White House, Bush delivered a more critical assessment of his own record, acknowledging several “mistakes” and “disappointments.”

In that appearance, the mistakes he cited included the “Mission Accomplished” banner strung across an aircraft carrier where he declared that major combat operations in Iraq had been completed shortly after the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. Bush also allowed that some of his “rhetoric was a mistake” — an allusion to tough talk about hunting down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden “dead or alive.” Bin Laden remains at large, and severe and ongoing violence erupted in Iraq following his address on the aircraft carrier.

The abuse of American-held prisoners at the Abu Ghraib military prison in Iraq remained one of his disappointments, he said at the news conference, as did the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

, the then-stated premise for the ouster of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.

In the televised address, by contrast, the president offered little sense of a confessional accounting to a public that largely has lost confidence in him. Bush’s public approval ratings have hovered below 30 percent in his closing months in office.

Two-thirds of the public voices optimism that Obama will perform well as president, according to a Gallup Poll.

Acknowledging Obama’s popularity, the retiring president offered his own encouragement for Obama, who will be the first African-American to take the oath of office as president.

Bush will travel Friday to Camp David for his final weekend at the mountain retreat.