President Bush passionately defended his turbulent eight years in office yesterday and lashed out at the “elites and opiners” who claim that he has damaged America’s moral standing in the world.

At a final and often gripping White House press conference, in which he veered from nostalgia to outright aggression, Mr Bush was largely unrepentant. He defended his economic and foreign policy record, including Iraq, the current financial crisis and the controversial Guantánamo Bay prison.

“You know, there’s plenty of critics in this business. I know that. And I thank you for giving me a chance to defend a record that I am going to continue to defend because I think it is a good, strong record,” Mr Bush declared, eight days before he leaves office with an approval rating of 27 per cent – the lowest since Richard Nixon resigned in 1974.

Mr Bush was inevitably asked to list the mistakes that he has made in office. He conceded three, while describing the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal as a “huge disappointment”, and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as a “significant disappointment”.

He said that his decision to display a “Mission Accomplished” banner on a US aircraft carrier in May 2003, after the early stages of the Iraq war, was a mistake, as well as some of his rhetoric. He also said that it was an error to pursue his fruitless request for pension reform after his 2004 reelection, and that he should have tried to pass immigration legislation instead.

Mr Bush became most heated when confronting those who say that he has damaged America’s reputation in the world. “I strongly disagree with the assessment that our moral standing has been damaged. It may be damaged amongst some of the elite, but people still understand America stands for freedom, that America is a country that provides such great hope.”

Becoming agitated, he continued: “I understand that Gitmo [Guantánamo Bay] has created controversies. But when it came time for those countries that were criticising America to take some of those detainees” – a clear reference to Britain and other European countries that have refused his entreaties to take Guantánamo inmates – “they weren’t willing to help out”.

Barack Obama is expected to issue an executive order in his first week in office closing down Guantánamo Bay, but the measure cannot be implemented until the detainees are repatriated or jailed in the US mainland.

Mr Bush insisted that such controversies had been overstated. “My view is, most people around the world, they respect America. And some of them doesn’t [sic] like me. I understand that. Some of the writers and the, you know, opiners and all that.”

Mr Bush said that there was no such thing as “short-term history”, adding: “I don’t think you can possibly get the full breadth of an administration till time has passed. And I’m comfortable with that.” He cited his decision to back the US troop surge in Iraq as an issue where history was already certain – “the situation did change”. His willingness to “chuck aside some of my free-market principles” and back the $700 billion (£471 billion) Wall Street rescue plan had triggered the “first step to recovery”, he said. He even largely defended his response to the Hurricane Katrina debacle.

Mr Bush frequently referred to Barack Obama – whom he described as a “very smart and engaging person”. He said: “He’ll get in the Oval Office and there’ll be a lot of people that are real critical and harsh. And he’s going to have to do what is right. If you don’t, then I don’t see how you can live with yourself.

“I don’t see how I can get back home in Texas and look in the mirror and be proud of what I see if I allowed the loud critics to prevent me from doing what I thought was necessary to protect this country.”

He added: “When I get out of here, I’m getting off the stage . . . I’ve had my time in the klieg lights [spotlight].” Mr Bush added that the burdens of the office were overstated, saying: “It’s just pathetic, isn’t it, self-pity?” He said that even in the darkest moments of the Iraq war, every day in the White House had been “joyous”.

Of retirement, Mr Bush said: “I just can’t envision myself, you know, with the big straw hat and a Hawaiian shirt sitting on some beach.

“Particularly since I quit drinking.”

Memorable words

“The education issue ought to be discussed about.” Austin, Texas, 2000

“I’m sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn’t yet.” After he was asked to name his biggest mistake since 9/11, 2004

“If you want the facts, it’s a size ten shoe that he threw.” After Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi hurled his shoe at him in December

“You know, if you find a person you’ve never seen before getting in a crop-duster that doesn’t belong to you, report it”. After being asked what security advice he had for Americans in the light of Anthrax attacks on Washington in 2001

“I remember meeting a mother of a child who was abducted by the North Koreans right here in the Oval Office.” Rose Garden news briefing last June

“Sometimes you misunderestimated me.” Summing up his relationship with the media at his last press conference yesterday

Source: Times archives

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