After two years of traveling around the country and criticizing President Bush, President-elect Barack Obama said Friday that he "always thought [Bush] was a good guy."
"I mean, I think personally he is a good man who loves his family and loves his country," Obama said in an exclusive interview with CNN's John King.
During the election season, Obama frequently campaigned against what he called Bush's "failed policies" and promised a "clean break" from the past eight years.
Asked if there was anything he wanted to take back, now that he has spent more time with the president, Obama praised Bush's team for helping with a smooth transition and said part of what America is about is being able to have "disagreements politically and yet treat each other civilly."
Obama also said he thought Bush made "the best decisions that he could at times under some very difficult circumstances."
"That does not detract from my assessment that over the last several years, we have made a series of bad choices and we are now going to be inheriting the consequences of a lot of those bad choices," Obama said.
In addition to his relationship with Bush, Obama also discussed some key issues that he will face in the first days of his administration, including national security and the economy.
Even before taking the oath of office, Obama has already faced a showdown with Congress over releasing what remains of the $700 bailout bill that Bush and Congress authorized before the election.
The $350 billion that the Senate approved will come with specific conditions, Obama said.
"There's nothing wrong with us placing some conditions, making sure that the money's not going to executive compensation, making sure you're not seeing big dividend payoffs to shareholders and making sure that money is being left so that we can get credit flowing again, not just for individual homeowners who are losing their homes, but also small businesses who are the lifeblood of this economy.
"If they can't get credit, then they end up having to shutter their doors. And when they shutter their doors, people lose jobs. They then can't pay their mortgage, and you start down the road that we're on. We want to reverse that path, and that means that's the way we use the next $350 billion that Congress voted on, and that was a very tough vote for a lot of people. And it was tough for me to have to request it," he said.
Obama sat down with King after he took a factory tour in Bedford Heights, Ohio.
The interview will air in full at 6 p.m. Friday on "The Situation Room."
Source: CNN
Bush is a decent guy but should never had been president. That was a stretch for him. It should have been between Gore and McCain back then. We’d be in a much better place now if either of them had been in office all these years.
So, for two years he talked about how bad Bush was, now he is a good guy. Anybody see what is going on? For two years, he stokes the fire by being the anti-Bush, the complete opposite. Now that he is elected, the story changes Mark my word, as time goes on, the story keeps changing. Here and there, there will be positive comments from Obama about certain Bush policies. After a few years, when President Bush has been out of the daily spotlight and the new administration for the most part is no different that past administrations, people will start to understand more about President Bush and realize he was not nearly as bad as he has been made out to be. Mark my word.
President Bush is a “good Guy” …. ok sure, whatever, but i think that Obama is changing the tone a bit because he is now starting to see all those things that are hidden from us. i am sure that there are things out there that the people who are running for office have no idea about and once he got elected he started to get more info on the way things REALLY are and the WHOLE story about the choices President Bush had to make. of course now knowing what really went on he will go from “Bush is the devil” “bush is a good guy”. and i would predict that now that he sees the way things are and all of those little hidden from sight things that us normal folks dont get to see that his policys will end up being too far to the right for the far left.
good guy or bad guy President Bush did make some very hard choices to keep us safe even if you hate to admit it.
Of course he thought he was a good guy…because he is. Just look at how generous and supportive President Bush is being to the PE, in spite of the PE’s put-downs and hateful words about our President when the PE was trying to get people to put him in the office.
President Bush is first-class; the PE, well, he will be the one history isn’t kind too when everyone sees he doesn’t even do the job as well as President Bush did it.