Posted on 07/06/2006 8:33:28 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Bush: I'd rather be right than popular
President, wife sit down for wide-ranging birthday interview
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush isn't troubled by some of the weakest approval ratings of his presidency, he said Thursday in a wide-ranging birthday interview with CNN's "Larry King Live."
"When history looks back, I'd rather be judged as solving problems and being correct, rather than being popular," Bush said.
"The president that chases the opinion poll is the president that will have failed policy," Bush said in an exclusive joint interview along with his wife, Laura, at the White House.
Some members of Congress are nervous about the effect Bush's political problems might have on their own fortunes in this fall's midterm elections.
But Bush predicted that Republicans would keep their majorities in the House and Senate, "Because we're right on winning this war on terror, and we've got a good economic record," he said. "People are working under the leadership of the Bush administration and the Congress."
When it comes to the most controversial single decision of his presidency -- invading Iraq -- the president told King he would make the same choice again, even knowing that Saddam Hussein's regime did not have weapons of mass destruction.
"We removed a tyrant," Bush said. "He was an enemy of the United States who harbored terrorists and who had the capacity, at the very minimum, to make weapons of mass destruction. And he was a true threat."
The president also said he believes recent missile tests by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il could present an opening to rally international pressure on the Pyongyang regime.
"I think he wants us to either fear him or pay attention to him. And I view it as an opportunity ...
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Agreed. President Bush has had challenges literally left and right for 6 and a half years. Too many people forget that. Thank God he doesn't blow and twist in the wind trying to please everyone all the time.
Bush is awesome!
History will note him as a great president.
He's human, ok?
LOL~! Y'THINK?!
DITTO!
But I even have to give him begrudging respect for that. He is a Globalist and thinks we shouldn't have N or S borders. And his policy supports that.
It may p!ss me off, but at least he is principled. The prior inhabitant of the White House blew whichever way the trial balloons blew. And that led to Somalia. And Somalia led to 9/11.
If you get a man with guns to stand behind what he means, you have to at least admire his stance.
Even if it is wrong-headed as all get out.
"Bush: I'd rather be right than popular"
Mr. President, when it comes to free pills for granny, CFR, border control, increasing funding for the NEA, Harriet Miers, steel tariffs, billions wasted on AIDS in Africa and a whole other host of issues...you're neither.
"When history looks back, I'd rather be judged as solving problems and being correct, rather than being popular," Bush said.Gotta love the guy, but we must also know that this is the talk of a 2nd term president. No way he could have said that going into re-election.
And that's not a bad thing. We want our politicians to be accountable to public opinion -- to a point.
Pinging Karl Rove.
Go my fellow freeper :) we need people like you to write the true History.
You are really sad.
I'm pretty sure President Bush DID say this before the last election. He has never been poll-driven or FICKLE.
I saw his and Laura's pictures on a billboard today. On the east side of the road going south through Crawford.:-)
All the topics that you mentioned above are meaningless from historical point of view.
I love the contrast between Clinton to Bush. Bush shows he is dedicated to doing the right thing no matter what the stupid polls say. Clinton was a gutless tool who always jumped when the polls said jump. Ultimately, history will honor Bush and humiliate Clinton, and rightly so.
Give it a rest for ONE DAMN THREAD, okay?
The whole interview was impressive. GWB was poised, articulate, and passionate.
I love this president.
Granted, but, if he believes he is right, then no amount of "unpopularity" will change his position.
On illegal immigration, he's managing to be neither.
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