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Bush: I'd rather be right than popular
CNN ^ | 07/07/06

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 ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 911; awesomepresident; bush; bush43; bushdoctrine; excellent; gwb; iraq; missile; northkorea; threadhijack
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To: TigerLikesRooster

I love our President. He's the best. Happy 60th!


41 posted on 07/06/2006 8:53:55 PM PDT by Donna Lee Nardo (+++ DEATH TO ISLAMIC TERRORISTS AND ANIMAL AND CHILD ABUSERS +++)
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To: John Jorsett

FGS, take that to another thread. There certainly are enough of them.


42 posted on 07/06/2006 8:54:48 PM PDT by Howlin
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To: SandRat

Howdy Sandy...I ain't teasin'!

43 posted on 07/06/2006 8:55:40 PM PDT by luvie ("Rather than mourning those who have died, we should thank God that such men lived.")
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To: COEXERJ145

And that's exactly why I love him.


44 posted on 07/06/2006 8:56:04 PM PDT by Howlin
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To: John Jorsett
On illegal immigration, he's managing to be neither.

You don't get it do you? Like him or hate him he has his own set of principles that he follows. He is following those principles on immigration. In fact he is one of the very few that is actually holding to his principles on that issue.

45 posted on 07/06/2006 8:57:03 PM PDT by Texasforever (I have neither been there nor done that.)
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To: COEXERJ145

AMEN, FRiend, AMEN!


46 posted on 07/06/2006 8:57:11 PM PDT by Fudd Fan (Help get Murtha out of Congress- donate at http://www.irey.com/)
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To: lonestar67

When President Bush finally leaves office, I will be thinking about this.

On CSPAN I listened to a presentation on the Founding Fathers.

During the creation of our nation, They were worried that if they elected George Washington as President, and failed to form a new Union, that George W. would be embarrased, having to step down from the PRESIDENT to an everyday citizen.

One of the founding fathers stated this (paraphrased):

You don't understand. The President is the servant of the people, the servant of the nation. When he leaves office, he is stepping back up to a normal citizen.

President Bush treats the office of President this way. It is his task, it is his responsibility, and he must always consider the good of the nation, the good of the people.


47 posted on 07/06/2006 8:57:28 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (I will go down with this ship, and I won't put my hands up in surrender.)
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To: Jameison
Who even remembers that FDR had some of the lowest poll ratings since poling begun, during the grim moments of WWII?

FDR was a traitor and domestic enemy of the Constitution.

48 posted on 07/06/2006 8:57:41 PM PDT by AdamSelene235 (Truth has become so rare and precious she is always attended to by a bodyguard of lies.)
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To: COEXERJ145

Nobody gives a damn what you think either!


49 posted on 07/06/2006 8:57:54 PM PDT by dalereed
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To: TigerLikesRooster
"The president that chases the opinion poll is the president that will have failed policy," Bush said...

If FoxNews did a "Daily Show" bit, they would put up a picture of Clinton when W says this.

50 posted on 07/06/2006 8:57:56 PM PDT by Onelifetogive (Freerepublic - The website where "Freepers" is not in the spell checker dictionary...)
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To: Howlin

Hey Howlin, how have you been? :-)


51 posted on 07/06/2006 8:58:09 PM PDT by COEXERJ145 (Free Republic is Currently Suffering a Pandemic of “Bush Derangement Syndrome.”)
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To: defconw
Hey Bushbot! You'll love reading this tomorrow!
52 posted on 07/06/2006 8:58:14 PM PDT by cibco (Xin Loi Saddam)
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To: Texasforever

Exactly!
I don't have to see eye-to-eye with him on immigration or any other issue to admire and appreciate his outlook and approach to The Big Picture. That I still can see his greatness is the mark of a true LEADER.


53 posted on 07/06/2006 9:01:03 PM PDT by Fudd Fan (Help get Murtha out of Congress- donate at http://www.irey.com/)
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To: Southack
I'd rather be right than popular

Pity he didn't have that attitude earlier.

I believe individual freedom to participate in elections should be expanded, not diminished; and when individual freedoms are restricted, questions arise under the First Amendment. I also have reservations about the constitutionality of the broad ban on issue advertising, which restrains the speech of a wide variety of groups on issues of public import in the months closest to an election. I expect that the courts will resolve these legitimate legal questions as appropriate under the law. -GEORGE W. BUSH THE WHITE HOUSE, March 27, 2002.

54 posted on 07/06/2006 9:01:08 PM PDT by AdamSelene235 (Truth has become so rare and precious she is always attended to by a bodyguard of lies.)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

Clear-spoken as usual, Mr. President. Congratulations on laying down the winning value proposition for reelecting a Republican Congress.


55 posted on 07/06/2006 9:01:42 PM PDT by NutCrackerBoy
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To: TigerLikesRooster

It cones down to this: Clinton wanted to be a rock star and Bush wanted to be a statesman. Take your pick!


56 posted on 07/06/2006 9:01:55 PM PDT by Blind Eye Jones
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To: John Jorsett
That's because Bush invented illegal immigration. Everyone knows it, too. /sarc.
57 posted on 07/06/2006 9:02:22 PM PDT by txrangerette ("We are fighting al-Qaeda, NOT Aunt Sadie"...Dick Cheney commenting on the wiretaps!!)
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To: AdamSelene235

Nobody's perfect!

58 posted on 07/06/2006 9:02:35 PM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Southack
Tell me about it.


59 posted on 07/06/2006 9:03:14 PM PDT by AdamSelene235 (Truth has become so rare and precious she is always attended to by a bodyguard of lies.)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

Too bad Bush is neither right nor popular. He ought to take his own hand and slap himself with it for calling on Congress to pass an immigration bill that will grant amnesty to illegals and quintuple legal immigration levels.


60 posted on 07/06/2006 9:03:30 PM PDT by Holden Magroin
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