...Mr. Bush began Monday’s news conference by delivering a personal thank you to the reporters who have covered him, though he noted the relationship has often been tense. In the more than three-quarters of an hour that ensued, he fielded questions on matters from whether he would ask Congress to release $350 billion in bailout money — he later did so, at the request of Mr. Obama — to the current fighting in Israel and why he had not been able to achieve a peace agreement in the Middle East.

“That’s a good question,” he said. “It’s been a long time since they’ve had peace in the Middle East.” He added, “I know we have advanced the process.”

The president has said repeatedly that he believes history will be the judge of his presidency, and he repeated that again on Monday. “There’s no such thing as short-term history,” he said. “I don’t think you can possibly get the full breadth of an administration until time has passed.”

Yet he did deliver his own assessment. In a reprise of a question he struggled with in 2004, the president was asked if he had made any mistakes during his presidency. Four years ago, he had difficulty coming up with one. This time, Mr. Bush was ready with an answer, and it was a long one.

“Clearly, putting a “Mission Accomplished” on a aircraft carrier was a mistake,” Mr. Bush began, referring to his speech in May 2003, declaring that major combat operations in Iraq had ended. “It sent the wrong message. We were trying to say something differently, but nevertheless, it conveyed a different message. Obviously, some of my rhetoric has been a mistake.”

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Gus: Mistakes of the Bushit magnitude are never honest. They are deliberate porkies set on people to make them believe something when they should be alerted to something else. The Bushit record is abysmal. We cannot let him get away with sugar coating the crap. Bushit's rhetorics were designed to fool...

“I don’t think you can possibly get the full breadth of an administration until time has passed.”????... Yes, until his concoction is entirely forgotten or placed in the dust bin of bad useless broken dirty cheap gadjets that never worked and distilled into a dried up turd, one won't be able to judge how bad it all was when it should (and could) have been so much better. The only good thing that came out of the bushit maladministration is that it helped foster the election of the unthinkable - unthinkable before Bushit. That's the only real value in the Bushit's maladministration. On subjects like Climate Change, the environment and social responsibilities, apart from a very few accidental reasonable decision, the rest has been dismally set up to only suit the rich - including his outrageous rescue packages for the banks and their greased-up minions, under the guise of protecting  our savings...

We (the poor folks and the middle class) will pay for that privilege for years to come. Obama has been left with no choice but pumping the bilges as fast as the water rushes in to keep old tub capitalism afloat...

Bushit's proud "national security" is like fishnet stockings full of holes, barely hiding a bad hair problem — actually allowing for the bad hair problem to prosper if you see my gist.

There is more terrorism activity SINCE HE TOOK OFFICE, including state sponsored terrorism from which many people died. These deaths were all unnecessary. All major problems he enountered, including Iraq (actually a very small potato with tempting oil wells), could have been solved PEACEFULLY and without porkies.

HE AND HIS ADMINISTRATION LIED and lied and lied. He should be impeached.

A peace medal for Blair and Howard as well? This man has no shame!!! His jocularity may hide a devilishly cunning bastard or a completely loopy idiot. Take your pick.