Bush: I 'followed my conscience'

Bush was not as blunt, but in offering a brief prescription for the next administration, he said the country "must resist complacency. We must keep our resolve. And we must never let down our guard."
In reviewing his two terms in office, Bush in effect sought to bring viewers back in time seven years, to the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, a period in which he enjoyed record approval ratings in the 90s.

But Thursday showed the distance Bush has traveled since then. The nation saw a grayer man, his approval ratings in the 30s, facing a country in which many are poised to celebrate his departure.

The outgoing president acknowledged no mistakes. He conceded to suffering "setbacks," though he did not detail them, and he acknowledged that there has been a "legitimate debate" over his decisions in pursuing the struggle against terrorism.

But he said his success on that front is indisputable.

"There can be little debate about the results," he said. "America has gone more than seven years without another terrorist attack on our soil."

Bush described Iraq as transformed from a "brutal dictatorship and a sworn enemy of America to an Arab democracy at the heart of the Middle East and a friend of the United States."

And Bush declared victories on the domestic front, arguing that Americans pay lower taxes and that children are learning more in school.

The speech was notable, too, for what Bush did not say. He did not mention the collapse of the original rationale for invading Iraq—the failure to find weapons of mass destruction. Nor did he mention terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Even as he argued that Americans prospered during his tenure, Bush did not mention that wages have stagnated or that, despite his goal of forging an "ownership society," a mortgage foreclosure crisis now has many being forced out of their homes.

Thursday's speech marked the latest step in an elaborate "legacy project" orchestrated in recent weeks by Bush's aides.

Presidential historian Allan Lichtman said Bush was unlikely to have much success persuading Americans to reassess his tenure, but that he was trying harder than any of his modern predecessors to do so.