Bush: I Never “Compromised My Soul” For The Sake Of Popularity
Ain’t that the truth:
WASHINGTON (AP) - President George W. Bush knows he’s unpopular. But here’s what matters, he says: “I didn’t compromise my soul to be a popular guy.” In a wide-ranging interview with Fox News Channel, Bush also praised the national security team assembled by President-elect Barack Obama, offered hope to U.S. automakers seeking government assistance and said the people of Illinois will have to sort out allegations that Gov. Rod Blagojevich sought kickbacks in choosing a successor for Obama’s Senate seat.
Bush said presidents fail when they make decisions based on opinion polls.“Look, everybody likes to be popular,” said Bush.
“What do you expect? We’ve got a major economic problem and I’m the president during the major economic problem. I mean, do people approve of the economy? No. I don’t approve of the economy. ... I’ve been a wartime president. I’ve dealt with two economic recessions now. I’ve had, hell, a lot of serious challenges. What matters to me is I didn’t compromise my soul to be a popular guy.”
Love Bush or hate him, you’ve got to give him this. He campaigned on compassionate conservatism, and we got compassionate conservatism. He campaigned on staying the course in Iraq, and we’ve stayed the course on Iraq.
You can say he did the wrong thing - and as someone who voted for the guy in 2004 I can say that he’s been wrong more than he’s been right, and these bailouts at the end of his administration will probably overshadow most of the good he’s done - but he always lacked that duplicity you get with other political leaders who say one thing and do another.
Political leaders like, oh I don’t know, Barack Obama.
