Bush Still Draws a Blank

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Nearing the bitter end of eight ruinous years in office, President Bush still won't acknowledge a single substantive thing he did wrong. Asked if he had any regrets in a CNN interview yesterday, Bush copped to a few public-relations gaffes many years ago. His tone, however, was anything but apologetic. In fact, he seemed quite pleased with himself.

It's all very reminiscent of that April 2004 press conference, when Bush was famously flummoxed when asked to describe his biggest post-9/11 mistake -- and what lessons he had learned from it. Bush's response at the time solidified his reputation as someone who engaged in little or no self-reflection. Four and a half momentous years later, does he think nothing went wrong? Or does he simply think it wasn't his fault?

Here's the transcript of his interview yesterday with CNN's Heidi Collins. The video shows Bush sounding like a schoolchild forced to apologize for something he doesn't feel the least bit sorry about. Note his exaggerated pronunciation of the two words I've put in italics.

Collins: "I imagine you probably have a moment in your presidency that you are most proud of, and a moment I'm sure you most regret."

Bush: "I regret saying some things I shouldn't have said."

(More here.)