Wife still hopeful Bush will be a ‘popular’ Prez

At the same time, Laura told British TV channel Skynews that she was confident that the American people would remember Bush as a leader who made “very tough decisions” after he exists early next year.

“I know what he’s really like and I know how serious these times are for our country and for the world, and that he’s made the very tough decisions that I think people would want their leader to make and I know Americans appreciate,” she said as they arrived in London, apparently on their swan-song tour.

But the US president remained unperturbed by the negative ratings or opinion polls.

“Let me say this to you about all this popularity stuff. First of all, popularity is fleeting. And I want it to be said about George W. Bush that when he finished his presidency, he looked in the mirror at a man who did not compromise his core principals for the sake of politics, or the Gallup poll, or the latest, you know, whatever.

“And you can’t lead in this world if you’re chasing something as temporary as a popularity poll,” Bush, 61, who will step down early next year, said.

Asked about the controversy surrounding ill-treatment of terror detainees in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, Bush claimed that all was not that bad.

“Of course if you want to slander America, you can look at it one way. But… if you go down to Guantanamo and take a look at how these prisoners are treated — and they’re working it through our court systems. We are a land of law.” Asked about the recent US Supreme Court ruling that Guantanamo prisoners have the right to challenge their detention in civilian courts, Bush said: “It is, and I accept their verdict.

“I don’t agree with their verdict. And it’s not what I was doing down there. This was a law passed by our United States Congress that I worked with the Congress to get passed and sign into law.” “… we certainly wish Abu Ghraib hadn’t happened, but that should not reflect America. This was the actions of some soldiers. That doesn’t show the heart and soul of America,” Bush said.

“What shows the heart and soul of America is the sacrifice of our troops willing to defend our country and liberate 50 million people, or the generosity of America when it comes to providing money for HIV/AIDS in Africa, or the fact that America feeds more of the hungry in the world than any other country. That’s the true America,” he said.

During the interview, Bush also stoutly defended the US-led war in Iraq to dislodge the regime of Saddam Hussein.

“…. getting rid of Saddam Hussein was the right thing to do, and I’m not going to back off one inch on that. The world is better off without him,” Bush said.

“And I’m sorry that innocent civilians die in Iraq, but I want you to remember, hundreds of thousands died when Saddam Hussein was leading that country. And war is brutal; I wish we didn’t have war. But I believe we’re now on the way to peace,” the Commander-in-Chief of the US forces claimed.