Mr.Bush Again Defends His Presidency

“There were some good days and there were some tough days but every day was an honor to be your president,” he said. “I gave it my all. Listen. Sometimes what I did wasn’t popular, but that’s okay, I always did what I thought was right.”

George W. Bush, now the former president, flew to Midland, Texas, after the inauguration this afternoon and told a small welcoming crowd much of what he has been saying in his farewell speeches and interviews over the last few weeks. But in light of Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address today — and the new president’s stark repudiation of what his predecessor left behind — Mr. Bush’s speech almost seemed like a rebuttal.

“I always felt it was important to tackle the tough issues today and not try to them on to future presidents, and future generations,” Mr. Bush said. “I never took an opinion poll to tell me what to think. And I’m coming home with my head held high and a sense of accomplishment.”

Much of his speech was a defense of his presidency and his decisions, particularly after 9/11 when, he said, “we liberated 50 million people from the clutches of terrorism.”

Perhaps his dominant theme was that he believed he did the right thing, even if it wasn’t popular and he tried to make the case that popularity didn’t matter. He leaves office with the lowest poll ratings of any president in modern times.

“There were some good days and there were some tough days but every day was an honor to be your president,” he said. “I gave it my all. Listen. Sometimes what I did wasn’t popular, but that’s okay, I always did what I thought was right.”

In a recent commencement speech, he said, he noted that he had said: “Popularity is as fleeting as the Texas wind; character and conscious are as sturdy as our oaks.”

He added: “History will be the judge of my decisions, but when I walked out of the Oval Office this morning, I left with the same values that I took to Washington eight years ago. And when I get home tonight and look in the mirror, I’m not going to regret what I see — except maybe some gray hair.”

He spoke a bit about the next chapter of his life, saying he hadn’t figured out exactly what he might do. He said that the house that his wife Laura has bought in Dallas _ which he hasn’t seen _ was “the first faith-based initiative of the post-presidency.”

He paid homage to his father, whom he called “Number 41.” After George H.W. Bush left the White House, he decided he wanted to parachute from airplanes. “My dad is America’s only sky-diving former president and that’s a title he’s going to keep,” the son said.

When he said he would be relaxing tomorrow at his ranch in Crawford, someone in the crowd yelled out, “You deserve it!”

In the morning, he said, he would make his wife coffee, “skim” the newspaper, call some friends, read a book, feed the dogs, go fishing, take a walk and by that time it will be 8 in the morning. “That’s what happens when you’re a type A personality,” he said, going on to knock his wife’s cooking: “I told Laura I was excited about her cooking again — kinda,” he said. “She told me she was excited about me mowing the lawn and taking out the trash –- it’s my new domestic agenda.”

He also said he wanted to spend time with his parents and noted, “I’m the first former president to be able to share the post-presidency with both my parents.”

He said he would be active, adding that he and his wife may be retired, “but we’re not tired out.”

Of the book he is planning to write, he said: “I want people to be able to understand what it was like in the Oval Office when I had to make some of the tough decisions that I was called upon to make. History tends to take a little time for people to remember what happened and to have an objective accounting of what took place and I’d like to be a part of making a real history of this administration come to life.”