‘Ultimate exit interview’

Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009 | 2:09 a.m.

President George W. Bush conducted his final news conference Monday, an event he called “the ultimate exit interview.” He was part reflective, part humorous and part defiant. And, yes, he was still in denial about some of the major missteps of his eight years in office.

Bush can be excused for asserting that “I inherited a recession,” even though the National Bureau of Economic Research reported that a recession began in March 2001, after he took office.

But his defense of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina was mind-boggling.

“People said, well, the federal response was slow,” Bush said. “Don’t tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed.”

The federal response indeed was slow, so slow that it was humiliating. The leadership of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was exposed as incompetent and a massive number of hurricane victims were never able to return home. Two years after the storm, an estimated 100,000 evacuees were still living in Houston.

Bush issued rare acknowledgment of some mistakes related to the war in Iraq. “Clearly putting a ‘Mission Accomplished’ on an aircraft carrier was a mistake,” he said. “It sent the wrong message.” He bemoaned the embarrassment for the U.S. military caused by the torture of inmates in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, calling it “a huge disappointment during the presidency.” And he had this to say about his central argument for going to war: “Not having weapons of mass destruction was a significant disappointment.”

Obviously, though, it was not enough of a disappointment for Bush to apologize to the families of the more than 4,200 U.S. troops who lost their lives in Iraq.

The president was also under the misguided impression that the United States enjoys as much global popularity as it did when he took office when he said, “I strongly disagree with the assessment that our moral standing has been damaged.” The universal celebration that erupted when President-elect Barack Obama won the November general election offered proof that the world is ready for a new direction in U.S. foreign relations.

As for the battered economy, Bush defended his record of tax cuts and “52 months of uninterrupted job growth,” which now seem like distant memories. He’ll get one more shot to make amends when he addresses the nation for the last time on Thursday, but we’re not holding our breath.