I was afraid this might happen. Looks like next week the nation will be hearing all about that SOB BUsh as they deploy him to put on the brakes to try to stop any real change in Washington. Bush could deflate the massive GOP advantage.

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Bush speaks in Chicago, plugs new book
October 21, 2010 12:19 PM | 4 Comments

Former President George W. Bush reflected on his presidency, his life out of the spotlight, poked fun at himself and plugged his upcoming book today while speaking in Chicago at a conference for a finance trade association.

Bush, wearing a black suit and purple tie with stripes, told a crowd of hundreds of conference attendees of taking his Scottish terrier, Barney, for a walk around their Texas neighborhood for the first time since leaving office.

"I was out of the presidency for two weeks and I had a plastic bag on my hand," which drew laughter and applause from the crowd attending the Commercial Finance Association convention. "In the old days there'd be a guy with a plastic bag on his hand, following."

Bush, whose memoir "Decision Points," is set for release Nov. 9, joked, "I have written a book. This will come as quite a shock to some. They didn't think I could read, much less write."

He said the book is the only reason he'll be back in the spotlight soon.

"I have zero desire, just so you know, to be in the limelight," Bush said. "I don't think it's good for the country to have a former president criticize his successor. You're not going to see me giving my opinions in the public arena, until I start selling my book. I'm going to emerge then submerge."

When a member of the audience asked why he had signed off on the bailout of major financial institutions, Bush said he took that action after his economic advisors, Henry Paulson, the former treasury secretary, and Ben Bernanke, the current head of the Federal Reserve, urged him to do so.

"I did not want to be a president overseeing a depression greater than the Great Depression," Bush said.

Bush said he believed the upcoming elections will mean a loss of congressional support for President Barack Obama.

"The odds are, from a historical perspective, that the president is going to lose [congressional] seats. The question is how many."

Of his legacy, he said he knows he won't be remembered as Shakespeare, but he hopes he's remembered for his beliefs.

"I would like to be remembered as a guy who had a set of priorities, and was willing to live by those priorities" he said. "In terms of accomplishments, my biggest accomplishment is that I kept the country safe amidst a real danger."

The former president said his greatest failure in office was not passing Social Security reform.
-- Becky Schlikerman

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010 ... oints.html