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 The Consequential Presidency - White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 12/4/08 — Thursday, December 04, 2008 —  Q Dana, to pick up on this a little bit, the President clearly is a little more reflective as you enter the final weeks of the presidency. Do you sense a different mood in him? And does that permeate the entire White House? MS. PERINO: I think that it has. I mean, it's inevitable that when you're getting towards the end -- and as I can tell you every day, I know how many days we have left -- and that's because we don't have a lot of time to get a lot of the important things done that we would like to be able to do, which is to make sure that we resolve the auto issue if we possibly can, and continue to work on the economy. You know, on Wednesday night, right before -- the day before Thanksgiving, as everyone is getting ready to spend time with family, we have a horrible terrorist attack in which six American citizens were killed. And so the work of the White House never really stops. But, yes, I would say the President and Mrs. Bush, as they start to realize that in just a month and a half they'll be saying good-bye to a lot of people who have helped make this house a home for them over in the Residence, senior staff who have been with them -- some for 14 years that the President has been in public office -- so I do think that he's thinking a little bit about saying good-bye. There's a lot of things that end up being your "last," like this will be the last time he participates at the National Christmas Tree lighting. There's that, and there's also the last time that you'll give your -- a speech at UNGA as President of the United States. And as we've been working through this transition, the President has set the tone for all of us that we will have a smooth, unprecedented, professional transition to make sure that the next President of the United States, President-Elect Obama, will be able to take the baton, keep running. And he's going to have a lot of issues to deal with. And if you look at what happened today, we finalized the Iraq agreement, which puts that in a better place for the Obama team when they take over. And on the economy, we're going to be continuing to work every single day that we can. There's no road map for the problems that we're dealing with, but the President is committed to trying to deal with them. But I think that you're right, he is a little bit more reflective now. And I think that's just because we're getting -- now we really can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Q In your day-to-day interactions with him, what's different? MS. PERINO: Not a lot. I think that we've been -- I'm fortunate to be able to see the President quite often, sometimes several times a day; sometimes I don't see him for a day. But we still have a lot of work to do. Q Join the club. MS. PERINO: Yes. Q Many days we don't see him either. MS. PERINO: I'll let him know you miss him. (Laughter.) Q Do you, when you walk out of the Oval Office, or when you conclude an interaction, do you sometimes think to yourself, he seems somehow -- his affect, his mood seems different? MS. PERINO: Well, sometimes. Like, for example, when we did the Charlie Gibson interview last week, and I saw the President and Mrs. Bush talk about what their biggest accomplishments were during the past eight years, you realize the momentous presidency that this has been, the consequential presidency that it's been. And all of us are thinking a little bit about that. But I will tell you that just when you think that you're going to be able to be reflective and relax, something else happens. And so the President learned that you have to expect the unexpected when you're President, and that's true for the staff, as well. So we have to continue to get up every day, work hard, and make sure that we're doing the work that we need to do on behalf of the American people. Q What did they say was their biggest contribution? MS. PERINO: Well, Mrs. Bush said, for what she hears people say to her around the country, is that since 9/11, that the President has kept the nation safe. Q Follow-up on that, Dana. We've seen the President doing a lot of these -- sort of a farewell tour, going to different agencies, and even to military bases, and thanking people. How important does he think that is? And I don't know really how unique it is for Presidents to do that. And do these events bring him up, or down, because you do often see him getting a little emotional. MS. PERINO: I think they absolutely inspire him. He has been so honored to be the Commander-in-Chief, and so, for example, last week when we went to Fort Campbell, the President -- of course, you saw he got a little teary-eyed. When he said thank you to the staff out here the day after the election -- or two days after the election, he got a little teary-eyed. Look, the President is always about right here in terms of the tears -- or, it doesn't take much, and he has admitted that over the years. But it is a little bit of an emotional time, but at the same time we have a lot of work to do, so it's very much mixed, a mix of emotions. But we'll have plenty of time to say good-bye. It's only December 4th. Dana Perino | Bush Administration | President Bush | Press Briefing | White House Press Corps Labels: Bush Administration, Dana Perino, President Bush, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 4:33:00 PM
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