continuation of president i's administration, and he was worried about his health and some of the policies that dick had voted on in the united states congress. my management style was that -- to put carl and dick in the same room at the governor's mansion in austin and let out why he didn't dick ought to be on the ticket. dick agreed with him. took me a while to persuade vice president cheney to be on the ticket. i will tell you this, i'm glad i picked him in 2000. as i sit here in 2010, i'm glad i picked him in 2000. he was in my judgment, a superb vice president. >> a couple of people that were not eager for you to run for president in 1999 and 2000 were

two people very closely related to you. and they -- there's some connection there with what you state is your biggest mistake in the 2000 campaign, or biggest mistake with respect. >> well, you are referring to my daughters. you can understand why, they were just graduating from austin high school. the idea of their father running and winning and they go to college with secret service was just really not appealing to them. michael is referring to the biggest political mistake of my life was not revealing to the people of texas that i had been arrested for drunk driving. i was in maine, and john thought me ought to drink beer out of mug with no hands. which means you bite the edge of the mug and you -- [laughter] >> and i had too many to drink and was pulled over by a

policeman in maine. paid the fine. did what i was supposed to be. i was called for jury duty in austin, and it was a drunken driving charge. i was dismissed from the jury. as i was walking out of the courtroom, the reporter said have you ever been arrested for drunk driving. i said i'd done a lot of stupid things. here's the reason, my girls were fixing to drive. baby boomers parents should not be visiting their sins upon their children. i was concerned if i'd have said, yes, my message to them would have been undermined. they said he's just saying it. after all, he became the governor, i think we will drink and drive as well. it was a huge political mistake. five days before the election in 2000, the sealed records were unsealed and dropped in the public arena. that was an easy issue to handle. of course, but guess what i quit

drinking. anything that changes the discourse with five days to go in a campaign is monumental. and karl and i believed that revelation of the drunken driving probably cost 2 million votes. we don't need this. we thought he was one way. and he's another. they didn't spend time disconcerning the issue. it was a reaction. it was a huge political mistake. if i had to do it over again, i would have revealed at the appropriate time that i had been drinking and driving. i paid my dues. quick drinking and probably should have held the event at mothers against drunk driving seminar. >> we are here speaking in florida. did you think you were -- was there any point where you thought you might not get florida electoral vote in the 2000 controversy? >> it seemed like we had to win the race five different times. but i -- you know, i wasn't sure. you know, when i think about florida, there's one thing that

really does irritate me. and i put this in a book in a rather gentle way. the networks called the election of florida before the panhandle had closed their polls. i'm confident it cost me a lot of votes. a lot of americans don't understand, most of florida is on the eastern time zone, panhandle is on the central. when they called the election at 7:00 eastern, a lot of people that said no need for me to go vote. it was a very traumatic time. i am most grateful for one of my early decisions, that was on election -- couple of things. one, people were urging me to go declare victory. my brother jeb said don't do it. his judgment was right. secondly, i woke up really early in the morning and asked jimmy baker to come down here. my dad's dear friend and one of the greatest public servants ever. and it worked out fine. and it was an interesting

period. >> as president, you met and dealt with many foreign leaders. you write about some of them in the book. you write i have always been able to read people. vladimir putin, when you first met him, you said you got a sense of his soul. >> i looked in his eyes and saw his soul. >> later you told him he was cold-blooded. >> yeah, i did. >> did you read him wrong? did he change? what can you tell us about him? >> first, let me tell you the story. condi and i were in a room in solvenia. thankfully, they didn't ask me to identify where it was when i was running in 2000. i now know where it was. it's a fabulous country. one of the most beautiful on earth. i'm meeting with putin for the first time in 2001. he's talking to me about soviet

satelliting the russian fed indication. -- federation. after about five minutes, listening to him talking about the debt, is it true your mother gave him a cross she had blessed in jere rust almost. i needed to know the type of person. he tells an interesting story. he hung it and the place burned down. then he exchained the workman's hands opening. the atmosphere in the room change. it was as if it was meant to be. and i said that's the story of the cross. and so when i was asked a question, the conversation went on from there. when i was asked a question, do

you trust vladimir putin in front of a huge press conference after our meeting, my answer was yes. i could have tried to be clever like ronald reagan, trust but verify. that would have been sounded like plagiarism. the reporter said why? because i looked into his eyes and i saw his soul. my memory at the time was how he -- how the whole conversation changed when he was talking about as precious as his mom and her gift. and then michael was talking about the last time i met him, russia had just invaded georgia. we're at olympics. i was bad. i had spoken to his successor and made it very clear the united states was objecting strongly to the russian invasion anywhere. so we're at the -- in china, at the opening games of ther is --

of the ceremony. putin slides down. the conversation was pretty tough. because we were on international tv. i finally said to him, i've been telling him for seven years, he's hot blooded. he was the president of georgia. putin says i'm hot blooded. i said no, vladimir, you are cold-blooded. our relationship, and these two anecdotes, the classic came when i introduced him to barney at camp david. barney is a little scottish terrier, a tiny guy that i adore. putin kind of discussed him. and then with vladimir putin, he kindly invited us over. he was a gracious host. he said would you like to meet my dog. out bounced coney, a huge dog.

and with a twinkle in his eye he said bigger, faster, and stronger than barney. yeah, he had changed. >> he changed. you had a day that changed your presidency too. you were in florida, the morning of september 11, 2001, it took you a while to get back to washington. can you tell us something about what it was like to be president of the united states that day? >> my role became clarified. the priority of my administration changed from no child left behind or tax cuts or economic woes or dealing with the dot-com bust to protecting american. when andy said the second plane hit the second tower, i was staring at young children. and my first reaction was anger. then my role became clear. to contrast between the evil of the attackers and the innocence of our citizens, starting with the youngest children. i made it clear my job was to protect you as best as i could.

i put in there, everything after that, the question significances -- the decisions that i made, many of them due to the attack that day. i tried to get home. i was urged not to come back. i flew around the country. at about 4:00 in the afternoon, i finally said i'm going home. secret service said don't go. because there's a fog and people were uncertain about other attacks. i damn sure wasn't going to give a speech. i did not want to give the enemy the psychological advantage of seeing the president on the run. for the only time in the presidency, there's another time i'd like to tell you, but i overruled the secret service. their job it to protect you. it's important for the president to make their job easier, not harder. i said we're going home. anywhere, i got there and we gave the speech. we're in a bunker at a security meeting which is about four

stories below the white house. it's a hardened bunker. the head of the agency said this is where you want to stay. i said show me the bed. so they show me the thing that looked like they'd been purchased by harry truman. i'm not sleeping down here. because i knew i needed sleep. if you are ever in a crisis, it's essential that you get rest in order to be able to clearly be thinking clearly. so we went upstairs. laura is sound asleep. i hear a guy saying mr. president, the white house is under attack. let's go. so i grab laura, and a robe. i'm in running shorts and a t-shirt. i grab barney, and we're back down in the pi, about four stories below the white house. a young airman comes around the corner and says it was one of ours. f-16 was flying over the city

and had the wrong transponder and was flying back to andrews and everybody thought it was the final plane getting ready to hit the white house. >> three days after that, you spoke at national cathedral in washington, then you went up to visit the site of the attack in new york. >> i did. the national cathedral was very important, it was at a prayer service. christian, muslim, jewish, religious leaders praying to heal the nation and more. they are religious as well. my speech is god is good. we can count on god and we're going to go find the enemy and bring justice. it may have been the most important speech of my presidency in some ways. after we flew up to ground zero. i describe it in the book like walking to hell. the soot was still in the air, slosh had threw water. i got down to the pit, it was a

lot of blood lost. these people didn't know me as president. the firefighters and rescue workers that has been desperately trying to pull out their friends. i got up on top of the fire engine. i reviewed the film the other day. i was -- you know, we were here for you. we pray for you. we love you. and they don't -- the message that they wanted to hear was one i finally delivered. those that knock down the buildings, they'll hear from us. i finally went down there and went down -- drove down to the center on the way down the road, the road was lined with new yorkers with american flags and giuliani pointed out, none of them voted for you. [laughter] >> the truth doesn't hurt. anyway. so i thank the rescue workers from around the country. i went to meet with families who still thought their loved one

would come out of the rubble. it was an interesting position to be in. i had just come from the rubble. and it -- it was awfully hard to believe that anybody would come out. so i did the best that i could to be hopeful and reassuring. it was a 30 minute meeting, supposedly. and about two and a half hours later, i left. the last person that i met was arlene howard, she gave me the badge of her son george which i held up in the speech. >> in the months and couple of years that followed, you authorized the cia to use enhanced interrogation techniques or at least some of them that were proposed on suspects including khalid sheikh mohammed. it has been criticized as authoring torture by critics in this country and other countries. tell us your view of this. >> my view is that we fight a battle to protect ourselves against an enemy that is different from anyone we ever

fought, an enemy that doesn't believe in the geneva convention, and hides in the soft underbelly of the country, and enemy that will unmercifully kill the innocent. the only way to protect us is to be able to get good information. and so we captured khalid sheikh mohammed. khalid sheikh mohammed was the chief operating officer of al qaeda. i don't know what they call themselves. but he was the man that slit danny pearl's throat because he was jewish. he had one the greatest statements of principal, he said my grandfather is jewish, my father is jewish, and i'm jewish. khalid sheikh mohammed slits his throat. we capture him. and i'm told that he has information that could lead -- that would prevent another attack.

i also was told that the interrogation techniques used at the time were ineffective. as a matter of fact, khalid sheikh mohammed said i will talk to you when i get my lawyer in new york. i asked -- and the cia said they would like to take over the interrogation. they talked about techniques that were available to them. that they thought would be effective. getting information from this killer that could save lives. i then won't -- then event to an exhausted legal review understanding that there's laws against torture. i wasn't bicycle -- wasn't going to break the law to protect you. legal opinions came back. i approved techniques, including water boarding on three people. in my book, i make two points clear. one, the information we received

after using the enhanced techniques saved american lives. secondly, i could not have lived with myself had i not under the law used the techniques, to get information so that our folks would react and prevent attack. and i'm fully aware at the time that i made the decision that there would be a lot of controversy and a lot of blowback on this decision. but my job was to protect you. within the law and within the constitution of the united states. and as i said in the book, had later on in my presidency we had captured somebody who had information at -- that if we'd have gotten it to save lives, i would have done the same thing again. finally, just so you know, i walk you through getting this capability, this tool, past the united states congress so it is now available to any president

to use should he or she choose to do so. [applause] [applause] [applause] >> okay. >> mr. president, in 2002 and 2003, you kind of played it the possibility of military action against iraq. and the regime of saddam hussein. it was asserted by many intelligence agencies that he had weapons of mass destruction, and programs to build them as he had done in the past. some of that information turned out to be wrong. how did that happen? and do you think -- does it -- in retrospect, would that have change your point of view? your decision on the iraq

military action? >> yeah, michael, that's one of those questions that i just didn't have the luxury of answering. in other words, i could try to answer it. but it just didn't happen that way. this book lays out how the history unfolded. i mean i laid out a doctrine that said, the bush doctrine, that in order to protect the country, we had to be on the offense, hold people to the account, and we had to deal with threats before they fully materialized. it's one the lessons of the attack of september 11th. plus we spread freedom to the ideological of those who murdered the innocent. and the world saw saddam hussein as a threat. i literally meant the world. i felt it was important to deal with him. because the biggest danger facing america is weapons of mass destruction in the hands of in this case a surrogate had he

so choosen -- chosen, to do his arm. one thing is clear in this book that i tried to make diplomacy work. this was an exhaustive attempt to convince saddam hussein, one, we meant what we said at the united nations security council. by the way, there's the debate in my administration, whether i should have gone to the united nations security council at all. some members said, no, you don't need to. give me 20 or 40 days to disarm. >> your position, as you say in the book, is that legally, he was in violation of previous programs. >> right. so we didn't need one. on the other hand what's interesting, i think it will interest people here in america, i wanted there to be a coalition of freedom loving nations who were willing to confront saddam. so he would understand it's not just the united states that was demanding.

it was a lot of nations. but those nations cannot act without a u.n. security council resolution. certainly not the case for america. but a lot of nations. you know, the leader said let's go to the security council. i wanted to build a coalition. we passed an unanimous resolution. then i started conducting diplomacy. on one hand, the diplomatic, and military track. trying to send signals if you defy the free world again, there will be consequences. it's -- you know, in terms of the weapons of mass destruction, what i think people forget that prior to my arrival in washington, the congress overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for regime change in iraq. and after september 11th, congress overwhelmingly passed a resolution authoring me to use force necessary to protect the american people. it is when the difficulties began after the liberation of

iraq that people began to change their mind. which sometimes happens in politics. but it can't happen if you are the commander in chief. in other words, you can't be playing politics with the security of the united states and with those who wear our uniform. [applause] >> yeah. anyway. it's a painful experience. and certainly not the pain that people feel when their child is sent into combat and loses his or her life. it's a difficult decision for the president. no president should ever commit our troops without serious thought about the consequences. >> mr. president, president obama spoke in his postelection press conference about the strength he's gotten with speaking with families of military members and members

that had fallen. you write about this in the book. can you tell the audience about it? >> yeah, i do. i write about it a lot. because i want the american people who read this book to understand the incredible strength of character of our military families. so i tell the story about a woman named valerie chapman. i go to see them. she and her two children. five-year-old daughter and a three-year-old daughter. and i talk about going eye level with the children to tell them how courageous their dad was. and how i fought back the tears because i didn't want them to see a weepy commander in chief. i wanted them to hear your father was a heroic person. afterwards, valerie handed me, she said if anybody questions this, you show them this. on the pamphlet she said john

did his job, you do yours. there's a lot of meetings where the strength of character of our people come out. we are a blessed nation to have incredibly brave, courageous people who volunteer in the face of danger and the families who support them. [applause] [applause] >> mr. president, some of my friends in london didn't think that you would get along very well with british prime minister tony blair. he's sophisticated london done. >> i'm not sophisticated. is that what you are suggesting? >> well, i'm just saying what some of my friends in london say. >> yeah, tony blair and i became fast friends. i admire him a lot. i admire him because he's a courageous person. i admire him because when he gives you his words, he keeps it. i admire his sense of humor.

laura and i spent a lot of time with him and his wife. i better not start naming people, because i'll leave somebody out. tony and i ended up with a fast friendship. i found it to be unusual to find politicians to be able to look beyond the horizon. i felt tony blair could do that in a way that was strategic in thought. i believe that the heads of state need to be strategic in their thought and have a long term view of issues. tony had that view. >> you had have a few debates with mrs. blair. >> yeah, one on the death penalty. probably lost. i made it clear. he was objecting to my position when i was governor of texas supporting the death penalty, and as president for that matter. i happen to believe if justice is fair and swift, the death penalty saves lives. she didn't agree.

>> you were reelected with the majority of the vote in the first time in 16 years that a presidential nominee got a majority of the popular vote. you had political capital. you went in on the social security issue first and only later in 2006 pushed for changes in the immigration laws. those were not successful. what have you learned? >> if i had to do it over again, i probably would have ran the immigration plan first. and then i -- but i didn't. so i -- i pushed social security hard. the truth of the matter the congress didn't want to reform social security. and there's an issue i feel in all do respect to my friends from congress where congress is more reactive than proactive on the issue. i think support from either party, nevertheless, i pushed hard on the issue. i think social security needs to

be reformed. it unfair for young americans to be paying into a broke system. it didn't work. on the other hand, i didn't go to washington to play small ball i went there to deal with problems and not shy away because there might be bad political consequences. social security failed. then i ran the comprehensive immigration reform plan which was widely praised after i gave the speech in the oval office. nevertheless, the issue got away. the rhetoric on the issue was very difficult. and the -- you know, somebody was nervous about the borders. i can understand why people are. we ought to enforce our borders. but automatically labeling any comprehensive plan is an amnesty. made it very difficult to get people to pay attention. i have no regrets in trying both issues. that's what you both when you are elected office. you tried to solve problems. and in both cases, i was unsuccessful. >> mr. president, in "decisions

points" you have a chapter on iraq which goes into 2003 and a little bit of 2004. then of a chapter later in the book on the surge when you talk about how in the spring of 2006, you start -- you came to believe that our strategy in iraq was failing and that you needed to make changes in that. that resulted in surge strategy which i think is generally agreed to be have been successful. how did you turn the government -- how did you -- why did you change your mind? how did you turn the government around on that? >> first i changed my mind because i felt we were beginning to lose. and a loss in iraq would be a major blow to the security of the united states. it would have been meant that the sacrifices that had gone on prior to that moment would be in vein. it would em bold the enemies, send shock waves throughout the

middle east. i've always believed that freedom exists in everybody soul. if we can get the right strategy to bring security in place, that people would be given a chance to express their desire to live in a free society. the problem is that the politics, we push politics first. we are very successfully. but the security situation deteriorated to the point where democratic couldn't take hold. and i decided that just -- it would be catastrophic as far as i'm concerned. i asked my national security advisor to get some options. it took a while. i walked the reader through why -- >> you talk about changing your mind on the strategy in the spring. >> beginning to end of spring. i needed to see options. >> the announcement comes in january '07. >> i needed to see options

before you could make a move. that took a while to develop the options. i needed to convince people in my own administration. and then as donald rumsfeld told me, we need new eyes. the truth of the matter is i needed -- in order to make the plan work, i had to have a new secretary of defense. in other words, people would not believe it was necessarily a new plan unless it was somebody else says it was a new plan. and it was introduced to bob gates, as an option. and then that led to needing new generals. so we need a lot of things to happen. really what happened was the 2006 campaign. and i feel very strongly the commander in chief would not be making key military decisions in the midst of a political campaign. it sends signals to our troops, you are nothing but -- you are being used for political purposes. that would be a major mistake. so one the lessons for future presidents, if they choose to

read the book. if you unfortunately are commander in chief, don't play politics with military strategy. [applause] [applause] >> we have time for three more questions. >> okay. mitch getting ready to put the hook on me. [laughter] >> in the book you had experience with handling hurricanes in 2004, 2005, in florida, where you say they had a confident governor at that time. [applause] [applause] >> and then -- >> what do you expect me to say? >> then comes hurricane katrina in 2005. you were accused by a singer of not caring about black people.

>> look, it wasn't just one person. this was an opportunity for people to use the response to katrina has a way to label me a racestist. -- racist. i didn't like it. i expressed significant displeasure. you know, you can call me names. which they did. but being labeled a racist is something i just -- i couldn't stomach and i can't stomach now. it's just really unbelievable unfair. there's some -- i mean katrina was -- you know, a case of as i put in the book, i've prided myself on making decisions. it was just a delayed decision. it took me too long. i did something not very smart. it was to fly over new orleans, have any picture taken, and they put the picture in the newspaper. it looked like i didn't care. i was looking at 20,000 feet or however high we were. i do remind people, however, the

federal response started initially after the storm hit. 30,000 people's lived were saved by the united states coast guard. and as i say, when i went down to new orleans, they won one helicopter pilot or rescue coast guardsman had said i'm not taking you off of that roof because you happen to be black. all colors, races, ages to save lives. the question is should i have put federal troops without the capacity to protect themselves in new orleans? and this -- we probably don't have enough time. my advise is read the book. because i walk you through [inaudible] which basically says the president cannot put troops with law enforcement in the united states without either declaring the situation an insurrection or being asked to do so by the governor of a particular state. if i had to do it over -- i was

swayed, you know, by the broadcasts of the area where there was shootings and snipers and all of the things that we heard about. many of which did not -- turned out to be not true. but, you know, if i had to do it over again, which you don't get to do, i just put the 82nd airborne without the capacity to defend themselves. i think it would have been changed the psychology of the situation differently. >> mr. president, i don't recall you speaking about africa or aids in the 2000 campaign. but your administration did a lot on that. i think a lot of people aren't aware on that. can you tell the audience that? >> well, condi, early on when i was getting to know her and courting her to try to become my national security advisor. i talked a lot about africa. if you think about africa at that point in time, you have to think about the pandemic of aids. any policymaker couldn't, you know, say i want to do something

with africa and not immediately go to the aids issue. and i did. i walked the reader through some very pointe scenes. why did you do that? two reasons. national security reasons. we faced the enemy who could only recruit hopeless people. there has to be pretty hopeful to watch your parents die and know you can't do anything. we had to do something about it in america. i think as a nation we are better for it. so i did devote a chapter called

lazarus. many people said they were like lazarus. i tell a funny story, i think it's funny. josh boldin, my dear friend and second chief of staff after andy card was my other chief in staff, bono. you are going to meet bono. he said you do know who he is, don't you? i said, yeah. famous irish rock star. he said josh was leaveing the room and i said, used to be married to sher. and i kept my poker face as long as possible. so there's a lot of moments of humor in this book. because believe it or not, my administration in the midst of trauma was pretty light heart the at times. -- light hearted at times.

there's a lot of joy. i miss the grief. >> finally, mr. president, there's two older woman that appear at various points in the book. which one was more formidable, queen elizabeth or barbara bush? >> i tell my mother -- i put in there -- i tell a lot of stories about my mom. i adore my dad, and my mother as well. i used to tell people when i ran for texas, i had my daddy's eyes and my mother's mouth. it would generally get a laugh. but it's truth. my mother is formidable. when i told her i was going to run against anne richards, her reaction was you can't win. [laughter] >> thanks, mom. she's unbelievable. >> what did she say? tell me about the marathon.

>> yes, after my dad lost in '92. i decided that i'm going to run out my frustrations by training for and running the houston marathon. at mile 19, their church, st. martin's church was there. it just so happens i go running by the church right about the 9:30 service empties out. it's like 10:30 or however long the service lasts. my dad, there's my boy. and my mother yells, there's three fat people ahead of you. [laughter] >> that's not what you heard from the queen. >> no, the queen. laura and i went to buckingham palace and had a majestic stay. i asked the queen if i could see her corgis. say came in, you know, beautiful

dogs. they are very well behaved. i mused, thankfully barney is not here. he'd be barking for scottish independence. let me conclude before this story, thank you, michael. there's a lot of stories in the book -- [laughter] [applause] [applause] [applause] >> i was giving a speech. do you have the speech in bucharest? welcoming romanian tomato. just before i got up to the podium, it was like a couple of hundred thousand people there. they were there to hear the american president welcome the nato. it was a big deal for people who had just come out of, and it was article 5 of the treaty. there was a balcony amidst of

the drizzle of the day. and i said what is that? i said that's the balcony where the tyrant had given his last speech. it was a memorial to freedom. president introduced me and a full rainbow appears. it's a startling moment. and he steps back to take in this rainbow and then said god is smiling on us. and the reason that i did is because the rainbow ended exactly behind the balcony where the tyrant had given his last speech. thank you for coming. [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] :

>> thank you michael barone then president bush would a great way to kick off the miami book fair. we hope to see you throughout the week ended your pre-purchased a book they will be available