nation. >> present arms. [taps] gogogogogogogogogogogogog. >> bill: "the o'reilly factor" from ohio is on. tonight. >> the thing i love about you is you are quite provocative. >> bill: me? president bush let's his guard down, kind of. >> if i were such a genius on the economy i would have predicted the meltdown in the first place. >> bill: we will talk about the bad economy. >> what do you do when somebody says it's about to fail. >> bill: precarious afghan war situation. >> bill: are you optimistic about the war in afghanistan. >> it's going to take time. >> bill: president obama. >> you need to ask him. not me. i'm the retired guy. >> bill: decision points, president bush on the state of the union.

>> bill: that's what the folks, i think, want to hear. caution, you where to enter the no spin zone from dayton. the factor begins right now. ♪ >> bill: hi, i'm bill o'reilly, reporting tonight from dayton, ohio. thanks for watching us. we are here to interview former president bush on veterans day. a few hours ago i spoke with mr. bush at the national museum of the united states air force, just a few miles outside of town. as you may know, the president is on a book tour promoting his presidential look back, "decision points." because he has given a number of television interviews this week. my mandate tonight was to shake him up a bit, advance the conversation. i told the president that my questions would be a bit different, that i was representing you, trying to ask things that pertain directly to your life. he was fine with it. kind of.

i want to do an interview that's different than the pinheads have you been talking to all week. [ laughter ] >> bill: when word got out that i was going to interview you lots of people called me up and stopped me in the street saying look, i want you to ask the president. this i want you to ask the president that it all centered around the economy. in the last chapter of your book is about the meltdown in the economy. >> correct. >> bill: i thought it was a very interesting chapter. here is what i don't understand and a lot of other people don't understand. why didn't you, as president of the united states, know that this derivative mortgage backed security con was in motion. you say "i was caught by surprise." >> true. there was an awareness in that last chapter that we saw something amiss because we tried to get the government to regulate fanny and freddie. but i don't know of anybody in my administration who saw the enormity of the collapse. in 2003, because of the implicit

government guarantee and because we were worried about some of the investments that fannie mae and freddie mac were making that congress, much to our chagrin said no, we are not going to regulate. that's because they are very powerful entities. to some extent i feel, you know, okay about anticipating a crisis and the other thing i really didn't see the enormity of it i didn't. i don't think this is a matter of regulation. i think this is a matter of people making bad investments. >> bill: okay. but the problem is for me and i think millions of people watching, that we expect the federal government to protect us from con men. >> you are the guy in charge of the sec, christopher cox, who i know very well because i went to school in boston with him. okay? now, cox is a guy that's supposed to give you the heads up that, hey, you know, there is something really not right here. >> i think a lot of levels of government we didn't. >> bill: it just didn't happen. >> didn't see it coming.

the question is what do you do about it when you are president. one thing to be dwelling on why we didn't get it right. in my case the story is what do you do when somebody says it's about to fail? there is a tone in the book that basically says "i distrusted wall street." probably because i was raised in west texas: and, yet, i had to make the decision to use your money. >> bill: to bail them out. >> to bail them out because the options for me were do i gamble on a depression or not? >> bill: right. when i saw you out there going hey, this thing is serious i went this thing is serious it? >> was serious. your question is why didn't we see it? >> bill: yeah. because that frightens me because it could happen again. >> of course it could happen again and it's happened before it was a confluence of events. i try to take the reader through the trade deficits. the money coming into the country. the investments, the building of the house of cards. the assumption was by a lot of investors that the price of

housing would continue to go up. it didn't and the house of cards started to crumble. your question is house come we didn't anticipate it and to a certain extent we did. that's trying to deal with one aspect of the housing market and that would be fannie and freddie. i was unsuccessful at getting them regulated. >> bill: it's more to it, mr. president, with all due respect. did you see my interview with barney frank when i called him a coward? >> well -- >> bill: because he had direct oversight of fannie and freddie. >> it's like saying how's come you didn't see sheisters like madoff ahead of time. >> bill: that's different though. he is a private guy and wall street is dealing in the public sector. here is my problem. >> okay. >> bill: americans are losing confidence in their government. we saw that with president obama in the last election. >> i hope they don't lose confidence in their government. can i see why they there is skepticism. the only government we have got. >> bill: you say in your book that you had to bail out the companies. and then president obama picks up your theme and says almost

the same words "i had to continue spending because we would have got ton a depression." so you and president obama simpatico. the problem is that there is $5 trillion added to the debt in the last three years from 2007 to 2010. >> all i can tell you is when i left office, the debt g.d.p. ratio was lower than president 42, president 41, and almost equal to president 40. that would be ronald reagan. and i really have chosen not to second-guess the president, which you are trying to get me to do. >> bill: no i am not. you are wrong. >> i can only explain to you the decisions i made. >> bill: am i allowed to say that to a former president it is wrong. i'm not going to get to you bash obama. >> of course. let me finish saying the tarp that we passed said that we are going to put money into financial institutions. they -- which will be repaid to the taxpayer with a reasonable rate of return. and most of the tarp money that

we spent under my watch has been repaid. >> bill: then why is the government the federal government now continuing to bail people out? >> you need to ask him. not me. i'm the retired guy. i'm the guy who has done my job and i am now home in texas. >> bill: but you must have a theory on it? >> you are trying to drag me into the current affairs, and i don't want to be drug into the current affairs. and i don't think it's good. hear me out. i don't think it's good for a former president to be criticizing his successor and not only that i don't want to be in the arena of crist sizing my successor. >> bill: the folks live in the country and your policies in iraq, afghanistan, economically bleed over until 2010. what you started and what you were involved with didn't end when you left. it continues. so that people when they get an opportunity to hear you, and read your book, they want to know about the current state of affairs. they have don't want to say, look, it ended when he left and

now i don't know what he thinks. >> your job as somebody who is capable of getting people from the administration to explain the current state of affairs. i have written a book so that people get a sense of what it was like to make the decisions that i made during my presidency. and beyond that i'm happy to get off the stage. i'm very comfortable with this fact, bill. >> bill: what about all your knowledge? >> i'm very comfortable with this fact that eventually there will be an objective his tornians that will analyze my presidency but there needs to be time. and in terms of my knowledge, there are plenty of knowledgeable people who are capable of speaking out. and i know this comes as a shock to some, but i have zero desire to be in the limelight except for this brief moment. when i'm willing to talk with my friend in order to sell books. >> bill: i got it. one more question on this and then we goal into something else that i feel is very interesting and important. people today are worried. when they get an opportunity to hear someone like you, who is in

the middle of it they want to hear what you have to say. i respect the fact that you don't want to get into the swamp. >> not to be argumentative, the best way to learn what i have to say is to read my book. >> bill: read your book. but, again, it carries through. the present administration has dumped a lot of stuff on you saying look, it's not our fault because the previous administration they did x, y, and z. i know you don't care about that. >> i really don't. >> bill: you don't care about that at all. >> it's a tactic. >> bill: it's a political ploy, correct? >> some people choose to use them. some people use that ploy. some don't. >> bill: jimmy carter gets furious when people dump on him and he fights back. but you are the total opposite. >> i am the total opposite. >> bill: they can call you the devil. they can call you whatever, and you are just going to go out to lunch. >> well, they did when i was president. >> bill: we talked about that? >> that's right, we did. and i didn't respond because i don't think it's good for the presidency to respond. and you know, i know it's hard for you to believe that i

basically ignore the rhetoric. but i do. i'm comfortable with myself i know i gave it my all for the country. i did the very best i could do as president and i'm comfortable with that. >> bill: when you look at the current state of the union, because i know, as far as following the country, i know you do. you couldn't be a civil servant your whole life, governor of texas and two term president. you can't just shut it off. >> i don't shut it off. i love my country. >> bill: you watch. are you optimistic about america right now. >> right now? >> bill: yeah. >> i'm always optimistic about america. i have studied a lot of history. we went through difficult periods in the past and we'll come through this difficult period. >> bill: so you -- >> i'm optimistic about our economy. >> bill: you believe the economy is going to turn around and people are going to turn it off soon? >> that's a leading question, of course, which you are famous for but the economy will turn around soon? well, what's the definition of soon? and, frankly, what my advice to

you would be to ask somebody who thinks they know what they are talking about about the economy. i'm not an economist. >> bill: today? >> i will give you this. i think it's important for policy makers to understand most new jobs are created by small businesses. 70% of new jobs in america are created by small businesses. many small businesses pay income tax at the individual rate. and, therefore, raising any income taxes will cause there to be less capital available for small businesses which will make it harder to create jobs. >> bill: thank you. that was -- that is what the folks, i think, want to hear. >> bill: when we come right back from dayton, ohio, i will ask the president about the afghan war, which has descended into semi chaos. is any of that his fault? the interview continues after these messages.

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>> bill: continuing now with former president george w. bush. >> shortly after the 9/11 attack on 2001. the president decided to invade afghanistan to remove the taliban government which had harbored al qaeda. the invasion took place just about nine years ago, but the war is still dicey: afghanistan. now this is a horror over there. okay? it's a horror because our people are over there. karzai is corrupt. the thing may go either way.

we have a brilliant general petraeus and people are going, you know, we have got 13 trillion-dollar debt and now we are spending a trillion dollars in afghanistan. are you optimistic about afghanistan? >> it's going to take time. but i think the mission is necessary. remember, this is a place from which attacks were launched that killed 3,000 of our people. >> bill: sure. we know the ration ma'am. >> i know. there is other rationale like human rights for women. the fundamental question for those who get out is are we willing to live with the fact that people will live under unspeakable violence. >> bill: a lot of americans are willing to do that. >> i'm not. >> bill: but are you optimistic that we can defeat -- >> -- yes. i'm optimistic that democracy will ultimately prevail. just like i'm optimistic democracy will prevail in iraq. i'm not optimistic if we leave. >> bill: iran? >> yes. >> bill: one of the things you say in the book and, again, the book is a very honest book, it is. >> thank you.

>> bill: you all right? you said i felt bad because i left that unresolved problem on the table. >> yeah. we couldn't resolve it, right. >> bill: and it's getting worse. are you optimistic that the united states and the rest of the civilized world can keep those people from getting a nuclear weapon? >> in the book i talked about two clocks. the regime change clock and the slow down the weapons clock. >> bill: right. >> and the policy has got to be directed toward speeding up one and slowing down the other. and i'm optimistic that countries as a result of my leadership and the leadership of the -- of president obama understand the stakes and people understand that without attention and without applying pressure, it's, you know, iran could end up with a bomb. or at least the knowledge to have a bomb. let's put it that way. >> bill: right. why is there so much resistance from the rest of the world,

excepting britain, australia and canada helping afghanistan. >> afghanistan? >> bill: all over. afghanistan very hard to get nato troops in there very hard to get commitment in there. they know like do you the taliban. >> there are a lot of nato troops there. the problem is there are different caveats. there are some parliaments that sent their troops in with the restriction on fighting. and in the book i describe my frustrations with that. in other words, we go in initially to liberate the country along with a lot of other nations. and i thought the footprint was big enough at the time because i felt nato troops would be able to carry a lot of the weight. but a lot of nations didn't shoot and didn't want to fight and therefore it arequired additional troops during my time as president. you know, i'm -- i may be -- maybe some nations aren't that interested in afghanistan for the very reason you brought up initially on this question. is it worth it? is it necessary? probably asking the same questions you just asked me. and if there is not a consensus

that is worth it to prevent, you know, the country from falling into the hands of terrorists and extremists, is it worth it not to care about, you know, what the women -- a life of a young girl is in afghanistan, they will come to the same conclusion that maybe some people you have talked to came to. it's not worth it. >> bill: that's right. >> you are asking the question why? you just answered your own question with the first question. >> bill: but i don't understand the mind set. you deal with these leaders one on one. and i don't get the mind set of we are not going to help out the united states and britain in afghanistan. we're not going to really put pressure on iran. you are very generous in your book to china. >> wait a minute. let me finish there are a lot of nations in afghanistan. and there were a lot of nations in iraq. and so i wouldn'ten dismissive, but there were, a lot. i wouldn't be dismissive of the contribution that those people made. >> bill: we do the heavy lifting. >> of course we do the heavy lifting because we are the heaviest nation. we are a big powerful nation.

>> bill: don't you think it can be spread out a little bit more? >> we did spread it out. of course -- i want to defend the contribution that a country like slovenia made. it wasn't a huge number of troops, but it was -- they made a sacrifice. >> bill: poland, too. >> they did. >> bill: poland was big. >> first special operators. >> bill: people like poland we wouldn't have even defeated these people. >> the thing i love about you is you are quite provocative but go ahead. >> bill: me? >> little old gentle o'reilly. go ahead. >> bill: you are very generous to china in your book. i'm not sure about china. they haven't helped us with iran. that have hurt us with iran. >> very different interests. i said what keeps you up at night? >> bill: can i answer that? >> yeah. 25 million new jobs a year. if that's what keeps you up at night, you are interested in resources necessary to grow your economy. >> bill: but surely china and russia, the two ones have ho

have enabled iran to take this ridiculous stance, surely they understand the danger that you understand, president obama understands, that if this guy has a nuclear weapon it can go off anywhere. they just hand a dirty bomb to someone else. they don't care? >> there is a lot of different interests in the world much the job of the president and job of other like-minded people is to continue to focus everybody's attention on the ultimate problem with iran. but, yeah, they care. but they also want to create wealth in their economy. they want to grow jobs. and that's what makes this issue so difficult is that there are different interests. not everybody agrees with you or me. and the job of diplomacy is to continue to rally the coalition. i believe any u.s. president must use diplomacy to solve the problem before any other methods are used. >> bill: certainly president obama agrees with you on that. so there is some common ground. now, i know you don't care about this,. >> right. i probably don't but go ahead. [ laughter ]

>> bill: have you been very patient with me, mr. president, i appreciate it your approval rating is going up. i don't know whether you saw that or not but the latest polls have your approval rating going up. the reason is, my humble opinion, that you are actually talking to the folks. that you spent this week on a number of programs explaining your -- why did you what you did. >> imagine how high it's going to be after talking to you. >> bill: it's going to be through the roof. >> thank you i appreciate it. >> bill: you don't care about approval ratings you made that quite clear a number of times. however, i submitted to you in our last interview in the white house that you made a mistake by allowing your enemies in the media, of which there are thousands, to define you're administration. you didn't fight, and obama is getting the same criticism now from the far left, that you let them run wild, accusing you of lying to go into iraq, accusing you of all kinds of heinous crimes. they were accusing you of being a criminal. but you didn't -- you said,

look, i'm the president, i'm not going to lower myself. >> no. let me stop threw, please. >> bill: okay. >> i said -- i didn't say i'm the president. i don't want to lower myself. i said i don't want to lower the office of the presidency. >> bill: fine. >> i don't think it does any good then nor now to engage in throwing spit balls at people who want to kind of coarsen the dialogue. i feel very strong. i would do it the same way. >> bill: really? >> yeah. bill, what fundamentally matters is for a president, you can look back and say one, did you stick to your principles? and, two, did you strengthen the office? see, the great thing about america is the office of the president is much more important than the occupant. that's what provides stability for our country. and i felt it would weaken the presidency, not me. weaken the presidency to engage

in all this name-calling and i'm comfortable with that decision. >> bill: i wanted you to do what you did in your book while you were sitting in the white house in the sense that you explained exactly why you did what you did so that the american people wouldn't buy the propaganda that your enemies were throwing out. >> with all due respect, i spent a lot of time explaining the problem is that sometimes the explanations require more than 30 seconds. and oftentimes the president only is given 30 seconds on a national tv broadcast. and i spent a lot of time with the media i harbor no resentment to the media. >> bill: really? even the people who hate you and call you a criminal. >> i don't like to be called a criminal. a lot of times the media were transmitting other voices. >> bill: no they -- believe me, they didn't like you. >> okay. >> bill: that was my next question, again, i don't know you very well but you are appear

appear -- dana per reena loves perino loves you. people hated you, why? >> i don't know. you have to ask them. i'm not a hater so sometimes it's hard for me to understand why somebody hates somebody. and could have been because of my policies. maybe they didn't like my religion. i don't know. i'm sure there samir adof reasons, that's what happens when you are the president. it can either bother you or not bother you. >> bill: ever think about it? >> being hated? not really. >> bill: never? >> i'm a pretty comfortable guy right now. >> bill: you look it. >> i really am. i'm honored to have served. i'm glad i served. i gave it my all. that's all you can do in life. i got back and this sounds corny to some i understand but when i looked in the mirror i know i didn't sell my soul for the sake of any short-term politics or popularity. and i think that's important. >> bill: when president bush left office, his approval rating

was 34% according to gallup. when we come right back, i will ask the president whether there is tension between him and dick cheney. he deals with that a bit in the book. the conversation continues in just a few moments.

>> bill: president bush deals with a lot of permanents in his book "decision points" among them vice president dick cheney who had a disagreement with the president over his refusal to pardon the right-hand man scooter libby. >> bill: one of the parts about the book was dick cheney being mad at you for not pardoning scooty libby. is he still mad at you.

>> i don't think so. >> bill: do you talk to him a lot. >> he was sick i'm pleased to report is he coming down to the ground breaking off you are library at msu. >> bill: you guys are pals still. >> having lunch with him and looking forward to seeing him. >> bill: he was a powerful vice president, correct. >> i don't know how you compare him to other vice presidents. >> bill: you listen to him, right. >> of course i do like i listen to a lot of other advisors. in the book sometimes he agrees with my decisions and sometimes he didn't agree with my decisions always he helped implement the decisions and never did he go behind my back. >> bill: he was straight up. >> i make it clear to the reader, this is important, that i made the right choice in picking him in 2000. and i feel the same way as i sit and talk to you. >> bill: the press probably hated him more than they hated you. and he, unlike you, push back a little bit.

>> you might remember the moment in nape perville, illinois and the mike was on and referring to some press guy. occasionally there was grousing. but i was aware of what was in the press. i generally ignored the opinion because by the time i ended it was very predictable. >> bill: even mine. >> of course i listened to yours all the time it became the whole crux of the bush administration. [ laughter ] >> bill: your father. how often did you call him when you were in the white house for advice? >> yeah. not very often for advice. but i talked to him often to try to comfort him. >> bill: why didn't you seek his ad vice? former president? >> because he knew that i had better information at the time than he would have known. and he understood what it meant to be president. the president gets a lot of advice. some of it unsolicited. a lot of it from inside the white house. but he also knew when the heat gets on and the heat was on

during my administration, you tend to seek out the advice of the people closest to you. and what's interesting about my relationship and i make this clear in the book with my dad is, one, it's based upon love. i loved the guy. and, secondly, and admire him by the way. and secondly, i knew what it was like to be the loved one of a president. '92 was a painful year. i didn't like the way the press talked about my dad. >> bill: you were firstier back then. >> i punched back and i would get in people's face. >> bill: i hate guys like that. >> okay. you were wishing that was me later but anyway. [ laughter ] >> and i knew my dad would be agonizing over what he read or what he heard. so i would call him and say i'm doing great. just like i would call him when he was president he would say i'm doing good, son. don't worry about me. our roles got reversed. i spent most of my time comforting my dad. >> bill: interesting. colin powell didn't want to invade iraq. >> another o'reilly provocative statement. nobody wanted to use the

military except. >> bill: he advised you not to do it, didn't he? >> the conversation i replayed in the book basically a reluctance to use the troops in iraq. however, i said if we have, to in other words, if diplomacy runs its course and we have to use troops, he said "i'll support you." >> bill: but he didn't want to. >> can you understand that. is he a general. >> bill: absolutely understand that look what happened, the unintended consequences of that invasion were horrific. >> the intended consequences were also tremendous. that means 25 million people were liberated a country run by a tyrant was no longer a threat to the united states of america. and we have a chance to have a transformative moment in the middle east and that is a free society emerging. >> bill: you know the blood and treasure sacrificed that the american public and not to mention the military were here in this great air force museum, not to mention killed and maimed. balancing act. could we have done it another

way? condoleezza rice told me -- she has another very good book out by the way. >> i read it. >> bill: you are probably promoting one book. >> bill: you are going to be number one. the worst part is you are knocking me down on the best seller book. >> your book is a great book. >> bill: she told me maybe we should have done it another way in hindsight. maybe we could have gotten him out thereof in another way. >> if people read the book they will realize we tried every way. everything possible. >> bill: were you scared when you ordered the surge and it was you against the world? tell the truth. >> i don't think scared is the right -- >> bill: apprehensive? >>. no i was convinced if we didn't put more troops in. >> bill: but you were alone. >> we would lose. and if we lost, the consequences would be catastrophic. >> bill: one of the moments when i interviewed then senator obama, he admitted to me he was wrong and you were right in that surge thing. that was painful for him to admit because as you know he was a vociferous critic against him?

>> did he call me and ask me to join with president clinton to help me raise money for people down there in haiti. i was more than happy to participate. >> bill: that was last call? >> no. he called me right before his speech. he had a military speech on iraq. he was heading to texas and gave me a heads up what he was going to say in the speech. i was grateful for that i don't expect to be called by president obama nor do i expect to be called by whoever follows president obama. >> bill: if i'm elected, i'm going to call you, is that right? >> if you are elected i will be in total shock i so i won't be able to answer the phone. [ laughter ] >> bill: you won't be the only one. were you surprised john mccain lost? >> i was disappointed he lost. >> bill: do you think any of it was your fault? >> i think the fact -- first of all, if you are the head of the party and your popularity isn't good it makes a drag for senator

mccain. he had a generational issue he had to deal with a young president that nobody hardly knew and an older guy. i think generational politics affected my dad's campaign, for example, in '92. >> bill: yeah, against clinton. >> sure. >> bill: sarah palin his v.p. choice a very controversial woman. you thought it was a good choice? >> yeah. i think it energized the party. there was a moment where people were kind of in the dull drums and sarah palin arrived and, boom. >> bill: going forward 2012. >> probably won't answer this question. >> bill: you won't answer the 2012 question? >> no. >> bill: you don't want to be a pundit to the republican party's resurgence. >> you want me to be a pundit? >> bill: that would be great. do you want to be on once a week on the factor. >> no, i don't. it looks like my main candidate is not going to run and that's my brother general. >> bill: that's interesting. >> that's a dodge to the question. >> bill: no. that's good. all right. so you would like -- but 2012, republicans have a lot of optimism now that they will take

the white house back. you going to help them? >> if somebody wants to come and ask what it's like to run for president, i would love to talk, you know how us retired guys are. >> bill: aren't going to be bi-con like bill clinton are going state to state with candidates and things like that. >> i probably won't do that no. >> bill: decision points, that's the name of your book, isn't it? >> i think it is. >> bill: off camera giving me jazz -- i will tattoo it right here "decision points." come on, everybody knows the name of the book. [ laughter ] >> bill: when i write my books there is one thing usually i want people to take away from the book. what's that? >> well, my book must be a little more complex than your books. much more complex. i had a variety of things i want people to take away. i want to put the reader in my position so that whether they -- he or she agree with my decisions or not, at least he will understand how the process works. i want to give future historians a point of reference. >> bill: do you want the read tore like you. >> this really isn't about trying to enhance my popularity.

i have never been a person who says if i write this book maybe my -- i will shape my legacy. you know, that's -- legacy is -- it take a long time for history. >> bill: you will be dead and i will be dead, right? >> exactly right. i hope people get the sense of how much i love our country and enjoyed being the president. >> bill: mr. president, i want to apologize for giving you hard time if i did. >> no. it was fun. >> bill: it's been my privilege to talk to you for four times. >> thank you, sir. >> bill: thanks for taking the time today. >> enjoyed it. >> bill: now we had to edit that interview just a bit. we are posting the entire conversation on bill o'reilly.com and the factor fox news web site so we hope you check that out. plenty more ahead as we continue from ohio this evening. we'll have reaction to the interview from laura ingraham, sally quinn, and charles krauthammer. we hope you stay t tç@

>> bill: personal story segment tonight, reaction to the george w. bush interview. we begin with fox news analyst, radio talk show star laura ingraham who joins us from washington. also the author of the big best seller "the obama diaries." laura, did you learn anything from that interview? >> well, i'm not sure if i learned anything all that new. i had a chance to read most of the book already. but what i take away from that interview is kind of what i took away from the whole presidency. number one, president bush is enormously likeable. is he congenial. is he a patriot. he loves this country. there is no doubt about it he wanted us to take that away from his book and i think most people will. what i also noticed though, bill, is that he still doesn't understand how important it was, and you tried to get him in on this, how important it was for him to prop up his popularity in order to not only help his party but to help the nation. we don't have to remind everybody by the time he left office discretionary spending had gone through the roof.

he added over $2 trillion to the federal debt. obviously the republican party was on its knees losing the senate, the house, and then the presidency. i don't think a lot of people in 2012 god bless president bush are going to run as bush republicans. that's a difficult rand escape to reflect back on but that's necessary reflection, i think. in part, the tea party is revolting against president obama, absolutely. but also against this very expansive definition of conservatism where governmenting can more internationalist and do nation-building and help people around the world and all that know bill -- noble stuff there is a tough relationship between conservatives and president bush. i think he was disappointed in us as we read in his book with the harriet miers, people against harriet miers. he called them the wolves and so-called friends. i think is he probably referring to me. and also on immigration reform which he was very upset about, that that didn't go forward. uneasy relationship between conservatives and the president.

>> bill: okay. but he explains it fairly straightforwardly by saying, look, i had to spend the money because of tarp and then when i left you heard the stat that he had thrown out that the deficit compared to the g.d.p. was no worse than my predecessors h it's hard to dodge stats. the thing that i took away was that president bush, basically doesn't feel it's his responsibility to do anything for the republican party going forward or, you know, in the end of his administration to even get john mccain on the track. >> yeah. bill, that's what frankly drove a lot of the people crazy. it did matter. we are dealing with barack hussein obama right now because, unfortunately, the republicans couldn't get it together and was a hard record to defend. it was hard for mccain. i wasn't a big supporter for

john mccain. it was hard to cut spending when we had a huge increase in spending under president bush it was a hard record to defend. >> bill: it was. he is adamant about his style. laura, thanks very much. when we come right back, sally quinn liberal woman will react to my chat with president bush. charles krauthammer will do the same. we hope you stay tuned. i'm hugh jidette. i'm running for president. if elected promise our 13 trillion dollar debt will

double, maybe even triple. i'll continue to ignore our spiraling i'm hugh jidette and i say borrow like there's no tomorrow.

>> bill: continuing with the analysis of my conversation with president bush. this time sally quinn joins from us d.c. i will ask you the same question i asked ms. laura, did you learn anything from the interview, ms. quinn. >> i didn't learn much. i agree with laura that he comes across as incredibly attractive decent guy. what fascinates me the most is the relationship with his father. the fact that he never, very rarely called his father for advice. i know from some of his father's

advisors that this was upsetting to his father and i think he could have learned a lot. i mean people like brent scrocoff and jim baker and his father were seasoned politicians who had been through the wars. he relied too much on people like dick cheney, karl rove and donald rumsfeld in the beginning. i think towards the end of his administration he really, when he fired rumsfeld, much against cheney's advice, i think he began to come into his own and i think he really ended up by going with the tarp that he really took on a personality of his own and became his own person. i think he was moving in that direction. but i think the first part of his first administration, i think he was much too reliant on them. i think he could have learned a lot from his father and so. people in his father's administration. >> bill: now, he seems very relaxed with his, you know, performance at the white house. he doesn't seem to have too many

regrets or second thoughts. does that surprise you? >> well, i think that's true. and i think that's the kind of person he is and i think he is -- people used to call his father a gent. i think he has become a gent. i like the fact he is not criticizing president obama because he thinks it's unseemly to criticize your successor. i think that's the right thing to do. whether he should be out there fighting for the republicans, i don't know. but he seems to be very comfortable in his own skin. and that he feels that he did the best he can. there are obviously a lot of people who disagree with that and don't think he did a very good job at all. but, for him, to sit there and watch him, you can see that he is genuinely satisfied and seems happy with his life. >> bill: all right, ms. quinn, thanks very much for your analysis. we appreciate it charles krauthammer on deck. is president bush gain agnew found respect by talking about his book and other things? charles will answer that question. moments away as we continue from

>> bill: back of the book segment tonight. let's bring in fox news analyst charles krauthammer from washington. so you are watching president bush all this week and tonight on the factor. overall assessment of him? >> i think what's remarkable is that this return to the limelight has shown us why he was once so liked. and i think the reason -- people forget that opposition to president bush originally was the very light, early in his presidency. there was some resentment over the resolution, of course, the election against al gore. but he wasn't hated. what was so interesting is that and then he won again re-election against john kerry. he was a likeable guy. what happened was when the war

in iraq went bad, when we had the scandal with abu ghraib. the policies were so difficult and searing in their results, there developed a very widespread hatred of the man. he was accused of lying us into war. he didn't have that when he got us into war. it was afterwards retroactively. callus, not caring. this visceral hatred were the result of policies at the time that were really bad and now i think the policies have shown themselves particularly in iraq to have worked out reasonably well. i think you asked a question about whether it was worth it. history will judge that on how iraq ends up. now we remember the bush before. and why he was liked and why he won re-election twice. it's the decency and the graciousness of the guy. it's a guy who has such respect for the office that he wouldn't say a word against the guy who

succeeds him. and not only that, this is a president succeeded him who has railroad against him. you remember the inaugural address? six or seven references to how horrible the bush administration was with bush a yard away from him. and he held his tongue for two years and he will not resume, he will not say anything after the book tour is over. he is going to return to his silence. that kind of decency, i think, is why americans liked him in the first place and why they are going to like him again in time. >> bill: okay. the thing that i took away from the interview was that president bush had no idea about the big wall street con. he simply didn't know. that frightens me a bit as i told the president. because we count on the executive branch to protect us not only from foreign terrorists but from wall street comment. he just didn't know. >> but you are assuming -- by the president. people in wall street in banks all over the world whose

livelihood depended on it whose banks depended on this who didn't have any idea at all who were in wall street on the market who were in there every day every hour unlike the president who is not in the markets every day every hour. they had no idea. they were all taken by surprise. you can't assume a president is going to know what's going to happen in those circumstances. >> bill: that's for sure. all right, charles. thanks very much. we appreciate it in a moment we will wrap things up from dayton, ohio and give you a preview of tomorrow night's program. that's nexñ÷

no mail for "patriots and pinheads" because we're on the road. tomorrow evening we report from palm beach, florida. i'm down there signing copies of "patriots and pinheads" at barnes & noble in palm beach, florida. palm beach, florida. friday, 7:00 p.m. hope to see you there. i'm toting this around. everybody wants one! this is fabulous. "patriots and pinheads" tote bag, we will give you one free if you buy a copy of the book on website. $2 goes to wounded warriors foundation for every copy sold. that's it for us tonight. hope you enjoy the interview with president bush. check out the fox news factor website, different from billoreilly.com but both have the complete unedited interview with mr. bush. you might want to see that. also, we'd like to spout out about the factor.

o'reilly at foxnews.com. if you wish to opine. word of the dame -- word of the day -- don't be that. again, thanks for watching us tonight. i'm bill >> good morning, it's friday, november 12th. i'm filling in for gretchen this morning. a self-confessed jihadist and an al-qaida leader both participating in weekly prayer sessions on capitol hill and those aren't the only ones with terror ties. the shocking details from a fox news exclusive. >> oh, man. meanwhile, one step forward, two steps back. the president signalling he will extend the bush era tax cuts for everybody. well, now, his fellow liberals are up in arms. what will they do to derail that? straig