and george w. bush followed up his endorsement of mitt romney yesterday with a very surprising announcement today. that is all coming up this hour. >>> but we begin tonight with this. the woman of your dreams just may have a russian accent. don't take it from me, take it from this male order bride website. i thought people would think i was looking at porn. technically, this is not porn. this is the website for a marriage service. see, it says so right there above the lady with the bra straps falling down and the lady in the red, white, and blue bikini. is that some sort of bikini yoga? we think of the mail order bride industry as a relic of the past, but the industry still not only exists, it has been updated for the computer age. you don't pick your bride out from the back of a magazine or a catalog now, now you pick her out online. this service, encounters international, specifically markets russian ladies. they say russian women are no longer the best-kept secret of the cold war. they advertise to a

george w. bush invited the four other members of the club to come back to the white house shortly before president-elect obama was sworn in. the message -- they were all on the same team now. >> one message that i have and i think we all share is that we want you to succeed. whether we're a democrat or republican, we care deeply about this country. and to the extent that we can, we look forward to sharing our experiences with you. all of us who have served in this office understand that the office itself transcends the individual. and we wish you all the very best, and so does the cotry. >> this is an extraordinary gathering. all the gentlemen here understand both the pressures and possibilities of this office, and for me to have the opportunity to get advice, good counsel and fellowship with these individuals is extraordinary and i'm very grateful to all of them, but again, thank you, mr. president, for hosting us. gwen: and with that, we saw the latest iteration of what authors nancy gibbs and mic

quote, mitt romney has the support of george w. bush. here is the second line. quote, i'm for mitt romney bush told abc news this morning as the doors on a elevator closed on him. that was it. no tape. no press lease. just hope into the elevator and say i'm for mitt romney and let the elevator doors close and up, up and away you go. was this a good day from mitt romney? endorsement from behind the closing elevator doors day. i'll ask my friend in a moment. before i do, i want to add one more piece of data between the distance of the republican mind and the liberal tv news mind. they released what they think is a gotcha video that hurts president obama. they saved this up, i guess, for the day that george w. bush gave his endorsement to mitt romney. this is the gotcha tape to slam president obama today. it's tape that they dug up from 2004 when barack obama was running for senate. the republican party thinks this make republicans look good and president obama look bad. watch. >> senator obama. >> i think it's an enormous problem. >> what will you do to cut it or s

just last month, here's george w. bush very publicly that president obama should approve the keystone oil pipeline. here's george w. bush on how america should proceed when it comes to the arab spring. as "the new york times" covered that, two months from now, president bush plans to publish a book. what kind of book? "a book outlining strategies for economic growth." not only is that not retired, that's amazing. i mean, george w. bush has lessons to offer on the economy. lest we forget, this was your economy on george w. bush. the first line there is household income in the 1980s, then household income in the '90s, and there's household income under george w. bush, dropping. here's poverty going down in the '80s, going down in the '90s, and here's poverty going up under president george w. bush. job growth in the '80s, job growth in the '90s, and job growth under george w. bush. oh, wise, economic master, please share with us your secrets. republicans may want george w. bush to disappear from public life, like he did behi

but at the same time that george w. bush was standing there in the roosevelt room, pledging the power of the presidency and a change to the u.s. constitution to stop these terrifying gay people who were coming to destroy our civilization, the bush administration was also leaking word that personally, george w. bush was actually totally cool with gay people. mr. bush's friends say that the president is quite comfortable with gays. the president's wife, quoted by "the new york times," saying that of course she and the president had gay friends. the white house also apparently leaking a story about mr. bush being not at all offensive towards a former yale classmate that was transgender. the idea was that we were all supposed to be assured that even though the president was trying actively as a politician with his power as president to make gay people's lives harder in this country, to stop the advancement of gay rights and to roll it back, where he could, we're supposed to feel personally assured by the fact that personally he

so maybe george w. bush is less of a good vessel for that projection than cheney is? of a wuss now? well, the truth is, you're absolutely right. that we know that bush distanced himself from the biggest parts of the -- the harshest parts of cheneyism towards the tail end of the administration. at least, that's the story we're given. >> so he's not of use anymore? >> right. and also, getting back, i think another point is, precisely because of obama took out osama bin laden, precisely because he is a democrat who seems strong on foreign policy and national defense, then who's the person -- what's the personality you want to graft on to yourself to say that i'm even harsher and more draconian than the guy who took out osama bin laden. well, i guess it's dick cheney, although, i hope in that fund-raiser, cheney's not packing heat. we don't want that kind of truckulance. >> also been known for shooting a friend in the face on a hunting trip. >> another way to look at it is, of course, in the nbc/"wall street journal" poll this week, bain had an approval rating, bain capit

george h.w. bush and george w. bush are.make some remarks, then we understand that president obama will take to the microphone. just want to give you that sort of preview, and we'll take a listen to mr. ryan as he introduces the events. >> to the north of the white house and historic decatur house, we have just launched the new david rubenstein national center for white house history. next year to the south of the white house we will open a newly-redesigned white house visitor' center. it will give the millions of visitor to washington each year a chance to gain a broader understanding of life in the white house. if we can just acquire something on the east and west, we'll have the place surrounded. [laughter] the other mission of the association is to provide funds to preserve the white house public rooms and enhance its incomparable collection of decorative and fine arts. over the five decades and ten presidents since our founding, the association is proud to have provided nearly $40 million in financial support for refurb

this hourlong conversation took place at the george w. bush presidential center in dallas, texas, as part of the conference, america's first ladies, an enduring vision. ♪ >> hello, my name is mark langdell, i'm president of the george w. bush foundation, i want to welcome you to the final panel that we're having here today. in my job i get asked a lot, well, how do you get the chance to work on building something as interesting and significant as the george w. bush presidential center. and i go, well, i have experience building complex real estate projects. i served in government. i'm interested in presidential history. i even like to watch c-span3, but the big reason and the real reason that i have this really great job is 23 years ago george and laura bush moved to dallas, texas, and they bought the house next door to me. and we became friends. and if there's one thing i can testify to, it's true then and it's true today, is that george and laura bush are true partners in life. and george w. bush truly and deeply loves his wife, so it is an

george w. bush'smer cia director told time magazine this week i can only speak with authority through february 15th, 2009, but at that point when people would ask, when is the last time you really knew where he was. my answer was in 2001. a little over a year after losing him the bush administration had moved on in a big way. they had already started a new unrelated war in iraq. the defining assertion of the george w. bush era was the united states would now start preemptive unprovoked wars and be, we would fight terrorism not just by fighting terrorists, but by fighting the whole world. remaking the world in america's image. you're either with us or against us. we will topple unfriendly government. we will stand up new governments. we will stand up governments that never existed in areas where we're trying to install it. we will wage global war. they called it a global war on terror. a war justified by 9/11. as for the people that attacked us on 9/11. >> i don't know where he is. i just don't spend t

. >> yeah, he's already seeking to build some distance now between his tenure with george w. bush administration and what he would do in the future. i was at a luncheon that they did with him and reporters here in new york on monday, and he very directly on the record criticized george w. bush. said he should have done more. vetoed, should have rang in

is that george and laura bush are true partners in life. and george w. sh truly and deeply loves his wife. so it is an honor for me to introduce a man who truly and deeply loves his wife, the 43rd president of the united states, george w. bush. [ applause ] >> thank you all for coming. so it seems fitting to me that for the america's first ladies conference, we actually have first ladies. and it's my honor to introduce them. before i do so, i want to thank mark langdale for his leadership of the george w. bush foundation. i want to thank anita mcbride for conceiving and sharing what has been a fascinating discussion, actually watching some streamed over the internet. i want to thank gerald turner of smu and the smu folks. smu is an awesome university, by the way, and we're honored to be associated with it. and neil kerwin, president of american university and his wife ann have joined us. thank you so much for being here. i want to thank the library directors, alan lowe, of course, of the bush president 43. warren finch, bush president 41. i'll be the funn

george w. bush passed two stimulus acts. he did it in 2001 as well. reagan had a big stimulus act and so did george h.w. bush. that is the way you deal with recessions and economic slowdowns. it's normal no matter what you hear on fox news or the crazy part of your radio. the political geniuses of the george w. bush administration decided to get money out into the economy, to pursue stimulus and get money out in the economy that the americans would spend, they decided to distribute that money just by sending everybody a check. a check made out to you from the bush administration. here is some money. it's from the government. please go spend it. i'm not kidding. this is what they did. >> these rebates will provide eligible americans with payments of up to $600 a person, $1200 for couples and $300 per child. >> every man, woman and child in america getting free money from the government. thank you george w. bush. as you saw there he called it a rebate, but this wasn't a rebate. you weren't overcharged for something. your child had not paid too much money

and it was it could have easily been paid off if he had just maintained bill clinton's policies george w. bush cut taxes elbows in this country into debt to george w. bush almost as much as barack obama created the tea party the group of americans who are sick and tired already which is the reason why they can say about the koch brothers army sanity that was created by all the unparalleled spending that has occurred under those two presidents do you know. and that's what there was you see on your brother's create the tea party that was actually growing demand for the tea party in the form of many americans who wanted to restrict out of control spending and have drug coverage and they were clear why are you. here when the first ever because president because of all these are people are half republicans and half conservative they wouldn't they weren't organized to go up against bush it was much easier for them to go up against obama you will note i'm not even a so famous and. it is so easy to dismiss the arguments and assertions of people by throwing out the race card the truth of the matter is

so they have obviously studied some of the george w. bush playbook. i would obviously point out as well, they like that playbook better here at this white house than the george h.w. bush playbook where a sour economy ended up leaving him with just one term in office. they don't want to repeat, that jenna. jenna: that is a good point, ed. when will we see the portrait by the way? when do the public get to see what they look like? >> reporter: we'll see it when they unveil in the reese room. you've been here for some of the holiday parties. president kennedy's portrait is hang up there. president clinton. leaders of both parties. pretty cool when you walk around the residence area when you see that. i also wonder whose portrait will they take down to make way for president george w. bush. that getting a little political. jenna: that gets a little political. ed, we'll be back with you for more on this throughout the day. thank you very much. >> reporter: good to see you. jon: some brand new polling this morning from those battleground states that almost c

and goodman why is it that when george w. bush came into office when he gave his first state of the union address he famously in famously said we are going to pay off one hundred percent of all the debt that can be paid off that is all the debt that's not helped by the government itself within the next ten years which would have been last year he said we you know we're on a tart we're on path to have such a surplus we can pay off hundred percent of the federal debt he said this in his state of the union address and he was precisely what i was going to follow clinton's policy and that's what clinton area where you know he left. us correct as obama has said he was going to cut half that if they are geniuses of modern politics each is right as the other now but then they say the matter is that george w. bush came into office there was only aspire to have six trillion dollar debt and he said and it was it could have easily been paid off if he had just maintained bill clinton's policies george bush cut taxes elmos of this country into

chris is one of the military personnel here in texas for the ride organized by the george w. bushr led by president bush himself. >> the w-100 is a 100-kilometer mountain bike ride to honor our vets who have been wounded in combat to thank their families and to thank the groups that have helped them recover from serious injury. >> each of these warriors suffers from a devastating consequence of war, but chris, it's his leg. the ride is a chance to prove to their former commander in chief and to themselves what they can do. >> these are stories of courage, sacrifice, commitment. these are volunteers who wanted to serve the country, and they did and they suffered serious injury. >> december 2005 while serving in iraq chris is caught in a crossfire. >> kind of walked into about a 16-man prison break that apparently had killed their guards, their iraqi guards, taken their ak-47s, apparently you've grabbed a few other ak-47s and was trying to escape. they were coming right around the corner, about 16 of them, turn a corner and they were right there. i shot. they shot, and the process o