First family reflects on eight years in office

(CNN) -- As President George W. Bush prepares for his last week in office, he and First Lady Laura Bush spent time Tuesday talking with CNN's Larry King.

In a wide-ranging interview, the First Family reflects on the past eight years of the presidency, including 9/11 and the war on terror.

They also discussed what awaits President-elect Barack Obama and his family when he takes office on January 20. The following is an edited version of the interview.

Larry King: Are you going to miss it, Laura?

Laura Bush: I am going to miss it. I'm going to miss this beautiful house and all the people that work here. We're going to miss the people especially.

King: Are you anxious to go, Mr. President?

George Bush: I don't know if it's the right word. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to feel like on January 21. I've been, you know, I've had security briefings -- intelligence briefings nearly every morning for the last eight years. I'll wake up and not have a briefing and realize the responsibility is not on my shoulders anymore.

King: Are there ambivalent feelings?

George Bush: No. I don't think you can be ambivalent. I've been looking forward to the inauguration of Barack Obama. I'll have a front row seat in what is an historic moment for the country.

King: Do you like him?

George Bush: Yes, I do like him, and you'd like him, too.

King: But he was so critical of you. Do you take that personally or you don't?

Laura Bush: I did.

King: Were you angry at it?

Laura Bush: Yes, sort of. George didn't even really know about it because he didn't watch it that much, I don't think.

George Bush: When you make big decisions and tough calls, you're going to get criticized. During the course of this presidency, of course, I've been disappointed at times by the silly name-calling that goes on in Washington.

It's really not necessary that it happened. But I've done my best, though, to make sure I didn't bring the presidency down to that level.

King: How do you feel personally when you see the ratings and the polls that have you at 25, 30 percent?

George Bush: I don't give a darn. I feel the same way as when they had me at 90-plus.

King: Do you ever get the feeling -- and everyone has some doubts about some things -- that, you know, if I was wrong, if Iraq was wrong, then (the troops) died in vain and I sent them?

George Bush: I don't think Iraq was wrong.

King: No, but do you ever have a moment of feeling where it was wrong?

George Bush: I was worried Iraq was going to fail, not Iraq was wrong. That's why I put 30,000 troops in when a lot of people were saying, "Get out." The surges worked. A young democracy in the heart of the Middle East has taken hold, and, obviously, there's more work to be done.

King: Reagan once asked this, so we'll ask it, are we better off today than we were eight years ago?

George Bush: One thing is for certain today, we understand the real dangers that we face. Eight years ago, it looked like the world was peaceful and everything was just fine in the economy. Then, we had a recession, then we had an attack and now we've had this financial meltdown.

Everything looked like, on the international front that, you know, radicalism might be, you know, a problem over there, but not here. So one thing is for certain, there's a lot of clarity now on the threats we face.

King: Do you worry?

Laura Bush: Sure, I worry. I worried most right after September 11th. I mean for a long time, I worried a lot. I worried about another attack. I worried about the safety and the security of Americans. I mean everyone did. I think there isn't anybody that lives in the United States that didn't worry for a long time.

I think we've forgotten what it was like when we all worried and when a lot of people had anxiety, most people, probably that had watched television that day or had seen what happened.

I mean I think that's because we are more secure today, people are not as worried and they've sort of forgotten what it was like when -- when everyone woke up worried.

King: 9/11, what did it do to you?

George Bush: It made me realize my most important responsibility is to protect the country from attack.

King: It changed you?

George Bush: Yes, it changed me. It changed the country, too. I still have images of those days vivid in my mind. I told the American people I wouldn't tire and I wouldn't falter and I haven't.

King: Are we ever, ever going to find (Osama) bin Laden?

George Bush: Yes, of course. Absolutely. We have a lot of people looking for him, a lot of assets out there. He can't run forever. Just like the people who allegedly were involved in the East African bombings, a couple of them were brought to justice recently.

King: Did we ever come close?

George Bush: I don't know. I can't answer that.

King: You don't know.

George Bush: I really don't know. I'm not trying to hide anything.

King: You had two girls in the White House. What advice would you give Mrs. Obama on having two girls in the White House?

Laura Bush: Well, I would tell her this is a wonderful and grand home. It is a very nice home for a family, and we know that both from having been the children of a president ourselves, and then of course from having Barbara and Jenna here.

Barbara and Jenna took Sasha and Malia on a tour of the White House, showed them all the fun, you know, great things to do. This is a terrific house for hide-and-seek. They showed them how to slide down the ramp from the Solarium. I think those little girls will have a wonderful time living here.

King: Upon reflection, two more things: was Katrina the lowest point beyond foreign entanglements and 9/11.

George Bush: I think being called a racist because of Katrina was a low point. I can remember people saying George Bush is a racist because of the response, when, in fact, the truth of the matter is the response was pretty darn quick, if you think about the fact that the Coast Guard and a lot of brave kids were pulling 30,000 people off of roofs as soon as the storm passed, as soon as they found people on those roofs.

King: But a lot of mistakes happened too.

George Bush: Well, yes, at all levels of government, absolutely.

King: Do you think those mistakes, that we learned from them?

George Bush: No question. That's a good thing about government. By the way, we have had eight hurricanes, major hurricanes, and seven and a half were dealt with the way everybody expected them to be dealt with. The Mississippi part of Katrina was dealt with well, even though it was a really horrible hurricane.

King: I know you will be talking Thursday. Anything you want to say?

Laura Bush: Well, I wanted to say I am very grateful for the opportunities I have had because George is president. I have met wonderful people all over our country. I appreciate all of their prayers and all of their support and all of the millions of people who have thanked me. I appreciate that a lot.

George Bush: I want to say it has been a huge honor to be president. I have enjoyed it. I've been amazed at the character of the American people.

Julius Genachowski to Be Nominee for F.C.C. Chairman

WASHINGTON—President-elect Barack Obama intends to nominate Julius Genachowski, an adviser on technology issues and a longtime friend, to become the next chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, advisers to Mr. Obama said.

Mr. Genachowski, 46, played a leading role in the Obama campaign’s highly successful online strategy and was a major fundraiser for the campaign. He and Mr. Obama both attended Columbia, though they were in different classes. They became friendly at Harvard Law School, where they both served in top positions at the Harvard Law Review . They have also been basketball buddies.

During the campaign Mr. Genachowski shaped many of Mr. Obama’s telecommunications and technology policies. He advocated an open Internet in the debate over so-called net neutrality, and media ownership rules that promoted a diversity of voices on the airwaves.

While it is difficult to predict what direction Mr. Genachowski will take the commission, an analysis by Stifel Nicolaus, an investment firm, said that it expected that “the regulatory initiative is likely to shift” away from some from incumbent — like the large telephone companies — to new entrants and other “nontraditional telecom and media players” including such companies as Google, Yahoo and eBay.

It speculated that Mr. Genachowski would seek to spur competition among the wireless carriers as a counterbalance to the dominance of the telephone and cable companies. And it said that Mr. Genachowski is unlikely to be as aggressive in his approach to regulating the cable industry as the current chairman, Kevin J. Martin, has been.

Mr. Martin has not set a departure date, although he is widely expected to step down soon. If he leaves before Mr. Genachowski’s confirmation, then Mr. Obama is expected to name one of the two remaining Democratic commissioners — Michael J. Copps or Jonathan S. Adelstein — as interim chairman.

People involved in the transition said that Mr. Genachowski was a top candidate for both F.C.C. chairman and a new White House position overseeing technology issues that has not yet been fully defined.

If confirmed, one of his first challenges at the commission would be the conversion to digital television. The Obama transition team has asked Congress to delay the conversion, set for Feb. 17, because millions of viewers have been unable to obtain coupons to pay for converter boxes that would enable their sets to receive signals once broadcasters drop their analog signal. (The conversion would not effect viewers who subscribed to cable or satellite services.)

Over the last decade, the chairman of the F.C.C. has played a more expansive role in regulating the economy, particularly with the rise of the Internet and wireless communications. Now, as the new administration plans to make the expansion of broadband and Internet services a significant part of its stimulus package, Mr. Genachowski, with his close ties to Mr. Obama, could have a larger role in shaping economic policy than many of his predecessors.

Mr. Genachowski, the son of Eastern European Jews who fled during the Holocaust, is married to the documentary filmmaker Rachel Goslins, whose latest film, “Bama Girl,” documents the 2005 homecoming queen contest at the University of Alabama.

Upon graduating from law school, he clerked for Judge Abner J. Mikva of the United States Court of Appeals. Mr. Obama had turned down a clerkship with Judge Mikva. Mr. Genachowski later clerked for Supreme Court Justices William J. Brennan Jr. and David H. Souter.

He was chief counsel to Reed Hundt, an F.C.C. chairman during the Clinton administration. He then worked for eight years as a senior executive at the IAC/Interactive Corporation, run by Barry Diller. He also founded an investment and advisory firm for digital media companies and co-founded the country’s first commercial “green” bank.

Will Yahoo CEO move pave way for Microhoo?

While it's not certain that the appointment of Carol Bartz will ensure a Yahoo-Microsoft deal happens, one thing is clear: nothing was going to happen until Yahoo picked its new chief executive.

With reports that Yahoo is going to name the former Autodesk chief to fill Jerry Yang's spot, discussion logically shifts to whether the long-anticipated Microsoft-Yahoo search deal will now come to fruition.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has repeatedly said that he remains interested in a search partnership, but noted in an interview last week that it was hard to gauge where things were at with Yahoo amid its CEO search.

"No way to handicap it," he said, when asked how likely a search deal was. "I think at this stage, it's probably fair to say I'm not even sure Yahoo would handicap it."

Although it is always tough to gauge where Yahoo's board is, clearly in Bartz, Yahoo would be getting someone who knows what it is like to partner with Microsoft. (To see Bartz talking about Microsoft and other topics, check out this CNET video package.)

Some analysts have suggested that perhaps the biggest upside to Bartz's appointment would be that it makes a Microsoft deal more likely.

"Yahoo needed a CEO who buys a likely search deal with Microsoft at a philosophical level," Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Aggarwal said in an interview with CNET News. "Carol likely fits that requirement."

All Things D's Kara Swisher reports that Microsoft has a search deal proposal practically ready to hand over to Yahoo. Swisher said a deal could even be ready in time for Yahoo's earnings report on January 27.

I'm still trying to get confirmation on that front.

Update: No word from Microsoft, but Yahoo's board is apparently aiming to keep its door open.

"It depends on their offer," said a source familiar with the board's thinking. "If they were to come to (Yahoo) with an offer of $33 a share, (the company) would be stupid if to say 'no' now."