Much of my presidency was defined by things that you didn't necessarily want to have happen.

I want you to hear something interesting. I'm the first former president to be able to share the post-presidency with both my parents.

And those who served in my cabinet, some of whom honored me by flying down on the airplane today, Margaret Spellings, Secretary of Education, Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General. I wanna thank a fabulous staff of people. I was truly blessed to have people, uhh, work with me, people who came to Washington, D.C., not to serve George Bush, not to serve a political party, but they came because they wanted to serve the United States of America, and they did a fabulous job, and I be — will be forever grateful.

One of the things I did was spend time meeting with the families of the fallen. I want you to know that the Comforter-in-Chief was always the person who got comforted in those meetings.

In terms of the economy, look, I inherited a recession, I am ending on a recession.... Now, obviously these are very difficult economic times. When people analyze the situation, there will be — this problem started before my presidency, it obviously took place during my presidency. The question facing a President is not when the problem started, but what did you do about it when you recognized the problem.

I was in the Roosevelt Room and Chairman Bernanke and Secretary Paulson, after a month of every weekend where they're calling, saying, we got to do this for AIG, or this for Fannie and Freddie, came in and said, the financial markets are completely frozen and if we don't do something about it, it is conceivable we will see a depression greater than the Great Depression. So I analyzed that and decided I didn't want to be the President during a depression greater than the Great Depression, or the beginning of a depression greater than the Great Depression.

DUBYA: Clearly one of the most important parts of my job, because of 9/11, was to defend the security of the American people. There have been no attacks since I've been the president, since 9/11. One of the ma — major theaters against al Qaeda turns out to have been Iraq. This is where al Qaeda said they were gonna take their stand. This is where al Qaeda was hopin' to take —
RADDATZ: But not until after the U.S. invaded.
DUBYA: Yeah, that's — that, that's right. So what? The point is that al Qaeda said they're gonna take a stand. Well, first of all, in the post-11 environment Saddam Hussein posed a threat. And then, upon removal, al Qaeda decides to take a stand, and they, they're, they're, they're getting, they're becoming defeated, and I think, I think history will say that one, the world was better off without Saddam. Two, along with the Iraqi troops, we have denied al Qaeda a safe haven, because a young democracy's beginning to grow, which will be an important sign for people in the Middle East.

CHARLIE GIBSON (ABC NEWS): Do you feel in any way responsible for what's happening [with the recession]?
DUBYA: You know, I'm the President during this period of time, but I think when the history of this period is written, people will realize a lot of the decisions that were made on Wall Street took place over a decade or so, before I arrived in President, during I arrived in President.

I'm very fond of this part of the country. It's not that far away from my home state. And so, appreciate your time. Appreciate the good folks in this part of the world. I do want to thank all those who have said prayers for me and Laura during our presidency.

Welcome to the South Ground of the White House. It is a joy to be here with members of the armies of compassion.

I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office.

I've been — since I've been your President, I want to remind you we have been through a recession, we have been through a terrorist attack, we have been at war, we have had corporate scandals, we have had major natural disasters.

We've had seven years working together, a chance to have some pretty candid exchanges. And secondly — and this is his [Russian President Putin's] last — this will be our last face-to-face meeting as a presidency, and I'll thank him.

Let me start off by saying that in 2000 I said, vote for me, I'm an agent of change. In 2004, I said, I'm not interested in change. I want to continue as President. Every candidate has got to say change. That's what the American people expect.