I think the job of a problem is to confront problems, not to pass them on to future Presidents and future generations.

You can't lead this country if your ally in Iraq feels like you question his credibility.

I think it's very important for the American President to mean what he says. That's why I understand that the enemy could misread what I say. That's why I try to be as clearly I can.

Probably the best reason to put me back in there is so that Laura has got four more years as the First Lady.

And so long as I'm the President, we will be determined, steadfast, and strong as we pursue those people who kill innocent lives because they hate freedom.

What the country needs is a leader who speaks clearly.

So that's — what — there's some ideas. And the — it's — my job is to like think beyond the immediate.

See, when they say, Deputy Attorney General, it means he's the number two guy at the Justice Department. He's the chief — he was the chief operating officer of the Justice Department. He was there when he heard the command given that we're at war.

REPORTER: You, yourself, have acknowledged that Osama bin Laden was not a central focus of the administration in the months before September 11th. "I was not on point," you told the journalist, Bob Woodward, "I didn't feel that sense of urgency." Two-and-a-half years later, do you feel any sense of personal responsibility for September 11th?
DUBYA: Let me put that quote to Woodward in context. He had asked me if I was — something about killing bin Laden. That's what the question was. And I said, compared to how I felt at the time, after the attack, I didn't have that — I also went on to say, my blood wasn't boiling, I think is what the quote said. I didn't see — I mean, I didn't have that great sense of outrage that I felt on September the 11th. I was — on that day I was angry and sad. Angry that Al Qaeda had — well, at the time — thought Al Qaeda — found out shortly thereafter it was Al Qaeda — had unleashed this attack. Sad for those who lost their life.

I laid out a doctrine that said, if you harbor a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorist. By the way, when the President says something, you better mean it. It turns out in this job — I, of course, meant it.

You can't see what you think is a threat and hope it goes away. You used to could when the oceans protected us, but the lesson of September the 11th is, is when the President sees a threat, we must deal with it before it — before it comes to fruition through death on our own soils, for example.

See, one of the interesting things in the Oval Office — I love to bring people into the Oval Office — right around the corner from here — and say, this is where I office.

I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign policy matters with war on my mind.

It's not a dictatorship in Washington, but I tried to make it one in that instance.