For those of you who missed it, this had to be one of the best press conferences of the last 8 years. Noteworthy is the way in which this great man communicates, more straight talk and less political b.s.. You have to respect the ability of the guy to go into a room filled with people, many of whom absolutely loathe you(though no shoe throwers), and tell it like it is. Makes we wish he could have run for another 4 years. If McLame came as close as he did, I think Dubya had a shot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXX_Pxx-9QM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WK2BY6SO-4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeTUiEz-SSk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWO22jUFLFk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5qjCBjnJZI

what does "misunderestimated" mean?
All in all, very interesting. He had quite an eventful presidency.

They they estimated wrong.

You only listed 5, there were actually 7 parts. Here are the other 2. It's quite an interesting snapshot of history.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EIw39kqMo4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpe8rQz9V40

thanks for the list

The interview started well but goes downhill as soon as he starts talking about the war in Irak.
He seemed fairly genuine and honest though.

I think the worse mistake of his presidency was make right in the middle of it. When he got re-elected.

It sent the wrong message to other countries in the world. But I guess most Americans don't usually care about that.

Originally Posted by juliensimon

I think the worse mistake of his presidency was make right in the middle of it. When he got re-elected.

You mean the mistake Americans made... in re-electing him? Or the mistake he made by running for a second term?

One thing I was happy to see him do in his exit interview was personally dispute the left's version of history, especially on Katrina. You take misconceptions and lies being spoon fed to you by, interestingly enough, certain American media outlets, and you are left with a president who did pretty good, especially considering the adversity faced on his watch.

Even with the clarity of hindsight, I think most who voted for him are happy with their choice. Remember, he ran against Al Gore, inventor of the internet, and the traitor John Kerry, who couldn't even get a cabinet seat after he threw his ex running mate John Edwards under the bus by giving Obama his endorsement. With competition like that, he was a shoe in (Maybe analogous to Obama vs McLame?)

Without getting too heavily into arguing on the internet about politics (yawn), one of the fair points he made was that history will be the real judge as to which of his decisions were right and which were mistakes. Far too little time has passed for us to have real perspective on the situation.

I do look forward to having a strong, charismatic leader in Obama leading the country, as it will be a refreshing break from the same thing we've had for 8 years now. Part of the reason our democracy works so well is that the turnover in leadership brings fresh perspective to Washington on a regular basis. We should be proud that our country is able to unite around leaders of extremely diverse philosophies and backgrounds.

One of the things Obama can learn from Bush is that Bush was very good at deciding things resolutely without being easily swayed by his critics. Although I think Bush was sometimes resolute to a fault (his unwillingness to give up Donald Rumsfeld until very late in the game is an example of this), Obama can definitely learn from some aspects of this quality. The meeting of all the presidents hosted by Bush must have been very interesting for him indeed, and I suspect it will make him stronger as a President.