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Bush Talks Retirement In WV but Claims 'Not a Farewell Address'

July 31, 2008 12:32 PM

ABC News’ Jennifer Duck reports:  President Bush discussed energy and the economy with the West Virginia Coal Association today, but as the race for the next president gets more heated by the hour, many of Bush’s talking points turned to his upcoming departure in January.

“As you know, I'm fixing to retire in about six months,” Bush said in his opening remarks as the crowd laughed.  “But I'm going to sprint to the finish.  And part of that sprint to the finish will be to continue to remind the American people that we need to be realistic and have common sense, about today’s energy needs and tomorrow's energy needs.”

Pushing his domestic energy agenda, as he has done all week, Bush stressed the importance of coal and nuclear energy, and reiterated his frustrations with the democratic-led Congress who leave this week for a month without passing energy legislation.

“There's a lot of frustration building up, and people are looking at Washington to actually do something constructive,” Bush told the crowd. 

“I asked the Congress to lift the legislative ban in June and to allow there to be, you know, offshore exploration,” Bush continued. “Tomorrow's the first of August.  That is now six weeks since I made the request, and the Democratic leaders there hadn't done anything.  I -- members are fixing to go home on their August break.  They get to explain to their citizens why nothing positive has happened.  Looking forward to listening to the explanations.”

President Bush addressed the economic numbers out today admitting the GDP rate wasn’t as robust as economists had hoped but credited the stimulus package for the growth from the slow first quarter.

“We got some good news today, encouraging news, not great news, but encouraging news:  that in the second quarter the economy grew at a rate of 1.9 percent,” Bush said.  “Now, you know, it's not as good as we'd like it to be, but I want to remind you, a few months ago, there were predictions and -- that the economy would shrink this quarter, not grow.  But in fact the opposite has happened.  As a matter of fact, it's more than double the rate we saw in the first quarter.  That's positive.”

He ended with a bit of nostalgia and what sounded like a farewell before quickly reinserting his famous “sprint to the finish” line.

“This is a compassionate, decent, fantastic country.  And it's been my honor to be your president for seven-and-a-half years.  I'm proud to be here with you.  I'm proud to call you friends,” Bush said.  “This is not a farewell address.  I'm sprinting to the finish.”

July 31, 2008 in Veepstakes, Vote 2008: Democrats | Permalink | User Comments (3)

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Posted by: geevill | Jul 31, 2008 1:01:30 PM

Posted by: geevill | Jul 31, 2008 1:56:19 PM

Posted by: Tori | Aug 1, 2008 6:44:46 PM

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