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The Court of Public Opinion

Surprising when you stop to consider who it is, actually, the president and first lady work for...

(from the Larry King interview)

L. BUSH: It's tough. I mean, the polls, that's, you know that's...

KING: Though it's public opinion.

L. BUSH: You know, that doesn't -- don't really mean anything. The polls aren't important. But when you meet families who've lost someone there, you know, it's sad. It's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking for them, it's heartbreaking for us. It's heartbreaking for everybody in the United States.

(...)

G. BUSH: Let me tell you something about polls. If you had a president who worries about polls, that means you could have a president who makes decisions based upon the polls. We cannot achieve big goals and accomplish hard things if you're worried about opinion polls. The president that chases the opinion poll is the president that will have failed policy, in my judgment.

I like to tell people I would rather be -- when history looks back, I'd rather be judged as solving problems and being correct, rather than being popular.

Let's take a look at the problem solver at work, shall we?

Q On both of these. Does it concern you that the Beirut airport has been bombed? And do you see a risk of triggering a wider war? And on Iran, they've, so far, refused to respond. Is it now past the deadline, or do they still have more time to respond?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I thought you were going to ask me about the pig.