I didn't compromise my soul to become famous: Bush

Washington, Dec 18: 'I didn't compromise my soul to become famous' said US President George Bush. 'My effort to protect American people 'paying off', he added.

He was talking in an interview with FOX News. President Bush said: "I've been a war-time president. I've dealt with two economic recessions now. I've had, hell, a lot of serious challenges. What matters to me is I didn't compromise my soul to be a popular guy."

"Look, everybody likes to be popular. Everybody wants to be liked. But I just -- what do you expect? We've got a major economic problem and I'm the president during the major economic problem. I mean, do people approve of the economy? No. I don't approve of the economy. If you make decisions based upon polls, you'll be a failure as president," Bush said.

Financial crisis or handling of the Iraq war will not mar his legacy, as he prepares to leave office next month, Bush said."I will be known as somebody (who) saw a problem and put the chips on the table to prevent the economy from collapsing. I'm a free-market guy. But I'm not going
to let this economy crater in order to preserve the free-market system," Bush told FOX News.

'Disorganized bankruptcy or disorderly bankruptcy' would cause 'great harm to the economy,' Bush opined. After a 14 billion dollar bailout bill failed in the Senate last week, the Bush administration is considering several options.

Aside from letting the automakers file for bankruptcy, the administration could tap funding from the 700 billion dollars financial bailout bill.

ANI