Bush suddenly an interesting character again

[Undertoad]

The only benefit of being unemployed is that I get to be a news hound for a while again. The channels just had Bush's final press conference, and for 50 minutes the guy was more personable than he has been in about 5 years. His press conference performances have been wooden, a little nervous, not real strong on specifics, etc. a poor communicator. But here with all the politics out of the way, he was relaxed. And without it meaning much, the press was relaxed, it was more conversational. He could be candid about mistakes, including the "Mission Accomplished" banner, and some of his rhetoric.

Other things he would not take credit for, such as his reaction to Katrina, and the financial meltdown, which he described as disappointingly having happened on his watch.

Still, it was actually refreshing to see some of the guy's natural charm return, and he seemed bright and alert and a little funny, like he used to be. Totally gracious to Obama. You could see why his voters had a good gut-level feeling about him. The question then becomes why he lost that nature while in office. The sense I get, now, is that he was too overwhelmed to also be charming in any way.