All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

Mark Knoller is a White House correspondent for CBS News.

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Press Secretary Dana Perino said President Bush was in the Oval Office at 6:55 a.m. this morning.

He made some phone calls, talked to National Security Advisor Steve Hadley, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and took a call from his former Chief of Staff Andrew Card.

Mr. Bush then talk a last walk around the South Lawn, and is now spending his last moments in the White House with his family until the Obamas arrive just before 10 a.m.

Perino herself was in the press room giving out her last supply of M&M's with the presidential seal and Mr. Bush's signature on them.

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Click Here For All Of CBSNews.com's Special Inauguration Coverage

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Today, President Bush held his final news conference. He was more introspective than usual, more forthcoming about the extraordinary events of the past eight years.

He admitted to some regrets, saying his tough Texas talk might have been too much at times. Standing in front of a "Mission Accomplished" banner in May of 2003, he says, was clearly a mistake. More than five years later we are still at war.

But perhaps the most stinging moment came when a reporter asked if President Bush's time in office had damaged America's moral standing in the world. President Bush feels strongly that it hasn't.

On January 21, he'll once again be George W. Bush, private citizen. The challenges and opportunities that come with the presidency will belong to another man.

May President-elect Obama heed the history lesson President Bush presented today when he said, "in this job, there are no do-overs.

Peter Maer is a White House correspondent for CBS News.

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The old Frank Sinatra song "My Way", especially the refrain "Regrets I had a few...." comes to mind following President Bush's final news conference.

It was a defiant, wistful and sometimes unusually introspective performance.

Mr. Bush elaborated on his intention to let history be the final judge of his White House years. He told reporters, "I've had my time in the klieg lights." But as he heads into his last full week in office, the president clearly hopes to control the focus of those lights on his legacy.

Reflecting on the sour economy, Mr. Bush said, "I readily concede I chucked aside some of my free-market principles when I was told by chief economic advisers that the situation we were facing could be worse than the Great Depression."

He said, "I inherited a recession. I'm ending on a recession." But Mr. Bush also inherited a balanced budget. There was no mention of the massive budget deficits that have piled up over the past eight years as he defended the tax cuts that some critics blame for much of the red ink. Mr. Bush insisted the cuts were "the right course of action." In something of an understatement, he said his successor "would have his hands full with the economy."

He was surprisingly frank ...

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Mark Knoller is a White House Correspondent for CBS News, temporarily reporting from the CBS News Pet Desk at the White House.

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You had to feel sorry for India the Cat as the least-known member of the First Family. She never got quite the same level of public attention or affection as the Bush Family dogs Barney and Miss Beazley.

Quietly this morning, the First Lady’s press office let it be known that India, a black American Shorthair, died yesterday in the White House at the age of 18.

The story goes that India got her name from one of the Bush’s twin daughters, Barbara. When she was nine, she named the cat for former Texas Ranger baseball player Ruben Sierra – who was called “El Indio.”

The Bush Family also took to calling the cat “Willie” or just plain “Kitty.”

One of India's favorite pastimes, according to First Lady Laura Bush, was to sun herself on a chair near the Palladian window at ...

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You've seen him assaulted with a shoe, but care to see President Bush "hung?" That's a scenario Mr. Bush decided was worthy of a joke this morning in Washington.

"I suspected there would be a good-size crowd once the word got out about my hanging," the president said at the unveiling of his portrait at the National Portrait Gallery. The portrait by Robert Anderson – a classmate of Mr. Bush at Yale – will be hung in the exhibition “America’s Presidents," and available for viewing starting tomorrow.



White House correspondent Mark Knoller writes: "Since the gallery now has portraits dating back to George Washington, he noted the symmetry - from George W. to George W."

Mr. Bush also noted that the artist said he had a lot of trouble with Mr. Bush's mouth "and I told him that makes two of us," the president said ...

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Mark Knoller is a White House Correspondent for CBS News. He was one of the small pool of reporters to accompany President Bush on his trip to Iraq and Afghanistan.

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It was President Bush’s last trip to Iraq and Afghanistan – two places in which Americans were still engaged in wars begun on his watch – and a guy throwing his shoes was the big story.

The jokes on Air Force One about that incident Sunday in Baghdad were flying faster than those shoes.

Even the president couldn’t resist – beginning an interview by telling reporters on the flight out of Iraq that he didn’t know what the shoe-hurler was saying – “but I saw his sole.” (Get it? Shoe sole?)

“It was a bizarre moment,” said Mr. Bush, and with mock pride he trumpeted his reflexes in ducking out of the way of the airborne footwear. “So you weren’t a lame duck,” I kidded the president to the moans and groans of his aides and my colleagues.

Back in the press cabin: “I bet they’ll be serving us “shoe-fly pie,” said one reporter.

“We’ll probably have to go shoe-less to the next press conference,” said another.

We wondered if the shoes thrown at the president were “wing tips," and whether the Secret Service would issue agents a new manual on “the taming of the shoe.”

And though President Bush was unscathed from the incident, Press Secretary Dana Perino suffered an injury. She was hit in the face by a heavy metal microphone stand that was swung around at her as security personnel rushed the shoe-hurler. It left her with a dark bruise under her right eye.

“Guess you could call that a shoe shiner,” a reporter said later...

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Everyone was all smiles when 43 welcomed 44 to the White House today. President and Mrs. Bush gave Barack and Michelle Obama a walk through their new home. It had to be a bit awkward, though. If you listened to any Obama campaign speech, Mr. Bush's name was practically a four letter word.

Still, he wasn't defeated by Mr. Obama. President Bush's father had to show around the newly elected Bill Clinton after being fired by voters.

We're not being told exactly what went on in the oval office today. Historically, some first meetings have gone better than others. Dwight Eisenhower is said to have been impressed by JFK, but FDR wanted nothing to do with the outgoing Herbert Hoover.

These men are seasoned politicians who can put their differences aside. Each promises a smooth transition over the next 10 weeks. With two wars and the worst economic crisis since the depression, we deserve nothing less.

Mark Knoller is a White House Correspondent for CBS News.

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To hear the White House tell it, one factor in the House vote yesterday against the administration’s bailout plan – was the word "bailout."

"It’s really unfortunate shorthand for a very complicated issue." says White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto.

He says the administration plan to rescue the financial markets is "not a bailout for Wall Street" and "certainly not a bailout for Wall Street CEOs."

Okay then – what should we call it?

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Mark Knoller is a White House Correspondent for CBS News.

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With no fanfare and little notice, the national debt has grown by more than $4 trillion during George W. Bush’s presidency.

It’s the biggest increase under any president in U.S history.

On the day President Bush took office, the national debt stood at $5.727 trillion. The latest number from the Treasury Department shows the national debt now stands at more than $9.849 trillion. That’s a 71.9 percent increase on Mr. Bush’s watch.

The bailout plan now pending in Congress could add hundreds of billions of dollars to the national debt – though President Bush said this morning he expects that over time, “much if not all” of the bailout money “will be paid back.”

But the government is taking no chances. Buried deep in the hundred pages of bailout legislation is a provision that would raise the statutory ceiling on the national debt to $11.315 trillion. It’ll be the 7th time the debt limit has been raised during this administration. In fact it was just two months ago, on July 30, that President Bush signed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act, which contained a provision raising the debt ceiling ...

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Republicans ramp up their convention in St. Paul tonight. With millions of Gulf Coast residents anxious about damage from Hurricane Gustav, yesterday's opening session was all business with none of the usual hoopla.

Tonight's schedule includes an address by President Bush, who won't be in the convention hall, appearing instead on a giant video screen from the White House.

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Katie Couric's Notebook: Bush Keeps A Distance

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That could be a good thing for John McCain. Hurt by Iraq and a sour economy, Mr. Bush has an approval rating of just 28 percent. So, McCain doesn't want to get too close. After all, Barack Obama's been telling voters that McCain is running for Mr. Bush's third term.

The two Republicans disagree on issues that include global warming and diplomacy, but they're in sync on others: The economy and Iraq. So, Sen. McCain's not just running against Obama. He's also campaigning against the notion that he's simply President Bush the sequel.