Bush, Candidates Meet At White House

In video just released by the White House, President Bush thanked the "presidential candidates" for coming to Washington and praised members of Congress for working in a bipartisan way on a bailout deal.

Bush didn’t mention Barack Obama or John McCain by name, and the candidates — sitting at opposite ends of a long conference table — were barely visible in the video.

Bush said that his "hope" is that an agreement can be reached "very shortly."

UPDATE: The full text of the president's comments, as released by the White House:

"I want to thank the leaders of the House and the Senate for coming. I appreciate our presidential candidates for being here, as well.

We are in a serious economic crisis in the country if we don't pass a piece of legislation. I want to thank the spirit of bipartisan cooperation that's taking place here in Washington. One thing the American people have to know is that all of us around the table take this issue very seriously and we know we've got to get something done as quickly as possible. And this meeting is an attempt to move the process forward. My hope is that we can reach an agreement very shortly.

I want to thank the Secretary of the Treasury for working hard with the members. I thank the members for working long hours like they've been doing to come up with a solution that's bipartisan and that will solve the problem."