Bush: Chicago Is 'Best Run City'

CHICAGO (CBS) - President George W. Bush was joined by Mayor Richard M. Daley Thursday morning, as the former commander in chief promoted his new book and called Chicago "the best-run city in America."

Quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times, Bush said that on Sept. 11, 2001, "People forget that the Sears Tower was a target — a genuine target, and the mayor responded, and his people responded, brilliantly to the threats."

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"I oftentimes said that Chicago is the best-run city in America," Bush said as he lauded Mayor Daley at the event at the Union League Club of Chicago, 66 W. Jackson Blvd.

Mr. Bush said his memoir, Decision Points, opens with his wife Laura asking him, "Can you tell me a day in which you have not have a drink?"

"And the reason I started the book that way is that I was in the process of starting to describe the reader the person who makes the decision to run for president," Bush said.

"I wouldn't be sitting here if I hadn't quit drinking, and to answer your question, it was not that hard to reveal the fact that I drank too much and how I quit drinking…. I want somebody who reads the book to say, 'I can quit drinking too.'" Bush said. "If George W. Bush can quit, I can quit."

In Decision Points, Bush addresses the highs and lows of his presidency.

On Iraq, he says he's still sick about the fact that no weapons of mass destruction were found in the country. He said he feels terrible about that because a lot of the case for removing Saddam Hussein was based on upon weapons of mass destruction.

Still, Bush says the Iraqi dictator was just as dangerous without the weapons. Many protesters disagree, and say embroiling the country in a war that's claimed more than 4,000 American lives was not worth it.

Another controversy the president addresses is his response to Hurricane Katrina. Bush says in hindsight he should not just have flown over the flood ravaged city, but rather should have landed Air Force One to survey the destruction up close.

He said he realizes in hindsight that just doing the flyover made it look like he "didn't give a darn."

And on the day in 2005 when hip-hop star and Chicago native Kanye West said, "George Bush doesn't care about black people" on a live NBC fundraiser concert for Katrina relief, Bush said the claim is not true. He called it one of the most disgusting moments of his presidency.

He also weighed in on the $700 billion bank bailout at the end of his presidency, saying it was "necessary to save the country."

CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli and WBBM Newsradio 780's Mike Krauser contributed to this report.

In:
• Richard M. Daley
• George W. Bush