Laura Bush: Obama Doing a Good Job

President Obama's doing a good job, Laura Bush tells CNN during a wide-ranging chat yesterday about life after the White House. "I think he has got a lot on his plate, and he has tackled a lot to start with," she said, "and that has probably made it more difficult."  And of the controversy over Obama's upcoming address to the country's schoolchildren, the former first lady says it's "really important for everyone to respect the president of the United States."

"I think there is a place" for the president "to talk to schoolchildren and encourage" them, Bush said, lamenting the polarization of American politics and acknowledging her husband's failure to reach across the aisle. Successor Michelle Obama is also "doing great," the former first lady said, in part by making the White House a home for her family. Both she and Dubya are keeping busy working on their memoirs, Bush said.
(More Laura Bush stories.)