Bush Prepares for Farewell Address

By Kent Klein

Washington
15 January 2009

U.S. President George Bush delivers his farewell address to the American people at 01:01:30 UTC. The speech will cover some of the highlights of Mr. Bush's eight years in office, and his hopes for the future. (Click here to listen to the speech)

"Tonight I'm going to give a farewell address to the American people. It's going to be a short one. But it's got a lot of meaning to it, as far as I'm concerned. I'm going to urge our nation to continue to engage the world with confidence - confidence in the transformative power of freedom and liberty," he said.  Mr. Bush previewed the speech earlier in the day, during a visit to the State Department. The president's top White House adviser, Ed Gillespie, says the speech will not be a list of Mr. Bush's accomplishments, but will thank the American people for the opportunity to serve.  "He will reflect on his time in office, the eight years here, and some of the experiences that he and the American people have been through together in that time. It is a presidency at a time of great consequence and a lot of major events," he said. While most recent presidential farewells have been broadcast from the White House Oval Office, Mr. Bush will speak from the much larger East Room, where he will have an audience featuring a number of Americans he met during his presidency. Mr. Bush will spend his final weekend as president at Camp David, the presidential retreat near Washington. His final public appearance will be Tuesday, when he greets President-elect Barack Obama at the White House before they ride together to the Capitol for Mr. Obama's swearing-in.