Bush, Rice Offer Obama Their Congratulations

John D. McKinnon reports on the White House. If President George W. Bush and his top aides were feeling hurt by Barack Obama’s thrashing of GOP candidate John McCain , they were keeping it to themselves. Bush’s Rose Garden statement on Wednesday morning appeared to reflect genuine admiration and even pride for the new president-elect’s remarkable story, and what it adds to the broader American story. For her part, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice seemed positively ebullient, taking the stage at a department daily briefing to offer her commentary. Both even echoed one of Obama’s most memorable lines from his victory speech Tuesday night, when he said: “That’s the true genius of America, that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.” “No matter how they cast their ballots, all Americans can be proud of the history that was made yesterday,” Bush said on Wednesday morning, ... (link)