Sure to be fodder for the left, President Bush weighs his legacy.

“As the clock ticks down on his days in the White House, President George W. Bush is taking part in one of his last presidential rituals — helping to shape the perception of his years in office.

In an interview conducted earlier this month by his sister, Doro Bush Koch, Mr. Bush said he wanted to be remembered “as a person who, first and foremost, did not sell his soul in order to accommodate the political process.”

“I came to Washington with a set of values, and I’m leaving with the same set of values,” Mr. Bush said. “And I darn sure wasn’t going to sacrifice those values; that I was a President that had to make tough choices and was willing to make them. I surrounded myself with good people. I carefully considered the advice of smart, capable people and made tough decisions.”

In excerpts of the interview released by the White House, Mr. Bush did not explicitly mention the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or the war in Iraq, which many would consider to be the defining moments of his presidency.

But he said he wanted to be known “as somebody who liberated 50 million people and helped achieve peace; that focused on individuals rather than process; that rallied people to serve their neighbor; that led an effort to help relieve HIV/AIDS and malaria on places like the continent of Africa; that helped elderly people get prescription drugs and Medicare as a part of the basic package; that came to Washington, D.C., with a set of political statements and worked as hard as I possibly could to do what I told the American people I would do.”

Bush’s defining legacy was that after the largest attack ever on American soil he kept Americans safe and free from attack for the last eight years. Iraq is now a democracy - an absolutely unheard of concept ten years ago when every democrats clamored for an invasion.

He mentioned one of the most under reported but significant accomplishments of helping those with AIDS in Africa. In fact no other president has ever devoted more money and time to helping those afflicted, a point the Ny Times made in this January article:

“Dr. Jean W. Pape did not know what to expect in early January 2003, when he slipped away from his work treating AIDS patients in Haiti and flew to Washington for a secret meeting with President Bush.

Mr. Bush was considering devoting billions to combat global AIDS, a public health initiative unparalleled in size and scope. The deliberations had been tightly carried out; even the health secretary was left out early on. If President Bush was going to shock the world — and skeptical Republicans — with a huge expenditure of American cash to send expensive drugs overseas, he wanted it to be well spent.

“He said, ‘I will hold you accountable, because this is a big move, this is an important thing that I’ve been thinking about for a long time,’” recalled Dr. Pape, one of several international AIDS experts Mr. Bush consulted. “We indicated to him that our arms are totally broken as physicians, knowing that there are things we could do if we had the drugs.”

Nearly five years later, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — Pepfar, for short — may be the most lasting bipartisan accomplishment of the Bush presidency…

The global AIDS program is a rare exception. So far, roughly 1.4 million AIDS patients have received lifesaving medicine paid for with American dollars, up from 50,000 before the initiative.”

Granted it wasn’t all wine and roses but then - as any two-term president can attest - it seldom is. Yet compared to previous administrations the “tally sheet” of real scandal is scarce.

But in the things that mattered Bush shined and did the job. If for only making America a safer place which is beyond argument - his legacy is secured in this old soldier’s heart.

Thank you President Bush.