Decision Points: Bush is oblivious to current historians' / judges' verdict

from TODAY Show story that accompanies an excerpt ahead of Matt Lauer Reports (Monday Nov. 8 airing):

"Whatever the verdict on my presidency, I'm comfortable with the fact that I won't be around to hear it," he writes in the book, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.
Bush spoke at length with Lauer at his childhood home and church in Midland, Texas. He continued the in-depth interview in Dallas, Texas.
In the interview and in his book, Bush offers no judgment on his successor, Barack Obama, who repeatedly attacked Bush's economic policies on the campaign trail this year.
But he rejects accusations, which he said have come for years from both Democrats and Republicans, that he "squandered" the budget surplus left to him by his Democratic predecessor, Bill Clinton, when he took office in 2001.
"That never made sense. Much of the surplus was an illusion, based on the mistaken assumption that the 1990s boom would continue. Once the recession and 9/11 hit, there was little surplus left," Bush writes.
He also defends the bank bailout program that he began and Obama continued, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, that experts credit for saving the U.S. financial system from collapse in late 2008. Many conservatives call the program a waste of taxpayer money.