President Bush & President Elect ObamaPresident Bush hopes for better treatment of Obama
 WASHINGTON (AP) - President George W. Bush says he hopes Washington treats Barack Obama better than it treated him.
Bush was asked at his farewell news conference Monday whether Obama can be the “uniter” that Bush had hoped to be.
Bush replied that he's been “disappointed by the tone” in Washington, and that he hopes that tone will be “different” for Obama.
He says people should feel free to disagree with Obama, but that he hopes they will still “treat him with respect.”
Bush is letting President-elect Barack Obama dictate when to seek access to the remaining $350 billion in financial sector rescue funds and says his successor had yet to ask for the bailout money.
“He hasn't asked me to make a request yet,” Bush told reporters Monday in what is likely the last press conference of his presidency. “And I don't intend to make a request unless he specifically asks me to make it.”
A request to Congress for the money could still come as early as Monday to permit Obama's administration to have the ability to use it shortly after taking office.
Bush is cautioning Barack Obama that he will face “disappointments” as president.
He says some of those disappointments will come from Obama's own friends. Bush says Obama will find that some people don't like him, and he'll hear from critics.
But he says the job is so “exciting” and “profound” that the disappointments will be a “minor irritant.” He says he thinks the phrase “burdens of the office” is overstated.
Bush says he doesn't think Obama will be “full of self-pity,” or that he'll feel “isolated” in the White House.
He points out that Obama will be just a “45-second commute” away from a great wife and two little girls who love him dearly.
Looking ahead to the inauguration, Bush said he considers himself fortunate to have “a front-row seat to what is going to be a historic moment.”
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