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According to the Secret Service, there have been more threats made against President Obama than there were against former Presidents George W. Bush or Bill Clinton at this stage in their presidencies.

Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama is not facing more threats to his life or security than the previous two presidents, according to the Secret Service.

At a hearing Thursday, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan said "the threats right now in the inappropriate interest that we are seeing is the same level as it has been for the previous two presidents at this point."

Sullivan rejected a figure in a recently published book by Ronald Kessler, "In the President's Secret Service." Kessler says the threat has increased 400 percent since Obama, the nation's first African-American president, took office.

In October, Kessler told CNN he stands by the figure even though a law enforcement source had told CNN it's false.

"There is about 3,000 threats a year under President Bush and now there are about 12,000. Of course, most of them are not credible, but they all have to be checked out," Kessler told CNN's "The Situation Room" in an interview with Wolf Blitzer in October.

He said he got the figure "originally from another agency, but I went over it with the Secret Service."

Sullivan, at a Congressional hearing about how a couple allegedly crashed a state dinner, brought up the 400 percent figure and rejected it, adding that he is "not sure where that number came from."

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, in an interview with CNN earlier this week, also said he was told the presidential threat level has not gone up under Obama.

(CNN) – Interesting how much President Obama sounds a bit like President Bush. Immediately, the president went to 9/11 at top of speech, talking about threat from al-Qaeda.

(CNN) - Before making judgments about the shootings at Fort Hood, a thorough investigation needs to take place, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said Thursday.

"It is imperative that we take the time to gather all the facts, as it would be irresponsible to be the source of rumors or inaccurate information regarding such a horrific event," Cornyn said in a statement.

"Once we have ascertained all the facts, working with our military leaders and law enforcement officials on the ground, we can determine what exactly happened at Fort Hood today and how to prevent something like this from ever happening again," he said.

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Related: Twelve killed in Fort Hood shootings, suspect alive, officials say

Related: Picture begins to emerge of Fort Hood suspect

A joint event featuring both former president has been cancelled.

Washington (CNN) - A representative for former President Bill Clinton is confirming a report that a scheduled event featuring Clinton and former President George W. Bush has been cancelled by the two ex-presidents.

Radio City Music Hall had announced that the two former presidents were set to share the legendary venue's stage on February 25.

But the New York Post reported on Wednesday afternoon that Bush and Clinton have cancelled the event because the promoter had "overhyped" the joint appearance.

In an e-mail to CNN, Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna confirmed the New York Post's report.

Earlier, McKenna had stressed that the New York event would not be a heated debate.

"Just a moderated conversation...no fireworks," he said.

Earlier: Bush, Clinton to appear at Radio City Music Hall

–CNN's Alexander Mooney and Kay Jones contributed to this report.

A joint event featuring both former president has been cancelled.

Washington (CNN) - A representative for former President Bill Clinton is confirming a report that a scheduled event featuring Clinton and former President George W. Bush has been cancelled by the two ex-presidents.

Radio City Music Hall had announced that the two former presidents were set to share the legendary venue's stage on February 25.

But the New York Post reported on Wednesday afternoon that Bush and Clinton have cancelled the event because the promoter had "overhyped" the joint appearance.

In an e-mail to CNN, Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna confirmed the New York Post's report.

Earlier, McKenna had stressed that the New York event would not be a heated debate.

"Just a moderated conversation...no fireworks," he said.

Earlier: Bush, Clinton to appear at Radio City Music Hall

–CNN's Alexander Mooney and Kay Jones contributed to this report.

Bush spoke at a 'Get Motivated!' event in Fort Worth, Texas Monday night

(CNN) - Former President George W. Bush made his debut as a motivational speaker Monday night, telling a Fort Worth, Texas crowd it's futile to waste energy chasing popularity.

"It's so simple in life to chase popularity, but popularity is fleeting, it's not real," Bush said at a "Get Motivated!" business seminar, a multi-city event its organizers describe as an "energizing, action-packed, star-studded, fun-filled, spectacular stage show."

The president himself saw wild popularity swings during his eight years in the White House, garnering nearly a 90 percent approval rating in the months following the attacks on September 11, 2001 and exiting office with only the support of 31 percent of Americans, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll.

The former president was greeted enthusiastically by the 11,000 attendees of the event, according to the Fort Worth Telegram, and he spoke casually for about 20 minutes.

Event organizers declined to disclose how much the former president was compensated for the appearance, though former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani received $100,000 for a similar speech at the event two years ago.

Bush, who has made few public appearances or statements since leaving office nine months ago, also took the opportunity to reflect on his presidency.

"Every single day, I was honored to be your president by bringing honor and dignity to the office," he said. Bush also added later that his faith played a large role in guiding his decisions: "From a personal perspective, I don't see how you can be president without relying upon an almighty."

Colin Powell, the former Bush Secretary of State who sparred with many members of the president's inner circle over the invasion of Iraq and endorsed Barack Obama's presidential bid - also spoke at the event and offered high praise of his ex-boss.

"We are safer than we were before 9-11 because of President Bush," Powell said.
The former president is also scheduled to participate in another "Get Motivated!" seminar in San Antonio, Texas on December 2, according to the company's Web site.

"For a limited time only," the Web site says, tickets are available for that event at $4.95 per person or $19 for a group.

Follow Alex Mooney on Twitter @awmooneycnn

George W. Bush wants to help people 'Get Motivated!'.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former President George W. Bush has a new speaking gig.

Bush will be featured as the "special guest speaker" at an October 26 "Get Motivated!" business seminar in Fort Worth, Texas, according to an announcement on the organization's Web site.

Tamara Lowe, the Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Get Motivated Seminars, Inc., said in a phone interview that the former president will appear live and in person at the upcoming event. Lowe estimated that Bush will speak for roughly 20 minutes. Lowe also said that the company has all the necessary safety precautions in place to host a former president.

Bush's former Secretary of State Colin Powell and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani are set to join Bush at the October 26 event.

The former president is also scheduled to participate in another "Get Motivated!" seminar in San Antonio, Texas on December 2, according to the company's Web site.

"For a limited time only," the Web site says, tickets are available to the October and December events for $4.95 per person or $19 for a group.

CNN is awaiting confirmation from a representative of the former president about the scheduled appearances at the seminars.

George W. Bush wants to help people 'Get Motivated!'.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former President George W. Bush has a new speaking gig.

Bush will be featured as the "special guest speaker" at an October 26 "Get Motivated!" business seminar in Fort Worth, Texas, according to an announcement on the organization's Web site.

Tamara Lowe, the Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Get Motivated Seminars, Inc., said in a phone interview that the former president will appear live and in person at the upcoming event. Lowe estimated that Bush will speak for roughly 20 minutes. Lowe also said that the company has all the necessary safety precautions in place to host a former president.

Bush's former Secretary of State Colin Powell and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani are set to join Bush at the October 26 event.

The former president is also scheduled to participate in another "Get Motivated!" seminar in San Antonio, Texas on December 2, according to the company's Web site.

"For a limited time only," the Web site says, tickets are available to the October and December events for $4.95 per person or $19 for a group.

CNN is awaiting confirmation from a representative of the former president about the scheduled appearances at the seminars.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday that former President George W. Bush's administration was "unrealistic" in its dealings with the war in Afghanistan.

Clinton told CNN the Bush administration was unrealistic both in terms of the number of U.S. soldiers it committed to the conflict and in its
relationship with certain Afghan political leaders.

The war was "under resourced" since its start in 2001, she said, and she indicated the Bush administration's attention was improperly shifted to Iraq.

George W. Bush meets with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - A spokesman for George W. Bush told CNN Wednesday that the former president currently "has no plans of tweeting."

On Tuesday, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone met with Bush at the World Knowledge Forum in South Korea. Bush told Stone he got a BlackBerry (while in the White House, Bush did not have e-mail). Stone, tweeting about the meeting, wondered if Bush would join the social networking site. The question quickly spread on numerous technology blogs, and on Twitter for the past two days.

Could Bush join last year's Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, on Twitter?  At least for now, the answer is no. Bush spokesman Dave Sherzer told CNN Wednesday that the former president had enjoyed meeting Stone, but tweeting wasn't currently on his agenda.

UPDATE: The Twitter name @GeorgeWBush is being held by the George W. Bush Foundation, a foundation spokesman confirmed to CNN Thursday, but there are currently no plans to start using the account.

Follow Eric Kuhn on Twitter @KuhnCNN

George W. Bush meets with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – After leaving the White House last year, George W. Bush has kept a low profile. He moved back to Texas and began writing his memoir. But on Tuesday, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone met with the former president. Bush said he just got a new BlackBerry. Stone, tweeting about his meeting, wondered if Bush will begin tweeting.

Someone has claimed the Twitter name @GeorgeWBush and added a photo, although there is currently no way to verify who is behind the account.

A 'surprised and humbled' Obama said he would accept the Nobel peace prize as a 'call to action.'

LONDON (CNN) - Did President Obama land a Nobel peace prize at such an early stage of his presidency simply because he's not George W. Bush?

Diplomatic circles are certainly not dismissing such a notion and a "surprised and humbled" Obama has himself agreed that the award (for which nominations had to be submitted only two weeks after his inauguration) can hardly have been a recognition of anything he has yet accomplished. It is a prize for aspiration rather than achievement.

One of the best deliberate laughs Bush obtained in his last days in office came when he expressed himself pleased at the street reception during his attendance at a NATO summit in Romania.

"A lot of the crowd were waving... some of them with all five fingers," he said.

Bush was acknowledging that many in Old Europe at least could not wait to say goodbye to a man whom they saw as a Cold Warrior at heart, the president who had led the world into a disastrous intervention in Iraq and a man heading a gas-guzzling nation who was not prepared to help the world cope with climate change.

For many Europeans, the chief concern through the long, drawn-out race for the Democratic nomination and through the presidential election was that the result should give them anybody but Bush.

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Alluding to his 2006 comment about former President George W. Bush, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday 'It doesn't smell like sulfur anymore.'

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) - Drawing on 2006 remarks in which he compared former U.S. President George Bush to the devil, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, speaking at the United Nations Thursday, said, "It doesn't smell like sulfur anymore."

In a rambling speech at the U.N. General Assembly, Chavez spoke highly of current President Barack Obama, saying he is an "intelligent man" and comparing him to President John F. Kennedy.

"I hope God will protect Obama from the bullets that killed Kennedy," he said. "I hope Obama will be able to look and see, genuinely see, what has to be seen and bring about a change."

Three years ago, Chavez spoke at the gathering the day after Bush spoke, and said the lectern "still smells of sulfur."

But on Thursday he looked around the podium and said, "It doesn't smell of sulfur. It's gone. No, it smells of something else. It smells of hope."

He did, however, criticize some U.S. policies, questioning whether there are "two Obamas."
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Latimer said on CNN on Wednesday that he has 'no regrets' about writing a tell-all memoir about his time spent in George W. Bush's White House.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former speechwriter Matt Latimer said on CNN on Wednesday that he has "no regrets" about writing a tell-all memoir about his time spent in George W. Bush's White House.

Latimer, whose new book, "Speech-less: Tales of a White House Survivor," just hit bookstores this week, has been under fire from many members of the previous administration for alleging that Bush had never heard of Sarah Palin and that he had called her "not even remotely prepared" for the national stage.

"I think the president made a smart political assessment, which is this is something that Gov. Palin and her family weren't prepared for, the spotlight is going to be thrust on them," Latimer told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "I don't know if it was a concern or criticism of the McCain campaign for the way they brought her out, but it was a warning and the president said let's wait a few weeks and see if the bloom's off that rose, meaning it's too soon to tell how Gov. Palin would come across to the American people."

Latimer said his goal was to be a "tape recorder" to show what Bush and other members of his administration were really like. He noted that Bush used "salty language" and recalled a discussion about Hillary Clinton.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – The United States is dropping plans for a controversial missile defense shield and replacing it with a "new missile defense architecture in Europe," President Barack Obama said Thursday.

The new system "will provide capabilities sooner, build on proven systems and offer greater defenses against the threat of missile attack than the 2007 European missile defense program" proposed by former President George W. Bush, Obama said.

He did not go into details about the new plan, but said it had received the unanimous support of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Obama said the change of gears was based on an "updated intelligence assessment" about Iran's ability to hit Europe with missiles.

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Bush on Obama: 'This guy has no clue'.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former President George W. Bush "seemed to feel considerable unease" with John McCain as the Republican presidential nominee, according to ex-speechwriter Matt Latimer in his tell-all memoir on his days in the White House.

In Latimer's new book, "Speech-less: Tales of a White House Survivor," set to hit bookstores on September 22, he reveals Bush's reactions to the economic collapse, the presidential campaign, and other memorable events. GQ published an excerpt from the memoir in its October issue.

Latimer said Bush liked Mitt Romney best and that he was "clearly not impressed with the McCain operation." Latimer said the former president wanted to appear with McCain at a campaign event in Phoenix, but after he was told the then-Republican nominee couldn't get enough people to show up, he called it a "cruel hoax."

"'He couldn't get 500 people? I could get that many people to turn out in Crawford.' He shook his head. 'This is a five-spiral crash, boys.'"

Bush presumed Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee, according to Latimer, and was extremely critical of Barack Obama. Latimer said Bush was "ticked off" after one of Obama's speeches and he said the future president wasn't "remotely qualified" for the challenges of the job.

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Bush reportedly said Palin was unprepared for the national stage.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – A former aide to George W. Bush and Sarah Palin is dismissing a claim by onetime Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer that the former president was clueless about Palin when she was tapped as John McCain's running mate last August.

Latimer writes in a new book - scheduled for release in October - that Bush wasn't even aware of Palin when she was picked.

"'What is she, the governor of Guam?'" Bush reportedly asked. Latimer also writes that Bush told aides that the then-Alaska governor was "not even remotely prepared" for the national stage.

But Jason Recher, who served as special assistant to President Bush and as a traveling aide to Palin during the campaign, said the former President was well aware of Palin - especially since the two met in person in Alaska just three weeks before Palin was added to the Republican ticket.

During a stopover in Fairbanks on the way to the Beijing Olympics last August, Recher said Bush met with Palin and even made a knowing reference to her rising reputation in the Republican Party.

"The president was fully aware of who Sarah Palin was," Recher told CNN. "Even so much that when he greeted the governor and Todd in Fairbanks during a re-fueling stop on the way to the Beijing Olympics, he threw open his arms and said "Madam Vice President!'"

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The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation polled Americans on the eve of Obama's second 100 days in the White House.

TOPICS: Obama, Congress, economy, race relations, unemployment, Afghanistan, health care, Michael Jackson, Joe Biden, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Sarah Palin, John McCain, George W. Bush, Democratic Party, Republican Party, Sonia Sotomayor, Henry Louis Gates

Full results (pdf)

RELATED STORIES:
- Obama receives a C+
- Obama receives a C+ on foreign affairs
- Obama receives a C- on health care
- Obama receives a C on the economy
- Clinton receives a B-
- Biden receives a C
- Senators receive a C+
- Congress receives a C-
- GOP congressional leaders receive a C-
- Media receives a C

A demonstration in Chicago in 2006 protests the Bush administration's wiretapping program.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The highly controversial warrantless surveillance program initiated by President George W. Bush began within weeks of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a newly released report to Congress compiled by the inspectors general of the nation's top intelligence agencies, the Pentagon, and the Justice Department.

The report, mandated by Congress, provides context to information that has been leaked in press accounts and buttressed by congressional testimony and in books authored by former officials involved in the surveillance effort.

The report notes that several members of Congress - including then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Nancy Pelosi - were briefed on the program on October 25, 2001, and a total of 17 times before the program became public in 2005.

Among other things, the report also cites a Justice Department conclusion that "it was extraordinary and inappropriate that a single DOJ attorney, John Yoo, was relied upon to conduct the initial legal assessment of the (surveillance program)."

"The lack of oversight and review of Yoo's work ... contributed to a legal analysis of the (program) that at a minimum was factually flawed," it says.

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