Bush reflects on struggle with alcohol
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/12/11/art.bush.gi.jpg caption="Bush reflected on his own addiction to alcohol."]WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Bush reflected on his own struggle with alcohol in a White House meeting today to tout gains in the war on drug abuse.
CNN was the only media outlet invited to attend the entire meeting, which other reporters joined in the final minutes for remarks from the president.
Several in the room, including Don Coyhis of Colorado Springs, Colorado who runs a program targeting Native Americans battling substance abuse, were recovered addicts or alcoholics.
Bush, who quit drinking at the age of 40, was impressed.
"Congratulations on thirty years of sobriety," the president told Coyhis. "I'm eight years behind you."
The missing (current) president
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/11/04/art.mccain.bush.jpg caption="President Bush has been missing in action for the past few days."]
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Only one thing breaks the sound of silence at the White House today – the pounding of hammers outside the north fence as workers construct the inaugural parade grandstand.
President Bush, for the fifth day in a row, has no public events on his schedule. Even the daily White House briefing has been cancelled for Tuesday.
Mr. Bush and First Lady Laura cast their ballots for John McCain via absentee ballot on October 24th. In every preceding election, the President voted in person at the polls in Crawford, Texas.
Related: Bush absent from the campaign trail
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino says President Bush plans to stay at the White House tonight and watch election returns come in with family and friends, while celebrating Laura Bush's 62nd birthday.
At the White House briefing Monday, Perino commented not only on the president's absence from the campaign trail – but from the ballot.
Bush absent from campaign trail
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/POLITICS/11/02/bush.absent/art.bush.gi.jpg caption="President Bush has been absent from the campaign trail in the final days."]
WASHINGTON (CNN) - In the waning days of the election season, as both parties campaign fervently for their candidates, one man has been notably absent - President George W. Bush.
Reporters began asking questions immediately after the White House schedule last week noted Bush had no public events Friday through Monday, and would spend most of his time at Camp David.
Watch: President Bush in 'hiding'
"The president is pretty focused on the activities that we have here, especially getting this economy back in order," White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday.
"We canceled a lot of our fundraisers, and he's going to focus on being with Mrs. Bush and others this weekend at Camp David."
But Perino couldn't list any fundraisers that had been canceled recently.
Friday, Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto offered a more detailed explanation.
"The truth is we're also trying to stay out of the public limelight during this period of the election season," said Fratto. "There are two individuals out there running to be president of the United States, and we don't want to complicate that for them."
Political experts acknowledge the reality that a lame-duck president with record low approval ratings - 28 percent according to the latest CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll - is a political liability for Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
White House sends press corps al-Maliki praise for Obama plan
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/07/19/art.maliki.gi.jpg caption="al-Maliki praised Obama’s 16-month withdrawal plan in a newspaper report Saturday."]CRAWFORD, TX (CNN) - An embarrassing slip up for the White House press office Saturday, when an aide hit the wrong button and mistakenly sent to the news media a Reuters article saying Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki backs presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's troop withdrawal plan.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel says, "It was a mistake. Clips list for staff was supposed to be the addressee."
The Obama campaign quickly took advantage of the mistake, forwarding an ABC report detailing the incident to its press list.
This is not the first time the White House has emailed in error. But its timing is particularly embarrassing as the Bush administration's recent agreement with al-Maliki on a "general time horizon" for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq is being cited by some as resembling Obama's proposal that U.S. forces should leave within 16 months.
New regulations to be announced for No Child Left Behind
WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Bush administration will announce new regulations for its No Child Left Behind education program and propose a uniform graduation rate Tuesday, officials said.
The changes, to be announced by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings in Detroit, will "strengthen and improve" the No Child Left Behind law, deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel said.
He said the updates are a "follow on" to President Bush's comments in January, when he said that if Congress did not act this spring to update the law, the president would ask Spellings to strengthen it through administrative actions.
"She's done a lot of traveling around, talking to educators and policymakers about how to improve No Child Left Behind," explained Stanzel. "She's ... found consensus on several issues."
(Updated 12:03p to include new regulations)
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