Obama hails George H.W. Bush as 'one of the more underrated presidents'

Bush is “one of the more underrated presidents we have ever had” for his ability to balance principle and common sense, Obama said in a Fox News interview, which is scheduled to be broadcast on Friday.
 
“When you look at both how he managed foreign policy and when you think about how he handled domestic policy in each case he was thoughtful, restrained, and made good decisions,” he stated.
 
“And I think that ultimately he was one of the more underrated presidents that we’ve ever had certainly in modern times,” he added.
 
Obama had strongly criticized the hawkish foreign policy of his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush. But he praised senior Bush’s measured approach to international affairs following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
 
“I think that the Bush administration understood that for us to be able to re-imagine Europe and re-imagine the world was going to require restraint and care,” Obama said.
 
“His national security team helped to usher in, relatively peacefully, a transition to what we now know as a unified Europe, and purchased at least 25 years of relative stability and peace in relations between the United States and Russia," he noted.
 
Obama has often publicly complemented Bush, who also headed the CIA from 1976 to 1977, and served two terms as Ronald Reagan's vice president before being elected president in 1988.
 
Bush, who celebrated his 91st birthday earlier this year, reportedly suffers from a type of Parkinson's disease and uses a motorized scooter to move around.