"The tone hasn't been good in Washington, and I've been disappointed in that, and I bear some of the blame for that," Bush said in a television interview.

As a candidate running for the White House in 2000, Bush promised to be a "uniter, not a divider." He also said he believed he could "change the tone in Washington" and "move beyond the bitterness and the partisanship."

But what many saw as his my-way-or-the-highway approach to diplomacy and policy won him criticism for contributing to a more divisive public debate over issues.

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