At the White House, Press Secretary Dana Perino was asked Monday about how President Bush has been taking this political season, where even members of his own party ran away from him. While many prominent Republicans have been busy on the campaign trail, President Bush has been spending his time at the White House and Camp David.

Dana Perino: “And this president was tested by a lot of different issues, and I think he’s taken those issues head on, and we can be proud of how we’ve addressed them. Everybody would like to be popular. You can all remember that back in high school. Everyone really wanted to be popular, and some of us just weren’t. But that doesn’t mean that you don’t have principles and values that you stay true to. And that’s what this president has done, and it’s what he’s taught a lot of us, including me.”