GMA: Interview with Pres. Bush on His First 100 Days

W A S H I N G T O N,  April 25 -- Reflecting back on his first 100 days as President, George W. Bush says that the United States should do everything it can to defend Taiwan against a Chinese attack, and that he is not worried about Vice President Dick Cheney's health.

In an interview with ABCNEWS' Charles Gibson Tuesday, Bush touched on everything from U.S.-Chinese policy to what he considers his biggest mistake: letting others define his positions on the environment.

During the interview, the president told Gibson that he did not talk to his father while U.S. soldiers were being detained by China after their surveillance plane collided with one of Beijing's fighter jets.

However, shortly after the interview ended, the White House called Gibson with a clarification. Spokesman Ari Fleischer said the president had thought about the interview and recalled that he did talk to his father at the very end of the China crisis, before the crew was released.

The following is a transcript of the interview that aired on Good Morning America Wednesday:

ABCNEWS' CHARLES GIBSON: Mr. President, I'm not sure a 100 days is an important milestone, or a psychological one, but what would you give yourself as a grade for the first 100 days?

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Doing pretty darn good. I think we've laid a foundation for some serious change in Washington — first of all, a change of attitude. And, you know, Washington'd be a better place, a place where people spend more time trying to figure out how to bolster a political party, as opposed to an agenda for the people, and one way to describe… it's a zero sum attitude where you win and I lose, or I win and you lose. And I think we're beginning to change that attitude, and that's important.

GIBSON: So how does that translate into a grade?

BUSH: I'm not gonna give myself a numerical grade, only because people might think I was a little haughty if I did so. But, I appreciate what's going on here.

GIBSON: Biggest surprise that you've had so far, didn't expect, about being President?

BUSH: I guess how much I really enjoy the job. I find it to be a fascinating job.

It's a job for a decision maker. I make a lot of decisions, some of them significant; some of them may never make it to anybody's radar screen, but, but nevertheless a decision.

GIBSON: The thing you're most pleased about in the first 100 days.

BUSH: My team, and how well the team is working together. How there's a, a clear sense of all of us being here in Washington, working for something bigger than ourselves

GIBSON: Biggest mistake made so far.

BUSH: Probably wearing a red tie too many times. I don't know.

GIBSON: None of us gets through a 100 days, whether we're President, or not, without something…

BUSH: Well, I think maybe, perhaps, for example, allowing people to define me as somebody who's not friendly toward the environment, when in fact my administration has made positive strides toward, toward cleaning up the environment. We're going to reduce arsenic in drinking water; and yet, somehow, I get tagged for not wanting to reduce arsenic in drinking water. Lead regulation: I signed a treaty to… I mean, there's a lot of things that we're doing, that, are very positive for the environment.