Special Report today featured a lengthy interview with former President and Mrs. George W Bush. The interview aired on the day Bush’s Presidential Library opened. There were no questions about WMD’s, Katrina or the Great Recession. But Baier did not take long before giving Bush openings to criticize President Obama over the Boston bombings. Bush was gracious enough to turn them aside. But he did hint that he and Baier are palsy by making such comments as, “You know me well enough to know…” and later, “I play golf like you play golf.”

Baier asked, “Where were you when you heard about the Boston bombings?”

Bush replied, “I was here in Dallas, at home. You know, it did cause me to think back to our time in the White House. The lesson of 9/11 and the lesson of Boston is, evil exists. It’s a real phenomenon in the world. There are people who willingly murder innocent people, and therefore, the country can never really let its guard down. …I was very impressed by the response by the local, state, and federal authorities in this case.”

Baier said, a little more pointedly. “Is it in your mind that our country has forgotten 9/11 up until Boston?” When Baier said “our country,” what he undoubtedly meant was “under President Obama.”

Bush answered, “Well the tendency is to want to be comfortable and not think about terror. …Defending the homeland is incredibly difficult to do. …We have to be right 100% of the time, they have to be right one.” He spoke of the “unspeakable sadness I felt when somebody running a marathon and then boom.”

Later, Baier asked, “After the American experience in Iraq, do you think regime change can work and still be used effectively as a US tool for foreign policy?”

Bush wisely did not tout Iraq as a big success. He said, “Regime change has taken place since Iraq. Egypt and Tunisia, and obviously there’s a situation in Syria, and the question is not whether or not people will want to get rid of tyranny, the question is what do we do when they do. Are we going to retreat or we are going to be involved in helping civil society develop so democracies in the heart of the Middle East can evolve? …What I hope doesn’t happen is the American people say it’s none of our business because the Sept.11 exhibit says it is our business.”

Again Baier handed Bush  an opportunity to criticize the Obama administration: “Yeah, but I guess people look at the Arab Spring and other examples where the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt and they’re not really extolling freedoms currently and they say is that going in the right direction?” Translation: Is the Obama administration handling of the Middle East "going in the right direction?"

Again Bush declined to take the opportunity. “Well that depends upon whether or not there are a continuum of elections. …Democracies take time to evolve, and it seems like the role of those of us who are living in comfortable free societies ought to take an interest in the evolution of that democracy for our own national security.”

When Baier brought up the Republican party, Bush said, “We’re leaderless now. …We’ve been in the wilderness, and pretty soon our party will start coalescing around somebody to become our leader. I wish his name was Jeb. I have no idea if Jeb’s going to run.”

“But you want him to,” Baier prodded.

“Absolutely,.” Bush said.

Baier should have asked about Barbara’ Bush’s quote “We’ve had enough Bushes.” But it was no surprise that he didn’t.

Compare this interview with Baier’s contentious interviews with President Obama. Part 1 here, Part 2 here. Don’t forget, Baier, whose Special Report airs at 6PM ET, is supposed to be one of Fox’s “objective” news anchors.