from yahoo:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) said he regretted sending the wrong impression of the United States when he used phrases like "Bring 'em on" and "dead or alive" in his first term and pledged to be more diplomatic.

In an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters to be broadcast on Friday, Bush said some of his past remarks were too blunt.

"'Bring it on,' was a little blunt," the president said in a transcript of the interview released on Thursday.

"I remember when I talked about Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), I said we're going to get him dead or alive. I guess it's not the most diplomatic of language," Bush said.

The president in July 2003 used the phrase "Bring 'em on" when speaking of insurgent attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq (news - web sites). The comment was widely interpreted as a challenge to the insurgents but Bush said his intent was to rally U.S. troops.

Days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Bush said he wanted to catch Osama bin Laden "dead or alive," a phrase that reinforced the U.S. president's international image as a cowboy.

Bush said his wife, Laura, disapproved and "chewed me out right after that."

"So I do have to be cautious about, you know, conveying thoughts in a way maybe that doesn't send wrong impressions about our country," he said.

Asked about bin Laden, who remains at large, Bush reiterated his vow to "bring him to justice."

Bush's expressions of regret over his use of language contrasted with his comments at a news conference in April 2004, when he struggled for an answer to a reporter who asked him to name his biggest mistake since the Sept. 11 attacks.

In another mea culpa, the president said he felt his administration had done a poor job bolstering its image in the Muslim world.

"Our public diplomacy efforts aren't ... very robust, and aren't very good, compared to the public diplomacy efforts of those who would like to spread hatred and ... and vilify the United States," Bush said.

But he said he thought U.S. efforts to aid victims of the Dec. 26 Indian Ocean tsunami would help improve Washington's image abroad.

DISASTER TO THE RESCUE AGAIN! as someone posted on DU observes, the total picture isn't lost.

1. A tape appears in which eevil moslem "terrists" chide Bush for saying "bring it on"

2. Of course, no one knows where the tape came from--and as usual no one questions its authenticity

3. Right on cue, Bush makes this statement: "Gee, I guess I was undiplomatic"... and we're supposed to read into that: "I'm just a rough-hewn man from the back country... kind of a rail-splitter type, like Lincoln... did I ever tell you all how I used to read by firelight in my family's primitive room in the Waldorf-Astoria... I'm just like you people... a real man of the people..."

4. Everyone smiles and thinks, "Gee, he's just one of us... not some guy from the rarefied rich..."

At least when Sam Ervin said "I'm just a little old country lawyer", he knew he was making a joke, and he knew people knew he was making a joke.