Former Bush aide Dana Perino talks about time in the White House and finding love later

Since during election years the media’s focus shifts from the White House to the presidential campaigns, President George W. Bush’s former press secretary said that if the administration was on the front page, she was doing “something drastically wrong.”

Dana Perino, who currently hosts “The Five” on Fox News Channel, told a Club Book Rap April 24 that she hopes President Obama follows this formula as he nears the end of his term..

Perino’s book, "And the Good News Is: Lessons and Advice from the Bright Side," doesn't reveal the White House inner-workings like other books by former presidential aides, Perino said. She said that's because Bush called her into the Oval Office following the release of a predecessor’s tell-all book and said, “I don’t think you would ever do this to me.”

It drives Bush's critics crazy that he is so self-assured, Perino said. Bush “used to tell me, ‘Don’t worry about my legacy. If historians are still writing and analyzing the first president, George Washington, then the 43rd doesn’t have a lot to worry about.’”

Perino said she approached the job of White House press secretary as 50/50 -- 50 percent of the time she advocated for the White House and 50 percent of the time she advocated for press access to the president.

“If you cede ground to a government, it is very very difficult to ever get it back," Perino said, "so I would get calls from reporters after we left saying they were so angry, they were so upset, ‘What are we going to do?’ and I would say, ‘Guys, I can’t do anything to help you. Now, you have to really stand your ground.”

When asked for advice on what to do after college, Perino said to work on Capitol Hill for two years “because it is like getting a masters degree.”

Perino met her husband on an airplane in 1997. He is British and 18 years older. She left Washington to follow Peter McMahon to England. She has never regretted the decision. “Don’t be afraid to move and choosing to be loved is not a career-limiting decision,” she said.