Posted on 01/20/2009 5:20:20 PM PST by Brilliant
Outgoing President George W. Bush said a mostly private good-bye to Washington, the capital he never fully embraced, then returned to a warm public welcome in Midland, the West Texas oil town he's always called home.
Mr. Bush offered a sometimes-emotional accounting of himself in speaking to an enthusiastic crowd in Midland Tuesday evening. "I gave it my all," Mr. Bush said, his voice growing husky. "Sometimes what I did wasn't popular, but that's OK. I always did what I thought was right."
Mr. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush were planning to spend Tuesday night and the next few days at their Crawford, Texas, ranch, as they prepare to move into their newly purchased home in Dallas.
With President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama waving from the Capitol steps, Mr. and Mrs. Bush departed Washington via a Marine helicopter just before 1 p.m. on Tuesday, heading for Andrews Air Force Base following Tuesday's noontime inauguration. At Andrews, the Bushes got a private sendoff from hundreds of cheering aides and supporters inside the cavern-like Air Force One hangar.
Mr. Bush told the crowd he was "thankful, grateful and I am joyful" for the opportunity to serve, according to an aide who was present, and said he also is "thankful to now be known as 'Citizen Bush.'"
He concluded by telling aides they should go out with heads held high. "We did not shirk our duty," Mr. Bush said. "We led with conviction..."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Actually, though, as far as I remember, the Bush Administration had only one conviction--Scooter Libby. How many did Clinton have? 20?
While clinton led with convictions...
“We did not shirk our duty.”
Classy.
Some people go to DC for awhile, then home. Others want to hang around after they should’ve gone home, like the guy who never really gets over his high school days and keeps hanging around. Others are like stalkers, trying to track every move someone makes, anticipate the route, interrupt any conversations.
Bump
God Bless You, President Bush and thank you.
(they DO call outgoing Presidents “presidents” until they leave this earth, do they not?)
May your retirement bring you much happiness.
Easy to sleep at night knowing you gave it your all, you did what you felt was right and just, and you kept us all safe at home Thank you!
And for that, Pelosi and Reid want him in an orange jumpsuit for life...
My answer: no where near enough
One thing is certain about President Bush. He is a man of character and class. That’s more than can be said about his replacement.
I thank God for GW. I can’t even fathom what our world would look like today if Gore had won. I wish the Bushs’ only the best. They were a class act. Never did President Bush deserve the treatment he got from the media @holes and the pukes in hollyweird. I’m glad they’re back where they belong. I know they were ready.
For all his faults, I will always be grateful to President Bush for bringing the Presidency back to where it should always have been, from a behavioral standpoint. He restored class, maturity and sobriety to the office.
Say what you will about his conservatism (which was lacking in many areas) but his ethics were strong.
I was so glad that, for the last eight years, I didn’t have to get up each day and wonder what flavor of corruption was tainting the office of the Presidency. I didn’t have to wonder who was preforming sexual acts on him under a desk, who he had groped, who he had sexually abused, who he had extorted money from or taken money from for political favors, and who around him was corrupt enough to harm our national security or political process for a handful of whore’s silver.
We didn’t have to consider ANY of those things for the classy First Lady either.
And the people GWB surrounded him with were largely clean of the stain of corruption and graft.
We may have disagreed with his policies, but we didn’t doubt for a second that they were there to do their jobs.
I know this for a fact because if there had been anything that the media and other liberals who suffered from BDS that they could have dug up, there is no doubt they would have, because they tried like hell.
But no matter. I salute President Bush for his steadfastness in a wartime situation. When everyone was trying to drag him down, he stuck to his guns.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I don't give a Rat's Ass what anyone says.
Sure, he was wrong on immigration and spending, should have never signed CFR and should never have let people walk all over him.
But he was the real deal. A real man who had ethics, principles, and knew right from wrong. The troops, by a wide margin, thought highly of him. That is good enough for me. God bless him.
I watched that speech in Midland. Very moving, the man has class, no doubt about it! After all the abuse Pres. Bush has received from the citizens he served, he is quite comfortable with the job he did and how history will remember him.
My guess is within four years, many of his critics will be looking back fondly at the “Bush years”.
He also said one of the things he plans to do now is write a book to record the thinking and actions behind the decisions he made while in office. I look forward to reading it.
Glenn Beck shared an inside observation. He spoke with GWB's speech writer, the speech was before the Iraq assault. He said to the speech writer, something about it didn't sit right and that this was about Iran.
The Speech writer smiled and said you got it...
Frig-um. IMHO the WOMD were their. The Wiz Kid from Google ( satellite operator ) saw the trucks taking them out. Poster :"Section9" stated they gave the clown gas to the Syria and Russia took back the nasty stuff via the Speznatz. My guess is GWB had to let Putin save face and not accuse him....
It was all about checkmating Iran and so far it worked.
But something bigger GWB did that frost the lefts Ass... He gave Iraq and Afghanistan Christian "Grace" i.e. unmerited favor. That favor was liberty because it was the right thing to do.
It riles them that this "Christian" man did this and the Secular Humanist couldn't play G-D rather than do his will.
They will never admit they see this gift or give him credit for it. They are so small these leftist scum.
The fact that our actions in the Middle East were in our own best interests does not diminish the fact that what we did was good.
The Liberals wanted to see President Bush, our troops and the mission fail.
That is the big difference. I do not want to see Obama be successful, because if he is, that is bad for our country. The liberals didn’t want Bush to succeed because that would have been good for our country.
You make a great points.
That is one of several pictures I have seen over the years, and is so touching and revealing. I recently read about how W spent time with, or wrote to, thousands of soldiers over the years. He visited many families who lost a soldier. We knew he did this, but the article I read said he had contact with almost all those who lost a son or daughter in the war. He went above what most presidents would do because of his kind heart and he knew he sent them to war as the Commander in Chief. I agree with you, he has many faults as do we all, but he has a very good and kind heart. Laura Bush is just a gem. What a perfect first lady. I will admire her always.
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