Posted on 01/17/2010 10:18:06 PM PST by Saije
For the first time in a year, he was roaming the halls of the West Wing, greeting ushers and Secret Service officers by name and being briefed in the Oval Office on the latest crisis. As former President George W. Bush strode into the Rose Garden with that same broad gait, his eyes searched for familiar faces.
Mr. Bush’s return to Washington this weekend after a year off the political stage brought the 43rd president full circle. The commander in chief who summoned predecessors to the White House after natural disasters was now one of those being summoned. The president who was blamed, fairly or not, for the response to Hurricane Katrina was now being given the chance to put lessons learned to work in Haiti.
His re-emergence in the national arena almost a year to the day after flying home to Texas came with all the accouterments such occasions command. Five back-to-back appearances on the Sunday television talk shows alongside his fellow former president, Bill Clinton. A commercial taped from the White House Map Room appealing to Americans for help. A new Web site marrying his name with Mr. Clinton’s to organize an ambitious relief effort...
***
The Sunday interviews were organized on the condition that they stuck to Haiti, an adviser said. “Now’s not the time to focus on politics,” Mr. Bush said on “Face the Nation” on CBS. “It’s time to focus on helping people.”
If anything, he seemed reluctant to be back. “I frankly don’t miss the limelight,” he said on “State of the Union” on CNN. “I’m glad to help out, but there’s life after the presidency, is what I’ve learned, and I’m going to live it to the fullest. And this is part of living it to the fullest, to help other people.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Bummer called Bush and asked him to go down there and help???
>>Bummer called Bush and asked him to go down there and help???<<
This is a new pattern, started by W himself.
As much as (parts of) it makes me want to upchuck, expect the next international disaster relief fund to be comprised of W and barry, introduced by President Sarah Palin.
Presidents who retired to seclusion after their terms, with no further political involvement:
Washington THROUGH George W. Bush, EXCEPT FOR:
* Carter
* Clinton
And expect obama to be added in 2012.
What do these exceptions have in common? Anyone?
Powerful but extremely nauseating photo.
The camera loves Klintoon, God loves W, and nothing or nobody loves 0.
After the presidency ..
Madison became what today would be considered a pundit.
JQ Adams went back to the House of Representatives, elected eight times.
Martin Van Buren ran for president two more times.
Tyler served in the Confederate congress.
Fillmore ran for president again on the “Know Nothing” ticket.
Andrew Johnson was re-elected to the Senate.
Grover Cleveland ran for president again and won.
Theodore Roosevelt ran for president again.
William Howard Taft served as CJOTUS.
Herbert Hoover was a vocal and active critic of the New Deal.
Richard Nixon published ten books and numerous articles on political topics, and met with foreign leaders.
With Carter and Clinton, that’s 13 ex-presidents who remained politically active out of 36, if you subtract the seven who left office dead.
You are reaching for most of them. And Nixon’s might have spoken on political issues, but he was not a Mexican PRI type spokesman for the party (as clinton has tried to be), nor did he speak against the USA across water’s edge (as carter continues to do).
And you can’t subtract the 7 — You have to look across the entirety from the founding of the USA.
Washington and the rest of the framers set the standard: If there were a handful who appeared to violate the standard, well bully for your historical research.
Bottom line: carter and clinton are the worst.
Bush was the only one I heard talking about getting donations into the right hands.
Clinton is hoping to meet a nice girl in Haiti
I seriously doubt that Clinton is that desperate to look for a girl in Haiti - 20% of the women in Haiti have AIDS.
Make the headline about Bush, then put him in the background in the photo.
They are oh-so-predictable.
My caption for the Bush, Clinton Bo Photo..
“Come on guys..Help me out here.”
Make the headline about Bush, then put him in the background in the photo.
They are oh-so-predictable."
Here's a better picture from the NYT
I'm sure he was a sight for sore eyes.
Bush would look presidential in a sack. Clinton still looks like a hack. And Zero just looks like a whack.
God Bless GWBush
Eight of the eleven ran for or held office after the presidency. I don't see that as a reach at all. The other three remained in public political life.
And you can’t subtract the 7 — You have to look across the entirety from the founding of the USA.
I think it's reasonable, in a discussion of what people did after leaving office, to exclude those who died in office. What I didn't do is exclude those who left in such poor health that they could not have engaged in political activity if they'd wanted to -- Wilson and Polk spring to mind as presidents who died within a year after leaving office.
Washington and the rest of the framers set the standard: If there were a handful who appeared to violate the standard, well bully for your historical research.
Only if you exclude Madison, the principal author of the Constitution, from the Framers -- he remained an outspoken proponent of federalism and opponent of the rising wave of states' rights until the day he died.
The problem is with the sweeping generalization of your claim. You asserted that every president before Carter retired to "seclusion," which is true of only a few; and "with no further political involvement," which is clearly untrue of the ones who ran for or held political office again. Across the sweep of the last 200+ years, about one president in four has remained engaged in politics; and that ratio includes those who were dead or terminally ill when they left office.
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