Free Republic

For most of his presidency, Harry S. Truman maintained a friendly relationship with General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower. Truman knew a hero when he saw one, and Eisenhower was viewed as a national hero for leading the Allied invasion of Normandy that helped bring about the demise of Hitler’s Third Reich. Truman even indicated he would support Eisenhower for President on the Democratic ticket in 1948, with Truman stepping down to be Vice President once again. But the bitter 1952 election campaign put an end to the cordiality that had developed between the two. Truman, campaigning for the...

President Barack Obama vetoed a bill Friday that would cap the taxpayer-funded expense accounts of former presidents. Obama said he supports the bill’s goal, but he sent the measure back to Congress because it would immediately end salaries and benefits to staffers carrying out the official duties of former presidents. He says the measure doesn’t provide enough time for these employees to be moved to another payroll.Obama says the bill would also interfere with the Secret Service’s ability to protect ex-presidents. …

While Americans are suffering in the Obama economy, President Barack Obama is seeking to increase the money available to him after he leaves the White House. The Congressional Research Service reports that for requests for both 2016 and 2017 fiscal years, Obama's proposed federal budget would expand funding through the Former Presidents Act. In 2017 alone, Obama wants nearly an 18% hike in expenditures… $588,000. That means $3.865,000 in appropriations will be available to spend on former Presidents! The 2016 proposed budget includes an additional $25,000 increase. The Former Presidents Act, enacted in 1958, provides living former presidents with a...

Washington - Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and other former presidents who earn lucrative speaking fees and draw other income would no longer be able to count on taxpayer dollars to pay for their post-White House office space and staff under a bill in the House. On a voice vote, the House Oversight panel backed a measure Tuesday to limit taxpayer dollars for expenses, including travel, incurred by ex-presidents who earn more than $400,000 a year. U.S. taxpayers paid a total of $3.5 million last year in pensions and benefits to the four living former presidents, including $1.3 million for...

The first official reunion of the Bush-Cheney Alumni Association kicked off in Washington, DC today. The “closed-door” event was supposed to be Bush and Cheney’s first joint appearance together since leaving office, but the former vice president had to skip the festivities because of recent health problems. At the breakfast today (view a picture of the gathering here), Bush talked about his upcoming memoir, joking, “This is going to come as quite a shock to people up here that I can write a book, much less read one.” He also said that Cheney was “feeling well” and “has a fierce...

Former president Jimmy Carter is doing one terrific job. So reports the Associated Press today in its "Carter finds happiness in foreign missions." According to the article: Since leaving the White House, he's logged millions of miles and visited dozens of countries on missions to wipe out diseases, mediate conflicts, advocate for human rights and monitor elections. He's built a legacy that few, if any, American ex-presidents can match.

For nearly one-out-of-three voters (32%), Jimmy Carter is the living ex-president who has done the best job since leaving the White House, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Carter, who served in the White House from 1977 to 1981, ranks first among the four surviving presidents. George W. Bush, who has only been out of office seven months, comes in last with nine percent (9%) support. Bill Clinton, president from 1993 to 2001, made headlines again last week when he successfully brought two imprisoned U.S. women reporters home from North Korea. He is viewed by 29% as...

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) - Former President George W. Bush says he won't criticize President Barack Obama because Obama "deserves my silence," and says he plans to write a book about the 12 toughest decisions he made in office. Bush's speech Tuesday at a luncheon in Calgary, Alberta was his first since leaving office. He declined to comment about the Obama administration like former Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney said Sunday that Obama's decisions are threatening the nation's safety. Bush says he doesn't know what he'll do in the long term but says he'll write a book that will let people...

What is it with former Democrat Presidents? They are like those guys in your fraternty 20 years ago that keep trying to create the good 'ol days. The sad thing about it is that they are dangerous because they have a sort of "government in exile" type mentality. It's almost as if they are waiting for America to beg them to come back, that we should just collectively apologize to Carter for kicking him out of office and to Clinton for impeaching him. What's worse is that they and their sychophantic minions, e.g., Madeline Albright, Ramsey Clarke, etc., really undermine...

We are in a new era of ex-Presidents. Having been the most powerful leader in the world, accepting either defeat at the polls or the finality of a second term, we now have two former Democrat Presidents, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, who will not get off the world stage, nor restrain themselves from the criticism of the current President. It is worse than unseemly, it is the kind of backstabbing behavior that betrays them for the kind of person they were while in office, i.e., petty, vindictive, arrogant, et cetera. Most recently, it was reported that former President Clinton...

All living ex-presidents have filed plans for a state funeral – except Bill Clinton. The Washington Military District, which oversees state funerals, invites ex-presidents to file plans as soon as they leave office. But as yet Clinton – who had a heart scare last year - has not submitted his funeral requests, according to documents obtained by the New York Post. An aide to Clinton described him as an "optimist" who plans to be around for a while. On the other hand, Jimmy Carter has spelled out plans for his funeral in intricate detail. During his presidency Carter was criticized...

It is now official, that Jimmy Carter is the Winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=518&ncid=716&e=4&u=/ap/20021011/ap_on_re_eu/nobel_peace Perhaps it is time we should examine Jimmy Carter's career as an ex-President objectively, without being influenced by ideological bias, or by the memories of his difficult Presidency of 1977 to 1981. We should also compare Carter's career as an ex-President, with the careers that other US Presidents have had after leaving office. I have many friends who have worked as missionaries in remote and distant Third World countries. Many of them talk of running into Jimmy Carter in places you wouldn't believe, in...

 

<p>Washington -- The statues keep moving in the hall of recent American presidents. John F. Kennedy retains the paramount place of honor. No recent U.S. leader commands a higher approval rating -- JFK's remains in satellite orbit at 83 percent -- or lower disapproval rating than his ground-level 7 percent.</p>