Courtesy of
White House stenographer New York Times reporter
Elizabeth Bumiller, we learn that George Bush is starting to think about his Presidential legacy and his post-Presidential library.
Let's just take the 'My Pet Goat' jokes as given...
President Bush had dinner last month on the Stanford University campus at the home of George P. Shultz, who was President Ronald Reagan's secretary of state, and the topic of conversation was not, as might be expected, the war in Iraq. Instead, guests said, Mr. Bush spent the evening focused on how he could create a public policy center with his presidential library after he leaves office in 2009.
Now, this has the hidden assumption that anybody would want to take Bush's policy advice once we actually have a choice in the matter. For that matter, it assumes that Bush is able to give policy advice, rather then spending all his time with his legal team fending off indictments and extradition requests from The Hague.
Onward:
"Our presence here raises all the same questions that he'll have to deal with if he puts his think tank at an elite university," said Charles G. Palm, a former Hoover deputy director who did not attend the dinner.
Of course, later in the article we learn that the front-running institution for this "honor" is Southern Methodist University. Not a bad school, but hardly one that leaps to mind when the phrase "elite university" is spoken.
Whatever Mr. Bush decides, one thing is obvious: Two and a half years before he leaves office, with his popularity at record lows, Mr. Bush is actively thinking ahead to his post-White House life. His dinner with Mr. Shultz, a Hoover fellow, offers a glimpse into how the president wants to spend at least some of his time and influence his legacy -- after he leaves office.
So very very typical of the man. When he fucks up one job, rather than try to fix it, he loses interest and moves on to the next
fuck-up challenge. I have some advice for Mr. Bush: If you're bored already with being President, resign. And take Darth Cheney with you. We'll muddle through with Dennis Hastert as a placeholder until we can elect a real President. Better yet, Stay The Course until January, and then resign in favor of Nancy Pelosi.
So far Mr. Bush has said little publicly about his plans, although he told Bob Schieffer of CBS News in an interview in January that he wanted to create a policy center focused on the spread of democracy and Alexis de Tocqueville's vision of America as a nation made better by its "associations," or community groups.
"I would like to leave behind a legacy or a think tank, a place for people to talk about freedom and liberty, and the de Tocqueville model, what de Tocqueville saw in America," Mr. Bush told Mr. Schieffer. "I would like for there to be a place where young scholars come and write and think and articulate and opine and teach."
Translation: I want a place where young people will come and be indoctrinated and told that I'm the Best President Ever. And they'll write things, and be given posts in Republican administrations, and steal stuff from the taxpayers. Basically, I want another Heritage Foundation.
I guess it's traditional for Presidents to set up a library after they leave office. But for Bush, I'm thinking the appropriate theme would be "how not to be President". Sort of an object lesson for future generations.
-dms