View Full Version : President Bush, all class.....
rubberneck
12-22-2008, 15:06
I am glad that this story is finally being told even if the President isn't comfortable with it. It is a pretty impressive undertaking to write the families of every Soldier, Sailor, Marine and Airman killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention meeting with 500 families and 950 wounded service members. Most of it has been done very quietly even when his political opponents were trying to portray him as being out of touch and insensitive about what was going on overseas. He could have used it to his own political advantage but didn't because he wasn't doing it for that reason. History will judge this President and find him wanting in some areas but will be much kinder to him than his fellow countrymen have been over the past eight years.
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/dec/22/bush-cheney-comforted-troops-privately/
I am glad that this story is finally being told even if the President isn't comfortable with it. It is a pretty impressive undertaking to write the families of every soldier, sailor, marine and airman killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention meeting with 500 families and 950 wounded service members. Most of it has been done very quietly even when his political opponents were trying to portray him as being out of touch and insensitive about what was going on overseas. He could have used it to his own political advantage but didn't because he wasn't doing it for that reason. History will judge this President and find him wanting in some areas but will be much kinder to him than his fellow countrymen have been over the past eight years.
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/dec/22/bush-cheney-comforted-troops-privately/
Hope I am not alone in thanking you, Rubberneck, for posting this!
I listened to a close family member today talk, at times in tears, aboubt GWB and His interview last night on C-SPAN. It was evidently very personal. Am hoping to find it on video, so that I may semd it as a gift.
Holly
Fox has some coverage,,
www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/22/report-bush-spent-hundreds-hours-comforting-families-fallen-soldiers/
W did good in my book...
I wish him peace & tranquility in his retirement,, he deserves it..
I looked too, but if you find a link to the video, please post.
W, imo, seems like the guy that you could hang out with too. This news does him good.
Phantasos
12-22-2008, 18:18
History will judge this President and find him wanting in some areas but will be much kinder to him than his fellow countrymen have been over the past eight years.
It really is sad how disrespectful people have been to the commander-in-chief....movies, shows and God knows the all the articles tearing him apart every chance they get. Don't get me wrong, I don't think things have went perfectly, but I sure as hell would have not wanted Gore or Kerry as POTUS after 9/11- and even before. I think this article shows how sincere President Bush is to caring about our service men/women.
IMHO(and this is just from speculation) , I think eventually when things are revealed years down the road about things that went on during this administration- people might realize how fortunate we were to have someone that was for the troops and that wouldn't hesitate to do whats necessary(once again from limited knowledge) to protect our nation....
What I do know- is that we have not had another attack our nation since 9/11, and I am so grateful for that.
Phantasos
It really is sad how disrespectful people have been to the commander-in-chief....movies, shows and God knows the all the articles tearing him apart every chance they get.
Can you just imagine the outrage if anyone tried to do that to a dem POTUS....Obama even? Perish the thought! :rolleyes:
President George W. Bush was not perfect, but he damn sure stuck to his guns and did his best to lead and protect this country. I for one will miss him greatly, and truly hope that history will be much kinder to him than many of my fellow citizens.
AngelsSix
12-22-2008, 21:51
I would have taken a bullet for the man I called my CIC. I may not have agreed with all of his cabinet's policies, but he was good to the troops and much as can be expected. I got a letter from him framed on my wall. The only other thing on that wall is my CCH instructor certificate. I worked two of his visits to Ft. Bragg. One of those I was pulled in on my day off, which didn't bother me a bit. The last one he just had I was in school. I would have like to have been there, but hopefully he will come to Bragg again after he leaves the WH.
Not only did he take the time to meet with the soldiers and their families, but he did it while avoiding publicity. Truly, a class act.
Thank you, Rubberneck.
as a policy maker,i find him questionable, but as a person, exceptional.
Here is the link to the C-Span interview...
http://www.c-span.org/
Pres. Bush on his Presidency
"In his last weeks as Commander-in-Chief, Pres. Bush reflects on his tenure in office. First, at the Army War College he speaks about homeland security and the war on terror. Next, Mr. Bush discusses domestic policy at AEI. Finally, the President talks to C-SPAN about his eight years in office and looks forward to his time as a private citizen."
The CIC is a good man and just think what would have happened if Gore was CIC on 9/11. What would he go and invent then.
I will miss our current CIC and his wife no matter what any one says. No one is perfect but he has had to make some really hard decisions and we are for the better because of those decisions.
From President George W. Bush, today at 09:11, in his last Presidential Radio Address:
"Freeing people from oppression, is eternally right."
Will miss President Bush.
A large Thank You for your service to Our Nation.
Holly
From President George W. Bush, today at 09:11, in his last Presidential Radio Address:
"Freeing people from oppression, is eternally right."
Will miss President Bush.
A large Thank You for your service to Our Nation.
Holly
Me too, Holly.
I watched his "farewell" the other night and I was sad. He's a good egg, that one! President Bush, thank you for you service, sir!
No matter what historians attempt to write or what kind of picture the media attempts to paint I have and will always have a devout respect for our 43rd President. The media tried everything they could to portray him in a negative light. He made decisions and stuck by them and he persevered when others would not. I admire the man and his family immensely.
A quick anecdote about the real George Bush...
Everyone knows that if you win a NCAA national championship then you visit the White House. Well I was tasked to escort the U.S. Military Academy Rifle Team on their visit in 2006. My assignment was to assist them with a brief tour of the White House and set them in place for their photograph with the President. Everything went fine and after giving them their nickel tour I had them in formation near the residence stairs in the main entrance hall. The national champion ski team from Colorado was set up on the entrance steps with their backs to us. The President appeared from the cross hall and quickly gave the awe struck cadets a finger across his lips and a shhhhhhh to keep silent. He then slowly approached the Colorado Ski team from behind. I could only imagine their state of mind when the back row, nervous and awestruck, realized that the leader of the free world was swinging playfully from their shoulders. He took a minute to laugh with them and take the ceremonial photograph before returning to the cadets. When he approached his mood changed. There was a gravity of understanding in the Presidents voice and a moistening of his eye as he spoke to them. He thanked them for their sacrifice and acknowledged that because of his decisions and the needs of their country many of them would soon be in harms way. His time with them was sincere and I was awestruck myself by the dynamic of one mans character. The humanity of George W Bush and the sincerity of his heart was something the American media, in my honest opinion, neglected to show the people of this country. Later in the official ceremony during his official speech to all the Champions he again thanked them and jokingly added that during their stay, should they bump into his VP, he would appreciate it if they could give him some pointers (on target acquisition).
My .02 about a great man. I can only hope that history will rewrite his approval ratings and steer a nations jeer to that of many thanks…then again that’s not what was important to him.
Since Today is "President's Day," just wanted to bump up this thread, as President George W. Bush will always be a favorite of mine.
Text of President George W. Bush's Farewell Address:
"Tonight I am filled with gratitude – And above all, I thank the American people for the trust you have given me. I thank you for ...the prayers that have lifted my spirits. And I thank you for the countless acts of courage, generosity, and grace that I have witnessed these past eight years.
This evening, my thoughts return to the first night I addressed you from this house – September 11, 2001.
That morning, terrorists took nearly 3,000 lives in the worst attack on America since Pearl Harbor. I remember standing in the rubble of the World Trade Center three days later, surrounded by rescuers who had been working around the clock.
I remember talking to brave souls who charged through smoke-filled corridors at the Pentagon and to husbands and wives whose loved ones became heroes aboard Flight 93. I remember Arlene Howard, who gave me her fallen son’s police shield as a reminder of all that was lost. And I still carry his badge.
As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before Nine-Eleven. But I never did. Every morning, I received a briefing on the threats to our Nation. And I vowed to do everything in my power to keep us safe."
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/01/post.html
Bush the Younger understands his role as an American elder statesman. I hope that President Carter is paying attention.
The story is here (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090317/D97021CO0.html).
Mar 17, 6:14 PM (ET)
By ROB GILLIES
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 determine what they would have done if their most important job was to protect the country.
Nice...he's certainly in a class of his own.
I'll buy his book, most definitely.
"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 determine what they would have done if their most important job was to protect the country."
From a cilvilian standpoint, can only gleam the tidbits...but am so thankful that The United States of America has Special Forces Soldiers protecting it!
Otherwise, can only imagine what peril we would be in, if THEY did not exist! IMHO...
Holly
Source is here (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/18/warm-greetings-bush-overseas-trip-presidency/).
Bush Keeps 'Em Laughing in First Overseas Trip After Presidency
Former President Bush spoke in China for the Boao Forum, an annual conference where executives hobnob with global leaders at a resort on the country's southern tropical island province of Hainan.
AP
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Former President George W. Bush cracked jokes about how he scoops up after his dog on neighborhood walks and then turned to more serious subjects like terrorism and the financial crisis Saturday during his first overseas trip since leaving office.
Bush -- in China for the Boao Forum -- also shared some of his most unusual moments with leaders, including the time he listened to former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi sing "Hound Dog" while visiting Graceland mansion, home to the late Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee.
The stories drew laughter and applause from the audience in a huge banquet hall at the forum, an annual conference where executives hobnob with global leaders at a resort on China's southern tropical island province of Hainan. Security was tight and there were no protests.
Bush said after he left the White House and moved into his new home in Dallas, Texas, he decided to take his Scottish terrier Barney for a walk. To be a good neighbor, he said he carried a plastic bag so he could clean up his dog's droppings. The task seemed ironic to him, he said.
"I was picking up what I had been dodging for eight years," Bush said.
The former president said after he left the presidency in January, he plopped down on the couch and said, "Free at last."
But his wife, Laura, piped in: "You're free to do the dishes," he said.
After a few other jokes, Bush shifted to more serious topics. Although this was his first trip overseas since leaving office, it was his second speech in a foreign country. Last month, Bush spoke in Calgary, Canada.
On Saturday, he said he would not criticize Barack Obama and wished his successor all the best.
"He was not my first choice, but now that this election was made, it speaks volumes about the United States of America," Bush said.
He recalled that when the financial crisis began hitting America, he accused Wall Street of getting drunk and giving the country a hangover. Bush said he hoped a more sober economic order would emerge from the global slump.
"Maybe the next time around, there won't be enough booze," he said.
The crisis gives the world an opportunity to modernize financial systems, craft smarter regulations for complex financial instruments, create better banking standards and enact more efficient warning systems, Bush said.
"Our economy has been hit hard, but we have the resources and resilience to recover," he added.
Bush also urged global leaders to continue the struggle against terrorism and to support the young democracies in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But he said the economic center of the world was shifting to Asia, which accounts for 55 percent of the global economy. China will continue to be of high importance to the U.S., he said.
"It's just mind boggling how this country has changed," he added.
During past visits to China, Bush urged Chinese leaders to expand religious freedom in the country. He mentioned the issue again Saturday in a low-key, oblique way.
"People who are allowed to worship freely in society," he said, "are people who are going to be peaceful citizens."
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.
MOO - being POTUS is a lot like being a QP or the like - if you aren't/weren't nobody will fully understand so you learn to adjust your comments to the audience. To me, his not criticizing the new-to-office POTUS - especially when overseas - says a lot about him as a person who (1) understands the concept and (2) who views such criticism of the position among a foreign audience as a politically expedient cheap shot and put down of the position, the US, and of himself. Good for him. ;)
Richard's $.02 :munchin
PS - we're happy to have him and Laura back in the fold of friends here at Highland Park United Methodist. :)
greenberetTFS
05-11-2009, 09:10
Very good points in your post,Richard........:) I agree completely......;)
GB TFS :munchin
Source is here (http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/18/bush-takes-swipes-at-policies-of-obama/print/).
IMHO, the headline to this article and its presentation at drudgereport.com present Bush the Younger's comments as being more confrontational than the article suggests. YMMV.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Bush takes swipes at Obama policies
Joseph Curl (Contact)
ERIE, Pa.| Former President George W. Bush fired a salvo at President Obama on Wednesday, asserting his administration's interrogation policies were within the law, declaring the private sector not government will fix the economy and rejecting the nationalization of health care.
"I know it's going to be the private sector that leads this country out of the current economic times we're in," the former president said to applause from members of a local business group. "You can spend your money better than the government can spend your money."
Repeatedly in his hourlong speech and question-and-answer session, Mr. Bush said he would not directly criticize the new president, who has moved to take over financial institutions and several large corporations. Several times, however, he took direct aim at Obama policies as he defended his own during eight years in office.
"Government does not create wealth. The major role for the government is to create an environment where people take risks to expand the job rate in the United States," he said to huge cheers.
Mr. Bush weighed in on some of the most pressing issues of the day: the election in Iran, the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, and his administration's interrogation policies of terrorists held there and elsewhere. The former president has not commented on Mr. Obama's decision to ban "enhanced interrogation techniques" such as waterboarding, which the current president has called "off course" and "based on fear."
"The way I decided to address the problem was twofold: One, use every technique and tool within the law to bring terrorists to justice before they strike again," he said, adding that the country needs to stay on offense, not defense. On Guantanamo, which while in office Mr. Bush said he wanted to close, the former president was diplomatic.
"I told you I'm not going to criticize my successor," he said. "I'll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don't believe that persuasion isn't going to work. Therapy isn't going to cause terrorists to change their mind."
The Obama administration has started to clear out some of the more than 200 detainees at the facility.
Repeating a mantra from his presidency, he called the current war against terrorism an "ideological conflict," asserting that in the long term, the United States needs to press freedom and democracy in corners across the world.
Mr. Bush did not directly address Mr. Obama's response to the election in Iran, which some critics have called tepid, but he did make clear that the outcome is very much in dispute. For a fifth straight day, as the Obama administration walks a tightrope by issuing little criticism, protesters gathered in Tehran to demand a new election.
"Clearly, there's a level of frustration on the Iranian streets," Mr. Bush said. "It looks like it's not a very fair election."
Mr. Bush returned again and again to the economy, and sought to defend his own actions after the financial meltdown in the waning days of his second term. Mr. Obama repeatedly has said he inherited that mess.
"I am told, 'If you do not move strongly, Mr. President, you will be a president overseeing a depression that will ultimately be greater than the Great Depression,'" Mr. Bush said. "I firmly believe it was necessary to put money in our banks to make sure our financial system did not collapse. I did not want there to be bread lines, to be a great depression."
He said his administration sought to address the "housing bubble" before the system broke down. "We tried to reform" mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, "but couldn't get it through the vested interests on Capitol Hill."
Still, Mr. Bush was optimistic, pressing, as he did as president, free trade, open markets and the free enterprise system. "We'll come out of this better than before," he said to more applause.
But he was less than convinced about Mr. Obama's move to overhaul the health care system.
"There are a lot of ways to remedy the situation without nationalizing health care," Mr. Bush said. "I worry about encouraging the government to replace the private sector when it comes to providing insurance for health care."
Asked by the evening emcee at the 104th annual Manufacturer and Business Association meeting if he finds the new president's policies "socialist," Mr. Bush started then stopped.
"I hear a lot of those words, but it depends on..,"he said, breaking off. He later offered a more diplomatic assessment: "We'll see."
Wednesday's speech to hundreds of high-paying association members "premium" tables at the city's convention center went for $1,500 was just the second post-presidency speech by Mr. Bush on U.S. soil (his two major speeches were both in Canada). He was loose and relaxed, his nose a bright red from nearly a week in Kennebunkport, Maine, where he joined his family in celebration of his father's 85th birthday. Mr. Bush told some of his new set stories: How just a month after leaving office he was picking up his dog Barney's poop off a manicured lawn in his Dallas neighborhood; how he's experienced his first red light in 14 years (he served six years as Texas governor before being elected president).
His Secret Service detail, however, was not relaxed: This was the first event in which audience members did not have to pass through metal detectors. Outside, a tiny group of protesters and supporters about 10 people on each side faced off on opposite curbs. One man held a sign that said, "President Bush, thank you for saving all the babies." On the other side: "Arrest Bush."
But the former president got a big cheer when he walked out on stage even bigger than Joe Paterno, the legendary Penn State coach who was also on hand for the event. The former president noted that America has a funny political system: "You're it, then you're not it instantly."
He lamented the politics of personal destruction that he said is rampant in Washington, noting, though, that it has always been thus. Recalling how a treasury secretary and a vice president once fought a duel, he joked: "At least when my vice president shot somebody, it was an accident."
During a question-and-answer session, Mr. Bush recounted tough decisions he made in office. Still steely, the former president said he left Washington with the same moral resolve. "When I look in the mirror, I say, 'He did not sell his soul for short-term politics.'"
Asked about the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when he first learned of the terrorist attacks while in a classroom full of children in Florida, Mr. Bush said he simply found an inner resolve.
"I realized that we were in crisis, and the first thing I do in any crisis is calm. If you're president, and all of a sudden the whole world is watching you, and you get up and do something precipitously, frighten children, storm out, that kind of movement will cascade through a society," he said.
In answer to a question about what he learned as president, Mr. Bush smiled broadly. "There's so much stuff coming at you," he said to laughter. But turning serious, he said, perhaps to his successor: "You don't know what's going to come when you're president. You just have to be ready for it."
President Bush was not perfect, but I sure miss him.