George W. Bush's life after the White House, down there in Dallas

 

To hear some tell it, George W. Bush is having a rough adjustment to civilian life.

In Newsweek, Bill Minutaglio reports that Bush, seen above at Elliott's Hardware Store on Maple Avenue, has taken to calling young supporters. One 14-year-old was invited to visit the Bush home in Dallas and "ask me anything you want." According to the kid's grandmother, the two chatted for 90 minutes.

Then there's the time, about a month after leaving the White House, when Bush dropped in to see students at Pershing Elementary School. He asked if the children knew who he was. One replied, "George Washington!" To which the 43rd president of the United States replied, "George Washington Bush." When a parent asked him to consider working at the school's haunted house carnival, Bush replied, "I'd make a good ghost."

But friends insist that the former president is busy and happy. "Every time I talk to him or have been around him, he has been very up," said Nolan Ryan, the baseball legend and Friend of George.

He's started giving speeches -- regaling an audience of businesspeople in Calgary, Canada, at a $400-a-plate luncheon. And in China recently he talked of the pleasures of walking his dog Barney in the Preston Hollow neighborhood. He's also reportedly raised millions for his presidential library at Southern Methodist University, also in Dallas.

In late May, he and President Clinton are set to appear in a two-hour "moderated conversation" before an audience in Toronto.

And, like most every president since Ulysses S. Grant, Bush is writing his memoirs. He has said repeatedly that he thinks history will judge him more kindly than the contemporary public, which gave him approval ratings from the low 20s into the low 30s on leaving office.

Still, Newsweek recounts, a 19-year-old Texas Christian University student was stunned when his cellphone rang with a call from Bush.

Patrick Bibb said the former president was calling to thank him for selling "Welcome Home George & Laura" signs to folks in the neighborhood; Bibb charged $20 per sign and used the profits to defray tuition costs.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Photo: Associated Press

Comments

[busytimmy]

He should be in jail! What a criminal. Liar, liar pants on fire!

[Robert]

Nolan Ryan is a close friend of Bush? There goes my respect for the Hall of Fame pitcher. (Anyone want to buy his Rookie card for face value?)

[Jed]

We don't care! Wherever it is do NOT disturb!

[Brian]

History will judge President Bush much more favorably than how the liberal media has, since they are the ones who have controlled the portrayal of his public image over the past 8 years. It will be all the spineless and angry liberals currently controlling both the legislative and executive branches of our governement that will let our country down in a a major way, and all the liberal historians will not be able to hide the devastation this group of sleazy politicians will leave in their wake.

[Cindy]

Why can't all of you Bush haters just shut up.
I happen to miss the man desperately.
I do not like our current President at all but I would never stoop to such ignorant comments about our nation's leader.
Show a little respect.
I have voted in every general election since JFK and George W. Bush is my favorite. He is the most genuine, humble and loyal man I have had the privilege to call my President and Commander in Chief.
I wish him and his lovely wife all the very best and anxiously anticipate their return to a more visibly public life; though I don't expect to see that happen any time soon.
Wish I was from Crawford where I could call them 'neighbor' and maybe catch a baseball game with them.
Oh, and just so you know, there are a whole lot of us out here that feel the same way.

[Look Dad, I Got Him!]

The House of Bush has brought death and destruction to the Middle East, and with 9/11 our Arab brothers have repaid us in blood. The war has cost us dearly in blood and treasure. Damn them all to hell!

Look Dad, I Got Him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L_430U6qr0

[Shelly]

I am with Cindy on this..President Bush is genuine. What should he be in jail for, lil' (busy)timmy? He has more class than you that can't think for yourselves and only listen to the media, and I use that term loosely anymore. Investigate this, White House insiders have said he is just as nice and cordial to the elevator operator as he is to a diplomat. That's character..I appreciated President Bush.