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Opinion: Ticket Replay: He’s baaack! And on Facebook and Twitter too

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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

During the holiday season, as in years past, The Ticket is republishing some of our favorite items from the previous political year. This story was originally published on June 3, 2010:

His Facebook location is listed as Dallas, Tx.

His birthday is July 6, 1946.

But before we give away the name of the latest political bigwig to join everyone’s favorite – and occasionally infuriating -- social networking site (because none of you have likely noticed the photo below), maybe the next tidbit will get you a bit closer to the answer.

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Under “Personal Information” it says: 43rd President of the United States. Former Governor of Texas.

It’s official: George W. Bush has joined Facebook.

His new personal page lists the above information and, in the first 24 hours since his page was listed, has been liked by more than 50,000 Facebook users. So maybe they do miss him!

But there’s more.

The former president has also gone from twiddling his thumbs in retirement to typing 140-character updates on a Twitter account.

Using a social network with such pressing privacy issues as Facebook is an unlikely turn of events for Bush, who, while in office, shunned e-mail over those exact concerns and the need to disclose presidential papers.

The 44th President, Barack Obama, meanwhile, is a longtime user of social networks with staff help and recently admitted he’d never actually twittered. He has more than 8 million Facebook followers. Bill Clinton’s personal Facebook page has some 328,000 fans.

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Bush’s Facebook page has two profile pictures, one of him looking presidential – but suitably relaxed in his retirement years -- in a favorite denim-blue shirt, and another with wife Laura sitting on a bench with the family dogs, Barney and Miss Beazley, between them.

Bush’s first post, strangely written in the third person, reads:

Since leaving office, President Bush has remained active. He has visited 20 states and 8 countries; given over 65 speeches; launched the George W. Bush Presidential Center; participated in 4 policy conferences through The Bush Institute; finished the first draft of his memoir, “Decision Points”; and partnered with President Clinton to establish the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. More on his activities in future posts.

His second post promotes Laura’s memoir, ’Spoken from the Heart,’ which is No. 1 on a major bestseller list for the third consecutive week. Her website is right here.

Bush’s education is listed as Harvard Business School ’75; Yale ’68. But it looks like he’s been brushing up just a little on Social Networking 101.

-- Craig Howie

Speaking of Facebook, click here to receive Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Follow us @latimestot or @craighowieLAT or Like our Facebook page right here.

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