Opinion: George W. Bush: ‘I miss being pampered’

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George W. Bush is coming out with a book. Yep, he knows the irony of that too.

“This will come as a shock to some people in our country who didn’t think I could read a book, much less write one,” the former president told a crowd of 2,000 at the University of Texas at Tyler.

Correction, 10/22:
This post says that in 1993, Bush told Brit Hume of Fox News that he didn’t read newspapers. That interview was in 2003.
In 1993, our 43rd president told Brit Hume of Fox News that he didn’t read newspapers. “I glance at the headlines just to kind of get a flavor for what’s moving,” he said. “I rarely read the stories.”

In a speech that reportedly got many laughs and at least three standing ovations, Bush says his life is now very different than it was when he was fighting terrorists, battling Congress and being lampooned by the likes of Michael Moore.

“Ten days out of the presidency, there I was with a plastic bag in my hand, picking up that which I had been dodging for eight years,” Bush said.

“I miss being pampered. I miss Air Force One. I miss being commander in chief of an awesome” military, he said to the sold-out audience.

Of the forthcoming memoir, he said it is not a tell-all or a pat on the back. “It’s not a judgmental book. It’s not a ‘Bush is cool’ (book).”

Good marketing, since there are very few Bush is Cool sections at bookstores.

-- Tony Pierce