I really don’t see him appearing on Saturday Night Live, considering the merciless barbs he’s gotten from the cast through the years. I also don’t expect to see his memoirs at the local Barnes & Noble, unless he hires a ghost writer.
So, after Obama, Clinton or McCain is inaugurated in 2009, what’s the future for George W. Bush?
He’ll start packing for a trip to the Hague, if this monkey’s paw I found in the attic is any good…
elmwood:
I’m pretty sure he’s already a published writer, unless of course those books were ghost-written as well.
Probably spend a lot of time clearing brush on his ranch.
Time. Hard time.
(Assuming there’s justice in the world…)
I’m pretty sure his and Laura’s plane tickets to Paraguay are already bought and hidden in his sock drawer.
Count his money.
After doing 8 years in Guantanamo, Hillary will pardon him.
Wikipedia gives one publication A Charge to Keep, which was indeed ghostwritten. Read the bit in the link about the origin of the title, it’s fairly entertaining.
But I imagine he’ll lay low for a few years, and then find some more or less uncontroversial cause (development aid in Africa, say, as his administration has been fairly active in that area) to raise money for and perhaps try and redeem his reputation with, assuming people in coming years continue to view said reputation as harshly as current ones do.
Well, wishful thinking aside, I’m sure he will pretty much retire the way presidents usually do. He’ll do speaking tours (it’s to laugh), go to functions, spend time looking like a retired president on his ranch, maybe do the library thingy, write books (or have them written) and just basically…exist.
Maybe he’ll find a cause or something…though I doubt it.
-XT
Oh, he and Dick will be swinging back and forth by piano-wire nooses from their separate lamp- . . . No, never mind, I didn’t post that, no spoilers. Not at all, nothing to see here.
President Bush authorized a biography. I haven’t read it, nor do I plan to read it, but watched an interview with the biographer. It seems the writer doesn’t paint a flattering picture of the sitting President, which is rather funny when you consider that it is an authorized bio. Maybe Bush will read it while relaxing down in Texas.
Thing is, what you might consider flattering may not be the same as Bush. I haven’t read (nor plan to) this biography either…but keep that in mind. Bush looks at the world differently than you or I.
-XT
Pretty much the same stuff Ford did, and virtually nothing Carter does.
I think there is a chance he will try to find some kind of role in major league baseball, maybe try to buy part of a team again. He is relatively young and in good shape so he will be around a long time. He’ll probably lay low for a few years and then try to re-invent himself as an elder statesman.
I once rented a house a ways back, where the owner had remodeled the kitchen himself. He even made his own kitchen cabinets. The cabinets were… rustic. In fact, they were made out of scrap wood, some of the shelves and the backs of the cabinet doors were obviously made from the same grade wood you’d see on a palette on a loading dock. The hinges were all set wrong so the doors were cockeyed. It was just horrid work, obviously pathetic. One day, the owner decided to sell the place, and he came by to settle up with us. As he was leaving, he looked back at his kitchen and commented how really proud he was of it. My wife burst into hysterical laughter once he left.
I imagine GWB will be thinking something similar, and with as much justification, when he looks back at these last eight years, with huge pride at what he’s done. And he’ll think that to his dying day, and until then sincerely promote the cause of his own greatness.
I picture him on the board of directors of Haliburton. (A ceremonial post of some sort, they wouldn’t let him actually run anything.)
In Dubai.
Good Point! He might beam with pride as he reads every exciting word. If the book has pictures, it will be a home run.
Most of his time will be spent lying low. After abut 10 years or so he’ll start trying to redeem his historical reputation. The problem is that, like Carter, he is/was quite arrogant and a fairly incompetent President, so redeeming his performance is going to take more than some Habitat for Humanity housebuilding.
Carter’s sterling rep post Presidency has little to do with historical considerations or revisions of opinion of his tenure as President, and more to do with the good works he’s performed after he left office. He is still considered a miserable President.
Unless something amazing happens that makes us all say “Wow he was right” I think Bush will go down as one of the poorest Presidents.
You may be right, but I’m not willing to stick my head up my ass to find out.
…me either.
-XT