# So, what will President Bush do once he's out of office? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 5, 2008, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-will-president-bush-do-once-hes-out-of-office/440148 "2008-03-05T04:26:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-will-president-bush-do-once-hes-out-of-office/440148/61 "2008-03-06T18:01:06Z")
Someone upthread said “sell the ranch,” which is what I came in here to say. I’ve always thought it was inaccurate when people wished for the day when Bush would “retire to his ranch in Crawford.” That ranch is the set for a TV show, nothing more. When Bush no longer needs it, he’ll sell it… …or give it to his nephew George P. Bush to use as the set for _his_ TV show, currently in preproduction. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-will-president-bush-do-once-hes-out-of-office/440148/62 "2008-03-06T21:01:56Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Here is wisdom: If you have the right relatives, you can reach the presidency without even being **ambitious!** [/QUOTE] and without being **elected**. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-will-president-bush-do-once-hes-out-of-office/440148/63 "2008-03-06T23:41:17Z")
He’ll moulder in the ground, probably. Rarely has a President started a war against a nation that did not provoke us, as W did; & those that have have been known to suffer. Kennedy’s fervent anti-Communism caused more than one fracas in Cuba, as well as an escalation of US advisers in Vietnam. And he was assassinated in office, arguably as punishment for his repeated attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro. Lincoln wouldn’t let the South secede peacefully; he ran fields red with blood to stop it. And he was killed for it. Once W’s out of office, he may be a lower-value target for assassination, but he’ll also be a lower priority for the Secret Service. I expect he will be killed, maybe within about two years, & by one of his own countrymen. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-will-president-bush-do-once-hes-out-of-office/440148/64 "2008-03-06T23:42:48Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] After doing 8 years in Guantanamo, Hillary will pardon him. [/QUOTE] Why would HRC be in Gitmo? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-will-president-bush-do-once-hes-out-of-office/440148/65 "2008-03-06T23:48:17Z")
[QUOTE=Hampshire] Because he believes so deeply in his heart that what we’re doing in Irag is the right thing for everyone in this country he will join the troops in Iraq and stay there until the job is done. He will do this because anything else will make him a hypocritical coward. [/QUOTE] Well, if I’d started that war, it’s what I’d do. Somehow I expect less from W. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-will-president-bush-do-once-hes-out-of-office/440148/66 "2008-03-06T23:48:47Z")
[QUOTE=foolsguinea] Why would HRC be in Gitmo? [/QUOTE] I flunked English. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-will-president-bush-do-once-hes-out-of-office/440148/67 "2008-03-07T00:26:27Z")
He will sit back, enjoy retirement and clearing brush on his Texas ranch, and watch as his legacy as the first and worst president of the 21st century moves from opinion to fact. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-will-president-bush-do-once-hes-out-of-office/440148/68 "2008-03-07T01:09:56Z")
I think he’ll continue his work with the poor and perhaps occasionally heal a child who has scrofula with just a gentle kiss on the forehead. At some point he’ll come to Montgomery to make up his National Guard training, at which point he will also insist that he’ll never get back to school in time for his 8th grade roll call, and we’ll all know he’s drinking again. Or, he’ll become owner/operator of an orangutan act that travels to churches preaching on the evils of evolution. The name of the troupe will be “Monkeys is Funny!” He’ll leave the act long enough to defend himself on TV when the book “My 8 Years Working With the Stupidest Boss On Earth” by Condoleeza Rice becomes a bestseller and Lifetime movie (starring, strangely enough, Meredith Baxter in her first African-American role), but then he’ll decide the reporters are being mean and retire with his organgutans to a small island off the coast of Nova Scotia, wondering why winters are so cold in the Pacific. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-will-president-bush-do-once-hes-out-of-office/440148/69 "2008-03-07T01:15:00Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] [Quote=foolsguinea] Why would HRC be in Gitmo? [/QUOTE] I flunked English. [/QUOTE] HRC will be in Gitmo because you flunked English? . . . 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-will-president-bush-do-once-hes-out-of-office/440148/70 "2008-03-07T01:16:57Z")
He will spend a great deal of time throwing puppies off bridges. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-will-president-bush-do-once-hes-out-of-office/440148/71 "2008-03-07T02:21:37Z")
**So, what will President Bush do once he’s out of office?** Maybe Cheney will offer to take him hunting. Seriously, he’s spent, what, a fourth of his entire time \*on the clock \* enjoying the comforts of Crawford, TX. He’s the most-vacationed President in history. The only difference will be a few \*more \* months per year down there. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-will-president-bush-do-once-hes-out-of-office/440148/72 "2008-03-07T04:40:42Z")
The best answer I’ve seen for what Bush can do when he leaves the White House was in a Richard Roeper column in the Chicago Sun-Times. I can’t find a link to the original, but [Dan Froomkin](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/10/31/BL2007103101623_pf.html) referenced it in a Washington Post column (the quote is at the bottom of the column). > [@](#): > > Alice Collins of Oak Lawn has an idea. > > 'Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, in the wind and snow of winter and the heat and humidity of summer, let him tend to the graves of the almost 4,000 men and women who have given their lives in the debacle of Iraq. They honored their oaths, obeyed their commander-in-chief and sacrificed their lives of promise to a lying, unprincipled warmonger. > > ‘He can begin at the grave of my grandson, Lcpl Jonathan W. Collins, killed in action on 8/8/2004.’ A stark reminder that what SHOULD happen and what WILL happen are, too often, polar opposites. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-will-president-bush-do-once-hes-out-of-office/440148.md?page=3)