PRESIDENT
OBAMA JOINS 3 FORMER PRESIDENTS
FOR DEDICATION
CEREMONIES
President
Obama with George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush (in wheelchair)
and Jimmy
Carter who had to use the restroom due to an enlarged prostate
today in
Dallas
(Thursday April 25, 2013
University Park, Texas) President Barack
Obama joined with his three Presidential predecessors here today to celebrate
with his immediate predecessor as the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential
Library & Museum ceremonies took place here on the peaceful campus of
Southern Methodist University. The four
former Presidents posed with Obama for many photographs and they all seemed to
be enjoying each other’s company especially since they knew they’d only be
spending approximately 90 minutes with each other. The 41st president, George H.W.
Bush, George W’s father who is confined to a wheelchair, appeared every bit the
proud father if not a bit addled and confused.
A modest, subdued crowd
composed primarily of Bush family supporters and former officials from his
Cabinet gathered in the bright noon time sun.
Conspicuously absent was the man who actually performed all the Presidential
function in the Bush White House, Dick Cheney, who made virtually every
important decision while under cover as the “Vice President”. Some Bush loyalists claimed that Cheney’s
absence should not be interpreted negatively.
Former George W. Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told the meager
assembly of reporters, “Uncle Dick…uh…um…I mean, Mr. Cheney and the former
President remain cordial. Apparently
Dick is spending some time in an undisclosed location working on his memoirs
and preparing for Armageddon. I’m sure
that if Dick was not afraid he’d be assassinated he would venture out in public
more. For now he travels from bunker to
bunker in Wyoming and other points out west.”
As is unwritten protocol for
such events there was no mention made of just how abysmally wretched the eight
year reign of Cheney/Bush was. There was
no talk of the multiple controversies George W. created and oversaw, nor any
discussion of the fact that by all accounts his presidency was an abject
disaster and failure. Former President
Bill Clinton did comment that now that George W has a Library he has “a chance
to rewrite history”. The comment drew
modest chuckles from the somnambulant crowd.
The only flash of anger was displayed by George W’s mother and former
First Lady Barbara Bush who threw what appeared to be an empty can of Diet
Fanta at Clinton. Clinton easily dodged the projectile and appeared to give Mrs. Bush the finger.
For his part President Obama
was gracious and even generous in his remarks although he limited them to
comments about the man rather than the president that George W. Bush was. “If you want to know the man, then get to
know the man”, said Obama. He continued
that in his estimation George W. Bush had always been a “man of his
convictions, a man comfortable in his own skin, and a man who was decisive.” The only break from the united front of harmony
and good humor among the former presidents was when Jimmy Carter offered a few
brief remarks and finished saying, “I’d rather be out building houses for poor
people instead of standing here with these guys. But, I probably won’t have to see any of them
again until President Bush Senior dies.”
At the mention of his name, the 41st President attempted to
stand up and wave to the crowd but quickly lost his balance, lost control of his bladder and broke raucous
wind before his Marine escort could set him firmly back in his wheelchair.
After the speeches concluded
and the photo ops were over, the former President lead a small group of close
friends and former aides on a tour of his Library and Museum. He became expansive as he looked with pride
at some of the displays of nick-knacks and trinkets he’d collected on trips
overseas during his eight years as President.
He frequently paused to point out a specific item and offer a story
about them. “Y’all see this here little
wooden paddle? If ya look closely ya see
there’s a length of elastic cord attached to the paddle at one end and to that
little pink rubber ball on the other.
You’re supposed to bounce that ball against the paddle as many times as
ya can. I’ll tell y’all, it ain’t as
easy as it looks. I think the King of Formosa
or Fiji gave it to me or…um…maybe it was Larry King. I really can’t remember just now.” W also displayed his mastery of a porcelain yo-yo given to him by Russian president Vladamir Putin.
In a high ceilinged chamber
off the main corridor there is an impressive, dramatic display of photographs
from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and The
Pentagon. The former President hurried
through this chamber while speaking rapidly to the small crowd tagging along
behind him, “Hey, y’all wanna see my baseball collection? It’s really somethin’ else. C’mon, I’ll show ya.”
At the end of a tangential
corridor is a complete replica of his Oval Office including the desk, chair and
carpet that was in his White House. It
was here in the replicated Oval Office that the former president seemed most
comfortable and willing to speak extemporaneously. “Y’all see that desk and that chair? Well that was where I sat when I was the
decider. That is actually where I
decided the things I had to decide and even had to decide what I would and
would not actually have to decide about.
As y’all can imagine, I made some pretty big decisions right there in
that chair except, at that time, that chair was actually in the White
House. See that little chair in the
corner? That’s where Uncle Dick used to
sit and watch me decide what to decide.
We had some tough days in the Oval Office and, if I could remember them,
they’d probably even seem tougher although I know they were tough but that was
the kinda President I was, ya see. I was
a tough, decidin’ SOB.”
The smallest room in this
impressively constructed and designed modernistic building with high ceilings
and ample skylights that add the gentle hue of sunlight to the varnished
hardwood floors, is the Library itself.
There are only a few shelves of books and the President, obviously
without irony, proudly boasts that he had read them all, “In eight years. Every last one of them.” The lower shelf contains several oversized “coffee
table” style books each containing many pages of glossy photographs. There is The History of the Alamo, The
History of Texas, and Great Moments in Texas History. The former President bent down to retrieve
what he said was one of his “most favoritest books”, The Illustrated History of
Baseball. “Yeah, I remember reading that one while the evil doers where
perpetrating all sorts of evil on our troops in Fallujah. It used to help me relax and take my mind off
things. Cause, y’all know, a President
has to have his relaxed time because the demands of the job are so damned
demanding.”
There is one shelf with an
impressive collection of Readers Digest Condensed Books as well as the Cliff
Notes for Hamlet, Cat on a hot tin roof, War and Peace and several biographies
including those of Winston Churchill, Dr. Seuss, Andy Griffith, Billy Graham
and the great Houston Astros speed-baller, pitching ace, Nolan Ryan. George W. commented, “When I owned the Texas
Rangers I met Nolan Ryan a number of times.
He was a great pitcher and a nice, decent man. When I got to be the President I invited him
up to the White House to play a game of catch with me, talk sports, have a Mr.
Pibb and some pretzels, ya know, manly men’s sort of things. He never came up to visit and that sorta pissed
me off.”
The former President lingered
in his modest Library and stared, momentarily, off into the distance, his mind
obviously filled with some profound thoughts and emotional recollections. His eyes appeared to grow misty and he
blinked hard several times, stifled a small belch, and commented, “I know what
people are sayin’, I know everyone thinks I sucked as President. Well, let the historians write the history
because that’s what they write about and besides, I lived it. I lived it and I made it…history, that
is. I know the truth about things y’all
can’t even imagine. But I can’t talk
about most of that stuff because it still has national security implications
and it might endanger lives or ruin careers…that sorta thing. But we got a sayin’ out here in Texas that
says, ‘There’s more than one way to skin a armadillo and it ain’t pretty but,
when you gotta skin an armadillo, you just set to doin’ it.’ That’s what I did. I skinned me some armadillos when I was
President and, like it or not, there’s a few less armadillos in the world today
thanks to me.”
TAGS: GEORGE W. BUSH PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY & MUSEUM DEDICATION
CEREMONY, GEORGE W. BUSH PRESIDENCY, GEORGE W. BUSH LEGACY, GEORGE W. BUSH
WORST PRESIDENT IN HISTORY, POLITICAL HUMOR, POLITICAL SATIRE,
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