While we’ve had The Worst President Ever, Jimmy Carter (soon to be relegated to #2 by Obama), and Bill Clinton running around the country and world slamming Bush (and, in some cases, America), plus failed candidate Al Gore, Bush has taken a different tactic
Former U.S. President George W. Bush says he has no plans to stump for votes or campaign funds for Republican candidates.
Bush told C-Span he would like to “regain anonymity,” Politico reported Friday. The interview is to be aired this weekend.
Bush has granted few interviews since he left office two years ago, although he has been somewhat more forthcoming since the publication of his memoir, “Decision Points.”
“I don’t want to be on these talk shows giving my opinion, second-guessing the current president,” he said. “I think it’s bad for the country, frankly, to have a former president criticize his successor. It’s tough enough to be president as it is without a former president undermining the current president.”
Now imagine what Obama will do when he is “promoted to customer” in 2012, and sitting around in 2013. Think he will keep quiet?
PS: Apparently, that headline is the exact phrase that spambots like. Between 11pm Saturday night and 9pm Sunday night, there were over 500 trackback spams in the WP spam que. Sheesh!
The first president that broke the tradition of staying silent on his successors was Carter. Before that, presidents took the example of George Washington who retired gracefully and returned to private live.
Carter, in a desperate attempt to become relevant and erase his failure as a president, started to stump and second guess his successors. Bill Clinton continued the practice. Bill might have a little more of an excuse as his wife is still active in the political arena.
When the left talks about civility, one of the first things they need to look at is the civility of their former party leaders.
This will be the first former president who will seek to return to elected office in some form or another. I imagine him being mayor of chicago or senator again. He might even go to the UN as its king.
Take Carter and add in Clinton and multiply by a factor of ten = Obama’s derogatory behavior to Bush.
I don’t expect that to change one iota … and if his successor is a Republican, multiply that once again by a factor of ten!
No class. No sense of history or dignity.
Still classy, Bush will be the gentleman even if it pains us!
True that. I had excess brain-explosions over the fact he never took his gloves off and stood his ground or defended what was right. He allowed the media and the left to run all over him and the party.