CNN says Bush is "more likely to" be a humanitarian like Jimmy Carter after leaving office

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Bush has expressed interest in writing a memoir and hitting the highly profitable lecture circuit, but experts say both pursuits could pose pitfalls.

Publishers, concerned the president's slumping approval ratings could translate to less-than-stellar book sales, have reportedly been lukewarm about a Bush book deal.

Bush has expressed interest in cataloguing 10 crises he's faced, Brinkley said, but wary publishers are somewhat cold to that idea, perhaps concerned that a public still reeling from the country's financial meltdown might not have an appetite for the president's account of his own difficult times.

Bush, like several of his predecessors, is also likely to embark on the business of making money -- and a lot of it -- off his status as a former occupant of the White House.

The Clintons have made more than $100 million in the eight years since the curtain closed on their White House years, and Bush himself has said that his father earns $50,000 to $75,000 a speech.

To be sure, profiting from their White House years is a staple for modern ex-presidents: Gerald Ford capitalized on his accidental 2½-year presidency by sitting on the board of several major corporations, and Ronald Reagan caused a stir when he netted $2 million for a few brief speeches in Japan in 1989.

But the public's overwhelming disdain for the president may delay a speaking tour and Bush ascent to the corporate boardroom.

"He is a president where people are expecting some kind of repair work," said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton. "If he just goes on the speaking circuit and focuses his time making huge money, that would only tarnish a presidency that only has a low approval rating."

Instead, Bush is more likely to choose a similar post-presidential path, at least initially, as that of Jimmy Carter, who also left the White House with poor approval ratings, Zelizer said.

Instead of seeking to profit off his years in office, Carter became a globe-trotting humanitarian and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work promoting social and economic justice.

In the process, Carter has rehabilitated his image and transformed a legacy that had seemed unsalvageable three decades ago.

"What Jimmy Carter showed is that you can be very active in your post-presidential years and help improve how people think of you as a leader and a policy maker," Zelizer said.

Bush and his handlers are mapping out this phase of the president's post-White House years. Plans are well under way for a "Freedom Institute" that will aim to promote democracies abroad.

The institute, where Bush is expected to play a significant role, is expected to be unaffiliated with an academic institution. Its members are expected to be analysts whose views are in line with the neoconservative outlook that shaped the president's approach to foreign policy.

"This is going to be Bush vision." Brinkley said of the institute. "Bush has never liked the academics ,and this is a nonacademic institute aimed at cutting to the core of things: only pro-democracy foot soldiers who are green-lit by George and Laura Bush are in the mix."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/05/bush.post.presid...

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. a humanitarian? they must be joking!

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. In his dreams.

I hope he has a stroke.

[Webster Green]

3. "Freedom Institute"

The "Institute" will no doubt be purchasing shit-loads of bunker-busters.

Democracy fucking rules! USA! USA! USA!

[Aristus]

15. The Freedom Institute! Our Mission: To bomb the Hell out of small, nearly defenseless

marginalized countries unless they agree to adopt an American-style greedy, corrupt, ineffective special-interest driven government. Because that, gang, is FREEDOM!

They're probably hiring a sign-painter at this very moment...

The Freedom Institute, where mercilessly murdering a million innocent civilians is just our way of saying "Mission Accomplished"!

[midnight armadillo]

4. Far more likely ....

...is that he will drink himself to death in Houston.

[gratefultobelib]

5. if only

[fudge stripe cookays]

12. Dallas, dear.

The pig fucker recently purchased a home in my former stomping grounds. I'm seriously nauseous.

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. How big of a brush can they make for this guy?

This one is not big enough.

Does everyone see the white washing that's being done by the media?


1. the biggest mistake in military history. .... nothing
2. Katrina....... nothing
3.Biggest Economic disaster of the US.. nothing
4, 150,000 Iraqis dead......... nothing
5. Loss of the constitution..... nothing.

George Bush Humanitarian...... yeah lets buy that crap.

[mitchum]

7. Only if he goes amok at Kennebunkport

[BrklynLiberal]

30. heeheeheehee

[ClassWarrior]

8. CW-N says Bush** is more likely to be a "humanitarian" like Foster Brooks after leaving office.

NGU.

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. A catalog of 10 crises? I have a suggested title; "Don't be a fuckup. Don't make these mistakes."

[sam sarrha]

maybe if the Wet brain alcoholic Narcississy preppy bitch wasn't a Psychopath he could

but he doesn't give a shit about anyone else.. as a child he put fire crackers in Frogs Butts and blew them up... bad sign, as an adult he put our soldiers butts in Iraq and blew them up.. he put them in un-armored HMV's, no helmet liners, no body armour, let KBR give them sewage to drink and shower with.. and fuck'n hauled ice to them in trucks that recently hauled stinking rotting corpses.. that still had necrotic waste sloshing around in them.. god damned murdering bastard, every body send him pretzels as a good by gift

i cant possibly communicate how much i despise him.. and the ReThuglicans who love him as much as Reagan.. that is perversly appropriate

[Tangerine LaBamba]

10. Whatever CNN is smoking,

I want some. Now.

[2Design]

11. jimmy carter had a heart - bush doesn't n/t

[Juche]

26. That sums it up

Carter meant what he did. Bush is just going to do it to kill time until he thinks the public have forgotten his screwups enough to let him earn money again.

Seriously, how stupid would it be for Bush to pursue human rights or open/transparent democracy in foreign countries? He attacked these things here at home. The Irony is amazing, but I've learned not to expect better anymore.

[VPStoltz]

27. He thinks all the $$$ he gonna be making off the Iraq will give him enough to buy one.

[machI]

44. Former President Carter operates a hammer for Habitat For Humanity

The only skill Bush would have with a hammer would be to break people's kneecaps down in Gitmo.

[Muttocracy]

13. more likely than speaking tours I guess - who would pay to hear him? nt

[mudesi]

14. How can he be a humanitarian when he's ROTTING IN PRISON? (nm)

[Triana]

16. Yes. Of course. Jeffrey Dahmer was a humanitarian too. Right? n/t

[SemiCharmedQuark]

17. Bill Clinton earned money on the speaking circuit because he is intelligent, engaging and eloquent

George W. Bush is NONE of those things. I cringe every time I hear him speak. The only place that would pay him to speak would be the Daily Show.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

19. Or any company hooked into the Carlyle Group...

...I get the feeling that when he's ready to "replenish the ol' coffers" with speaking engagements, Poppy's Saudi friends will start working their way through the Rolodex.

I can't use the words "keynote speaker" and "George W. Bush" in the same sentence while keeping a straight face.

[JohnyCanuck]

46. Jon Stewart is already saying how much he is going to miss the guy.

The only place that would pay him to speak would be the Daily Show.

And here's why:
Daily Show: President Bush's Painful Exit Interview

[a kennedy]

48. and that gawd d*mn smirk.......

HATE IT!!

[Idealism]

18. Sate controlled newspapers in Venezuela consider Hugo Chavez to be a great humanitarian

[Mnemosyne]

22. Links please. thanks, n/t

[Idealism]

29. I forget which news program I saw that on

60 minutes? it all blends together, I watch too many

[Mnemosyne]

42. You are aware of the US propaganda program, right? n/t

[JDPriestly]

20. Bush will talk big, but he won't have the patience and depth

to carry through. That's his problem. It's a character thing. A lack of character thing.

[Harry Monroe]

21. OH PLEASE!!

The only thing Bush will be doing after he leaves office is resuming his role as a village idiot somewhere in Texas!!

[DebbieCDC]

23. They need to quit smoking crack at CNN

[Juche]

24. I can see it in Africa

If he goes to and generally stays in Africa I think he'll do ok. The HIV program is very popular there. BUt outside of Africa Bush is not going to go along well.

So I guess he is going to hang out in Africa for 5 years (preferably in countries that do not have extradition treaties with places like Spain), then try to get rich on the lecture circuit.

Ah priorities. Hang out in Africa until people have forgotten your fuckups enough that you can go out and make money again.

[Historic NY]

25. He is a very shallow person, I could see him helping out...

at the local bar for free drinks.

[Booster]

28. You have to have a heart to be a humanitarian. Bush ain't got one.

[BrklynLiberal]

31. and the Queen is more likely to be the King if she had balls....

[PerfectSage]

32. Bush is going to create a Freedom Institute to rehabilitate his image?

:rotfflmao: Bush could make $100 mill if he allowed people to pay to throw eggs at him.

[Marr]

33. No way. If there is one consistent thing about GW Bush, it's that he *always*

does exactly the wrong thing, and he never shies away from making the most crass and blatantly self-serving moves. He'll go directly to speaking fees and huge payoffs, no doubt in my mind. I expect he'll primarily be doing it in front of oil companies, too.

[SeattleGirl]

34. Yeah, right.

[EFerrari]

35. The Torture President? Sure.

How do you rehabilitate a torturer?

[u4ic]

36. My Pet President?

No wait...that'll be Cheney's book.

[charlie]

37. Doesn't CNN watch ABC?

Dubya mused aloud to Charlie Gibson about post-prez humanitarian work, suddenly woke up to what he was saying, and veered off into one of his bizarro-land segues, where he said he wasn't speaking of himself of course, only a hypothetical about what "a" president "could" do after leaving office.

Dubya isn't remotely interested in interrupting his R&R with building shacks for peasants. He just likes the *idea* of doing it. The boy is still strange as ever.

[Missy Vixen]

38. This is an insult to Jimmy Carter

George W. Bush, you are no Jimmy Carter, and you never will be.

Julie

[Radical Activist]

39. CNN is more likely to be full of shit.

[old mark]

40. CNN is, once again, FOS....nt

[DemBones DemBones]

41. . . .

[eShirl]

43. I've got a post-presidential vision all mapped out for Bush, right here

*makes rude gesture*

[Vinca]

45. Humanitarian? What's he going to do? Sweep innards off Iraqi sidewalks?

He needs to go to his mansion in Texas, lock the gate and stay inside, grateful for every minute he's not in a prison cell.

[malaise]

47. I'm hoping he can deliver his humanitarian work

behind bars in prison. I say he could be the pastor for the Aryan brotherhood in a chain gang breaking stones. Fuck George Bush - I'm not even sure he's human.