I‘ve been thinking about President Bush. When the curtain falls on his presidency he will move back to Texas. Far from the crowd, cheering loudly for the yet-to-unfold Obama era, Mr. Bush as a retired President defies the imagination. I can see him chilling for a while, pondering his sere Texas surroundings, but somewhere he must create for himself a post-presidential existence.
He could chop trees and mend fences around his vast property, he could brush up on his Spanish and attend every family event to which he is invited. He could mountain bike over the Big Bend, with secret service agents panting on bikes behind him. He could hunt with Dick Cheney. He could chase these trivial pursuits with the intensity of a man impervious to public opinion — but eventually he may get a call from one of his parents ordering him to stop goofing off and grow up. Then what would he do?
For validation, he may busy himself with the creation of a presidential library, or he may spend months collaborating with a pedant like Bob Woodward so a three-volume book on his presidency can be written. Far better for him to write his own biography, but I don’t see him achieving this to any editor’s satisfaction: By himself at the computer, gushing profound paragraphs explaining his reasoning behind preemptive war; his encounter with the 9/11 commission; what he really thinks about the preening Vladimir Putin or Colin Powell’s repudiation; what he wants on his epitaph; or how he wishes historians to judge him. George W. Bush is not like Bill Clinton — he is not prone to hysterical mea culpa, and the English language not being one of his strengths, I don’t picture him writing.
Neither do I see him as a giver of political speeches. What would he talk about, who would invite him and who would pay him to expound about his discredited foreign policy vision or his administration’s endorsement of torture or suspension of habeas corpus? His word stumbles preclude him from becoming a TV commentator. Even Fox News, an apologist for Mr. Bush during his heyday, wouldn’t dare anoint him as a talk show host.
After his White House misadventures, Mr. Bush is going to find it difficult to reinvent himself. It is hard for me to see him going the Carter or Clinton way, jumping into the nonprofit sector, giving his heft to charities with grand visions like the eradication of global poverty or AIDS.
There is a serious possibility that he will drift and become aimless. Some would argue that this is a natural state for our current president and others would say no one should care what befalls him. I disagree. Even he deserves a chance at rehabilitation, and there is at least one idea that could rescue him from the monotony of a life not driven by purpose.
He could start the “George W. Bush Global Initiative for Nation Building.” He could rope in his rich buddies, the oil barons and the Saudis, to chip in on the project. Together they could create a bank that does nothing but micro lending. They could civilize the terrorist havens across the world, one country at a time, and give nation building a profitable and dignified status in the realm of global economics. If he is clever, Mr. Bush may be able to persuade the Saudis this is all for their own good, and they should pay him for his efforts. Who knows … if he succeeds in this venture he may even be able to peddle himself as a motivational speaker and Fox News may hire him to replace the suffocatingly affable Mike Huckabee!
Usha Nellore is a writer living in Bel Air. Reach her at [email protected].
