BUSH
AT PEACE
ize that power can be corrosive if
you’ve had it for too long,” Bush
said. “It can dim your vision. And
so I came to the conclusion that,
you know, I don’t long for fame.
And really, gonna shy away from
it. Not shy away from it. Avoid it.
I’m not very shy. Avoid it.”
It was a classic Rorschach moment. Those who hate Bush will
say it shows he was an arrogant
president whose power went to
his head and he’s just realizing
it. Those who love him will say it
shows a self-awareness and humility for which he was never given credit. Each side will probably
be grasping different sides of the
same complex soul.
He certainly has almost disappeared from public view since
leaving office, especially compared
to the way that former President
Bill Clinton has stayed in the
limelight. Clinton has been equal
parts politician and philanthropist. But Bush shows no inclination to stay in the political game.
He said he prefers to view events
“not from the political side of
things, although obviously almost
everything is political.”
“I tend to look at it from a historical perspective,” he said.
So far his post-presidency
HUFFINGTON
06.16.13
“Rubio’s articulate. I met him
once, maybe twice. My brother
likes him, so I like him.”
seems to be on a track more like
that of Jimmy Carter, who has
largely focused on a few issues
dear to his heart, only occasionally making news. Carter has
worked on humanitarian causes
like Habitat for Humanity and
more geopolitical ones like the
Middle East peace process. Bush,
for his part, has focused on caring
for veterans and eradicating HIV/
AIDS and other diseases in Africa.
Though he hinted that he may
not stay as off the radar in the future, “it’s certainly what I feel like
now,” Bush said.
He revealed that “there’s a frustration at the Bush Institute,” a
public policy think tank he founded in 2009, with his reluctance
to speak in public on issues of the
day. He said people will tell him,
“You need to get out and you need
to be out there, you know, opining about this and telling people
about that.”
“And I don’t want to do that,”
he said.
Bush also said he didn’t want to
criticize President Barack Obama