Free Republic

For decades, the Bushes were a dominant clan of the GOP, starting in the 1980s when patriarch George H.W. Bush became vice president, then president. But the family fell out of favor with the American public as well as with a chunk of the Republican Party in the waning years of his son's wartime presidency, and George W. Bush was deeply unpopular in its aftermath. But that's started to change; a Gallup Poll last month showed nearly half of Americans now view him favorably, a post-presidential high. With their image on the rebound, family members are openly criticizing their own...

President Barack Obama may be most linked to overhauling immigration policy, but on Wednesday, his predecessor, George W. Bush, will have a chance to weigh in on the issue. Bush will deliver opening remarks at a citizenship ceremony and immigration forum at his Dallas presidential center.

Former President George W. Bush today cheered on the “progress” in pushing comprehensive immigration reform through Congress. “The legislative process can be ugly,” Bush said with a chuckle in an interview aired today on ABC’s “This Week.” “But it looks like they're making some progress.”

President George W. Bush cautioned against criticizing gay couples, saying in an interview on “This Week” that you shouldn’t criticize others “until you’ve examined your own heart.” Bush had waded into the revitalized same-sex marriage debate last week - if only barely - in a comment to a reporter in Zambia, who asked whether gay marriage conflicts with Christian values. “I shouldn’t be taking a speck out of someone else’s eye when I have a log in my own,” Bush said last week. In an interview in Tanzania with ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl, the former president...

U2 frontman Bono, who moonlights as an activist for the poor and sick in Africa, is crediting evangelical Christians and former President George W. Bush for saving 9 million from the ravages of AIDS, a campaign the musician said is blessed by God. "This should be shouted from the rooftops. This is a heroic American story," Bono said in a remarkable radio interview with Jim Daly, the president of Focus on the Family, to be broadcast by the group Tuesday. Talking freely about God, his marriage, and his relationship with Jesus in the interview provided in advance to Secrets, Bono...

On Saturday, a plane carrying former President George W. Bush was diverted to Louisville, Ky., after the pilot smelled smoke, CNN reported. The aircraft landed safely and no one was hurt, but liberals were upset the plane did not crash and kill the former president, Twitchy reported Sunday. "What a shame George Bush's plane landed safely," one Twitter user said. "Dang bush plane made emergency landing. He has good pilots with his stanking a*s (sic)," added another Twitter user. "Too bad it didn't crash," said "Jay." Some readers at CNN also appeared upset that Bush survived the incident. "We need...

It's a milestone any former president would love: For the first time since 2005, more Americans approve of George W. Bush than disapprove, reports Gallup. He now stands at 49-46—up 9 in the "view favorably" category and down 13 in "view unfavorably" since he left office in 2009. (He still registers only a 24% favorable rating among Democrats, 60 points below his score among Republicans.) All the recent former presidents are at 60% favorable or above, including Bush senior at 62%. He turns 89 tomorrow, incidentally, and his foundation wants everyone to wear brights socks (and photograph them) to mark...

The outrage over President Barack Obama’s authorization of a nearly limitless federal dive into Americans’ phone records obscures a hiding-in-plain-sight truth about the 44th president many of his supporters have overlooked for years: For all his campaign-trail talk of running the “most transparent administration” in U.S history, Obama never promised to reverse the 43rd president’s policies on domestic anti-terrorism surveillance — and he’s been good on his word. Obama’s effort to strike what he’s repeatedly called “a balance” between personal liberty and homeland security has exposed what amounts to a split political personality: Candidate Obama often spoke about personal freedom...

Though he had no idea what it was, the annual “Bush Center Warrior 100K” mountain bike ride, which took place over the Memorial Day weekend, upset Bill Maher. “I guess they walked or ran or something on their prosthetic limbs,” Maher sneered about George W. Bush’s ride around his Texas ranch with 20 servicemen, “and I found this to be nauseating. I mean, first he sends them off to war to get their limbs blown off and then he has them over for a barbecue.” Maher then equated the former President with Ariel Castro, the kidnaper who held captive multiple...

In a rare break from form, former President George W. Bush expressed an understanding that Obama is "having a difficult go," and offered a few seldom-heard comments on the presidency. "I'm not surprised," Bush said in an interview to the Huffington Post during his annual Warrior 100K three-day mountain bike race, held each year around Memorial Day on his 1,500-acre ranch. There were 75 veterans at the event, 13 of whom had been wounded in the very wars Bush had started. "I think that if you study the modern presidency, two-term presidents have a different set of issues on their...

"I think the atmosphere, unlike when I tried it, is better, maybe for the wrong reason. The right reason is it's important to reform a broken system. I'm not sure a right reason is that in so doing we win votes. I mean when you do the right thing, I think you win votes, as opposed to doing something that's the right thing to win votes. Maybe there's no difference there. It seems like there is to me though." —George W. Bush on immigration reform, according to the Huffington Post.

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Bush had one White House visit by the IRS commissioner. Why did Obama have 157? If you’re not already familiar with the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups under Obama, you can read all about it at entry #170 in this earlier post of mine: Here are 180 examples of Barack Obama’s lying, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, hypocrisy, government waste, and other misdeedsThere are two new things in this next article, and I’m not sure which of the two is more interesting.First, during Obama’s presidency, the IRS commissioner made more visits to the White House – by a...

May 1, 2013 The George W. Bush Presidential Center opens to the public Former President George W. Bush with 43 children from the Dallas-Fort Worth area that were chosen by their superintendents to be the first visitors to the museum.-Credit WFAA by MARJORIE OWENS and STEVE STOLER DALLAS - The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, located on the Southern Methodist University campus, opened to the public at 9 a.m. Wednesday following a brief ceremony. Last week, it was the five living presidents and myriad dignitaries from across the world who packed the center's dedication. On Wednesday, 43 children...

April 28, 2013 George W. Bush: Great President, even finer man Eric Golub BURLINGTON, Vt., April 29, 2013 — The George W. Bush Presidential Library is now living history. The Southern Methodist University campus will house some of the most important documents spanning one of the most consequential periods in American history. Mr. Bush, affably known by nicknames “43,” “Dubya,” and “The Dub,” entered office after a disputed election. His first few months saw him ram through supply-side tax cuts that turned around a slowing economy he “inherited” from his predecessor. Despite a NASDAQ collapse of over 90 percent, Bush...

After yesterday’s opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, many in the media are taking a look back at the presidency of George W. Bush after a little time to put it in perspective, and the results do a Catholic heart good: Former fierce critics are acknowledging the kindness and accomplishments of the man. When millions of Catholics see Bush standing in between Presidents Clinton and Obama in those pictures, surely we remember him more fondly than ever. Because of the abortion extremism of Bill Clinton, pro-life Catholics were rooting for Bush to win. When he did,...

W. TO JEB: RUN!

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/04/25/george-w-bush-has-saved-more-lives-than-any-american-president/ George W. Bush, not Barack Obama, is the real American hero in Africa. Take it from me, a liberal Democrat who voted for Obama twice. I know a little about Africa: I have been to the continent 17 times over the last 32 years. In particular, I have a great interest in South Sudan; I first traveled there in March 2008, and I have been back 13 since. South Sudan is the mostly Christian nation that won its independence from Sudan after a half-century of civil war; in 2011, South Sudan was admitted into the United Nations as a...

U.S. President Barack Obama embraces former president George W. Bush following remarks at the dedication ceremony of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, April 25, 2013. Obama is in Texas to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Bush in what could serve as a powerful reminder of the ongoing struggle against terrorism, from the Sept. 11 attacks to the Boston Marathon bombings.

It’s official. After 3 sightings within the past week, just like the swallows returning to Capistrano each spring, the boob belt is back. I knew you’d want to be the first to know. Here we see several sightings, each one accenting Lady M’s arrow straight profile ever so handsomely. My favorite, hands down, is this fuchsia draped neck frock with the standard issue black mini-me and eyelet boob belt that MO wore yesterday. Demonstrating yet again that we know how to keep our priorities straight following unspeakable tragedies, Big Guy and Lady M boarded Air Force Won bound for an...

Former President George W. Bush said Wednesday in an interview with C-SPAN that while he and former first lady Laura Bush have friends in Washington, he doesn’t miss Washington. “I really don’t miss Washington. It was an unbelievably exciting experience to be up there for eight years, but I think I told you before that when your time’s up, you exit the stage and let the next man in this case give it his best shot, and so while we’ve got friends in Washington, I’m not all that friendly to Washington,” Bush said. …