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George W. Bush was known – and often criticized – for being insular during his eight years in the White House, but he made regular calls to a surprising adviser during his second term: his predecessor. Bill Clinton revealed on Monday that the second President Bush picked his brain twice a year for 30-45 minutes, in wide-ranging conversations that no doubt set the stage for the surprising, "brother-from-another-mother" relationship that the two ex-presidents now share. Bush would call Clinton "just to talk," during his last four years in the White House, the Democrat said in a joint event at the...

Both of former President George W. Bush's daughters aren't following the family's Republican Party heritage. Jenna Bush Hager ... is registered to New York's Independence Party ... Barbara Pierce Bush, is registered to vote in Texas and is not affiliated with any political party...

350 more U.S. troops are headed to Iraq to fight a war that Obama declared over almost exactly four years ago today. “President Obama declared an end on Tuesday to the seven-year American combat mission in Iraq,” wrote the New York Times on the last day of August in 2010, “saying that the United States has met its responsibility to that country and that it is now time to turn to pressing problems at home.”Like a lot of journalism, what the New York Times wrote that day was more of an elegy for the Obama administration and its brand of progressivism...

“I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf,” Bush said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them.” “And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong message,” Bush said.

Fore left! Q. Is there any news professional who doesn't know that, out of respect for military families, President George W. Bush gave up golf not long after the Iraq war started? A. Yes. Dan Harris, weekend Good Morning America co-host. Harris' ignorance—or intentional disregard of the facts—was displayed during a segment today's GMA after Jonathan Karl reported that President Obama hit the links within an hour of landing at Martha's Vineyard and just hours after making a statement about US attacks on ISIS forces. After Karl said that Woodrow Wilson, in office during WWI, had played more golf than...

I certainly didn’t know foreign policy would be front and center in the final months before the midterm elections when I wrote in late April that these issues “could have an indirect yet significant impact on the midterm elections.” But now, it looks increasingly as if foreign policy — particularly problems in the Middle East and relations with Russia — will add to the president’s woes. While international issues are a low priority to most Americans, the daily dose of bad news from the Middle East, Russia and Ukraine makes it difficult for the public to appreciate any good economic...

In June, President Barack Obama sent a letter to Congress asking for help to address the surge of illegal crossings at the Texas-Mexico border. Among other items, Obama asked Congress to grant him the legal authority "to exercise discretion in processing the return and removal of unaccompanied minor children from non-contiguous countries like Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador." The administration blamed a 2008 anti-human-trafficking law signed by President George W. Bush for preventing officials from promptly deporting minors not eligible for asylum. House Republicans were happy to oblige. Speaker John Boehner maintained that voters would not accept spending more money...

Beau Bergdahl has been returned to “active duty.” Apparently, that means a desk job while the Army considers what should be done with this young enlisted soldier. Bergdahl was held for five years by the Taliban since walking away from his post one night in 2009. President Obama greeted Bergdahl’s relieved parents in Rose Garden at the White House in a move widely criticized. And that was even before Americans learned that the Obama administration had traded young Bergdahl for five of the most murderous Taliban detainees from our facility at Guantanamo Bay. Duty. There seems to be much confusion...

Wow. A reputable poll shows that the public believes Barack Obama is the worst president since World War II. Worse than Richard M. Nixon, driven from the presidency by Watergate? Much. Worse than Jimmy Carter, for decades the very symbol of the feckless chief executive? Loads. Worse than George W. Bush, still a lightning rod on the left and a symbol of disappointment on the right? Definitely. These startling poll results set loose the predictable reaction: A flurry of told-you-so nods on the right and a fusillade of this-tells-us-nothing assertions on the left. For once, they're both right. Obama is...

Robert Redford has signed on to play Dan Rather in Truth, a film based on the 2005 memoir Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power. The book, written by Rather's producer Mary Mapes, centers on the firestorm that erupted in September of 2004 after Rather reported that George W. Bush had received special treatment while serving in the Air National Guard during the Vietnam War, a report that was based on documents that turned out to be forgeries. - See more at: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/robert-redford-play-dan-rather-717476#sthash.Y0QB620e.dpuf

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama was named the worst president since World War II, according to a survey of the American people who were asked to rate the nation's chief executives over the past 69 years. The Quinnipiac University Poll released last week found that one third of its respondents picked Obama as the all-time worst, ahead of George W. Bush in its disapproval. Obama's unpopularity will come as no surprise to those who've been closely following his big spending presidency. But the really big news was the man who topped the best presidency list: Ronald Reagan. Reagan championed entrepreneurial...

Our nation, this generation, will lift the dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail. - George W. Bush Sept. 20, 2001. Today is George W. Bush's 68th birthday. A man who, according to his father, "faced the greatest challenge of any president since Abraham Lincoln.” Happy Birthday, President George W. Bush. Great to visit the @GWBLibrary earlier this year! pic.twitter.com/6u3f12FF1T — Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) July 6, 2014 His presidency will...

George W. Bush’s 68th birthday is today. In honor of the 43rd President of the United States, here are fifteen of his most classic and classiest moments:

In the George W. Bush years, liberals were routinely shocked and awed that the Bush administration would obliterate their sacred wall of separation between church and state. They frowned on federal faith-based initiatives and worried about the bureaucracy being invaded by frightening people with college degrees from Christian schools like Liberty University, Regent University or Catholic University. Government was no place to be spreading a dangerous Christian majoritarianism with a swaggering certitude that wouldn't tolerate opposing views and respect minority opinions. The media presented the Bushies as -- to quote a slur from NBC anchor Brian Williams -- "anti-gay, pro-Jesus...

Everyone believes in "standards" don't they? So what could possibly be wrong with "Common Core" (the US education system's "Common Core State Standards Initiative")? After all, is it not "a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English... created to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live"?* Not according to Dr. Duke Pesta, professor of English at The University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, who joins us for an extended and detailed interview on the genesis, content and ideology of Common Core...

President George W. Bush predicted the current meltdown in Iraq – back in 2007. Bush vetoed a Democratic bill to withdraw troops from Iraq. Via Truth Revolt: I know some in Washington would like us to start leaving Iraq now. To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we are ready would be dangerous for Iraq, for the region and for the United States. It would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to al Qaeda. It would mean that we’d be risking mass killings on a horrific scale. It would mean we’d allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven...

Former President George W. Bush spent his Memorial Day weekend laid up in Chicago undergoing knee replacement surgery, according to reports. Bush, 67, underwent the outpatient procedure at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center on Saturday, NBC Chicago reported. Doctors allowed Bush to stay at a nearby hotel after the operation, before he flew home to Dallas Monday afternoon. Bush was accompanied during the medical trip by wife Laura and a Secret Service detail, NBC Chicago reported. The former President has kept a relatively low profile in recent months, even declining to attend the Sept. 11 Memorial & Museum dedication ceremony...

It is actually very easy. (Photo essay at source link.)

During the George W. Bush Administration, progressives were hailing the Veterans Affairs health system as a model health organization. Now that it's come out that the VA suffers from the same bureaucratic nightmares that all socialized-style systems do, progressives want to roll back the clock on their rhetoric. Luckily, Nancy Pelosi has found the real person whose fault it is: George W. Bush. As Joel Gehrke reports: Pelosi took a shot at Bush while saying that the scandal is a high priority for Obama. "He sees the ramifications of some seeds that were sown a long time ago, when you...

Mike Pence spoke at AEI yesterday in defense of his Medicaid expansion in Indiana. His position has been roundly denounced by most conservative and libertarian policy analysts – for a rare defense, read Grace-Marie Turner here, but even her praise is qualified the deeper you go. Most of the critiques of Pence have focused on the politics of the issue assuming the waiver moves forward, but after seeing his presentation yesterday and talking to him at a session following the event, I have my doubts that this waiver will even go through. The request comes following a year of...