Posted on 11/17/2005 6:59:10 AM PST by hispanarepublicana
WASHINGTON - David Miller looked relieved.
After weeks of preparing slides, videos and speeches for this moment, the work was finally done - at least for now.
In front of President Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card, advisers Karl Rove and Harriet Miers and even the president's brother Marvin, Miller and 19 West Texas representatives finally had the opportunity on Wednesday morning to make the case about why Texas Tech should be home to the George W. Bush Presidential Library.
In the 21/2-hour presentation at the prominent Washington hotel The Mayflower, Tech Chancellor David Smith, President Jon Whitmore and others emphasized that West Texas is home to the Bush family.
To prove this, and "win their hearts," the group showed a video featuring first lady Laura Bush's second-grade teacher and longtime friends of the family.
"The whole idea was to make them feel that they wanted to go back home," said Miller, the chairman of the West Texas Coalition for the George W. Bush Presidential Library.
At the same time, Tech officials tried to emphasize the strength of the university.
Smith spoke about Tech's global reach, Miller said.
Provost William Marcy emphasized university institutes that could "mesh nicely" with a section of the library they hope to call the George W. Bush Institute for Global Freedom and Democracy.
Whitmore spoke about the university's museums and archives.
"The committee members were focused the entire time," Miller said. "I think the word I would use is that they were fully engaged."
After the presentation, the group took questions from the library selection committee.
Group members later said the questions included:
"How many parking spaces will be available?"
The group responded: 1,850 spaces.
"The one thing we have in West Texas is land," Miller said.
"What's the price tag on the library?" another member of the selection committee asked.
"Approximately $500 million," the answer came.
West Texas officials followed up the questions with an explanation about Lubbock, "the second-most conservative" town in the United States.
The ranking is from an Aug. 11 survey of voting patterns in 237 American cities with a population of more than 100,000 by the Bay Area Center for Voting Research, which ranked Provo, Utah, as first.
"The political cooperation will definitely be there," Miller said.
The West Texas group is vying for the presidential library against Southern Methodist University, Baylor University and the University of Dallas. Officials from those universities met with the selection committee on Tuesday.
After Wednesday's presentation, Miller said he was pleased with the outcome but was careful about getting his hopes up.
"They didn't say it was in the bag," he said.
Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Don Evans, who sits on the library selection committee, also would not let on if the committee had a preference.
"We had four outstanding presentations," Evans said. "We're thrilled with their work and effort. They all had outstanding qualities and they all represented their schools and their alumni well."
Now, the fate of the Bush library is in the hands of the one man missing from the meeting: President Bush, who was attending a trade summit in South Korea on Wednesday.
Evans said Bush will make a decision sometime after Jan 1.
"(President Bush) knows that these universities came in the last couple of days and he's aware we're meeting with the universities," he said.
Until the decision comes, all West Texas officials can do is wait.
Still, Miller can't help but think of the economic prospects he believes the library would bring to Lubbock: Approximately 1,400 construction jobs, 500 jobs within the library, roughly $10 million in tourism.
"This will become the beacon on the hill for us," Miller said, "even though we don't have any hills in Lubbock."
Click here to see the video. Includes woman who introduced Pres. Bush & Mrs. Bush, Mrs. Bush’s elementary teacher, Pres. Bush’s first bible-study partner, and their best friends, Mike & Nancy Weiss from Lubbock. I can't remember whether or not Bob Perry is in there.
TTU/Hub City Ping
Here is to the West Texas pick. President Bush, and Mrs. Bush, we welcome you both back home with open arms. Your loved and admired here in West Texas. We will protect you and honor your administration with pride and admiration.
PICK Texas Tech.... We will make You Proud.
Thank you David Miller and all involved. Wiess Family, thank you!
The location with the least chance of being picketed, mired down by liberal regs & policies, etc. We don't cotton to that kind of thing. As one of the characters in one of what I've heard is one of Pres. Bush's favorite movies says, "I can't stand rude behavior in a man; won't tolerate it."
I don't think there is a university town in Texas that doesn't have its share of hippies--even Texas A&M.
Lubbock is a wonderful city, excellent place to raise a family, but, not a place for a Presidential Library. To all the citizens of Lubbock, suggest you prepare yourself for the ground breaking of the Presidential Library on land located in Las Colinas that will be donated to SMU. For y'all that are not fortunate enough to live in the Grand State of Texas, Las Colinas is in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex.
tuck
Ok, I'll admit it, I cried - that was beautiful
This is complete BS (your post, that is).
Are you discounting all the hard work that was done to elect the President by the Swift Boat Vets? Where do you think that information was obtained?
We'll see. The Baylor Baptists will be hopping mad if he picks the SMU Methodists......they might even try to smuggle some carrot-raisin salad or some other atrocity into one of the Methodists' pot-lucks....or they might raid the morning coffee hour and drink all the coffee.
By the way, lately I've been "stuned" at the number of non-Texans, such as New Yorkers, Wisconsiners, etc., that have started saying "y'all".
I've seen the video 3 or 4 times, and I still mist up every time I see it. How long's it been since you've been back to the Hub?
Fresno and Lubbock are not dissimilar places. But, we have prettier women.
One thing I notice when we play TTU football games here is that both the adult women and adult men dress very nicely....long sleeved oxford shirts or golf shirts with the team logo for men and cute fashionable sweaters or blouses with the logo or in the team colors for women and slacks or jeans or skirts. Typical office "casual Friday" type of look. The other team's supporters--both men and women--tend to wear jeans and a $10 team t-shirt or sweatshirt with athletic shoes. The only other team's supporters that dress kind of like we do with that "casual Friday" look is Texas A&M.
I think a lot of people discount Tech's chances too much. GW and Laura (and Marvin, and Don Evans) are, after all, West Texas natives. They grew up here, and have many friends here. With that said, I still think SMU has the inside track.
I would figure Baylor with the inside track due to location and the beauty of the Brazos River, etc., but that's just me.
Click the link in post #1
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