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George W. Bush is as hard to find in his father's office, as he is in the 2012 presidential contest. The 43rd president appears in a gold-framed picture tucked into a far corner of the room, partially hidden by a Texas flag and a cabinet door. The placement — whether intentional or not — is a reminder of the Republican presidential campaign and the lengths to which Romney and his rivals have tried to marginalize the two-term president.

DALLAS (AP) — George W. Bush says that after eight years in the White House, he's happy to be back home in Texas and out of the spotlight. But the former commander-in-chief tells The Associated Press there's one aspect of his presidency he still misses: interaction with U.S. troops. And Bush, who sent them to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, says that despite his desire to remain largely out of the public eye, he wants to make sure veterans and military members know they still have his support. "I was a little concerned that our veterans don't think that I...

Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Friday, adding to the two-week slump as investors continued to sell, spooked by the prospect of another recession. At 0900 GMT, futures for the S&P 500 down 0.48 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.7 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.35 percent. Investors braced for the all-important U.S. monthly non-farm payrolls as well as the unemployment rate, due at 1230 GMT on Friday, seeking more insight on the extent of the damage in the labor market following a string of bleak macroeconomic data. Economists see payrolls up by...

NEW ORLEANS — Republicans head into 2012 united in their disdain for an unpopular, Big Government-loving, internationalist president. The name of that president: George W. Bush. From Capitol Hill to the statehouses to the presidential primary, Republicans are turning their back on almost every important accomplishment of the Bush administration.

Welcome to the Third Term of President George W. Bush By Victor J. Massad It all seemed so clear to progressives in the summer of 2008. A dense president born into old establishment wealth had conned the American people and we were trapped into implacable problems, both foreign and domestic. These problems included a bad war that the president had lied us into, a good war that he had ignored, a deficit that was out of control, a prison that violated human rights, and a relationship between big business and big government that had become too cozy. But there was...

Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann on Tuesday reintroduced the "Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act," a bill to repeal a 2007 law mandating that incandescent light bulbs be phased out. "The government has no business telling an individual what kind of light bulb to buy," she said in a news release Wednesday. "In 2007, Congress overstepped its bounds by mandating that only 'energy efficient' light bulbs may be sold after January 1, 2012. This mandate has sweeping effects on American families and businesses and needs serious consideration before taking effect." Bachmann says the mandate should only stay in place is...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says he isn't ruling out a possible presidential run in 2016. At the inauguration Tuesday of new Gov. Rick Scott, Bush repeated his stance that he's positively not running for president in 2012.

For someone who mangled words on a regular basis, it's an impressive feat. Former U.S. President George W Bush's memoir has sold an astonishing two million copies since it was released in early November - and it's not even in paperback yet. 'Decision Points', published both in hardcover and e-book form, is flying off the shelves, the Crown Publishing Group says. By contrast, former president Bill Clinton's memoir, 'My Life', has logged sales of 2.2million copies since it was first published in 2004. A spokesman for Crown called the performance remarkable. He claimed he could not think of any other...

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WASHINGTON — The incumbent senator from Alaska is taken by surprise in a primary. A new conservative movement energizes Republicans in a furious response to a Democratic White House. Little-known insurgent candidates prepare to storm the Senate. It is starting to feel like 1980. While the 1994 Republican takeover of the House is regularly explored for insight into what might happen this polarized election year, parallels are emerging between the watershed Senate election of three decades ago and the campaign of 2010 as another conservative rebellion threatens to reshape the Senate. In 1980, shocked Senate Democrats lost 12 seats in...

Lauer to Laura Bush: Is It 'Painful' to Be in New Orleans, Since So Much Blame Is Laid At Your Husband's Feet? Today co-anchor Matt Lauer traveled to New Orleans, on Friday, to mark the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and interviewed the likes of former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, former FEMA Director Mike Brown, current Democratic Mayor Mitch Landrieu and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, but saved any sort of direct shots at George W. Bush for his interview with Laura Bush.

Ken Mehlman, President Bush’s campaign manager in 2004 and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, made a shocking confession today in an interview with The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinger: Privately, in off-the-record conversations with this reporter over the years, Mehlman voiced support for tax increases and told of how, in private discussions with senior Republican officials, he beat back efforts to support the Bush tax cuts. The reaction by conservative pundits and leaders was praise for Mehlman following his conscience and being true to himself. Okay, not really. Maybe in an alternate universe that would happen, but in D.C....

My fellow Americans - boy, are you fickle. How else to explain the rising popularity of former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton? Yes, President Obama has been mulligan-ing it up on Martha’s Vineyard on what seems like his umpteenth vacation this year. The polls put his popularity at basement level. But must we pine for those other two clowns? Guess so. In its story “The Resurgence of Bill Clinton” Newsweek declared this week “most Democrats would rather have (Clinton) campaign for them this fall than Obama.” Worse, the former philanderer-in-chief is almost 10 points more popular among Americans...

CNN's Candy Crowley asks Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC): "When does the statute of limitations run out on blaming the Bush administration and when is it on you all as the governing -- really in the House and the Senate and the White House. When does the economy your baby, so to speak?"

President Obama and his leftist pals ought to start taking responsibility for the shortcomings of their extreme ideology. The left’s knee-jerk reaction: Blame former President George W. Bush for anything that goes wrong, seems to have no bounds. Bush has been saddled with everything from a bad economy to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Continues... To stem the Gulf oil gusher and clean up the mess, Obama has been mustering all the incompetence his entire administration could manage under the circumstances. His biggest achievement thus far is watching this drag out for over a month before realizing...

Former first lady Laura Bush has broken with her husband on the premier social issues of his administration and said she backs gay marriage and abortion. After more than eight years of silence on the controversial issues, Mrs. Bush said in an interview with CNN's Larry KingTuesday, that gay marriage and abortion were points of contention with her husband, former President George W. Bush. Mrs. Bush in recent weeks has been promoting her memoir "Spoken from the Heart," in which she writes about her life both before and after becoming first lady. In response to a question about gay marriage,...

A former White House speechwriter, Mark Thiessen, has jumped to the defense of his former boss, writing for the Washington Post that George W. Bush “established a conservative record without parallel.” Even by the loose standards of Washington, that is a jaw-dropping assertion. I’ve been explaining for years that Bush was a big-government advocate, even writing a column back in 2007 for the Washington Examiner pointing out that Clinton had a much better economic record from a free-market perspective. I also groused to the Wall Street Journal the following year about Bush’s dismal performance. “Bush doesn’t have a conservative legacy”...

Former President George W. Bush on Thursday outlined plans to establish a $300 million library, museum and research institute, taking a step back onto the national stage. The George W. Bush Policy Institute—which would be the first think tank to be affiliated with a presidential library—will address issues that were priorities during Mr. Bush's presidency, such as education, global health, political freedom and economic growth, and seek to promote advances by offering practical solutions, the former president said. In a speech at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where the center is slated to be built, Mr. Bush said the institute...