Free Republic

President Barack Obama called former President George W. Bush Tuesday hours before he was set to deliver an Oval Office speech on the drawdown of U.S. troops from Iraq, the White House said. Obama made the call aboard Air Force One on his way to Ft. Bliss, Tex., where he will visit U.S. troops. White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton said the “private” call lasted “a few minutes,” but declined to give further detail. Obama telephoned Bush in February 2009 before announcing his plans for withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Psalm 7:10 My Defense is in God, Who Preserveth the Upright in Heart.

Let's face it, this is shaping up as George W. Bush's best month in years. The last time the 43rd president enjoyed this kind of vindication was when a bedraggled Saddam Hussein was pulled from a hole in the ground by American soldiers in 2003. All of Barack Obama's efforts to cast the Bush administration as an immoral stain on American history have not merely collapsed, but collapsed on the heads of Bush's most public and vocal critics.Here's a non-stammering Nancy Pelosi talking about Bush last July: "God bless him, bless his heart, president of the United States -- a...

The first captain called the room to attention. After introducing the superintendent, he announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, the 43rd president of the United States!” The auditorium filled with a deafening applause, much louder than the rather tepid response to the speech he had just concluded. The president quickly motioned for us to sit down. His demeanor was far different than the one I’d seen on camera hundreds of times before — this man clearly was not comfortable being a politician. Far from the stiff that he’d always been when reporters were around, he seemed relaxed, excited, almost like a kid...

n a Daily Beast exclusive, a former Bush advisor files his account—and his photos—from aboard the former president’s flight back to Texas. Knowing it would be impossible to get out of the city Tuesday morning, many of us arrived Monday night at the very funky Econo Lodge by Air Force Andrews Base. The Blair House it was not. But good to be humbled on the way out. We jumped in a van in the morning and watched Obama’s inaugural address from the lobby at Andrews. The group of 100 or so watching, of which 100 percent were George Bush supporters,...

Washington -- Love him or hate him, George W. Bush leaves office among the most consequential presidents in modern history. Like his home state of Texas, his presidency was big. He sought "to end tyranny in the world." He began two wars. He cut taxes three times, tried to privatize Social Security, and added the biggest expansion of Medicare since it was created under Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. He took on AIDS in Africa and redrew the federal role in education. He named two relatively young conservatives to the Supreme Court. He declared by himself a "global war on terror"...

Bush bypasses Senate to name ambassador By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer 7 minutes ago President Bush named Republican fundraiser Sam Fox as U.S. ambassador to Belgium on Wednesday, using a maneuver that allowed him to bypass Congress where Democrats had derailed Fox's nomination. Democrats had denounced Fox for his 2004 donation to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The group's TV ads, which claimed that Sen. John Kerry exaggerated his military record in Vietnam, were viewed as a major factor in the Massachusetts Democrat losing the election. Recognizing Fox did not have the votes to obtain Senate confirmation, Bush...

(AgapePress) - "This is the White House calling. You need to call us." These are the words Gianna Jessen heard as she listened to her voicemail.Eager to the return the call she assumed was a joke, she dialed the number. The voice on the other end gave her news she never expected to hear: "You need to get on a plane within two days because you're going to meet the president in Pittsburgh. He's signing the bill that you testified in favor of a couple of years ago."Reality set in as Jessen arrived in Pittsburgh and was led into...