Where is George Bush?

[Paxil]

Did he just disappear off the planet or what? For someone who never lost a bid for office... it just seems like he absolutely vanished from the political landscape.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

I hate saying this, but part of me thinks it has finally dawned on him that every time he opens his mouth he just puts his foot in it. By staying silent, he makes himself look smarter.

 

[CelticKing]

He was at Family Guy last night.

 

[Paxil]

That may be. You'd think he would have to be out reading some speaches at least... something like that. He probably is... just strange how much he has disappeared.

 

[speeds]

When asked in February 2010 about his low profile since leaving office, Bush replied "I have no desire to see myself on television... I don't want to be a panel of formers instructing the currents on what to do. ... I'm trying to regain a sense of anonymity. I didn't like it when a certain former president — and it wasn't 41 (George H.W. Bush) or 42 (Bill Clinton) — made my life miserable." Bush was referring to 39th President Jimmy Carter, who was an outspoken critic of Bush throughout his presidency

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_w_bush

 

[HailBlazers]

ahhh Butt Hurt George. Everyone was an outspoken critic of your presidency, get over it

 

[Paxil]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_w_bush

I guess I can respect that.

 

[Denny Crane]

Regarding speeds' post...

It's generally accepted that former presidents don't comment on the current president or policy. It's an honorable thing Bush is doing (as his father did), and another reason why Jimmy Carter is an utter asshole.

 

[mook]

There was a trend with ex-presidents making dough on the lecture circuit. I know Bush Sr. and Clinton both really cashed in on the million-dollar speaking engagements. (Reagan was of course too far gone by the end of his presidency to do much.)

I haven't heard of Dubya cashing in, but that may just be a combination of ending as an unpopular president even to his own constituency (the TARP program, etc) and his widely known poor speaking ability.

Anyway, if he's smart he'll lay low for a few years and wait for the memory to fade and the legends to grow. Even Nixon had something of a career renaissance in the 1990's.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

dude is probably getting blotto every night on his ranch.

 

[Natebishop3]

There was a trend with ex-presidents making dough on the lecture circuit. I know Bush Sr. and Clinton both really cashed in on the million-dollar speaking engagements. (Reagan was of course too far gone by the end of his presidency to do much.)

I haven't heard of Dubya cashing in, but that may just be a combination of ending as an unpopular president even to his own constituency (the TARP program, etc) and his widely known poor speaking ability.

Anyway, if he's smart he'll lay low for a few years and wait for the memory to fade and the legends to grow. Even Nixon had something of a career renaissance in the 1990's.

I don't know... I think Bush could cash in if it were presented properly.

"Bush Unleashed: The musings of Dubya"

If it were more of a comedy act and less of an inspirational thing, I think people would totally show up to see him reveal his actual thoughts on things. Or maybe just an open book session on why he did things the way he did. One of the best documentaries ever made, "The Fog of War", was really just a one-on-one interview with Robert McNamara, and it was a fascinating journey through Kennedy's presidency. It would be interesting to hear something similar from Bush about 9/11, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

 

[Denny Crane]

Bush certainly has a lucrative book deal already. He's also making money doing speaking engagments:

Bush speaking fee - $150,000 a pop

Reagan wasn't so far gone that he was unable to make a bunch of speaking engagements himself. His last one was in 1994, in fact.

 

[BrianFromWA]

I'd venture to say that W doesn't really need the money, but I applaud him for staying out of Obama's way. I think, as time goes by, we'll see more of him in "humanitarian" causes like Bush 41 and Clinton doing tsunami relief drives, Haiti spots, etc.

 

[Denny Crane]

I'd venture to say that W doesn't really need the money, but I applaud him for staying out of Obama's way. I think, as time goes by, we'll see more of him in "humanitarian" causes like Bush 41 and Clinton doing tsunami relief drives, Haiti spots, etc.

W's net worth was about $27M when he left office, which makes him one of the least rich presidents of my lifetime. The bulk of that was the sale of the Texas Rangers, which he actually ran and ran extremely well.

Carter and Clinton were worth less when they left office, but Clinton is now worth over $100M.

Compare, say, to John Kerry whose net worth (from his marriage to Teresa Heinz) was half a $trillion.

 

[BrianFromWA]

500 Billion?!? He could almost have his own stimulus bill.

 

[BrianFromWA]

W's net worth was about $27M when he left office, which makes him one of the least rich presidents of my lifetime. The bulk of that was the sale of the Texas Rangers, which he actually ran and ran extremely well.

Carter and Clinton were worth less when they left office, but Clinton is now worth over $100M.

Compare, say, to John Kerry whose net worth (from his marriage to Teresa Heinz) was half a $trillion.

I generally don't keep track, and I don't know why I remember this fragment, but I was under the impression that the Obamas "only" were worth something like 3M when he took office? I guess I was comparing W to Clinton (who was relatively poor -- compared to Perot and GHW Bush) and Obama and Carter (Reagan being a movie star beforehand) and Ford and thinking that he was one of the richer ones recently.

 

[mook]

Yep. Almost all of Obama's net worth comes from royalties from writing his two books. That's about as "self-made-man" as you can get.

If Kerry were indeed worth half a trillion dollars, he'd be 10 times richer than the wealthiest man on the planet.

As it is, he appears to be worth "only" about $167 million.

 

[jlprk]

It's generally accepted that former presidents don't comment on the current president or policy. It's an honorable thing Bush is doing (as his father did), and another reason why Jimmy Carter is an utter asshole.

Carter's making up for Reagan being an asshole to him. The networks loved Reagan, so they gave him a prime time speech just about every month for 6 years until he bored everyone with the vague Star Wars speech. That ended his run.

In every single speech, TV and other, he criticized his predecessor, and used words like "Recovery" (actually the economy was much worse under him than Carter). Carter just took it with dignity.

I'm glad to see Carter finally get feisty.

 

[Denny Crane]

Half a billion, sorry.

http://ask.yahoo.com/20040823.html

According to Slate magazine, George W. Bush has a net worth of around $9 million to $26 million, and John Kerry has a net worth of about $165 million to $626 million, which includes his wife's assets. The Center for Public Integrity has collected details of both candidates' income and assets. Bush's biggest asset is his Texas ranch, while Kerry's top income source is his wife's portion of the Heinz company.

But including Teresa Heinz Kerry's personal fortune isn't wholly accurate. As Heinz Kerry has publicly noted, a prenuptial agreement keeps her money separate. Also, federal election laws limit how much of his wife's funds Kerry can use.

In 2002 financial disclosures, Kerry stated that assets in his own name were worth $409,000 to $1.8 million, and he had an additional $300,000 to $600,000 in assets owned jointly with his wife.

 

[mook]

BTW--not to get too off-topic here, but how fucked up is it that Kerry is worth such a ridiculous amount of money?

When I hear about how horrible the "death tax" is, I can't help but wonder at how strange it is that Kerry's got 5 houses and all that dough because he started banging a chick who used to bang a guy who inherited a shit-load of money from his dad who inherited a shitload of money from his dad who inherited a shitload of money from Henry Heinz, who built the Heinz ketchup company.

 

[Natebishop3]

Carter's making up for Reagan being an asshole to him. The networks loved Reagan, so they gave him a prime time speech just about every month for 6 years until he bored everyone with the vague Star Wars speech. That ended his run.

In every single speech, TV and other, he criticized his predecessor, and used words like "Recovery" (actually the economy was much worse under him than Carter). Carter just took it with dignity.

I'm glad to see Carter finally get feisty.

He's finally getting feisty because people have forgotten what a shitty president he was. It's funny how time can do that....

 

[mook]

Half a billion, sorry.

http://ask.yahoo.com/20040823.html

According to Slate magazine, George W. Bush has a net worth of around $9 million to $26 million, and John Kerry has a net worth of about $165 million to $626 million, which includes his wife's assets. The Center for Public Integrity has collected details of both candidates' income and assets. Bush's biggest asset is his Texas ranch, while Kerry's top income source is his wife's portion of the Heinz company.

But including Teresa Heinz Kerry's personal fortune isn't wholly accurate. As Heinz Kerry has publicly noted, a prenuptial agreement keeps her money separate. Also, federal election laws limit how much of his wife's funds Kerry can use.

In 2002 financial disclosures, Kerry stated that assets in his own name were worth $409,000 to $1.8 million, and he had an additional $300,000 to $600,000 in assets owned jointly with his wife.

That link is 4 years older than mine. Given the age, I'd probably consider the $167 more accurate. Although even that is probably high, given that he apparently lost so much money between the two periods, and the recession. Whatever, though.

 

[Natebishop3]

BTW--not to get too off-topic here, but how fucked up is it that Kerry is worth such a ridiculous amount of money?

When I hear about how horrible the "death tax" is, I can't help but wonder at how strange it is that Kerry's got 5 houses and all that dough because he started banging a chick who used to bang a guy who inherited a shit-load of money from his dad who inherited a shitload of money from his dad who inherited a shitload of money from Henry Heinz, who built the Heinz ketchup company.

The American dream...

 

[Denny Crane]

That link is 4 years older than mine. Given the age, I'd probably consider the $167 more accurate. Although even that is probably high, given that he apparently lost so much money between the two periods, and the recession. Whatever, though.

2010 linky.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/0...st-as-lawmakers-grow-wealth-in-recession-new/

John Kerry Is Richest as Lawmakers Grow Wealth in Recession, Newspaper Says

The richest? That would be Sen. John Kerry, (D-Mass.), who tops the list for the second year with a minimum net worth of $186.6 million, a boost of about $20 million from 2008, with much of it credited to his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry. Sen. Kerry got some unwanted publicity last month when questions were raised about him docking a $7 million family yacht in Newport, R.I., which levies virtually no taxes on pleasure craft, instead of in Massachusetts, which imposes substantial fees.

In calculating the wealth of members of Congress, The Hill said its formula is not foolproof since the ethics forms required of senators and representatives only demand ranges of income and holdings, not precise figures. Left off the list, for instance, is the very wealthy Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl of retail store fame, who owns the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team. Since the upper range required for financial disclosure is $50 million, the much higher full value of the NBA franchise does not show up in Kohl's filing, The Hill said.

 

[mook]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the yacht thing.

Jeez, it really is bad form to have all this money fall in your lap as a Democrat, and then hide from a yacht docking tax.

 

[Denny Crane]

To add to my previous post...

When Kerry was running for president, there was serious talk that because of his and his wife's massive net worth, just about any presidential decision could affect their stock portfolio in a positive way and be considered a conflict of interest.

In fact:

http://articles.sfgate.com/2004-06-27/news/17431894_1_heinz-stock-teresa-heinz-kerry-public-records

Kerry's spouse worth $1 billion / Amount is twice what was thought

June 27, 2004|By Ralph Vartabedian, Los Angeles Times

Teresa Heinz Kerry, through a network of investments in blue-chip corporations, venture capital funds and municipal bonds, controls a family fortune worth an estimated $1 billion, an examination of public records shows.

The $1 billion figure is double the estimates of her wealth that are widely cited in news stories about her husband, Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

The couple would rank as the wealthiest to occupy the White House, far surpassing such storied presidential fortunes as the Kennedys'. Their assets are so vast and far-reaching that they mirror the U.S. economy, and will likely raise questions about conflicts of interest.

 

[Denny Crane]

To reply to myself again (and mook)... a more recent link about her net worth - it's still $1B. I figured it would be roughly the same since she'd have to own all Las Vegas (or Detroit) real estate for her assets to have lost 80%. The stock market is pretty much where it was in 2000.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/10/billionaires08_Teresa-F-Heinz-Kerry_UZ1H.html

#1062 Teresa F Heinz Kerry
Net Worth: $1.0 bil

 

[jlprk]

He's finally getting feisty because people have forgotten what a shitty president he was. It's funny how time can do that....

The main reason Reaganites thought he was shitty was his lack of feistiness.

The Christian right elected Carter in 1976 when someone far more liberal would have won easily, and then they abandoned him in 1980 because they said he was too wimpy and full of Christian love.

So those of you on the Religious Right will naturally celebrate the backbone he now shows.

 

[BrianFromWA]

I like backbone. I like it better when the backbone isn't anti-American and pulled from one's anal orifice:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/09/200992116049879437.html

"I think there is no doubt that in 2002, the United States had at the very least full knowledge about the coup, and could even have been directly involved," Carter said in an interview with Colombian El Tiempo newspaper published on Sunday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32869276/ns/politics-capitol_hill/

Carter ignited debate in September 2009 when he stated, "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he is African-American." Obama disagreed with Carter's assessment.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

For his own safety it's probably in his best interest to disappear.