What Next For The Bush Brand After The White House?

I wonder what George W. Bush would do with his life after he leaves the White House on the 20th of January? I’m sure most people would just be glad to be done with the man; after all, it takes a special kind of man to impoverish the most powerful nation in the world and pull down the global economic system along with it.

What will he do with his time? Will he be able to reinvent himself as a statesman of sorts? It won’t be the first time it has happened, as even President Nixon had a partial come-back from the Watergate Scandal, becoming a statesman and playing a variety of roles for the American state outside of office. The standard thing that most former world leaders do is to join the lecturing circuit, giving speeches and creating foundations to work on their pet causes. I however still find it difficult seeing George W. doing well in any of these areas. Why? Simply because I don’t think he’ll have an audience. Nobody will be ready to listen to him today, and somehow, I doubt if they will even in ten years time. He’s free to give it a stab, but I doubt if it’ll happen.

If he’s going to reinvent himself however, the first thing he’ll have to do is basically admit that he’s messed up as President. Whether he does it now or in slower, more gradual manner like Nixon, Bush will have to face the Americans and other citizens of the world, and say, “I f***ed up, and I’m sorry, please forgive me”. All the interviews he’s been giving in the lead up to his departure from the White House however do not indicate that Bush is ready to “confess his sins”. He continues to play with the intelligence of the people, refusing to take final responsibility for the many errors and incidences of outright incompetence that characterized his 8-year tenure as President.

There’s still a chance that a full realization of how he will be remembered in history may force him to eventually change and begin to make the right noises, but I’m not holding my breath.