President George W. Bush Has Reunion On Monday April 13th, 2009 in Dallas

With a Reunion Planned, Bush Eases Back Into the Public Eye










President George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice will be there, so will Karen Hughes and Dan Bartlett and Michael Gerson.
The white house staff and some cabinet members are getting back together next week in Dallas for a reunion of sorts, the Bush team’s first since leaving the White House. On tap is a dinner with the former president and a daylong discussion of the future George W. Bush Policy Institute.

Barely 80 days after turning the Oval Office over to Obama, a tanned and rested President George W. Bush is emerging from seclusion to begin his post presidency. He has started giving speeches, joined an off-road bicycle club, thrown out the first pitch at the Texas Rangers’ home opener and scheduled a trip to China to speak at an economic forum.

More important, President George W. Bush is trying to map out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. Relatively young, at 62, and in good health, he plans to build a library, write a memoir and make some money, but he is also eager to use his time to promote the policies he cared about most while in the White House — and to help define his legacy.

Not coming to next week’s session is former Vice President Dick Cheney, who in the final days of the administration argued with President George W.Bush about his refusal to pardon Mr. Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., who was accused of perjury for his role in the leak of Valerie Wilson’s employment with the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Cheney later went on television to air his grievances with Mr. Bush, while also accusing Obama of endangering the country.

That is an approach President George W. Bush has rejected. “He thinks Obama deserves his silence,” said Mr. Bartlett, who was White House counselor. “He’s not going to be out there opining, second-guessing or flyspecking Obama’s decisions.”

Besides, he added, President George W. Bush is moving on. “He’s kind of getting a new cadence to his life,” Mr. Bartlett said. “He can hang out with a neighbor, go out for an evening and go down to Crawford if he wants.”

After about a month at their ranch near Crawford, Tex., President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, moved into their new 8,500-square-foot house in Dallas. President George W. Bush stopped by a nearby elementary school and talked to a class at Southern Methodist University, where his library will be built. He paid a surprise visit to a hardware store whose owner had offered him a job in a tongue-in-cheek newspaper advertisement. And he has been using e-mail for the first time in eight years.














President George W. Bush poses with Baylor cheerleaders just before the second half of a women's basketball game on Jan. 28, 2009, in Waco, Tex.

So far, he has delivered a paid speech in Calgary, Alberta, and has others scheduled soon in Michigan and China, though his office will not disclose his fees. (The Washington Speakers Bureau, which represents President George W. Bush Bush, says on its Web site that he shares “candid insights on his eight years in the White House, his experiences with other world leaders, the nature of public leadership and decision making, and a wide variety of domestic and international issues.”)

As for his legacy, President George W. Bush plans to tackle the most controversial moments of his presidency head on, both in his memoirs and in his library, aides said. At the library, instead of a chronological format, he plans to present his presidency through 20 consequential decisions, most notably his decision to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein. And instead of a full biography, his book will focus on a dozen key moments in his life, from quitting drinking to picking Mr. Cheney as his vice president.

The idea, aides said, is to put the reader or visitor in President George W. Bush's shoes.

“People may conclude that they would have made a different decision, or maybe they’ll conclude they would have made the same decision,” said Mark Langdale, a longtime friend and president of the President George W. Bush Foundation. “We’re trying to take the tradition of presidential libraries and come up with a new twist on how they can be relevant.”

The foundation has chosen an architect and is raising the first of $300 million it needs to build the library and museum on 25 acres provided by S.M.U. The groundbreaking is scheduled for November 2010with hopes of opening in early 2013. Mr. Langdale declined to disclose how much has been raised, saying fund-raising is “going well” but has been constrained by the economy.

President George W. Bush does not plan to wait to open his policy institute, which is set to begin sponsoring activities and host its first fellows this fall. The meeting next week was called to brainstorm on ideas for the institute. About 20 people close to the president will dine with President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush at their home on Monday night and then spend Tuesday discussing the institute.

“It’s an opportunity to further the issues that he cared about, expanding opportunity across the world,” said Ms. Hughes, one of President George W. Bush's closest advisers since his days as governor of Texas. “He’s mentioned to me the idea of bringing staff from new democracies to the institute, people maybe from Africa who’ve worked on the AIDS initiative there. I think it will be a very vibrant and exciting place.”

In addition to Ms. Hughes and Mr. Bartlett, those expected to attend include Ms. Rice, the former secretary of state; Mr. Gerson, the former chief speechwriter; Dr. Mark R. Dybul, the former director of Mr. Bush’s international AIDS program; and Yuval Levin, a former domestic policy aide.

President George W. Bush started working on his memoir two days after leaving the White House, aides said, and gets up every morning around 5 or 5:30 to write for a few hours before heading to temporary offices in Dallas. He has written about 45,000 words so far with the help of Christopher Michel, 27, a former White House speechwriter, aides said; the book, tentatively titled “Decision Points,” is set for publication by Crown next year.

President George W. Bush has been welcomed home warmly by Texas. He received a standing ovation at the Rangers game this week, and, in posts online, people he encounters on the Dallas Off Road Bicycle Association trails have gushed about meeting him.

And he is beginning to get out of Texas, as well. After the gathering with aides next week, he will fly to Boao, China, where he will address the Boao Forum for Asia, a Chinese version of the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland.

“He’s doing great,” Mr. Langdale said. “He’s very happy.”