DALLAS — Amid tight security and with all the pomp afforded to the nation’s highest office, presidents and dignitaries from around the world gathered here Thursday morning to dedicate the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
President Obama and all the living presidents were to join Bush on the campus of Southern Methodist University to mark the arrival of the 13th and newest presidential library. It was a rare gathering of one of the most exclusive clubs in the world and therefore a day for accolades, not controversies, as Bush’s predecessors and successor prepared to offer their own tributes to him.
The ceremonies were being held in a sun-splashed plaza outside the entrance to the library and museum, which are part of a 23-acre site that includes the Bush Institute, a think tank that carries on work of the former president. The complex is set on grounds that have re-created the native Texas landscape.
Since leaving office four years ago, Bush has maintained a low profile, declining to insert himself into public and political debates and avoiding any comment about Obama’s policies or the state of his own Republican Party.
The dedication of his library has pushed him and his presidency back into the public spotlight. Before Thursday’s ceremonies, Bush did a round of interviews in which he said repeatedly that he is confident of the decisions he made and content to let history judge him in the end.
Last week’s Boston Marathon bombings have refocused attention on the decisions Bush made after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the day that changed his presidency. Bush talked about the impact of those attacks in an interview Thursday morning with NBC’s Matt Lauer.
He said that at the moment he was told about the attacks, while reading to schoolchildren in Florida, he became a wartime president, “something I didn’t want to be.” From that day forward, he said, “my job became clarified ... and that is to protect the homeland.”
Those events are highlighted in the museum, as are the decisions that flowed from them, including wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Obama offered what could be a preview of Thursday’s remarks when he spoke Wednesday night at a Democratic fundraiser in Dallas. “President Bush loves this country and loves its people and shares that same concern, and was concerned about all people in America, not just those who voted Republican,” he said.
Bush has generally refrained from talking about politics this week, other than to say he hopes his brother Jeb, the former governor of Florida, runs for president in 2016. In an interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier, Bush did talk about the state of the Republican Party.
“We’re leaderless now, [the] Republican Party is leaderless, not for the first time, nor will be the last time. We’re in the wilderness,” he said. “Pretty soon our party will coalesce around a leader. I wish his name was Jeb.”
But Bush’s mother, Barbara Bush, offered a contrary opinion in her own interview with Lauer. “We’ve had enough Bushes,” she said.
President Obama and all the living presidents were to join Bush on the campus of Southern Methodist University to mark the arrival of the 13th and newest presidential library. It was a rare gathering of one of the most exclusive clubs in the world and therefore a day for accolades, not controversies, as Bush’s predecessors and successor prepared to offer their own tributes to him.
The ceremonies were being held in a sun-splashed plaza outside the entrance to the library and museum, which are part of a 23-acre site that includes the Bush Institute, a think tank that carries on work of the former president. The complex is set on grounds that have re-created the native Texas landscape.
Since leaving office four years ago, Bush has maintained a low profile, declining to insert himself into public and political debates and avoiding any comment about Obama’s policies or the state of his own Republican Party.
The dedication of his library has pushed him and his presidency back into the public spotlight. Before Thursday’s ceremonies, Bush did a round of interviews in which he said repeatedly that he is confident of the decisions he made and content to let history judge him in the end.
Last week’s Boston Marathon bombings have refocused attention on the decisions Bush made after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the day that changed his presidency. Bush talked about the impact of those attacks in an interview Thursday morning with NBC’s Matt Lauer.
He said that at the moment he was told about the attacks, while reading to schoolchildren in Florida, he became a wartime president, “something I didn’t want to be.” From that day forward, he said, “my job became clarified ... and that is to protect the homeland.”
Those events are highlighted in the museum, as are the decisions that flowed from them, including wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Obama offered what could be a preview of Thursday’s remarks when he spoke Wednesday night at a Democratic fundraiser in Dallas. “President Bush loves this country and loves its people and shares that same concern, and was concerned about all people in America, not just those who voted Republican,” he said.
Bush has generally refrained from talking about politics this week, other than to say he hopes his brother Jeb, the former governor of Florida, runs for president in 2016. In an interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier, Bush did talk about the state of the Republican Party.
“We’re leaderless now, [the] Republican Party is leaderless, not for the first time, nor will be the last time. We’re in the wilderness,” he said. “Pretty soon our party will coalesce around a leader. I wish his name was Jeb.”
But Bush’s mother, Barbara Bush, offered a contrary opinion in her own interview with Lauer. “We’ve had enough Bushes,” she said.