As we watch the dedication today of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, we’ll be watching interaction between Bush and his successor, Barack Obama. The two presidents seldom talk, and Obama has spent much of his presidency undoing the accomplishments of his predecessor. So there’s ample opportunity for awkwardness when President Obama takes the podium to honor the man he replaced — the same man he campaigned against and whose policies he still often criticizes.
The stage at today’s ceremony in Dallas will be dominated by two families: The Bushes, of course, and the Clintons. They’ve taken turns dominating the political landscape in this country for three decades, and now, with Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush sharing the platform, we may be getting an early taste of a potential 2016 presidential match-up.
Finally, what are we to make of the fact that there’s not a lot of Dick Cheney in the halls of the Bush library?
Of course, today’s events will be an opportunity to look back on the eight-year presidency of George W. Bush. And while Bush is remembered for the things that went wrong — Iraq, Katrina to name two — here is a list of seven things he got right, courtesy of our friends at The Fix at The Washington Post.
New questions about whether the intelligence community missed the signs of the Boston Marathon bombers: The Washington Post reports that the CIA pushed to have Tamerlan Tsarnaev added to the terrorist watchlist more than a year before the attacks. The country is starting to really feel the effects of the sequester’s deep, automatic spending cuts, and air travel is on the front lines.
Hardball staff Recommended
