Bush: "Liberating" To Be Out Of Office, Picking Up Dog Poop

ARTESIA, N.M. — It was a humbling moment for the former commander in chief: President George W. Bush was walking former first dog Barney in his new Dallas neighborhood when it stopped in a neighbor's yard for relief.

"And there I was, former president of the United States of America, with a plastic bag on my hand," he told a group of graduating high school students in New Mexico on Thursday. "Life is returning back to normal."

Bush, in one of his few public appearances since leaving office in January, told the students that leaving office lifted a heavy burden.

"I no longer feel that great sense of responsibility that I had when I was in the Oval Office. And frankly, it's a liberating feeling," he told seniors from Artesia High School.

He received a warm welcome in the southeastern New Mexico community, the Roswell Daily Record reported. Bush declined interviews and no video cameras were allowed inside.

The crowd gave him multiple standing ovations and after his speech he was presented with a sculpture of an eagle taking flight from a torch. The sculpture will be dedicated at City Hall on Memorial Day in honor of Bush and America's veterans.

Bush invoked an Iraq veteran's story to motivate the students to continue their educations. He described visiting Army Staff Sgt. Christian Bagge, a soldier from Oregon who lost both legs in combat.

When he visited Bagge at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Bush told him that someday Bagge would get out of his bed and run.

Then, one day, an aide went into Bush's office and said Bagge was waiting on the South Lawn and wanted to go running with the president.

If Bagge could do that, Bush told the students: "You can go to college."

Bush said he hoped President Barack Obama's administration would be successful. He also said he was writing a book about some of the difficult decisions he made while in office.

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Information from: Roswell Daily Record, http://www.roswell-record.com

Comments

[jjohnson1223]

I am a Democrat, but I do like Bush.I really think he is a decent man. The Veep was another story for me.....who knows?? It is always easy to be critical of others. This is Memorial
Day Weekend...Everyone Loves the USA! Hey, I sure wouldn't want the job.

[Bronxdude]

Stupid has never been cute!

[factotem]

Wow, it sounds like you've really thougth this through and wrestled with the moral issues of running for president (...not!)

Please leave the thinking to those who can.

[factotem]

Mail your poop with a teabag to George Bush in Dallas!

Start the movment now!

[primordialsoup]

Or maybe put the poop in the teabag.

[blukazoo]

Finally, he's doing something he's qualified for...picking up dog poop.

[jesseandrews]

God you liberals disgust me, if it was not for Bush and vets of the waqrs you would not have the freedom to get on here and say how bad he was. When the time comes the papers that dumbo the ears is hiding will show the truth about how Bush kept your sorry asses safe.

[AbyssinianLion]

I am a liberal and a Iraq war veteran. Bush made this country less safe and created more anti-American sentiment around the world over Greed $. He use our great American soldiers to do his dirty work. Many good of our good soldiers have paid the price so that Bush and his cronies can live in confort of retirement on mounds of blood money. That is disgusting.

You have been duped and you are in denial. Move to TX and sever your hero by picking up dog crap for him.

[SolarArray]

Jesse, come on now. Trolling for Bush and his cadre of criminals can't be that much fun, can it? I so want to get into ad hominem attacks here but I'll let others with cogent arguments take up the slack.
Oh Jessie, if you don't understand any of the words go to dictionary dot com. Oops, slipped up there a bit.

[yankee452]

How dare you associate proud veterans with GWB ?!?!

You're assuming all veterans look up to GWB like you do. Miliions of veterans ( while they served honorably ) despise him for his derelict and irresponsible use of our Armed Forces. They despise him and his party for continuing to see the 21st century's biggest lie....that only redumbicans care about the military and national security issues. And of course that is the ONLY reason why you can utter such tripe, and think its patriotic vitue.

Quit being so myopic.

We liberals are glad to be rid of GWB. Thats pretty clear. But don't you DARE suggest that means we think anything less of our military. There are millions of veterans who are liberal and love their country just as much as you claim to. There are millions of liberals who love the military so much, that they take the decision to go to war without the cavalier attitude of the so called conservative chicken-hawks in govt.

There are millions of us who don't just say ''WE support the troops''....we actually DO something about it.

And considering Memorial Day is just around the corner, your statement only illustrates the kind of off-hand vitriol and demonization wrapped in an ill-conceived sense of patriotism , that has come to be the hallmark of some conservatives

[green108]

Sorry, but Bush going into Iraq has made this country LESS safe. But you're too blind to see that.

[yankee452]

Picking up YOUR poop ain't so liberating for President Obama !!

But he's doing it in the last four months, with infinately more grace, foresight and maturity than any other President we have had since Eisenhower.

It goes without saying....Bushes true legacy will not be determined by the passing of time alone. A successful Obama Presidency will be the most damning verdict on the Bush years. That is why Cheney and Co. will continue to do everything they possibly can to stain the current administration. What else can they do? They get the sense that the louder they scream and stomp their feet, all the fuss will taint the Administration with ''controversy'' . But they know thre truth. A lot can happen in a week....or possibly 8 years. They must be the most terrified former govt officials in the history of our nation. And its all their doing.

[chasethis]

Yep. He should've been wearing that poop scoop bag on his hand for the last 8 years.

[Bronxdude]

Talk about picking up poop: Obama coming into office behind Bush.

[Vyvjala]

"He no longer feels that great sense of responsibility," what a joke, he didn't show any responsibilty in eight years much less his whole like.

[Vyvjala]

corection his whole life.

[SirReal1]

So, on a day in which the news-cycle was dominated by stories of the "dueling speeches" of President Obama and former VP Dick(head), it turns out that the former (P)residident was giving a speech of his own, to a crowd that he could relate to, on a subject that he has vast knowledge about.

How did the majority of the MSM miss this?

[justwatchingitall]

I hope this Bushism is intentional:

"Bush invoked an Iraq veteran's story to motivate the students to continue their educations."

[SolarArray]

Yeah well, that's one Mission Accomplished.
BTW George, does it feel liberating to know that you were the main cause for hundreds of thousands of innocent people murdered and millions displaced?
That's liberating? Your world is certainly different than the one I live in.

[SirReal1]

Apparently the former (P)resident has the same group of incompetents going over his public comments that he had while in office.

That, or he didn't ask anyone to look over his planned speech (which also would not be surprising).

I don't know which would be more appalling; that he didn't realize how these comments would be received, or that he simply didn't care.

Of course, either way he is staying "true-to-form".

[osage]

Finally; a job he's intellectually and temperamentally equipped to do successfully.

[robiform]

Thanks, I was about to post the same comment--very well said!

[felinetta]

"I no longer feel that great sense of responsibility that I had when I was in the Oval Office. And frankly, it's a liberating feeling,"

This is so disgusting on so many levels, it is hard to know where to begin. He only thinks of himself and that he is liberated. Forget that he stole the election, started an illegal war causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands. No problem, he feels liberated. The only way the world would feel liberated would be to see him in shackles and hauled off to jail for 4000 +consecutive life sentences.

[naeldwyck]

I wishes Cheney would take his cue from Bush (i.e., retire, for real). But then he never did.

[jimbeaux1961]

He probably really left it on the neighbor's lawn and calls it "stimulus".

[grf67]

Probably also comforting to be doing something that he is good at.

[RTIII]

I'm not so sure about that - is he good at it? In the Oval, he usually left one instead of picking one up.
.