CNN says Bush is "more likely to" be a humanitarian like Jimmy Carter after leaving office

Amerigo Vespucci

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Fri Dec-05-08 11:39 PM
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CNN says Bush is "more likely to" be a humanitarian like Jimmy Carter after leaving office

Bush has expressed interest in writing a memoir and hitting the highly profitable lecture circuit, but experts say both pursuits could pose pitfalls.

Publishers, concerned the president's slumping approval ratings could translate to less-than-stellar book sales, have reportedly been lukewarm about a Bush book deal.

Bush has expressed interest in cataloguing 10 crises he's faced, Brinkley said, but wary publishers are somewhat cold to that idea, perhaps concerned that a public still reeling from the country's financial meltdown might not have an appetite for the president's account of his own difficult times.

Bush, like several of his predecessors, is also likely to embark on the business of making money -- and a lot of it -- off his status as a former occupant of the White House.

The Clintons have made more than $100 million in the eight years since the curtain closed on their White House years, and Bush himself has said that his father earns $50,000 to $75,000 a speech.

To be sure, profiting from their White House years is a staple for modern ex-presidents: Gerald Ford capitalized on his accidental 2�-year presidency by sitting on the board of several major corporations, and Ronald Reagan caused a stir when he netted $2 million for a few brief speeches in Japan in 1989.

But the public's overwhelming disdain for the president may delay a speaking tour and Bush ascent to the corporate boardroom.

"He is a president where people are expecting some kind of repair work," said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton. "If he just goes on the speaking circuit and focuses his time making huge money, that would only tarnish a presidency that only has a low approval rating."

Instead, Bush is more likely to choose a similar post-presidential path, at least initially, as that of Jimmy Carter, who also left the White House with poor approval ratings, Zelizer said.

Instead of seeking to profit off his years in office, Carter became a globe-trotting humanitarian and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work promoting social and economic justice.

In the process, Carter has rehabilitated his image and transformed a legacy that had seemed unsalvageable three decades ago.

"What Jimmy Carter showed is that you can be very active in your post-presidential years and help improve how people think of you as a leader and a policy maker," Zelizer said.

Bush and his handlers are mapping out this phase of the president's post-White House years. Plans are well under way for a "Freedom Institute" that will aim to promote democracies abroad.

The institute, where Bush is expected to play a significant role, is expected to be unaffiliated with an academic institution. Its members are expected to be analysts whose views are in line with the neoconservative outlook that shaped the president's approach to foreign policy.

"This is going to be Bush vision." Brinkley said of the institute. "Bush has never liked the academics ,and this is a nonacademic institute aimed at cutting to the core of things: only pro-democracy foot soldiers who are green-lit by George and Laura Bush are in the mix."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/05/bush.post.presidency/index.html