Good people...

Good people...  As my long time readers know, I had plenty of differences with George W. Bush's leadership and policies – and plenty that I heartily approved of.  But one thing I never doubted: the fundamental honesty and sincerity of the man.

As an ex-President, though, I don't find any fault at all.  If I were designing an ex-President, I'd come up with something that looked pretty much exactly like him.  And his wife (Laura) is just as faultless as an ex-First Lady.

The two of them appeared on Jay Leno's show sometime recently (which is what the clips at right are).  I started the first clip, figuring I'd get bored and move on in a minute or so.  Instead, I sat mesmerized – and smiling – through the entirety of all four clips.

Why?

I sat and thought about that a bit, as I surprised myself by watching these.  More than anything else, I think it was this: that watching this man and his wife made me feel proud to have had such quality folks at the White House.  It has naught to do with agreeing with his policies, and everything to do with them just plain being good people.  The kind of people I'd like to know, to call friends.  The kind of people I'd like to be.  People I respect and admire.

I most definitely don't have these same sorts of feelings about other ex-Presidents.  Reagan was right up there, in the few years before he disappeared from sight due to his Alzheimer's.  H. W. Bush I have positive feelings about, albeit much less strongly then with G.W.  Clinton?  Uh ... no.  Carter?  Hell, no.  Ford?  Neutral.  Nixon?  No.  Johnson?  No.  Kennedy - we'll never know.  Eisenhower?  I only have a few memories of him as an ex-President, and none of them stand out.  Truman?  Even fewer memories; he died when I was 20. 

Then my thoughts spooled forward in time, to that happy day when Obama is an ex-President.  What will my feelings be about him?  I know enough about his personality to know that it's inconceivable that he'd turn out like G.W.  I'm imagining him as a much more ambitious Carter.  I suspect he's not going to disappear from the world's political stage.  Unfortunately.  I'm guessing that he's got his sights already focused in on a UN Secretary-Generalship, or heading up the IMF or World Monetary Fund.  Something along those lines, where his narcissism and arrogance could continue to disgust us all.  What a thing to look forward to!