When he leaves office, will Bush be looked up to as an "elder statesman?

" Please think before answering. When a President leaves office, he is usually honored as being an "elder statesman" and is looked up to and his advice is often sought by others. Considering the fact that George W.

Bush isn't exactly popular with approval ratings down around 30% making him the most reviled President since Richard Nixon, do you believe that in years to come Bush will be looked up to and his opinion on important matters sought, will he just be allowed to spend his retirement years clearing the brush at his place in Crawford, or will he be someone who is asked to undertake important tasks for the betterment of humanity? Look at this from a bi-partisan point of view and not just as a Republican or Democrat. Asked by OldppieHatesNewAV 52 months ago Similar questions: leaves office Bush looked elder statesman Society > story.

Similar questions: leaves office Bush looked elder statesman.

If he lives long enough, it is almost a lead pipe cinch that it will happen. In your question, you mentioned Richard Nixon. He's a good example of how forgiving the American public is towards past presidents, even the unpopular ones.By the time that he died, the good that he had done was clearly visible and the good mattered more than the passions and wrongdoings of the past.

Once a two term president leaves office, he or she is no longer a major political player. Actually except for the two recent Southern Presidents--Carter and Clinton--the tradition has long been for ex-Presidents to steer clear of politics and be more like the British Royal Family, advocating for non partisan causes. Since 43 is a relatively young and healthy man, odds are pretty great that ten or so years from now, he'll be received in the White House and asked for help and advice.

If you doubt me, consider this. The number of people who've sat in the Oval Office is awfully small. Who else are you going to turn to for practical advice?

Some newspaper columnist who doesn't have any responsibilities for writing dumb things? What makes past presidents elder statesmen is that they have had an experience that few have ever had and aren't players any more in the great game of politics. One last thought, Bush fell so low in the polls not because 70% of the population became followers of Cindy Sheehan.

He lost a lot of his support because he alienated his conservative base on two issues: He failed to pursue the war more vigorously. The Rumsfeld strategy for occupation wasn't working. Almost everyone with a brain knew that we didn't have enough boots on the ground to stabilize the situation.

Immigration. S base is sick and tired of wide open borders with no filtering of criminals entering the country and the horrendous social costs being inflicted on border states on counties. Once Bush is out of office, his base will forget those two screw ups and his popularity will hit the 50% mark, since the country is pretty well divided between red and blue state people.

Four years from now, Bush could be a very popular person again. As Baroness Thatcher said, "Its a funny, old world." Sources: personal opinion Snow_Leopard's Recommendations Truman Amazon List Price: $22.00 Used from: $3.11 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 (based on 256 reviews) RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon Amazon List Price: $35.00 Used from: $4.79 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 25 reviews) The Real Jimmy Carter: How Our Worst Ex-President Undermines American Foreign Policy, Coddles Dictators and Created the Party of Clinton and Kerry Amazon List Price: $27.95 Used from: $6.95 Average Customer Rating: 3.0 out of 5 (based on 103 reviews) Gerald R.

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No: there are too many essential qualities lacking. I pray that things change before it's too late. I doubt it.

For someone to become a trusted advisor in the field of history and politics, I suggest that they need at least the following qualities: A sense of history; The ability to look ahead and generate scenarios, and assess their impact; The ability to ask penetrating questions and to listen to the responses; Discernment: for example, the ability to distinguish between what one can and cannot control, to assign priorities, to look for causes as well as symptoms; Other people’s respect; The ability to take action on poor performance (of people or projects); The ability to ’manage one’s messages’ - realising that people will be keeping you under close observation and trying to read meaning into whatever you do; A sense of accountability for one’s actions (or one’s advice). I doubt that GWB has any of these qualities in ant degree. A full answer would take a book, but let me give a few instances: A sense of history: when he was running for office, there was an interview in which he couldn’t name the leaders of Heaven knows how many countries.

More importantly, three weeks before the invasion of Iraq he didn’t know that the country was made up of Sunni and Shi’a Muslims and a significant number of Kurds. He also appears to believe that democracy can be imposed on a people (almost a contradiction in terms) without thinking how difficult it has been for most democratic countries to actually achieve that goal from a standing start. And I haven’t begun to touch climate change.

The ability to look ahead and generate scenarios and assess their impact: just look at how many people have been saying - almost from the start - that there was absolutely no planning for post-Saddam Iraq. They were in the grip of Ahmed Chalabi (a small-time crook who took the US taxpayer for a good deal of money) who assured them that the soldiers would be greeted with flowers. Iraq’s infrastructure is in a worse state now that when Saddam was in charge.

The ability to ask penetrating questions and assess their impact: do you remember the video that was released a few months ago (after Katrina) in which Bush was receiving a briefing (pre-Katrina) which included the firm assertion that the levees would break? He asked not a single question. Discernment - the ability to distinguish between what one can and cannot control, to assign priorities, to look for causes rather that just address symptoms: look at the number of serious commentators who say that the PATRIOT act won’t address the real issues.

For example, there is hardly anyone guarding the coastline in Washington State; a great many sites harbouring toxic wastes remain unguarded; and as for assigning priorities, he was playing his guitar when New Orleans was flooding. Other people’s respect: I doubt you’ll find many people overseas who respect Bush. It’s not a matter of selective reporting (I’ve never seen anything as selective as Fox News); it’s simply a matter of observing what’s been happening.An almost certainly rigged election; blatant paying-off of friends; the sight of what’s happening in Iraq (not just to the civilians; we’re a bit hacked off by the number of ’friendly fire’ deaths amongst our own troops); but for Heaven’s sake how can we forget the sight of day upon day of poor people calling for help from New Orleans?

There’s no way you can ’selectively report’ that to make it favourable to Bush. The ability to take action on poor performance: Rumsfeld should have been fired ages ago. Scooter Libby got a pardon.

And so on ... The ability to ’manage one’s messages’: on 9/11 there were headlines in newspapers in countries not normally friendly to the USA saying ’We are all Americans now. ’ Our Queen personally ordered that the band at the Changing of the Guard should play nothing but American anthems and marches. There was hardly a country in the world that did not send messages of sympathy.

Not one of them was acknowledged. Or: what message was sent around the world when the American troops guarded the Iraqi Oil Ministry but allowed looting of the country’s treasures on a huge scale? Plus, he wears his Christianity on his sleeve, but does he behave like one?

I remember him mocking Karla Faye Tucker before her execution - high-pitched giggly voice, ’please don’t kill me, oh please don’t kill me ...’ The woman had converted to Christianity and by all accounts was set to do good work. Jesus said ’there is more rejoicing in heaven over the sinner who has repented ...’ but not Bush. A sense of accountability for one’s actions or advice: I can’t remember one instance of Bush saying that he’s sorry.

There’s a clip from a press conference in which a journalist asks him whether he would do anything different, and he goes into a prolonged mumble that includes ’No ... hey, we didn’t prep for this ... ask someone else ...’ This is not, repeat not, an anti-American rant. In one of my earliest answers I said that the kindest people I’d met had been American, and I reported on how great it was to get the tour of Congress and observe how the guides made a special effort to make American citizens feel proud.At its best, the USA can be a pathfinder for the rest of humanity: I love Sam Seaborn’s speech in The West Wing when he says ’This country is an ideal, and one that has lit the world for two centuries ...’ Please God you recapture that admiration and respect before it gets too late. This really does come with love.

Yes, in time You are correct that George W. Bush is very low in popularity right now. Even members of his own party are distancing themselves from him.No doubt, he will spend his first few years out of office writing his memoirs and reflecting on his presidency.

But as time passes his stock will rise. Some of his decisions that make him an object of scorn now will be judged by history as wise and statesman like.No president has left office more shamed than Richard Nixon. But before he died he had surely achieved the rank of elder statesman.

He is now regarded by history as a good president, but a flawed man. Another example is Jimmy Carter. In my opinion, Carter was the worst president to have served during my lifetime (I go back to Truman), and he was literally run out of town after one awful term.

Now he is a revered Nobel Prize winner and one of the most respected men in the world. George W's day may be a while off, but it will come.

I've only got an opinion... I don't believe he'll be asked to continue helping the government. On the other hand I don't believe he'll be addressing grade school kids. My opinion is he make the rounds through college and universities and maybe even the military.

I only wish I could hear him in person. BYE! .

It depends on just how low we go. You’re right, Old My first thought was "no way, Jose," when I read your question. On reflection, though, I realize that it is just possible we may at some future point elect a president so intellectually challenged that he will seek advice from George W.Bush.It’s possible.....we’ve elected him twice....well, sort of.

It is truly hard to imagine, but nevertheless possible. Our political system doesn’t seem geared to throwing quality candidates to the top, so we may well see his like again. I don’t think he’s going to walk quietly off our national stage to spend a peaceful (and quiet) retirement clearing the deadwood at Crawford.

He’s made the War on Terror the very definition of his presidency and his persona (well, what else is he going to talk about? Great social reforms? Successful peace initiatives?

The Enron corporate leadership model? ), and he will stay out there on whatever podia are afforded him, reminding us that he only did what he did because it was the Big Call history demanded he make. We won’t get a fact-enhanced debate about the ways and means that might best be employed to deal with terror and its roots, mind you.

We’ll just get more draped-in-the-flag sound bytes about defending the American Way of Life, all to the tune of "My Way. " I don’t expect to see Bush go out and dream up something as outstanding as the annual Jimmy Carter Work Project with Habitat for Humanity. That's not his bag.

He'll spend the rest of his life explaining why it was imperative to trash personal freedoms, pervert constitutional guarantees and ignore international team-playership in the name of preserving democracy and justice. Huh? Roseredcity's Recommendations Dude, Where's My Country?

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I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.