US presidents past and present converge in Texas, saluting Bush at library dedication

DALLAS – George W. Bush marked his unofficial return to the public eye at the dedication of his presidential library, basking in praise from President Barack Obama and three former U.S. presidents on a rare day of harmony that glossed over the hard edges of his deeply polarizing presidency.

There was no mention Thursday of Iraq or Afghanistan, the wars that dominated Bush’s eight-year presidency and so divided the nation. There were only gentle references to his government’s much criticized response to Hurricane Katrina, which pummeled New Orleans in 2005. And praise aplenty for the resolve that Bush showed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Bush, 66, made indirect reference to the polarizing decision points of his presidency, drawing a knowing laugh as he told the crowd: “One of the benefits of freedom is that people can disagree. It’s fair to say I created plenty of opportunities to exercise that right.”

Bush said he was guided throughout his presidency by a determination “to expand the reach of freedom.”

“It wasn’t always easy, and it certainly wasn’t always popular.”

Bush has kept a decidedly low profile since leaving office four years ago with an approval rating of just 33 per cent. That figure has been gradually climbing and now is at 47 per cent — about equal to Obama’s own approval rating, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released ahead of the library opening.

Just as the public tends to view presidents more kindly once they’ve left office, ex-presidents, too, tend to soften their judgments — or at least their public comments — with time.

Obama once excoriated Bush for his “failed policies” and “disastrous” handling of the economy, for expanding budget deficits, and for drawing the nation into war in Iraq.

On Thursday, he took a detour around those matters and instead praised Bush for his strength after 9-11, compassion in fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa, bipartisanship in pursuing education reforms and restarting “an important conversation by speaking with the American people about our history as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.”

If the country is eventually able to enact immigration changes this year, Obama added, “it will be, in large part, thanks to the hard work of President George W. Bush.”

The dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Texas marked a rare reunion of the sitting president and his four living predecessors, who put aside the profound ideological differences that have divided them over more than three tumultuous decades.

Three are Democrats — Obama, Clinton and Jimmy Carter — and two are Republicans — Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush.

Carter praised Bush for his role in helping secure peace between North and South Sudan in 2005 and his approval of expanded aid to the nations of Africa.

“Mr. President let me say that I am filled with admiration for you and deep gratitude for you about the great contributions you’ve made to the most needy people on earth,” Carter said.

Clinton joked that the dedication of the library was “the latest, grandest example of the eternal struggle of former presidents to rewrite history.” But he also praised Bush for including interactive exhibits at the centre that invite visitors to make their own choices on major decisions that he faced.

The presidents were cheered by a crowd of former White House officials and world leaders as they took the stage together to open the dedication.

It was a day for family and sentimentality, Bush choking up with emotion at the conclusion of his remarks.

The 43rd president singled out his 88-year-old father — the 41st president — to tell him: “41, it is awesome that you are here today.”

The elder Bush, wearing jaunty pink socks, spoke for less than a minute from his wheelchair, then turned to his son and quipped, “Too long?” He has a form of Parkinson’s disease and has been hospitalized recently for bronchitis.

If politics was absent from the podium on Thursday, it was still a prominent subtext.

George W. Bush in recent days played up the idea of his younger brother, the former governor of Florida, seeking the White House, telling C-SPAN, “My first advice is: Run.”

Their mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, did the opposite.

“We’ve had enough Bushes,” she said Thursday on NBC’s “Today” show.

The presidential centre at Southern Methodist University includes a library, museum and policy institute. It contains more than 70 million pages of paper records, 200 million emails, 4 million digital photos and 43,000 artifacts. Bush’s library will feature the largest digital holdings of any of the 13 presidential libraries under the auspices of the National Archives and Records Administration.

A full-scale replica of the Oval Office as it looked during Bush’s tenure sits on the campus, as does a piece of steel from the World Trade Center and the bullhorn that Bush used to punctuate the chaos at ground zero three days after 9-11.

In the museum, visitors can gaze at a container of chads — the remnants of the famous Florida punch card ballots that played a pivotal role in the contested 2000 election that sent Bush to the White House.

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Associated Press writers Josh Lederman and Jamie Stengle in Dallas and Nancy Benac in Washington contributed to this story.

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Follow Josh Lederman on Twitter: http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP.