Welcome home: The party awaiting the Bushes in Midland
posted at 5:30 pm on January 20, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
Washington DC won’t throw the only parties today. The people of Midland have a Texas-sized celebration of their own planned for the return of George and Laura Bush. They’ve had the streets closed since Friday and expect a big turnout:
Eight years ago, this West Texas city hosted a send-off as then-President-elect George W. Bush headed for the White House. The community is now poised for a welcome home celebration.
Bush and his wife, Laura, plan to head to Midland on Tuesday afternoon after the inauguration of Barack Obama in Washington, D.C.
Some city streets have been closed since Friday and almost all of the 20,000 free tickets to the celebration have been handed out.
They’ll have country music for the free party and concert, with Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers and Lee Greenwood on the bill. Governor Rick Perry will welcome the Bushes back to Texas. Later, the Bushes will make their way to a new home in a Dallas suburb for some rest after eight years of service.
Will George Bush stay out of national politics after his retirement? Most former presidents can’t resist the limelight. Bill Clinton missed it so much that he had his wife run for the presidency, while Jimmy Carter couldn’t keep his nose out of American foreign policy. George H. W. Bush has limited himself to charitable efforts for the most part, and I’d guess that W will follow his father’s example. He will likely write a book to tell his side of the story — I can’t think of anyone who has more need to do so — and do a media tour in support of it. After that, we’ll probably only hear from him for fundraisers and the like.
Blowback
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Some excerpts from Bush’s Midland speech here.
Early video of the event here, probably more there later today or tomorrow.
tagryn on January 20, 2009 at 8:51 PM
I figured that, thanks – too many military and ex-military for it to be too pinko.
You can tell how liberal an area is by how many idiot bumper stickers the population collects.
DC area every jackass that ever cast a vote has to have a sticker for the candidate before the election and for years after the election.
Not to mention the pure lunatic stickers.
‘Bout 1 in 10 cars around here.
One thing I really liked about driving in France was no bumper stickers and no personalized plates.
Plus some of the people actually seemed to have taken some sort of licensing exam over there.
Hope Texas is the same.
NoDonkey on January 20, 2009 at 9:16 PM
Benny, why do you think Texas is all white? You ever been here?
juliesa on January 20, 2009 at 9:28 PM
Benny lives in the upper east coast or the west coast..Judging from the asinine posts I’d guess Seattle. Benny’s never lived anywhere other than where he’s at right now…Benny thinks he’s traveled because he’s either been to LA or NY City…or that unfortunate event at Yosemite with his Scout Leader..
Benny is a Toilet Bug…
BigWyo on January 20, 2009 at 9:44 PM
I heard a lotof the speech on FOX before they cut away. Very moving and made me even more proud of him.
So much low class behavior from Democrats and Obama’s speech. Even on the new White House site.Can’t they be gracious in victory?
Kevin in Southern Illinois on January 20, 2009 at 9:56 PM
Wish I could have been there but I was stuck at work here in Austin, where the two of us who voted for McCain/Palin had to endure an office full of Obamagasms and the Inauguration on everyone’s monitors and the TVs in the waiting rooms. Sigh…
Welcome home, President Bush.
inmypajamas on January 20, 2009 at 10:08 PM
inmypajamas: My kids in school (Austin, Baptist school) tried to explain to me why Obama should be president. It was a long night — we ended up at 4am w/ everything that their classmates (and teachers!) needed to know…
Again: long night…
BTW: I personally know of another McCain/Palin voter, so w/ my two and you and/or your friend that makes three or four! :-)
Cipherprime on January 20, 2009 at 10:44 PM
P.S.
Benny will go and discuss every post he made today with his carpet flea buddies at StarBuks tomorrow morning…
BigWyo on January 20, 2009 at 11:09 PM
I wish him a long and happy life—Lord knows he’s earned it.
jeanie on January 21, 2009 at 12:12 AM
God Bless Mr. Bush. One thing you can’t say about him is that he ever backed down from what he really thought was right. His guts and determination will probably put the new guy to shame.
therightwinger on January 21, 2009 at 7:51 AM
I think you’ll like San Antonio, No Donkey. We were there last weekend (for the first time) to see U of Texas at San Antonio and spent the night near the River Walk. Lots of business, lots of things to do and the whole area seemed nice.
We just moved to the Dallas area last year from Michigan. The weather is much better than Virgina (although it was in the 30s Friday night in San Antonio).
TexasJew, have wanted to visit El Paso for a while now, but the spouse won’t cooperate (mostly because of the problems across the border in Juarez). Hope to convince her otherwise in the next few years.
jim m on January 21, 2009 at 9:27 AM
I worry that he doesn’t realize it too. Sometimes I’ve felt so sad for him, thinking he must be very lonely, but he has a strong faith, and with that, you are never alone. God bless him.
That book of his is one I’d buy several copies of, and at full price! Love you, George W. Bush!
Benny Shakar, you are obviously an idiot.
pannw on January 21, 2009 at 9:38 AM
Thanks, I believe I will enjoy it. I’ve really been happy everywhere I’ve lived, although once we had a daughter Northern Virginia started to wear on me. It’s just too expensive up here as far as housing, you either live close in, in a shoebox or in a terrible school district, or you live out in the sticks and spend four hours a day commuting. Bad choices.
What also wore on me frankly, was that DC is target central and the threat’s not going to diminish one iota with Great Leader in office, in fact it will probably go up.
I’m looking forward to the warmer weather too and although the summer’s are hot, DC’s summers are no picnic either.
El Paso is beautiful, I was there a couple of years back. I loved the mountains and the people are very nice there. Another thing I’m not going to miss about DC, the cranky liberals around here.
NoDonkey on January 21, 2009 at 10:47 AM
Obviously he hasn’t.
He would rather ignore the fact that there are lots of Mexican-Americans, many who have lived there for generations, even before the Texan War of Independence. (Hey, they even fought with Crockett at The Alamo and with Houston at San Jacinto!)
And GWB has been friends with not a handful of them, in fact.
I’ve lived here for ten years. Never regretted it.
newton on January 21, 2009 at 2:31 PM
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