RE: BUSH LIBRARY

To the FBvian: if you think our country’s most incurious leader will provide SMU academic prestige, well, great. I don’t.

We’re gonna have to jump the rest. So please bear in mind that the views expressed come from a person who will probably vote for John McCain in 2008.

As for the Clinton library, those stats are encouraging for Dallas. But even Dallasites must admit Clinton, for all his faults, was a president who balanced the budget and oversaw an economic boom during years of peace. What can you say of Bush? And to what extent will that hurt his library’s bottom line? Tim’s point is well taken: because of the way history will judge Bush, people will always find interest in the library. But what sort of people, aside from the scholars? How many citizens, just like you and me, FBvian, will want to learn more about his corrosion of civil liberties, the botched pre-war intelligence, the awful war itself, the torture, the renditions, Valerie Plame, the national debt, the debt he will seemingly never repay to Big Oil…?

Indeed, if the library succeeds, in my view, it will be because enough people 75 years from now view Bush as I do today, as America’s worst president. As such, the library will be a freak show, a place to learn more about a very troubling time in American history.

And, again, doesn’t Dallas already have that?

RE: BUSH LIBRARY

Thanks for enlightening me. I, unlike Paul, am not against it, I just saw those numbers and couldn’t imagine how that could be a reality. Boy, I can’t wait for those think tanks. Obviously, I need one. Santa, are you listening?

RE: BUSH LIBRARY

Paul, I’ll let my fellow FBvian do my rebutting for me:

Please tell Nancy and Paul that the implications of having the library here are much larger than more Outback Bloomin’ Onion purchases by visiting scholars. In addition to the visitor aspect, the supposedly most sophisticated presidential library ever (and planned accompanying think tank) brings immediate recognition and prestige to the university (of which I am a proud graduate), which in turn attracts better professors, which makes university ratings go up, which attracts better students, who will make more money and ultimately give more money to the school (not to mention most likely live in Dallas and spend said higher salaries in Dallas). And who can argue about the economic influx wealthy SMU students have on the Dallas economy in general, which will only grow as the student population grows?

And since Nancy talks about quick Internet searches, a real easy one will take you to the following site, which shows the five-year outlook for the Clinton Library is a not-too-shabby $57 million just in visitor revenue. And that’s in Arkansas.

RE: BUSH LIBRARY

Tall Paul, it’s been nice working with you. I hear there could be an opening at the Houston Press. BTW, a quick search revealed that the average salary of a scholar ain’t much. So we fill up all the Red Roof Inns and Outback Steakhouses and we somehow add billions of dollars to our community? Unless…oh, never mind. I love my cube. It’s sooo Greta Garbo.

RE: BUSH LIBRARY

At least we can hope the Bushbots get a better architect than the one who built the last president’s library, which fittingly looks like a mobile home beach house.

RE: BUSH LIBRARY

I’d like to see the economic impact LBJ’s library has had on Austin, if such a thing can be measured. My guess is that it’s minuscule, the political equivalent of building stadiums in barren downtowns to jump start urban growth. (Which is itself a politicized issue, but that’s another story.)

I think Bush is the worst president we’ve ever had. And I voted for the guy in 2000. Our city is already tied to one presidential tragedy; now, alas, we have two.

RE: BUSH LIBRARY

Um, the $47 billion was an exaggeration, Nancy. And Paul’s over here making remarks along the same lines. “Bush is a bad president. It’s an embarrassment for Dallas. Blah, blah, blah.” Fine. I’m not a huge fan of many things his administration has done either. But it has done some rather historic things. Historic things that–whether bad or good–will draw visitors and scholars to the library.

RE: BUSH LIBRARY

Bully for SMU. And for Dallas. Forty-seven billion a year in economic impact? What’s it supposed to bring? I’m sure Rod is already anxious to go check out some books.

RE: BUSH LIBRARY

Seems there’s a bit of confusion. The SMU email said the library selection committee had approved the “next phase of planning discussions.” DMN is reporting that SMU is “likely [the] site for Bush library.” The Star-T says SMU is the “lone finalist.” Sounds like it’s a done deal. Except it isn’t.

RE: BUSH LIBRARY

Thanks to an email-forwarding FrontBurnervian, I can save both of us a trip. Here’s a head’s up on the big announcement:

December 21, 2006
TO: SMU Students, Faculty and Staff
FROM: R. Gerald Turner, President
It is my pleasure to inform you that Don Evans, Chairman of the George W. Bush Presidential Library Search Committee, notified us that SMU has been selected by the Committee for the next phase of planning discussions. These discussions will begin after the first of the year. We do not know how long these discussions will take. However, any significant announcement concerning the process will come from Chairman Evans. Today at 2:30 pm SMU is hosting a press availability to which Trustees and the campus community are invited. The press availability will be held in the Hughes-Trigg Ballroom. We are obviously delighted to have reached this final stage of the selection process.

RE: BUSH LIBRARY

I’ve been meaning to tell you this, Tim. You’re misspelling his name. It’s W-I-L-O-N-S-K-Y. You might want to program your spell-check or something.

RE: BUSH LIBRARY

Adam, get over there and “go live from campus.” We have to beat Wilonski on this one.