Opinion: BREAKING NEWS: George W. Bush library going to SMU
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The board of trustees of Southern Methodist University this morning ended -- or stoked -- the controversy over where the George W. Bush Presidential Library would go, agreeing to give it a home on the Dallas campus -- Laura Bush‘s alma mater.
The complex as envisioned would include the presidential library of documents and other materials from the Bush administration, a museum and a public policy institute. The complex will be administered by the National Archives and Records Administration, which runs most of the presidential libraries in the nation -- including the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas.
‘I look forward to the day when both the general public and scholars come and explore the important and challenging issues our nation has faced during my presidency -- from economic and homeland security to fighting terrorism and promoting freedom and democracy,’ President George W. Bush said in a letter to SMU President R. Gerald Turner, portions of which were excerpted in an SMU news release.
Of course, the marketing potential in the gift shop is what catches our imagination. They’ll have to go a long way to beat the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, where you can snag this presidential bird feeder modeled after Nixon’s birthplace (there’s one hanging on our patio) from the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation. But the potential! A Bush dictionary, with new pronunciation guides for ‘nuclear’ and definitions for ‘torture.’ A Bush baseball, specially designed to break only to the right when thrown. And maybe a ‘Heckuva a Job, Brownie, Cookbook.’
-- Scott Martelle
