George W. and Clinton joke with each other at Monday announcement

There’s insight with this video snippet that suggests why the Clintons and Bush family have become closer over the years. Watching Bill and W yuck it up is not only entertaining but also shows....

Click here for video and to continue reading.

Another military base shooting: 'End Clinton-era military base gun ban'

It's difficult to imagine American military bases as "gun free zones" but citizens of the U.S. discovered that during the 2009 when a shooting at Fort Hood in Texas left 13 people dead. The Washington Times printed an editorial at the time urging a change in the policy that leaves soldiers unarmed on base:

Last week’s slaughter at Fort Hood Army base in Texas was no different - except that one man bears responsibility for the ugly reality that the men and women charged with defending America were deliberately left defenseless when a terrorist opened fire.

Among President Clinton’s first acts upon taking office in 1993 was to disarm U.S. soldiers on military bases. In March 1993, the Army imposed regulations forbidding military personnel from carrying their personal firearms and making it almost impossible for commanders to issue firearms to soldiers in the U.S. for personal protection. For the most part, only military police regularly carry firearms on base, and their presence is stretched thin by high demand for MPs in war zones.

Because of Mr. Clinton, terrorists would face more return fire if they attacked a Texas Wal-Mart than the gunman faced at Fort Hood, home of the heavily armed and feared 1st Cavalry Division. That’s why a civilian policewoman from off base was the one whose marksmanship ended Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s rampage.

Will the latest shooting accelerate the call for change?

Jennifer Rubin: 'What about Jeb?'

He's known as the other Bush brother, the one who originally was expected to run for president before his older brother found himself in the right place at the right time. Both governors with the experience from that executive position, Jeb's name has been tossed around for a while as someone to run for president.

However, general sentiment seemed to be that the country had soured on the Bush name. Father George H.W. as president 41, and brother George W. as president 43. Would America really want a Bush president 46?

With the passing of time and circumstances, the time may be right, and the Washington Post's opinion writer Jennifer Rubin agrees. In her post earlier this week -- "What about Jeb?" -- she made a notable argument in Jeb's favor:

George W. Bush has bounced back in popularity, and if the Dems can run a Clinton there is no reason the GOP can’t run a Bush. Besides, experienced leadership may be in style after we survive the next three years. And to boot, GOP governors are looking like the party’s saviors these days. Moreover, the passage of time has allowed certain issue to fade and others to resolve themselves (e.g. the Bush tax cuts). Jeb Bush understandably can say “times have changed” if he chooses not to adopt a position his brother took sixteen years ago. (Yes, it’ll be 16 years between 43′s presidential run and when Republicans again start trudging through Iowa and New Hampshire.)
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I have no idea if he will run. But I am more convinced that he could and should. He’s got a lot to tell the GOP voters.

Run, Jeb, run. He may find he has more supporters than he realizes.

Former president swings through Harrisonburg

It's not every day a former president of the United States drops by the Shenandoah Valley so Bill Clinton's appearance in Harrisonburg Tuesday for a campaign rally caused a stir. Political reporter Bob Stuart covered the event at James Madison University for the News-Virginian.

The president of disconnect

A tragedy unfolded on Monday in the Washington Navy Yard that ended in the death of 12 victims and the 34-year-old gunman. Areas of D.C. were locked down. The Nationals baseball team postponed their game until the next day. Seven victims were identified: Michael Arnold, 59; Sylvia Frasier, 53; Kathy Gaarde, 62; John Roger Johnson, 73; Frank Kohler, 50; Kenneth Bernard Proctor, 46; and Vishnu Pandit, 61. Families were shattered.

Columnist Maureen Dowd was shocked that President Barack Obama seemed to basically overlook the obvious heartache that so many were feeling as he went about the business of delivering a speech, writing in the New York Times that he is Losing the Room:

President Obama also gave a speech Monday, talking at the White House while the drama unfolded at the supposedly secure Navy Yard nearby. He could have posted his original remarks on the White House Web site and replaced them with a cri de coeur on gun control, or comfort for the shaken city. The 12 who died were, after all, under his aegis as workers in a federal building.

But, jarringly, the president went ahead with his political attack, briefly addressing the slaughter before moving on to jab Republicans over the corporate tax rate and resistance to Obamacare.

Just as with the address to the nation on Syria last week, the president went ahead with a speech overtaken by events. It was out of joint, given that the Senate was put into lockdown and the Washington Nationals delayed a night game against the Atlanta Braves, noting on its Web site, “Postponed: Tragedy.”

The man who connected so electrically and facilely in 2008, causing Americans to overlook his thin résumé, cannot seem to connect anymore.

Noting that even Democrats are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the President for a variety of reasons, Ms. Dowd added:

Obama still has a secret weapon: Congressional Republicans, who might yet shut down the government or cause a cataclysmic default and make the president look good.

I sincerely hope that does not happen for reasons I have written about before and opined about by The Times. Been there, done that, got our behinds kicked to the curb by the American public.

And then there's this:

Unlike Bill Clinton, who excels at boiling down complex arguments to simple ones, Obama prefers to wallow in the weeds, reminding people that he’s the smartest man in the room and expecting their support because he feels he is only doing what’s complicated and right.

This president, much as I've tried to see it, does not emit compassion during tragedies. Obviously Maureen Dowd sees the same.

NY Times on GOP shutdown threat: 'Politics of a Screeching Halt'

New York Times Op-Ed columnist Gail Collins does not mince words:

Right now, the show horses of the United States Senate are Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida. All preparing for a 2016 presidential bid. All making visits to Iowa. They’re the new faces of the Republican Party. Really, really new. The three of them have an average age of 45 and an average tenure in Washington of 1.9 years.

Whatever happened to learning one job before moving to the next step?

Republicans are alarmed, as the editorial notes:

And all three are currently in the news for their efforts to get Republicans to promise not to vote to fund the government this fall unless the president cancels Obamacare.

"I think it’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard," said Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, speaking on behalf of a large number of Republicans who regard the idea of shutting down the government with horror and who are never going to be mentioned in a Quinnipiac presidential poll.

For those who were not paying attention in 1995 when Republicans shut down the government, it wasn't pretty. Google it. Or listen to the voices of experiences who have been there and done that, like Senator Saxby Chambliss, 69. On Wednesday's Morning Joe on MSNBC, Chambliss gave a dire reminder.

“We’ve been down that road,” he said. “We shut down the government ...and we got our butts kicked over shutting down the government.”

That's an understatement. It took years to regain the confidence of the American people who blamed Republicans for the shutdown. Indeed, Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough was a Florida Congressman during the 1995 shutdown. He learned from that experience and called the current  threat "one of the stupidest arguments he's heard in two decades":

“We’ve got a president that’s gonna celebrate Republicans making the same mistake back when we shut down the government and basically re-elected Bill Clinton,” Scarborough said.

The new breed of Republicans could learn from the experience and wisdom of those who have walked before them. But listening to Cruz, that doesn't seem likely:

“The sort of cocktail chatter wisdom that ‘Oh, the shutdown was a disaster for Republicans’ is not borne out by the data,” Cruz said.

Meanwhile, the other side of the political aisle is watching this unfold, as Collins writes:

The Democrats are sort of horrified and sort of enthralled by the whole drama.

“Give a call to Newt Gingrich. He’ll return your phone calls. Ask him how it worked,” suggested Majority Leader Harry Reid.

It brings to mind American philosopher George Santayana's much-quoted belief, "Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it."

WaPost: 'Obama yet to leave a lasting legacy for Africa on the scale of Bush and Clinton'

Laura and George W. Bush in Zambia, June 30, 2013.

The pictures are all over Facebook showing Former President George W. Bush and wife Laura traveling Africa this week as they continue their humanitarian mission that began before leaving the White House four years ago.

Slowly but surely liberals have begrudingly had to admit GWB has played a large role in AIDs relief that has been credited with saving millions of lives. The Bushes have been instrumental in other global health advances, too, and are almost revered in that part of the world.

President Barack Obama? Not so much, and the Washington Post has noticed:

Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush passed innovative Africa initiatives while in the White House and passionately continue their development work in the region in their presidential afterlife. Obama’s efforts here have not been so ambitious, despite his personal ties to the continent.

It must be a tad awkward for Obama to find himself in Bush's shadow after spending the first four years of his administration blaming his predecessor for everything that went wrong in America. The Post notes that Obama is five years into his administration and just now on a major tour of Africa, just the second time while President:

His first major tour of Africa as president is coming just now, in his fifth year, while Bush and Clinton are frequent fliers to Africa. Bush even will be in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, next week at the same time as Obama, although they have no plans to meet. Instead, their wives plan to appear together at a summit on empowering African women organized by the George W. Bush Institute, with the former president in attendance.

The people of Africa had expected more from America's first black president after he told them in his first year, "I have the blood of Africa in me."

Meanwhile, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush captured the heart of Africa with work that continues to this day:

Clinton first drew extensive attention to Africa in 1998 when he made the longest trip ever by a U.S. president, with stops in six countries that had never before been visited by any occupant of the Oval Office. Bush’s trip this week is his third in 19 months to promote his Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon partnership to combat breast and cervical cancer in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. On this visit, he and his wife, Laura, plan to help renovate a cervical cancer screening and treatment clinic in Zambia before heading to Tanzania for the African First Ladies Summit advocating investment in programs for women and girls.

After a week of renovating, President and Mrs. Bush opened the Mosi-Oa-Tunya clinic, a cervical cancer facility in Livingstone, Zambia. Their trip demonstrates their continued commitment to the people of Africa through the work of the global health initiative at the George W. Bush Institute. June 30, 2013

Photos from the George W. Bush Presidential Center

George W. Bush raises $500 million for presidential library, dedication is April 25

The George W. Bush Presidential Library is ready for its dedication on April 25, 2013, and it will open knowing the lofty fundraising goal of $500 million set by the former President has been surpassed. It is one of the most successful post-presidential fundraising events ever.

Politico reported:

About half of the lump-sum will go toward building the library and museum on Southern Methodist University’s campus in Bush’s honor. The building will be dedicated April 25 and opened to the public the beginning May. Some of the funds will go to a mandatory endowment to the government and yet another portion will be gifted to the University, and the rest of the money will go to the George W. Bush Institute, a public policy center in Dallas founded by the former president and his wife, Langdale told Time.

Under construction for two years, the presidential library, museum, and policy institute sits on 23 acres at Southern Methodist University. More than 43,000 artifacts from the Bush presidency as well as numerous records and documents will be included.

At the dedication, President Bush will host President Barack Obama as well as former presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and his father, George H.W. Bush.

The library will open to the public May 1.