The always-great Ken Baer noticed yesterday that Bush’s prospects for post-presidency employment look a little shaky.
On January 20, 2005, Bush will be only 58 years old, and in good health. Unlike Gerald Ford, he is too young to hit the celebrity golf tournament circuit. Unlike Richard Nixon, he has shown none of the intellectual curiosity or aptitude to write tomes about foreign policy. Unlike Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter, he has shown little interest in becoming a world statesman, having alienated many of our allies and traveled little as president. And unlike a vice president, it would be unseemly for him to jump on corporate boards.
It’s true; I have no idea what the man would do with himself. When asked about his possible plans, Bush refuses to even entertain the possibility of losing, so he doesn’t answer the question.
I’m trying in vain to even think of his outside interests. Commissioner of baseball? Beneath a former president. Talk show? He hates the media. Clearing brush in Crawford? Bush is too young for retirement. Professor? How do I put this gently… Bush’s strengths probably aren’t compatible with a classroom environment. Besides, Bush has made it abundantly clear that he loathes academia. Author? Let’s just say Bush doesn’t seem like the “book type.”
Fortunately, Baer offers a terrific suggestion for Bush’s future.
If George W. Bush loses this election, he will face a career crisis not seen since his days as a failed oil wildcatter before he was elected governor of Texas. But like all confused job seekers, Bush should follow his passion, which is clearly bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq. That is why if John Kerry is elected president, he should appoint Bush to be his ambassador to Iraq.
It would be an unprecedented move, to be sure. Yet ex-presidents have been used before for special diplomatic missions, and it’s been a long time since the United States faced a crisis like the one in Iraq.
This is a great idea.
The future of Iraq is one of the few subject matters about which Bush speaks with real passion. This would be his chance to actually help deliver a democracy to the country he invaded under false pretenses! It would be a way for him to set his own mistake right!
Some of you may be thinking, “But Bush has no idea how to bring stability, better yet democracy, to Iraq.” That, of course, is true. But the beauty of this plan is that Bush doesn’t need his own ideas — he’ll just help execute Kerry’s.
Baer also considers the potential criticism that Iraq is far too dangerous for Bush.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: Iraq is too dangerous for an ex-president. After all, a large swath of the country is a no-go zone, and even the secure Green Zone in Baghdad was the scene of a recent bombing. Stop being so pessimistic! Although the president says that securing Iraq is “hard work,” he also points out over and over again that “we’re making progress.” Bush himself told us that there are only “pockets” of anti-coalition violence, and “Iraqis are ready to fight for their own freedom” (even though the Iraqi-led “Fallujah Brigade” disbanded in the face of attacks during recent fighting in Sadr City and 49 Iraqi National Guard recruits were massacred by insurgents this week).
Most of all, Bush will have help in Iraq; as he said during the first presidential debate in September, “Our alliance is strong.” It doesn’t matter that 90 percent of the casualties are American, that the Spanish have pulled out, and that the Poles are itching to do the same. President Bush knows how to unite the world. This time, he can unite the world alongside, not against, the United States.
Exactly. Freedom is “on the march” in Iraq and as ambassador, he can get a first-hand look at what Dick Cheney calls Bush’s “remarkable success story.”
Best of all, Bush could put to rest most of the criticisms that have dogged him throughout his adult life. People say, for example, that Bush has never held a job that his father didn’t help him get. That’s true, but this ambassadorship would break the streak — it’d come from Kerry, not Bush Sr. People say Bush has never shown an ounce of courage. That’s true, too, but what could be more courageous than volunteering to work in Iraq right now? People say Bush acts as if he’s allergic to hard work. That’s obviously true, but this would help prove otherwise.
Few talk about Bush’s “legacy” the way they did at the end of Clinton’s second term, but Baer’s idea would offer Bush an opportunity to add a complementary ending to a failed presidency. If he’s smart, he’d jump at the chance.