All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

At a speech about his presidential center at Southern Methodist University in Dallas this afternoon, George W. Bush told a supportive crowd that he has had time to reflect in office over the past nine months.

Mr. Bush said there were ups and downs, but through it all he "always did what I believed was in the best interests of our country."

And, he told the crowd to raucous applause, "I came home to Texas with my values intact."

Mr. Bush was speaking to launch the George W. Bush Presidential Center, which includes a public policy institute with the mission of promoting the goals and values of his presidency.

There are three components to the center, he said: An archive, museum, and the policy institute.

The archive will include the documents and records of Mr. Bush's time in office, and will house "four million photos; thousands of boxes of documents; and hundreds of millions of e-mails," according to the former president, who said he is using the materials to be housed there for his forthcoming memoir.

The museum, he said, will tell the story of the Bush presidency "through my most consequential decisions." (His memoir, which is planned to come out next fall, will have a similar format.) "Visitors will see the bullhorn I used in my first visit to Ground Zero, a replica of my Oval Office, and our very own 'Texas Rose Garden,'" he said.

The policy institute, which will be called the George W. Bush Institute, will be "a vibrant hub of principled thought and practical action," the former president said.

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Updated 4:38 p.m. ET

NOTE: This Event Has Been Called Off. See the Bottom of This Post.

It is, according to organizers, "the hottest ticket in political history": On February 25th, former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton will share a stage at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Interested spectators can pay $60 for the cheap seats or up to $160 to be closer to the action. They can also shell out $1,250 to attend a cocktail reception with the former presidents in addition to the discussion.

As Newsday reports, the two men have been teaming up a lot: They appeared together in Toronto in May (reports speculated that they earned $150,000 each for the hour-long appearance) and will be together at a TD Ameritrade conference in Florida in February.

A spokesperson for Madison Square Garden Entertainment, which is hosting the event, declined to discuss what, if anything, the former presidents are being paid. Organizers at these sorts of events generally do not disclose compensation.

A press release from the group said the two men will discuss "topics ranging from the economy to foreign policy."

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Former president George W. Bush lobbed the opening pitch of Game Three in the Japan Series - the country's version of the World Series - last night in Tokyo.

The game took place at Tokyo Stadium, and was played between the Yomiuri Giants and the Nippon Ham Fighters. Mr. Bush, who once co-owned the Texas Rangers, attended the game with former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who is also a professed baseball fan. The two have held a close relationship since Mr. Bush's presidency. U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos and record-setting home run hitter Sadaharu Oh were also present at the game with Mr. Bush, reports the Associated Press.

Not everyone, however, was glad to see the former president, AP reports. Outside the stadium, dozens of demonstrators marched and carried signs, which bore messages such as "Bush, Go to Jail" and "Arrest War Criminal Bush," to protest the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq initiated by the Bush administration. One protester even hurled his shoes at the former president in an apparent imitation of Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who got prison time for throwing his own shoes at Mr. Bush during a 2008 press conference in Baghdad.

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Updated 1:39 p.m. ET on Oct. 22nd

On Monday, former President George W. Bush will be the "special guest speaker" at the "Get Motivated! Business Seminar" in Fort Worth, Texas, according to the event's Web site.

"Attend This Dynamic Seminar to INCREASE Your Productivity and Income!" the Web site says.

Other listed speakers include Gen. Colin Powell, who will discuss leadership, former football player Terry Bradshaw (speaking on competitiveness), former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani (perseverance), and a trio of motivational speakers – Zig Ziglar, Dr. Robert Schuller, and Tamara Lowe.

Lowe, the Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Get Motivated! Seminars, told Hotsheet that Mr. Bush is the sixth former president to speak at one of the organization's seminars. Former presidents Clinton, Bush Sr., Reagan, Ford, and Carter spoke as well, she said, and other speakers have included Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Speakers are "generally compensated" for their remarks, Lowe said, though some wave their honorarium or donate it to charity. She said she is contractually forbidden from discussing Mr. Bush's compensation or that of the other speakers.

There is a write-up accompanying each speaker on the Get Motivated! Web site, with the exception of Mr. Bush; Bradshaw, for example, will tackle how to "Turn Workplace Stress into Gridiron Success," while Ziglar will discuss "How to Happily Live Life on Life's Terms."

A representative for Mr. Bush confirmed that the former president is planning to speak at the conference.

"He's proud to appear before the thousands of small businessmen and women who will be attending the get motivated conference in Fort Worth," said David Sherzer.

"He'll offer reflections from his presidency, including some of the lessons he's learned," Sherzer continued. He said the former president is looking forward to discussing "decision-making and managing complex organizations, which he had the opportunity to do at the highest level."

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A Tweet from Twitter founder Biz Stone has people wondering if Former President George W. Bush will be the next political celebrity to join the popular microblogging service.

Stone met up with the former president at the World Knowledge Forum, an annual conference sponsored by a South Korean business newspaper, in Seoul. He then posted a picture of him with Mr. Bush along with the following tweet: "President Bush told me he just got a new BlackBerry, will tweets be next?"

As the Los Angeles Times notes, Twitter could be an effective medium for Mr. Bush to continue to cultivate a following and to promote his upcoming book or other appearances.

As the Times' Mark Milian reports, Mr. Bush already seems to have a Twitter username ready, @GeorgeWBush, though it's currently protected and not in active use.

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Schools in Arlington, Texas, have cancelled plans to send students to an event involving President George W. Bush. The decision comes after the district attracted criticism for scheduling the Bush event despite opting not to show President Obama's recent speech to students.

The Dallas Morning News reports that the school had been planning to send about 600 fifth graders to the event involving Mr. Bush, which is taking place next Monday at Cowboys Stadium. At the event, the newspaper reports, "The Super Bowl XLV Host Committee plans to announce details of a community service and education program that they believe is one of the largest of its kind in the nation."

Super Bowl XLV will be held at the Dallas Cowboys' stadium in February 2011, at the end of next year's NFL season.

The school received an onslaught of negative attention for planning the trip to the Bush event in the wake of its decision not to show the Obama speech, which centered on the importance of working hard and staying in school.

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As speculation over Sarah Palin's presidential aspirations heat up now that she has stepped down as Alaska's governor, a former member of George W. Bush's staff said Palin had no chance of winning the White House.

"Impossible," is how Bush's former speechwriter David Frum described the likelihood Palin would become president.

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Former president George W. Bush has had little to say publicly about the new president and administration since he exited the White House. On ABC's "Good Morning America" today, former first lady Laura Bush discussed her husband’s decision to lay low.

Echoing an earlier comment from George W. Bush, Laura Bush said her husband feels he "owes President Obama his silence" on issues.

"There's no reason to second-guess any decision [Obama] makes," said Laura Bush.

The former first lady also commended Mr. Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, stating that she "sounds like a winner and a good nominee."

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A roundup of news, schedules, and key stories from CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

The digging into President Obama's Supreme Court choice, Sonia Sotomayor, has begun and there's no shortage of research, comments and criticism - some of which is extremely harsh.

"Lawyers who have argued cases before Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor call her 'nasty,' 'angry' and a 'terror on the bench,' according to the current Almanac of the Federal Judiciary -- a kind of Zagat's guide to federal judges," reports the Washington Times' Tom LoBianco.

"The withering evaluation of Judge Sotomayor's temperament stands in stark contrast to reviews of her peers on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Of the 21 judges evaluated, the same lawyers gave 18 positive to glowing reviews and two judges received mixed reviews. Judge Sotomayor was the only one to receive decidedly negative comments. Judge Sotomayor's demeanor on the bench will be one of the issues the Senate Judiciary Committee tackles when she appears for her confirmation hearing. A lack of a good temperament has been used as a line of attack against nominees in the past - most notably conservative Judge Robert H. Bork, whose nomination to the Supreme Court was defeated. But several lawyers and legal scholars on a call organized by the White House said the criticism is misplaced and that Judge Sotomayor's legal acumen is overwhelming."

The New York Times' Jo Becker and Adam Liptak add that Sotomayor, "has a blunt and even testy side, and it was on display in December during an argument before the federal appeals court in New York. The case concerned a Canadian man who said American officials had sent him to Syria to be tortured, and Judge Sotomayor peppered a government lawyer with skeptical questions. 'So the minute the executive raises the specter of foreign policy, national security,' Judge Sotomayor asked the lawyer, Jonathan F. Cohn, 'it is the government's position that that is a license to torture anyone?'"

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Critics often accused the Bush administration of waging a crusade against Iraq. Turns out those critics may have been correct, according to a profile of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in GQ this month.

In what appears to be a callous effort by Rumsfeld to cater to President George W. Bush's religious fervor, the fiery Pentagon leader sent the president daily briefings on the war's progress headlined Worldwide Intelligence Update, which often included Bible passages on the cover paired with striking images.

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