House of Eratosthenes

Former first lady Laura Bush praised the performance of her husband’s successor Monday, breaking with many Republicans in telling CNN that she thinks President Obama is doing a good job under tough circumstances.

She also criticized Washington’s sharp political divide during an interview covering a range of topics including her thoughts on first lady Michelle Obama, former Vice President Dick Cheney, the situation in Afghanistan and Myanmar, and life after eight tumultuous years in the White House.

Bush sat down with CNN on Monday during a United Nations meeting in Paris, France, where she was promoting global literacy, a cause she trumpeted during her husband’s administration.

The typically reserved former first lady defended Obama’s decision to deliver a back-to-school speech to students, putting her at odds with many conservatives afraid that the president will use the opportunity to advance his political agenda.

“I think he is [doing a good job],” Bush said when asked to assess Obama’s job performance. “I think he has got a lot on his plate, and he has tackled a lot to start with, and that has probably made it more difficult.”

Michelle Obama is also “doing great,” she said, in part by turning the White House into a comfortable home for her family.

Referencing the uproar over Obama’s address to schoolchildren, which will be aired nationwide Tuesday, Laura Bush said it’s “really important for everyone to respect the president of the United States.”

Bush didn’t completely dismiss the concerns of some conservatives but noted that controversial Education Department plans recommending that students draft letters discussing what they can do to help Obama had been changed.

“I think there is a place for the president … to talk to schoolchildren and encourage” them, she said. Parents should follow his example and “encourage their own children to stay in school and to study hard and to try to achieve the dream that they have.”

Bush indicated that she didn’t think it was fair for Obama to be labeled a “socialist” by critics and expressed her disappointment with the intensely polarized nature of contemporary American politics.

Part of the reason for the polarization, she said, was the increase in the number of congressional districts dominated by either strongly conservative or liberal voters.

“We’ve seen that for the last eight years, certainly, and we’re still seeing it,” she said. “That’s just a fact of life.”

Bush conceded that after her husband was elected president, he was unable to replicate his success as governor of Texas in reaching across the aisle to Democrats.

“He was disappointed that that was not the way it worked out in Washington,” she said. “I’m sure President Obama didn’t expect it to be that way [either]. … All of us need to do what we can to come together on issues.”

The primary thing about the great and gentle lady Laura Bush is that she exemplifies class in a way that the purveyors of Class could never understand or replicate.

Noblesse oblige personified.
- rob | 09/08/2009 @ 07:20
And I’d applaud it here, too, Rob. If it made a bit more sense.

But if Ms. Bush is looking for someone to personify the ugly smear-mongering in the beltway and on the campaign trails, she has no better emblem than the man whose job performance she’s praising here. And I think she’s plenty smart enough to know.

In my world, she’s put herself into something of a hole. I wonder how good of a job she’ll do later digging her way out of it.
- mkfreeberg | 09/08/2009 @ 07:24
I don’t disagree with you that I disagree with her. Nonetheless, the concept of noblesse oblige in this instance dictates that she remain gracious to those she sees as her enemies – and you won’t convince me that she perceives them incorrectly.

Her example, and a good one in my opinion, is of someone who has the necessary dignity to display charity towards even monsters. No easy feat, that, and it echoes her husband’s astonishing restraint in the face of the unending filth and vitriol spewed in his direction by the midstream media. Whether I would have preferred he fight back, even to the extent of lowering himself to their level, is immaterial to his exemplification of class.

Her too.
- rob | 09/08/2009 @ 22:36
To take Christian virtues seriously requires some judgement in extending them to people who do not have any. She only has two cheecks to turn; don’t be turning mine.
- jamzw | 09/09/2009 @ 09:31
There is class, and then there is being a wimp. If I were Dubya, I’d probably be about as kind to Obama as he has to me. Or maybe Bush was only referring to the parts where Obama has continued this Bush-era policy or that one.

Reminds me a bit of how Reginald Denny hugged the mother of one of the men convicted of throwing a brick at his head during the LA riots. Come on, man…who are you trying to impress?
- cylarz | 09/10/2009 @ 00:29

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Former First Lady CommentsTuesday, September 8th, 2009

Former First Lady Comments
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009