Political Wire

SubscribeSign in
  • Front Page
  • Trending
  • Polling
  • Trial Balloon
  • Books
  • Membership
    • Subscribe
    • Sign In
  • Sign In
  • Contact Us
Theme
Text size

Bush Paints the Moment He Was Told About 9/11

September 11, 2026 · 6:27 pm ET · Leave a Comment

“Twenty-five years after the terrorist attacks that defined his presidency, George W. Bush is revisiting the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, through paintings,” the Washington Sun reports.

“Bush has created a new series commemorating 9/11, depicting scenes and people connected to the attacks and their aftermath. The collection, ‘Remembering 9/11,’ is on display at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas through the end of September.”

Washington Post: For years, Bush was mocked for this 9/11 moment. Now he’s painted it.

Bush Legacy

How 9/11 Sowed the Seeds of America’s Deep Division

September 8, 2026 · 8:17 am ET · Leave a Comment

“When terrorists attacked America on Sept. 11, 2001, they provoked a response that, seen from today’s perspective, seems remarkable: The country immediately united across every political and ideological divide,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Within three days, the House and the Senate approved by a combined vote of 518 to 1 a sweeping measure endorsing the use of force against anyone deemed responsible for the attacks. In a Wall Street Journal poll taken at the time, 82% said they approved of the job being done by President George W. Bush, who hadn’t even won the popular vote in the election that brought him to office just months earlier. Almost three-quarters of Americans said that despite the attacks—or maybe because of the united response to them—the country was on the right track. In many ways, America was at its best.”

“Alas, that 9/11 unity didn’t last.”

“As it turned out, the events of that day also sowed the seeds for much of the discord and disillusionment that have plagued the American political system in the quarter-century since.”

Bush Legacy, Political History

George W. Bush Not On GOP Convention Speakers List

September 3, 2026 · 3:08 pm ET · Leave a Comment

“Former President George W. Bush is not among the listed potential speakers for next week’s Republican Party convention in Dallas, even though the event is virtually in his backyard,” Axios reports.

“The former president’s absence underscores the schism between the Trump-era GOP and the Bush-era GOP.”

Bush Legacy, Republicans

George W. Bush’s Code of Silence

September 1, 2026 · 6:40 am ET · Leave a Comment

Jacob Weinberg: “He lovingly paints immigrants, praises free trade and diplomacy, and rues the coarsening of American politics. Why won’t he talk about Donald Trump?”

Bush Legacy

Quote of the Day

July 4, 2026 · 11:05 am ET · Leave a Comment

“No matter what I do, there’s no privacy. I’ve been told for seven years, eight years now, that ‘this will go away. They’ll stop focusing on you.’ That hasn’t happened.”

— Hunter Biden, in an interview with Wired.

Bush Legacy

George W. Bush, Michelle Obama’s Friendship on Display

June 19, 2026 · 8:18 pm ET · Leave a Comment

“The friendship between former first lady Michelle Obama and former President George W. Bush was on display again Thursday at the Obama Presidential Center’s opening ceremony in Chicago,” CBS News reports.

“Ahead of the ceremony, Bush gifted Obama a tin of Altoids in a callback to one of their viral moments at the funeral for Sen. John McCain in 2018. The former president was caught sneaking Obama what was later said to be a cough drop during the funeral.”

Bush Legacy, Obama legacy

Quote of the Day

May 28, 2026 · 5:19 pm ET · Leave a Comment

“The only thing I want to hear from Jill Biden is I’m sorry.”

— Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), quoted by CNN, on the former first lady’s book tour.

Bush Legacy

Trump Says He Is in No Rush for an Iran Deal

May 24, 2026 · 3:51 pm ET · Leave a Comment

President Trump said Sunday he was in no hurry to complete an end-of-war agreement with Iran after spending weeks insisting Tehran had to quickly make nuclear concessions or face renewed attacks, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Trump: “I have informed my representatives not to rush into a deal.”

He added the U.S. blockade on Iranian shipping would remain in place until an agreement “is reached, certified, and signed. Both sides must take their time and get it right.”

Financial Times: Republican hardliners warn Trump is giving up too much in Iran talks.

CNN: Republican hawks seem to fear a Trump cut and run from Iran.

Bush Legacy, Foreign Affairs

Trump’s Approval Falls Into George W. Bush Territory

April 21, 2026 · 1:26 pm ET · Leave a Comment

Aaron Blake: “It was almost exactly this time 20 years ago that the bottom began to fall out on George W. Bush’s approval ratings. And as Bush’s numbers in most polls fell into the 30s for the first time in late winter and early spring, the culprit was clear: the Iraq war.”

“History could be repeating itself with President Donald Trump in 2026. Just swap Iraq with Iran.”

Bush Legacy, White House

There Was One Dick Cheney All Along

November 4, 2025 · 5:00 pm ET · Leave a Comment

David Frum: “Trump’s Republicanism is radically statist and protectionist, in service to reactionary cultural politics. And it is above all contemptuous of law and constitutional limits. The very week of former Vice President Cheney’s death, the Trump administration will argue at the Supreme Court in favor of the president’s power to impose limitless tariffs on his sole personal claim that some kind of economic emergency exists, without any right of anybody else to question or refute that claim—meaning that the president has effectively discarded and replaced Congress’s Article I power to tax or refrain from taxing.”

“The young constitutional conservative elevated to the highest offices of government by the Watergate scandal would have been appalled and disgusted—and so was the old constitutional conservative who lived to see his cherished daughter a leader of the last band of principled conservative opposition to Trump’s attempt to overthrow a presidential election by fraud and force. ‘In my beginning is my end,’ wrote T. S. Eliot. There was one Dick Cheney all along. Know him better as you tell and honor the life story of this great servant of the American people in all his strengths and weaknesses, triumphs and failures.”

Bush Legacy

Dick Cheney Is Dead

November 4, 2025 · 6:22 am ET · Leave a Comment

Dick Cheney, America’s most powerful modern vice president and chief architect of the “war on terror,” who helped lead the country into the ill-fated Iraq war on faulty assumptions, has died, CNN reports.

New York Times: “Most recently, he startled Americans of both parties by announcing that he would vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, in the 2024 election, denouncing her Republican opponent, former President Donald J. Trump, as unfit for the Oval Office and a grave threat to American democracy.”

He was 84.

Bush Legacy

Bonus Quote of the Day

July 24, 2025 · 4:22 pm ET · Leave a Comment

“Any time I say anything about Epstein, they’re like, ‘Why didn’t Joe Biden’s—why didn’t Joe Biden release the files?’ And this is what I say. Have you met Merrick Garland?”

— Former Biden aide Neera Tanden, on The Bulwark Podcast.

Bush Legacy

The Week That Derailed Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency

May 24, 2025 · 7:01 am ET · Leave a Comment

“When Joe Biden left office in January, he sought to follow the template set by his predecessors for a post-presidency: Raise funds for a library, deliver a memoir and hit the speaking circuit,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Instead, he has been derailed by a battle to salvage his tarnished legacy—and an urgent fight against stage-4 prostate cancer that kills most men within five years. A stream of new books detailing the extent of his decline while in office and the efforts to conceal it has spawned a fresh round of recriminations over the 82-year-old’s presidency.”

Bush Legacy

Biden Taps Operative to Help Defend His Reputation

May 8, 2025 · 6:16 am ET · Leave a Comment

“Joe Biden is in reputation management mode, hiring a veteran campaign and communications strategist to help burnish his legacy at a time when many in his party want him to exit the stage,” Politico reports.

“In a sign of Biden’s intent to remain engaged publicly, his inner circle tapped Chris Meagher, a former Biden deputy press secretary and Defense Department spokesperson, to help him transition past the first 100 days of the Trump administration.”

Bush Legacy

George W. Bush Not Expected at White House Event

May 6, 2025 · 8:59 pm ET · Leave a Comment

“Former president George W. Bush is not expected to attend a Thursday event at the White House honoring his late mother,” the Washington Post reports.

“First lady Melania Trump is hosting the event in the East Room, where she will unveil a postage stamp honoring former first lady Barbara Bush, the wife of President George H.W. Bush. Other Bush family members and friends are expected to attend.”

Bush Legacy

Biden Aides Decided Against Cognitive Test

May 4, 2025 · 10:56 am ET · Leave a Comment

“Months before President Joe Biden was forced to abandon his re-election campaign, his top White House aides debated having him undergo a cognitive test to prove his fitness for a second term but ultimately decided against the move, according to a forthcoming book,” the New York Times reports.

“The account illustrates the degree to which Mr. Biden’s top aides harbored deep fears about how voters viewed his age and mental acuity.”

“Mr. Biden’s aides were confident that he would pass a cognitive test, but they worried that the mere fact of his taking one would raise new questions about his mental abilities.”

2024
How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America
by Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf · Penguin Press · 2025
Buy on Amazon
Hardcover·Kindle
More on this book from Political Wire →

2024 Campaign, Bush Legacy

Why Voters Rejected Bidenomics

February 11, 2025 · 3:00 pm ET · Leave a Comment

“In a scathing new essay on what went wrong with Biden-era economic policy, longtime Democratic economic adviser Jason Furman argues that the last administration was too quick to toss aside traditional economic orthodoxy around fiscal policy and other issues,” Axios reports.

“Furman, writing in Foreign Affairs, argues that the Biden administration’s willingness to run the economy hot — to risk higher inflation in exchange for a turbo-charged rebound from the pandemic — turned out to be a bad bet.”

Bush Legacy

Quote of the Day

January 21, 2025 · 9:36 am ET · Leave a Comment

“That makes him look very guilty.”

— President Trump, quoted by The Hill, on former President Biden pardoning his family in the final 20 minutes of his term.

Bush Legacy

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 16
  • Next Page »
Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.

More about Taegan Goddard →

Your Account

Members

For the full experience, sign in.

Become a Member

  • Join Political Wire
  • Gift a Membership

Members Only

  • Ramaswamy’s Self-Inflicted October Surprise
  • Another Sign of a Coming Blue Wave
  • What Would a Blue Wave Really Look Like?
  • Trump Is an Even Bigger Liability Than Polls Suggest
  • Trump’s Broken Promise at the Pump
  • It’s the Corruption Too, Stupid

More members only posts →

?Political Trivia

  • The Way It Was →
  • Yea or Nay? →
  • Split Decision →
  • Pollster →
  • Daily Trivia →

Copyright © 2026 · Goddard Media LLC

Political Wire® is a registered trademark of Goddard Media LLC

Also from Goddard Media: Political Dictionary · Political Job Hunt · Electoral Vote Map

Privacy PolicyCorrections PolicyContact