Goodbye Mr. Bush

President Bush is preparing to make his farewell address to the nation tonight. I for one will miss him, not only because I do not regret voting for the man, twice. I think history will portray him in a far different light than today's media.

I met George W. Bush long before he ran for public office, when he showed his temper a bit more, and I witnessed his transformation over the years as he allowed God into his life by pushing some other things out of day to day existence. I saw him accomplish amazing things while Governor, crossing political boundaries where many others feared to tread. I watched him tear up when talking to a relatively small group of reporters about how important it was to change our state's adoption system...to find children homes.

I saw the softer side.

However I will confess that a part of me will miss President Bush for purely selfish reasons. As a radio guy, I will miss some of the wonderful words he made up, like "misunderestimate" as well as the many times I was able to watch members of my family cringe as he pronounced the word "nuclear." Like "misunderestimate" - which he said so often it actually is now listed as acceptable in some dictionaries, his pronunciation of nuclear is also now "accepted"....by some linguistic nerds who decide such things.

The President of the modern era of the 24 hour news cycle is almost always being recorded by someone. I shudder to think what type of compilation of flubs could be made from my rambling remarks on a day to day basis were I in the same position. Mercifully, most of the time I screw up on the radio I am able to edit out my errors.

I believe President Bush has left our country safer, I believe he honestly tried to restore integrity to a place where such a task might not be possible. Make no mistake, I supported the man eight years ago and I still do today.

That being said, I also know he has a sense of humor...so I hope he will forgive me for posting here just a few of the "classic Bush-isms" recorded for all time...I'll remember him for these too and remember him fondly.

Come back to Texas Mr. Bush...some of us still speak your language.