Views on policy
Bush is a Republican and has identified herself with the GOP
since her marriage.
When asked about abortion in 2000, Bush said she did not
believe Roe v. Wade should be
overturned. She did not comment on whether women had the right to an abortion.
She did say, however, that the country should do "what we can to limit the number of abortions, to try to reduce
the number of abortions in a lot of ways, and that is, by talking about
responsibility with girls and boys, by teaching abstinence, having abstinence
classes everywhere in schools and in churches and in Sunday school".
Bush responded to a question during a 2006 interview
concerning the Federal Marriage
Amendment by calling for elected leaders not to politicize same-sex
marriage, "I don't think it should
be used as a campaign tool, obviously. It requires a lot of sensitivity to just
talk about the issue ... a lot of sensitivity."
On July 12, 2005, while in South Africa, Bush suggested her
husband replace retiring Supreme Court
justice Sandra Day O'Connor with another woman. On October 2, during a private
dinner at the White House with his
wife, President Bush nominated Harriet Miers to replace O'Connor.
Later that month, after Miers had faced intense criticism, Laura Bush questioned whether the charges were sexist in nature.
Legacy
In late October 2008, days before that year's presidential
election, Bush hosted a three-hour session with staffers and historians
discussing how she would like to be remembered, leading to this meeting being
termed the "legacy lunch".
According to historian Myra Gutin,
this was the first time in history that a First
Lady had ever directly reached out to historians to talk about her
accomplishments. Attendants of the meeting said that Bush wanted to change the
perception that she was a traditional First
Lady in that she always stayed by her husband's side. At a 2014 National Press Club, Anita McBride opined that it would be
harder for people to understand where Bush had "the greatest impact" due to the several signature issues
that Bush advocated for while First
Lady.
In 2017, journalist Brooke
Baldwin suggested Bush's efforts toward improving the lives of Afghan women
may have contributed to more Afghanistan women being in positions within the Afghanistan
private sector.
Bush enjoyed widespread approval by the American public both
as the incumbent First Lady and
during her retirement. The Washington
Post contributor Krissah Thompson
recalled Bush's favorability being "as
close to universal popularity as any modern political figure" when the
Bushes left the White House in 2009
and called her "the most
high-profile promoter of the George W. Bush legacy — a burden she carries
lightly and with a smile." A 2014 poll which asked who was the most
popular First Lady in the past 25
years found Bush ranked in fourth place (out of 4 candidates), behind Hillary Clinton, mother-in-law Barbara and direct successor Michelle Obama.
Subsequent activities
In February 2009, the month after she and her husband left
office, Laura and George W. Bush moved into a new
residence in Dallas. In November 2009, the former First Lady, accompanied by
her husband, made a visit to families of veterans in Fort Hood. The couple expressed their wishes that the trip not be
publicized. However, Fox News revealed the trip the following morning.
In May 2010, Bush released her memoir, Spoken from the Heart, in conjunction with a national tour.
On May 11, 2010, during an interview on Larry King Live, Bush was asked about same-sex marriage. She said
she viewed it as a generational issue and believed it would be made legal in
the future. Bush offered support for the issue by saying "when couples are committed to each other and love each other ...
they ought to have the same sort of rights that everyone has." Bush
referred to her 2000 interview, reaffirming her support for Roe v. Wade, "I think it's important
that [abortion] remain legal. Because I think it's important for people – that
for medical reasons and, and other reasons." On February 22, 2013,
without her consent, she was included in a pro-gay advertisement from the Respect of Marriage Coalition. A
statement from Bush's spokesperson states that Bush "did not approve of her inclusion in this advertisement nor is she
associated with the group that made the ad in any way. When she became aware of
the advertisement last night, we requested that the group remove her from
it."
Bush continued to remain involved and concerned over the
state of women in Afghanistan, speaking out editorials and appearances during
2013 that the women and girls who had been helped could not be abandoned during
and after the planned withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. In March
2016, Bush wrote an op-ed for The Washington
Post on changes occurring among women in Afghanistan while noting continued
violence and calling for American involvement in Afghanistan to be consistent
and predictable in continuing along with the international community "to provide significant development
assistance in the areas of health care, entrepreneurship and education".
In June 2016, Bush stated that she hoped the US remained in Afghanistan and had
consulted with women there who feared the departure of American troops would
create "a vacuum" similar
to Iraq, furthering that the US "would
have to start all over again" if they withdrew troops. In late 2017,
Bush and First Lady of Afghanistan Rula
Ghani traveled to Washington to rally lawmaker support for Afghanistan and
women there.
In April 2015, Bush criticized Rand Paul's isolationist stance on U.S. foreign aid, calling the
view "not really realistic" and
asserting the United States should save lives whenever it can. That August, she
shared the first public photos of her newborn granddaughter Poppy Louise.
Public appearances
On May 31, 2012, Bush and her husband unveiled their
official portraits painted by John
Howard Sanden in a ceremony at the White
House attended by several members of their family and former members of the
Bush administration. Bush jokingly told then
First Lady Michelle Obama at the ceremony that "nothing makes a house a home like having portraits of its former
occupants staring down at you from the walls". Bush was portrayed in
the White House's Green Room in her
portrait, wearing a midnight blue gown.
On July 25, 2012, she spoke at the Luisa Hunnewell's estate, where she praised Edith Wharton's works, in particular Ethan Frome on her 150th anniversary. She also said that prior to
this speech she also visited houses of Mark
Twain at his 166th anniversary on November 29, 2001, and was a guest of the
show Mark Twain Tonight. Ten years
prior to the Luisa Hunnewell's
estate visit she also visited Louisa May
Alcott's Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts at which she met with the National Trust for Historic Preservation's
President and listened to Concord-Carlisle
High School's chorus.
In April 2013, Bush was in attendance at a news conference,
where she said the recently built George
W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum was not a monument for her husband
but instead a representation of the White
House and the struggles of America during his tenure. She also mentioned
not having trouble donating clothes to the library, admitting that she probably
would have never worn them again in the first place. That month it was
announced that she would serve as a keynote speaker for the 2013 Global Business Travel Association
Convention in August. At the convention, she stressed the importance of
child literacy, continuing her advocating of an issue that she had become
associated with since her tenure as First
Lady. In early August 2013, she reported that her husband was in stable
condition after having a stent implanted in his heart, calling it "terrific" that it was caught
in time, and stressed the importance of regular checkups with doctors. In
September, she appeared at a fundraiser for the organization Solutions for Change.
On April 26, 2014, she gave a speech at the Ericsson Center in Plano, Texas, where
she spoke on behalf of the company's mentoring program for girls. Throughout
the month, she made appearances at fundraisers for schools in Colorado. On May
9, 2014, she was scheduled to speak at the Boston
Convention and Exhibition Center on the anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing. She was to
arrive there with her daughter Barbara
Pierce Bush, her husband George W.
Bush, and Soledad O'Brien, a
journalist.
In 2015, Bush had several speaking arrangements on issues
relating to her husband's presidency. In July, the former First Lady, accompanied by her husband, attended the centennial
anniversary of Tioga Road In Yosemite
National Park in July and appeared in New Orleans in order to commemorate
the tenth anniversary of Hurricane
Katrina. In October, she was a featured speaker for Wayland Baptist University.
Bush was keynote speaker at the Go Red for Women Summit in Austin in February 2016, an event
designed to promote both financing and awareness for women fighting heart
disease. In March, Bush attended the funeral of Nancy Reagan in California. and attended the memorial service for
victims in the Dallas police officers shooting four months later in July.
In April 2020, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Bush and
Michelle Obama made a joint appearance on the "One World: Together At Home" televised concert special
by the Global Citizen Festival where
they expressed appreciation for healthcare workers, first responders,
pharmacists, veterinarians, sanitation workers as well as grocery store workers
and those delivering food and supplies to homes.
On September 11, 2021, Bush and her husband commemorated the
20th anniversary of the September 11
attacks at the Flight 93 National
Memorial.
Obama administration
Over the course of the Obama presidency, she developed an
alliance with Michelle Obama, her
immediate successor as First Lady.
Despite their political differences, Michelle
Obama has called Laura Bush both
her friend and a role model, crediting Bush with setting "a high bar" for her during her tenure as First Lady. Bush defended Obama during
her husband's campaign for president in 2008, publicly coming to her defense
when she received criticism for a remark she made about being proud of her
country for the first time in her adulthood during the campaign. Obama sent
Bush a note thanking her and after the election met with Bush at the White House in November 2008, Bush
giving Obama a tour of her and her family's soon-to-be home.
In September 2009, Bush openly praised President Barack Obama and First
Lady Michelle Obama. She reasoned that President
Obama was performing well in the presidency despite having multiple initiatives
taking place and complimented the First
Lady's transformation of the White
House into "a comfortable home
for her family".
The following year, in September 2010, Bush and Obama
commemorated the ninth anniversary of the September
11 attacks by leading a ceremony from a mountaintop to national memorial
park. The two both acted as keynote speakers and met with the families of the
40 victims of United Airlines Flight 93
plane crash. In their remarks, the two sang each other's praises. Obama thanked
Bush for her handling of the aftermath of September
11 attacks, while Bush called her a "first
lady who serves this country with such grace".
In July 2013, Bush and Obama appeared together in Africa at
the First Ladies Summit. Their
husbands were also present, leading White
House staffer Ben Rhodes to
refer to the joint appearance as proof of the support for Africa in the United
States regardless of political party. In their remarks, both Bush and Obama
stressed the importance of being role models.
Nine months later, on April 18, 2014, Bush spoke to
Inquisitr regarding income inequality where she said next regarding Michelle
Obama's income: "I want to make sure
that when she's working she's getting paid the same as men. I gotta say that
First Ladies right now don't [get paid], even though that's a tough job!" In August 2014, Bush and Obama appeared
together at the Kennedy Center.
Shortly afterward, Bush told The Washington
Post that she believed Obama was ready to leave the White House.
In March 2015, Bush and Obama were named as co-chairs of the
Find Your Park campaign, an attempt
to increase national park support and introduce millennials to the park service
before its centennial the following year. The pair made a joint appearance at
the George W. Bush Presidential Library
and Museum in September 2015, Bush appearing physically while Obama was
present through a video call. Obama spoke of her admiration for Bush, who in
turn mentioned their collaborations as "a
great example for the world to see that women in different political parties,
in the United States, agree on so many issues".
Trump administration
On January 20, 2017, Bush and her husband attended the inauguration
of Donald Trump. In a November
interview, Bush stated that she wished the Trumps "the very best" given that she knew what it was like to
live in the White House and
confirmed that she both been in contact with former First Lady Melania Trump and been invited to the Diplomatic Reception Room by retained
personnel from the Bush administration.
On June 17, 2018, Bush wrote an opinion piece firmly
opposing the Trump administration family separation policy in The Washington Post. She mentioned how her
mother-in-law Barbara Bush had
picked up a crying AIDS baby while on a visit to the HIV/AIDS shelter "Grandma's House" in 1989. She
mentioned this to indicate her shock upon discovery that the workers at the
children's border shelter have been instructed "not to pick up or touch the children to comfort them".
Biden administration
On January 20, 2021, Bush and her husband attended the
inauguration of Joe Biden.
Involvement with GOP
In the later months of 2012, Bush campaigned for Republican presidential nominee Mitt
Romney, hosting a fundraiser in September with Ann Romney and appearing in Livonia, Michigan, the following month
for a Romney campaign event. Michigan spokeswoman for the Romney campaign Kelsey Knight said having Mrs. Bush
there would "just fuel the fire and
the momentum we are seeing". She also campaigned for vice presidential
nominee Paul Ryan, telling a crowd
in Detroit that he and Romney had "better
answers" on the economy and foreign policy.
After the 2012 election, where Romney lost to President Obama, Bush was asked in
March 2013 during an interview whether the GOP's positions on social issues
such as same-sex marriage and abortion led to more than half of female voters
voting for the President. Bush responded that some of the candidates had "frightened some candidates",
but at the same time expressed her liking of the Republican Party having room for difference of opinion and that
within the party, "we have room for
all".
Throughout 2015, Bush was active in the presidential
campaign of brother-in-law Jeb Bush,
hosting fundraisers and endorsing him. This was the most politically involved
she had been since leaving the White House seven years prior, supporting her
brother-in-law alongside the rest of her family because, in her words, he was "our candidate". In March she
affirmed her support for her brother-in-law, calling herself and her husband "huge Jeb supporters". It was
reported that she would be assisting the campaign's fundraising in Florida in
October, Bloomberg News commenting
that Jeb Bush was "calling in help
from perhaps the most popular member of his family". According to Clay Johnson, a friend of the Bush
family, she was reportedly surprised by Donald
Trump's becoming frontrunner over the course of the election cycle. In
February 2016, amid her brother-in-law's campaign trailing Trump in South
Carolina polls, Bush traveled there with her husband. Jeb Bush dropped out of the race after the South Carolina primary.
The following month, Bush declined answering if she would vote for Trump, who
was the frontrunner in the Republican primary, should he become the nominee and
said the U.S. was going through a xenophobic period at the time of the election
cycle. Ultimately, Bush and her husband refused to vote for president in 2016.
Libraries
Bush created the Laura
Bush Foundation for America's Libraries "to
support the education of our nation's children by providing funds to update,
extend, and diversify the book and print collections of America's school
libraries". Every year, the Laura
Bush Foundation's grants awards more than $1,000,000 to US schools.
The Laura Bush 21st
Century Library Program grant, offered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, provides funding for "the recruitment and education of
library students and continuing education for those already in the profession,
as well as the development of new programs and curricula". Bush's 21st Century Library Program is an
equal opportunity grant that does not discriminate on the basis of race, color,
national origin, sex, disability, or age.
In May 2015, Bush bestowed a $7,000 grant to six schools
within Austin, Texas.
After Hurricane
Katrina and Hurricane Rita in
2005, the Laura Bush Foundation for
America's Libraries awarded grants of $10,000 to $75,000 to school
libraries whose collections were damaged or destroyed in the hurricanes. In
2017, after the devastation from Hurricanes
Harvey, Irma, and Maria as well
the California wildfires, the foundation again is going to dedicate their
resources to disaster-affected schools to rebuild their book collections.
Laura W. Bush
Institute for Women's Health
In August 2007, the Laura
W. Bush Institute for Women's Health (LWBIWH) was founded at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences
Center. This institute aims to integrate research, education and community
outreach in a multidisciplinary approach to women's health and has begun
efforts to establish a multi-campus women's health institute in Amarillo, El
Paso, Lubbock and the Permian Basin.
A subsidiary of the center, the Jenna Welch Women's Center, opened in Midland, Texas, on August 10,
2010, to deliver expert medical care to women and their families. Operating in
partnership with the Laura Bush
Institute, the Jenna Welch Center, named for Bush's mother, strives for
excellence in research, education and community outreach.
Writings and
recordings
Bush wrote her first book with her daughter Jenna called Read All about It!. It was published on
April 23, 2008. Bush's memoir, Spoken from the Heart, was published in 2010.
The book received mixed reviews from critics but got positive responses from
readers. The book earned Goodreads
Choice Award Nominee for Memoir and
Autobiography (2010). Her non-fictional book about oppressed women of
Afghanistan titled We Are Afghan Women:
Voices of Hope was published on March 8, 2016. She wrote another children's
book with her daughter Jenna, Our Great
Big Backyard. The book was published on May 10, 2016. She was the recipient
of a lifetime achievement award from the Junior
League of Dallas, of which she is a member.
Awards and honors
Bush is awarded the Living
Legend Medallion from James H.
Billington, the Librarian of Congress, for her work in support of the
National Book Festival, September 2008.
During and after her tenure as the First Lady, Laura Bush received a number of awards and honors. In
October 2002, the Elie Wiesel Foundation
for Humanity honored her in recognition of her efforts on behalf of
education. Also in 2002, she was named Barbara
Walters' Most Fascinating Person of the year.
The American Library
Association honored her for her years of support to America's libraries and
librarians in April 2005.
On October 18, 2003, she was conferred by the former
president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo the
Order of Gabriela Silang, a single-class order which makes her the first U.S. First Lady recipient during the
state visit of President George Bush
to the Philippines.
She received an award in honor of her dedication to help
improve the living conditions and education of children around the world, from
the Kuwait-American Foundation in
March 2006. She accepted The
Nichols-Chancellor's Medal on behalf of disaster relief workers around the
world in May 2006 from Vanderbilt
University. In 2007, she received the Golden
Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
Four learning facilities have been named for her: the Laura Welch Bush Elementary School of
Pasadena ISD in Houston, Texas, the Laura
W. Bush Elementary School in the Leander ISD in Travis County, Texas, just
outside Austin, the Laura Bush Middle
School (Lubbock-Cooper ISD) in Lubbock, Texas, and the Laura Bush Education Center at Camp Bondsteel, a U.S. military base
in Kosovo. She was awarded the 2008
Christian Freedom International Freedom Award. Bush is on the Board of Selectors of Jefferson Awards for Public
Service.
In 2012, Bush—along with Hector Ruiz, Charles Matthews, Melinda Perrin, Julius Glickman and Admiral William H. McRaven, the Navy Seal who oversaw the raid that
killed Osama bin Laden—was named a Distinguished Alumnus of the University of
Texas at Austin.
In October 2015, Bush was conferred an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Wayland
Baptist University in recognition of her longtime advocacy on behalf of
education, health care and human rights following an address she gave on the university's
campus. November, she received the 2015
Prevent Blindness Person of Vision Award.
In November 2016 Bush received 10 for 10 awards from Women's Democracy Network in
recognition of her years of work on behalf of Afghan women's rights.
In May 2017 Bush received an honor at the Women Making History Awards in Washington,
D.C.
In 2018 Laura Bush
and former President George W. Bush
were awarded the National Constitution
Center Liberty Medal for their work with U.S. military veterans since
leaving the White House.
In 2021 Bush received the Concordia Leadership Award.
In popular culture
Laura Bush is
portrayed by Elizabeth Banks in Oliver Stone's film W. Curtis
Sittenfeld's bestselling novel American
Wife is largely based on her life.
In 2018, Bush appeared in an episode of HGTV's Fixer Upper.
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