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SMU announced on Tuesday that George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States, is going to give its 2015 commencement address. It’s G-Dub’s second time to get the gig at the school — he regaled grads as governor in 1999 — a first for SMU.
Given Bush’s track record as a public speaker during his presidency, all the bravado and malapropisms, there was a time when it would have been fun to mock SMU for its choice, but now, today, in 2015: He’s perfect for it.
Sure, the jokes come quickly — Bush couldn’t spell PhD if you gave him the P and the H, etc. — but Bush, especially after moving to Dallas, has remade himself as a solid, and often quite funny, public speaker. And, David Foster Wallace’s 2005 speech at Kenyon College excepted, that’s what matters at these things; tell a couple jokes, stay away from any hard truths about the world and make sure the hungover graduates and proud parents escape before anyone gets too bored.
Bush’s self-deprecation at the dedication of his presidential library on the SMU in April 2013 showed how far the former prez has come since he was talking about new-cue-lar weapons.
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There was a time in his life, he said, “wasn’t likely to be found in a library, much less found one.”
Hell, the guy even made a dick joke during a 2014 speech at the LBJ Library at UT-Austin.
Unfair Park can only hope that an adjunct art professor post is next.
