George W. Bush on Leno: 3 things we learned from 'Tonight Show' appearance

George W. Bush, in a rare late-night talk show appearance, looked relaxed. He says he's not worried about the judgment of history. If they're still writing about the first president, 'the 43rd guy doesn’t need to worry about it,' he said.

|
Stacie McChesney/NBC/AP
Former President George W. Bush (l.) showed off his painting and poked fun at his post-White House years during NBC's 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,' in Burbank, Calif., on Nov. 19. He said he was inspired to take up painting after reading a Winston Churchill essay.

Former President George W. Bush made a rare late-night talk show appearance on Tuesday when he sat for a chat with Jay Leno of “The Tonight Show." President Bush’s agreement to do the show was, in fact, somewhat unexpected, according to Mr. Leno. He said on-air that while he and his staff had proffered President Bush an invite, they had not really expected “W” to accept.

At this point, Bush showed himself a master of comic timing. He answered “only because of you” to Leno, drawing audience applause. Then Bush waited ... just long enough before saying, “You’re about to head out to pasture. Just wanted to see what you look like before you go out that gate."

Leno’s getting pushed out the door, see. NBC has already announced that Jimmy Fallon will replace him at the end of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

So yes, Bush was pretty funny. Asked whether he was worried about history’s judgment, he noted he’d just finished reading a book about George Washington.

“If they’re still writing biographies of the first guy, the 43rd guy doesn’t need to worry about it,” he said.

When Bush and Leno were chatting about pets, the talk-show host asked why Bush’s cat is named “Bob."

“So I could remember how to spell it when I got older,” Bush said.

Here are three other things we’d say we learned from the appearance:

Ex-presidents have more fun. It’s a truism of Washington that presidents age in office. Their hair goes gray, they stoop a bit, and they often look as if they just came from a depressing briefing. Have you seen President Obama lately?

Bush didn’t look like that. He looked way peppier than he did in his last months in office. He looked healthy (despite the fact that he had a stent inserted in his heart in August).

Leno said he look more relaxed.

“No kidding. Duh,” said Bush.

His paintings aren't bad. Bush discussed his hobby of painting at some length. He said he’d been inspired to pick up oils and brush by an essay on the subject by Winston Churchill, who himself was a decent amateur artist. Leno showed a Bush painting of Barney the Scottish terrier that was pretty good and another of the aforementioned Bob that showed the cat against a mirror, positioned at an angle, that looked not easy technically to pull off.

Bush said he takes painting lessons once a week. He told his teacher, “There’s a Rembrandt inside this body. Your job is to find him.”

He’d painted a portrait of Leno and presented it on-air. It was recognizable but we'd have to say it wasn't the artist's best work.

His dancing needs work. At the end, Leno showed a clip of Bush dancing with locals in Zambia when he and former first lady Laura Bush were in the country for the promotion of their cancer-fighting initiative and the opening of a clinic they’d helped refurbish.

“I’m really sorry you found this,” said Bush prior to the clip.

He was game but appeared mostly to be doing that stiff guy dance move where it looks like you’re dribbling a basketball. At one point, he did a little twist of his, um, former presidential booty that had some uumph and worked from a comic standpoint, if nothing else.

“A little Miley Cyrus action there, yeah!” said Leno.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to George W. Bush on Leno: 3 things we learned from 'Tonight Show' appearance
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/Vox-News/2013/1120/George-W.-Bush-on-Leno-3-things-we-learned-from-Tonight-Show-appearance
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe