Bush's Post-Presidency to Include More Than a Library

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, January 18, 2009

Many former presidents rise to a second act. Jimmy Carter founded a human rights center and won the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Clinton established a charity and traveled the world making speeches. Even the disgraced Richard Nixon opened a foreign-policy think tank shortly before his death.
Now it's George W. Bush's turn.
After handing over the White House to President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday, Bush, 62, will return to Texas to begin his own post-presidency, including plans to build a library, museum and public-policy center in Dallas, that is far more ambitious than those of most other former commanders in chief.
In addition to the cost -- $300 million for the building and as much as $200 million for an endowment -- Bush's plans stand out as an effort to defend his tumultuous White House years and to continue the debate over his most controversial domestic and foreign policies. The George W. Bush Presidential Center will include a "Freedom Institute" focused on a broad portfolio of topics, including the expansion of democracy abroad and education reforms of the kind Bush implemented during his presidency, according to organizers.

Read the full report at The Washington Post online.