He was talking about Alexander Hamilton — or was he?
Just a few minutes into the 90-minute documentary on Broadway’s biggest recent hit, President George W. Bush commented on how the founding father’s legacy had largely been overshadowed by more famous contemporaries, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
Bush appears just after Fox Business Network anchor Maria Bartiromo calls Hamilton “one of the unsung heroes of our country,” and as the camera cuts to him, Bush sits in a library with the hint of a smile.
“Well, that’s the way history works,” Bush says, looking off-screen. “Sometimes it takes a while for people to, uh, give you credit.”
The comment could have easily been made of his own reputation, which has been burnished slightly since leaving the White House with historically low presidential approval ratings in 2009. An election season dominated by two deeply unpopular candidates, as well as eight years largely absent from the public arena, have cast the former president in a slightly more favorable light.
At the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in September, Bush was lauded for his role in signing the legislation that made the museum possible. Bush also took up painting after leaving office and has a book of several portraits of veterans scheduled for publication in 2017, CBS News reported.
History has also looked more favorably on other members of the Bush clan. A letter written by his father George H. W. Bush to Bill Clinton during the transition of power made the internet rounds again last week for its civility and graciousness, and Hillary Clinton shared the letter on her Instagram with the comment, “This is what leadership looks like.”
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