George W. Bush, motivational speaker

last updated 8 January 2015

"No, this isn’t an Onion headline"—former President George W. Bush is making his debut as a motivational speaker, said Robert Quigley in Mediaite. Bush will be speaking at two of Zig Ziglar's Get Motivated! events in Texas, along with Colin Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and Terry Bradshaw. Even at just $19 a pop, "it appears that tickets are still available!"

Okay, so Zig Ziglar's famous sales motivation seminars "might not seem the logical place for George W. Bush to launch the Bush Legacy Project tour," said Wayne Slater in The Dallas Morning News. But the "Get Motivated! business seminars are glossy affairs"—they're "part pep rally, part Christian revival meeting for salespeople who want to up their game." Maybe Bush just "feels comfortable headlining a daylong bacchanalia of patriotism, inspiration, success stories and sales tips."

Former President George W. Bush certainly "has inspired a lot of people in recent years," said John D. McKinnon in The Wall Street Journal. Sure, he inspired some to "vote for Democrats," and the Left is predictably lampooning Bush's appearances "as a sign of how low the former president has fallen." Still, there's a logic to this match—Zig Ziglar's "Get Motivated! attracts a striver demographic that has always had a lot of affinity for Bush."