Five Presidents Gather to Christen George W. Bush Presidential Center

For Bush, a Day to Bask in Texas Sun (New York Times)

UNIVERSITY PARK, Tex. — Standing in front of the magisterial brick-and-limestone George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum on Thursday, Bill Clinton summed up the day with a knowing smile. “I told President Obama,” he said, “that this was the latest, grandest example of the eternal struggle of former presidents to rewrite history.”

All five veterans of the Oval Office onstage could relate to that: If every memoirist is the star of his own story, every president is the hero of his own library.

So the protagonist who emerged as Mr. Bush’s library was formally dedicated on Thursday was a resolute leader who protected the nation after Sept. 11, 2001, raised education standards, pushed to overhaul the immigration system and brought peace to the war-torn nation of Sudan. His peers highlighted his AIDS-fighting program, which is credited with saving millions of lives in Africa.

The words Iraq and Afghanistan, however, never passed Mr. Bush’s lips, or those of the four other presidents who spoke.

They alluded to the American wars there by praising Mr. Bush’s deep concern for wounded soldiers and the families of those killed in combat, but put aside for a day the arguments over how the wars were conducted, why they were waged and what they accomplished.