Outgoing President George W. Bush at the Inaugural Speech of Incoming President Barack Obama

Man I’m never as free as when I’m there

racin’ that truck over the Crawford dirt,

’bout 60, 70, feels like 90 —

Has a Saint Paul fundamental engine,

reacts right with your foot; don’t hesitate —

All open thrust movement no looking back

’cause it’s, well, almost like it’s making the

decisions for ya and yur holdin’ on —

“We reject as false the choice between

our safety and our ideals”

I wanna be outta this town; never

wanted to rule from here; too much, well, noise.

Listening to one voice, that inner one,

that’s what my heroes always done, ‘least it

seems that way to me; the way I learnt it.

You gotta get out when yur done, when yur

done your job, and you let the next guy, you

know, go and do his thing. New sheriff in town.

“We will restore science to its

rightful place”

Guy I yusta drink with always ticked me

off, thinking that he always had the right

versions of stories. I could never quite

get that. I don’t care who ya are, you won’t

know all the story without making some

stuff up. At some point you hafta put your

faith in something higher; in someone who

knows more’n you do, ’cause man, He wrote it.

“We are ready to lead once more”

Being popular, you know, yusta be

real important to me, back when I was

drinkin’; and I yusta think that I could

never measure up to the wise men I

had so much respect for. But if you find

that voice, that one voice, then you know; you know

it’s not about your fears, or even ’bout

others’ fears; it’s about doin’ what’s right.

–Jefferson Riordan