Dallas – President Barack Obama and first Lady Michelle Obama arrived Dallas Love field Airport ahead of the formal opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Center on the SMU campus. President Obama will be joining other living US Presidents including host; George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
George W. Bush and Laura Bush
Thousands of dignitaries – including former Bush staffers such as former Commerce Secretary Don Evans, former national security adviser and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Ambassador Tom Schieffer of Fort Worth and former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings – are expected to attend today’s dedication for the 226,560-square-foot, $250 million center on the edge of the Southern Methodist University campus.
While in Dallas, President attended a Democratic National Committee fund-raising dinner at 7:17 p.m. Wednesday with about 60 guests at the home of Democratic activist Naomi Aberly and her husband, hedge fund manager Larry Lebowitz. Tickets range from $10,000 to the maximum allowed, $32,400.
President Barack Obama is expected to visit West, Texas; the site of a deadly fertilizer explosion. He would deliver a speech at Baylor University in Waco Texas during a memorial service in honor of first responders who died in last weeks explosion.
Heads of state in attendance at the George W. Bush Presidential Center Dedication Ceremony.
- Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen (NATO)
- President Mikheil Saakashvilli and Mrs. Sandra E. Roelofs (Georgia)
- President Josè Marìa Aznar (Spain)
- Prime Minister and Mrs. Ehud Olmert (Israel)
- Prime Minister and Mrs. John Howard (Australia)
- President Lee Myung-bak and Mrs. Yoon-ok Kim (Korea)
- Prime Minister Tony Blair and Mrs. Cherie Blair (United Kingdom)
- President John Kufuor (Ghana)
- President Francisco Flores Perèz and Mrs. Lourdes Maria Rodriguez de Flores (El Salvador)
- Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (Italy)
Facts about the Library
– The library and museum holds more than 70 million pages of paper records, 43,000 artifacts, 200 million emails and 4 million digital photographs. It’s the largest holding of digital records of any presidential library.
– The about 226,000-square-foot center is located on 23 acres.
– The grounds include a 15-acre urban park that recreates a Texas prairie.
Additional Photo Credit: AP
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