First, I extend my gracious thanks to all who read and took the time and trouble to comment on this article.  I never, ever take a reader for granted; they are far too precious and hard to come by for that.  Thank you, all.

Laura Bush was involved in a fatal car crash during her senior year in high school.  She was 17 years old and driving with 2 of her friends in the car, when she accidentally ran a stop sign and hit a car in the intersection.  The young man driving the other car was killed.  This was in the small city of Midland, Texas, where Laura grew up and the man killed was a close friend of hers, someone she had actually dated at one time.  It was broad daylight; no one had been drinking.  No charges were filed.  It was an accident, pure and simple, but a huge tragedy for the young man's family and an event that devastated Laura Bush.  Although dealing with the aftermath of being responsible for her own friend's death nearly crippled Laura emotionally, she relied on her faith and finally was able to face life again wholly.  This accident was credited by Laura herself in her biographies as the life-altering event that gave her the quiet strength she has displayed so well in the public view.

The only reason I can fathom that readers were confused about this event in Laura's life is the fact that it was shamelessly used to slime and smear her by liberals during the presidential campaigns of her husband.  Liberals, as we know from our mainstream press, aren't actually capable of pulling dirty tricks, however, so most uninformed Americans simply take their smears at face value.  What a disgrace to the value of truth.

On the matter of G. W. Bush's drinking problem and his choosing sobriety...Laura Bush's demands with regard to W's drinking are included in her biographies.  Yes, Laura did indeed put the choice to W. that he could have her and his daughters or he could have the bottle, but he couldn't continue to have both.  Of course, it was W. who made the decision, and W. who carried it through to this day and became President.  I come from the home of an alcoholic myself and certainly know (as all rational people do) that another can lead a horse to water, but....

However, as all rational people also know, it takes a backbone of steel to refuse to be trod over by a man (or woman) one loves and lives with and who is the father of her children.  Long before shrinks invented the term, "enabler," to describe the useless-doormat spouse or parent or significant other, people were choosing either to be useless doormats or strong people of principle.  Laura chose to be strong; this put things into proper perspective for W. 

If you want to see a picture of a useless-doormat, enabling wife, you need look no further than Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Edwards, Democrat icons both.  (You might want to throw in the name of Mrs. Elliot Spitzer here.)  Hillary accepted Bubba's philandering early in their marriage, and her chief problem with it seems to have been its rather nasty effect on "their" political lives.  Hillary Clinton is the poster child for the psychologist's profile of an enabler of massive proportions.  One might wonder now that Barry O. has her slated to go toe-to-toe with Ac-I'm-in-a-Jihad, whether anyone even remembers her inability (and unwillingness) to command respect from her own ruthlessly disrespectful husband.

Now, I can see from the comments to this article that a few of you were quite put off by my rather negative remarks regarding liberal women, especially Hillary Clinton.  So, let me say for the record, that even though there were moments during this campaign that I did gain an ounce or two of respect for Hillary Clinton as a woman, they were still quite minimal. 

Note, please dear reader, that I've chosen the word "respect" here, and not "love" or "like."  I do not personally know Hillary Clinton, so I don't think I could say I "like" her, much less say that I "love" her.  I've read about a dozen books about her, and if she and I were suddenly in a room together and I were bidden to shake her hand, I would most certainly refuse.  Hillary Clinton has done more, in my opinion, to weaken the stature of genuine feminism than any one woman living today.  And it saddens me greatly that all women have not cast her out into the wilderness, far, far away from the glare of our daughters' eyes and ears.  The women who blatantly ignore her long affair with personal corruption and her shameless enabling of her husband's dastardly dealings with women, so that they can continue to "like" her and "love" her, are in my opinion, grand enablers themselves.  I have no respect for those who enable evil; they are equally guilty in the crimes.

With these words, I bid my personal farewell to Laura Bush and wish her the best.  Knowing as much as I do about her from her biographers, I can assure you all that no one will be happier to leave the White House and its public glare than Laura Bush.  She is an intensely private person, who has made great personal sacrifices so that her husband could be President.  She has done a valiant job, I think, of keeping her daughters shielded from the trap of celebrity-itis that seems to befall so many in these roles.  My bonnet's off to her in every way, and I could not be prouder to call a fellow Steel Magnolia back home.