Bush a Winner as Motivational Speaker

George W. Bush commanded a 15,000-strong crowd at a motivational megashow in Dallas last night, flanked by signs reading "Achieve!" and "Motivate!" but not by the pyrotechnics that greeted other speakers—Secret Service said no. Bush told stories of both "great and not so great" days in office, saying setbacks only made him stronger. "All of us are going to be dealt a hand we don't want to play," Bush said. "The question is how to play the hand."

Bush's best moment at the show, which Wayne Slater described in the Dallas Morning News as "the granddaddy of sales seminars, a sort of Babbitt meets the Super Bowl, Tupperware on testosterone," was a story about walking his dog, Barney, in his new neighborhood, armed with a "plastic bag on his hand" to scoop poop. That, he said, is when he realized, "Man, my life has changed!" Bush received $100,000 for the half-hour speech, though participants paid as little as $4.95. (More George W. Bush stories.)