Two new developments:
1. There's now another professor protesting the library. He says Turner is being shortsighted and the Bush Library will "cripple" SMU's future. (By the way, he's an art history professor...obviously an expert in presidential libraries and political science)
http://www.dallasblog.com/dallas-blogs/ ... itute.html
2. There's now a blog about the Bush library created by another petitioning prof:
http://bushlibraryblog.wordpress.com/
Until the deal is sealed and the first concrete is poured, people are going to protest this library. Or maybe until Bush has been out of office a few years. Time softens most stances. Even Nixon became more of a sympathetic figure in retirement, although it took a while. Gerald Ford was hailed as a great president when he died. Historians and media will do the same for Jimmy Carter, Bush Sr., etc. when they pass on.
LBJ was as despised as Bush II is right now, if not more because of Viet Nam. I don't see anyone protesting his library in Austin (although LBJ has scoreboard on civil rights and social issues). The bottom line: Time will tell, but there are obvious benefits to having a presidential library, any presidential library. The negatives have yet to be proven.