Former President George W. Bush made his debut as a motivational speaker last night in Fort Worth, and the reception was friendly and welcoming. Appearing onstage alongside Colin Powell, Rudy Giuliani and others, the 43rd President of the United States gave what is being reviewed as a largely unstructured speech in which he spoke about his faith, his term in office, and the illusory nature of popularity. But here's one telling anecdote from the end of the Washington Post's coverage.

In the crowd of real estate agents in suits, housewives in jeans, students and senior citizens, Chris Clarke, 25, a salesman from Dallas, stood at the back. Like many people, he said that other speakers were better — Colin Powell was his favorite — but he thought Bush was good. In fact, he said, it could turn out that Bush may be more suited to motivational speaking than being president. He said when Bush misspeaks, it sounds "incompetent if you are president. But here it can be inspiring. It makes him seem like a regular guy, no better than me."

It only took eight years to go from "I'd rather have a beer with that guy so I'm gonna vote for him for president," to "I'd rather have a beer with that guy, so I'll shell out a couple of bucks for his positivity seminar." Lesson learned!