On April 24, 2013, the $500-million George W. Bush Presidential Center was dedicated on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were there, as were former President and First Lady Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barbara and George Bush Sr., Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, as well as a crowd of thousands and—since CNN and other networks transmitted the ceremony live—a television audience of millions. The United States Army Band played “Battle Hymn of the Republic” with its refrain “Glory, Glory, Hallelujah.” Later, fireworks exploded forming a giant “W” over the impressive neo-classical complex, which was designed by the award-winning dean of Yale's School of Architecture, Robert A.M. Stern. Since the other, theoretically co-equal branches of the federal government do not get this kind of celebratory commemoration, the dedication of the Bush Presidential Center illuminated a significant problem facing the United States: the excessive and narcissistic aggrandizement of the presidency at the expense of rational thought about the constitutional limits on executive power.

Former President Bush said in his dedication speech—optimistically fantasizing about history's verdict on his presidency— that “when future generations come to this library and study this administration, they’re going to find out that we stayed true to our convictions—that we expanded freedom … and that when our freedom came under attack, we made the tough decisions required to keep the American people safe.” When former President Bill Clinton spoke, however, he deflated Mr. Bush's self-congratulation and earned a knowing laugh from the rich, powerful, and wellconnected donors who made up much of the audience by quipping that the Bush Library was just “the latest, grandest example of the eternal struggle of former presidents to rewrite history.” Mr. Clinton would know, since he did the same kind of rewriting of history in 2004 when his $250-million Clinton Presidential Library opened in Little Rock, Arkansas. Likewise, former President Obama is working on the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, which might have a total price tag of as much as one billion dollars when its endowment is included, and which is scheduled to open in 2021.