Yesterday — as his former vice president and his successor both gave major national security speeches in Washington, DC — former President Bush was nearly 1,900 miles away, telling a high school audience how "liberating" it felt to get some distance between himself and the burdens of governance.

But Bush has been conspicuously silent on the president– and told prospective graduates Friday he was glad to be back to a lower-key existence, at a comfortable remove from the national spotlight.

No video cameras were allowed into the president's speech. He has not granted any interviews since leaving office.