Former President George W. Bush will be the keynote speaker at the National Truck Equipment Association's Work Truck Show and annual meeting next March 7 in Indianapolis.
He will address attendees at the NTEA president's breakfast, but members of the news media will be all but excluded.

"President Bush led this country through times of great economic growth, as well as times of national tragedy," said Frank Livas, NTEA 2012 convention chairman and senior vice president of Brake & Clutch, Inc., in Salem, Mass. "It is a privilege to have him address our members and event attendees. We look forward to hearing his reflections on the presidency and his thoughts on leadership and decision-making."

Bush will be the second former U.S. president to address the Work Truck Show. His father, George H.W. Bush, was the keynote speaker in 2004.

The president's breakfast and NTEA annual meeting at which the younger President Bush will speak is open to Show attendees by ticket only. Trade press editors attending the show will be allowed to hear the first three minutes of Bush's talk, then be escorted from the room, the NTEA said. This is a policy set by the Bush organization, not NTEA, it added.

Tickets usually sell out early, so NTEA advises advance registration. Tickets are $59 for NTEA members and $79 for nonmembers (if purchased on or before Jan. 20, 2012). A ticket is also included in the Complete Event Package, which is $339 for NTEA members and $419 for nonmembers if purchased on or before Jan. 20, 2012 (more information is at NTEA.com).

NTEA says its annual Work Truck Show is North America's largest vocational truck event. It includes more than 500,000 square feet of Class 1-8 vocational trucks and equipment. The event brings together thousands of fleet managers, equipment buyers, maintenance personnel, manufacturers, distributors and dealers.

Bush, a former two-term governor of Texas, was president for two consecutive terms from 2001 to 2009. He was in office during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and in response led creation of the Department of Homeland Security and signed into law the Patriot Act.

He launched the controversial wars in Iraq to remove its dictator, Saddam Hussein, and Afghanistan, to root out al Qaeda terrorists and their protectors, the radical Taliban.

Bush's backers note that he also promoted reform policies on the economy, health care, education and social security, and implemented free trade agreements with more than a dozen nations. He signed into law broad tax cuts, and during his tenure, the United States recorded the lowest unemployment rates since WWII, with 52 straight months of job creation.

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