George W Bush joins Facebook

Bush joined the network on Wednesday and his profile page, facebook.com/georgewbush, attracted more than 28,000 fans within its first few hours.

The first post on the page touted Bush's accomplishments since leaving office in January 2009.

"President Bush has remained active," it said.

"He has visited 20 states and 8 countries; given over 65 speeches; launched the George W Bush Presidential Center; participated in 4 policy conferences through The Bush Institute; finished the first draft of his memoir, 'Decision Points'; and partnered with (former) President (Bill) Clinton to establish the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund."

The next post praised the memoir written by former First Lady Laura Bush, "Spoken from the Heart," noting that it was number one on The New York Times bestseller list for the third consecutive week.

More than 32,000 fans

Laura Bush also has a Facebook page and more than 16,500 fans.

David Sherzer, a Bush spokesman, said "a Facebook fan page is the ideal forum on which to keep people up to date on what the former president is doing."

"Our office hears from citizens all the time: 'How's President Bush? What's he up to? Please tell him thank you for his service,'" Sherzer said.

A Twitter account, @George_WBush, also appeared on Wednesday purporting to be that of the former president but Sherzer said Bush has no plans to "tweet" and the feed was not created by the former president's office.

The messages on Bush's Facebook page were overwhelmingly positive although a few criticized the former president.

"You were an incredibly incompetent president," said Brent Bender. "Thanks for destroying the economy George!" wrote Rich Brodsky.

Most messages were along the lines of this from Matt Thullen: "God bless you, and thank you for your leadership of this great country. You are missed!"

Or this from Victoria Newton: "Welcome to Facebook! Thank you for your service to our country. We love you and miss you!"