George H.W. Bush Died

Filed in National by on December 1, 2018

FWIW – If you lined up all Republicans from most horrible to least horrible. George H.W. Bush would be among horrible but not terribly horrible like his son. And nothing like the abjectly horrible guy we have now.

HOUSTON (AP) — George H.W. Bush, a patrician New Englander whose presidency soared with the coalition victory over Iraq in Kuwait, but then plummeted in the throes of a weak economy that led voters to turn him out of office after a single term, has died. He was 94.

The World War II hero, who also presided during the collapse of the Soviet Union and the final months of the Cold War, died late Friday night, said family spokesman Jim McGrath. His wife of more than 70 years, Barbara Bush, died in April 2018.

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Jason330 is a deep cover double agent working for the GOP. Don't tell anybody.

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  1. jason330 says:

    You will not hear much about Bush’s connection to the modern GOP, but it is worth remembering that in 1988 Bush’s campaign manager was Lee Atwater. The guy most responsible for making the GOP an openly anti-black, racist operation it is today:

    “You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger”. By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I’m not saying that. But I’m saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, “We want to cut this”, is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger”

  2. Dave says:

    He negotiated and signed the American with Disabilties Act
    Beefed up the Clean Air Act
    Supported and voted for the Fair Housing Act
    Banned the import of semiautomatic rifles
    Approved the Civil Rights Act of 1991
    Increased federal spending for education, childcare, and advanced technology research
    Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I)
    Signed a measure that provided reparations to WW II interred Japanese-Americans
    Reduced troop levels in Europe
    Immigration Act of 1990
    Signed the Framework Convention on Climate Change
    Unemployment Compensation Amendments of 1992, extending unemployment coverage to 52 weeks

    And you classify him among the horrible? I can’t imagine what it would take to get on the acceptable list. And getting on the great list looks like it would be impossible for mere humans.

    • jason330 says:

      Maybe more horrible in view of those items. That means he set the foundation for what we are contending with now out of pure electoral cynicism.

      I stand by horrible.

  3. RE Vanella says:

    Come on, Dave. You can imagine it.

  4. The Bushes and the duPonts sold to both sides during the world wars.

    Bush only looks good in contrast to who came after him.

    If you want to get an interesting take on the Bushes, I highly recommend “AMERICAN DYNASTY: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush” by Kevin Phillips.

  5. bamboozer says:

    Bush was the last Republican to keep the velvet glove on the iron fist of the Republicans desires, his son tried “compassionate conservative” and was rightly mocked for it. As noted he was a blue blood patrician like Pete DuPont and had good manners, but underneath he was no different then the rest despite Dave’s litany of his accomplishments.

  6. Stan Merriman says:

    GHWB, way before Atwater, with his buddy Jim Baker recruited George Wallace Dems away from our Texas Dems Party, resulting in decades of dominance in Texas for the Rupublican Party; he was a polished, preppy, northeastern elite with the accent to go with it, masking the hate for many. We were happy to be rid of that bunch in the Party in Texas, though we knew we’d pay a heavy political price. We were pushing the Wallace dregs out as their stench overwhelmed us. No tears here for his passing.

  7. Dave says:

    All our leaders are flawed and conflicted and since there is no standard against which to assess each of them we are left with contrasting and comparing each against the others. Great expectations is just a novel. We humans can’t live up such expectations, whatever the hell they are.

    When the ledger is reconciled he may be found wanting, but to ignore any of the good for any person, including Bush, is essentially a condemnation of all humans. If that’s your perspective, then I share it, because it’s my belief that this planet harbors no worse disease than humans and it would be much improved if we had not evolved and instead remained invertebrates.

    Yes, he was horrible – so are we all.

  8. RE Vanella says:

    My flaws & shortcomings don’t include doing coups, or in the example of Iraqi Kurds, convincing them to do a coup, backing out at the last minute & letting them all get gassed.

    I do drink too much and I am mean to people needlessly sometimes, but I haven’t desabilzed Central America.

    So I feel like I’m on terra firma when I say that Geo HW Bush was a despicable human being. Good riddance.

    • Dave says:

      Lack of opportunity and power makes you a saint by circumstance not virtue.

      • RE Vanella says:

        Yeah, you’re right. Given the chance I’d have been a mass murderer. Makes sense.

        Thank goodness for lack of opportunity. Got it.

      • Alby says:

        “Lack of opportunity and power makes you a saint by circumstance not virtue.”

        This is true of almost everyone, and we all know it from our cliches. Power corrupts. Money changes everything.

        I’m tempted to say that money and power, like sports, don’t build character but reveal it.

        • Dave says:

          “Money and power don’t build character….”

          That’s really perceptive. Did you make that up? If you did I’d like to use it ( with attribution). If you didn’t I’ll just steal it.

          • Alby says:

            Well, sort of, building off the cliche about sports. But I have noticed that sudden acquisition of money does change some people for the worse — if nothing else, they have to worry about losing it (mo’ money, mo’ problems). And I’m sure you’ve seen people who have been elevated from the working ranks to management who turn into jerks from the newfound power.

            As much as I agree with those who focus on HW’s flaws, on the sliding scale of presidents, he seemed to view the job of president as an awesome responsibility, and might have been the last president who really knew — from his service in so many highly visible jobs previous to his election — how much he was responsible for, and tried to live up to it. I think he was as good a president as Clinton, though not up to the level of Obama.

  9. RE Vanella says:

    Wait. You know the characters who die in novels aren’t really dead?

  10. Alby says:

    “If you lined up all Republicans from most horrible to least horrible…”

    Where would you put Chester Arthur?

  11. what did you mean? says:

    H W Bush was a war hero who loved his country and his family.