President George H. W. Bush passed away a few hours ago. He was a good president. He should be rated "great" in foreign policy, and just fair in domestic matters. His greatest accomplishments were two: he managed the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in amazingly good fashion. He also led the effort to liberate Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion and managed to end that involvement without getting tied down in the Middle East. In the domestic arena, however, he raised taxes after emphatically promising he would not do so. He also let the economy slip into stagnation.
Bush is one of the two sitting president to lose re-election in the last 85 years. (Carter was the other one in 1980.) He lost, in many respects, because of his own success in foreign policy. By 1992, the Soviets were not only defeated; they were gone from the world scene. Eastern Europe was free. With the exception of China, there no major Communist nations left. The threat of terrorism had not really had a major impact. It meant that the entire focus of the country was domestic. On that front, Bush was the tired old policies that had put us into stagnation. Bill Clinton was (hard to believe) fresh and new. On top of it, there was Ross Perot who ran as a combination of psychotic and charismatic business leader. Clinton won with just over 40% of the vote.
The overarching characteristic to remember about Bush, however, is his inherent decency and his sense of duty. Here's a guy who never lost his sense of doing what the presidency demands. Among Republicans, he was the exact opposite of President Trump in style. No matter what people said about him, he almost never hit back. In many ways, he was a product of his patrician upbringing in Greenwich, CT, the son of one of the state's senators Prescott Bush. His sense of duty led him to enlist in the military in World War II where he was both a war hero and one of the youngest aviators flying in the Pacific. When Bush married his wife Barbara (who was raised in neighboring Rye, NY), his basic characteristics were strengthened.
America owes a major debt to George H. W. Bush. We should all take a moment today to remember him and send out condolences to his family.
Bush is one of the two sitting president to lose re-election in the last 85 years. (Carter was the other one in 1980.) He lost, in many respects, because of his own success in foreign policy. By 1992, the Soviets were not only defeated; they were gone from the world scene. Eastern Europe was free. With the exception of China, there no major Communist nations left. The threat of terrorism had not really had a major impact. It meant that the entire focus of the country was domestic. On that front, Bush was the tired old policies that had put us into stagnation. Bill Clinton was (hard to believe) fresh and new. On top of it, there was Ross Perot who ran as a combination of psychotic and charismatic business leader. Clinton won with just over 40% of the vote.
The overarching characteristic to remember about Bush, however, is his inherent decency and his sense of duty. Here's a guy who never lost his sense of doing what the presidency demands. Among Republicans, he was the exact opposite of President Trump in style. No matter what people said about him, he almost never hit back. In many ways, he was a product of his patrician upbringing in Greenwich, CT, the son of one of the state's senators Prescott Bush. His sense of duty led him to enlist in the military in World War II where he was both a war hero and one of the youngest aviators flying in the Pacific. When Bush married his wife Barbara (who was raised in neighboring Rye, NY), his basic characteristics were strengthened.
America owes a major debt to George H. W. Bush. We should all take a moment today to remember him and send out condolences to his family.
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