I never cared much for the senior President Bush, but I can't help but feel sympathy for the old guy in light of the embarrassment his son has been to the family -- and the nation.
BooMan has got an interesting take on a piece in The New York Times that examines the personal angst of George Herbert Walker Bush.
6 comments:
Screw his pain.
George W. Bush is a man in his 50s running the most powerful nation on Earth and doing a piss-poor job with it. He looted the treasury and created horrible legislation when he had a Congressional majority, and he's involved us in a war in Iraq that has caused thousands of American parents real pain and suffering as they lose their children in a conflict that does nothing to protect or serve our national interests (a war he's currently losing). If Bush 41 is actually holding back on his advance because his son's ego is so fragile that he can't take sincere and accurate criticism from one of the few people on Earth he bothers to listen to then Bush 41 is essentially placing his personal relationship with his son over the lives of tens of thousands of American troops and their families...a rather aristocratic if not imperial attitude when you look at it. And if at this point he's tempering his advice on topics this important, and doesn't hold his son responsible for constantly screwing up all it demonstrates is that Bush 41 was a shitty father who never bothered to impart a sense of personal responsibility to his spoiled idiot kid. Dubya frankly needs nothing so much as a smack across the mouth from his old man (figurative or literal) and a lecture about what a president's actual responsibility is when he sends young men to war (hint: it isn't "to secure my historical legacy against evil").
I ran out of sympathy for Bush 41 quite awhile ago on this topic.
Actually, the son is 61. But I hear ya.
I've always felt that George H.W. Bush got a raw deal. He ended up paying for the sins of Ronald Reagan in that he inherited record deficits, an economy headed for recession and the complete collapse of the Savings and Loan sector. He succeeded a President that did practically nothing during his second term. He was also unjustly criticized for not marching on Baghdad and taking out Saddam during the Gulf War. His administation realized that would be a disaster. Realistically, he can't come out and publicly blast his son. The fact that he has said almost nothing in support of W. and his policies speaks volumes. While I was not a big fan of the elder Bush, I do believe his heart was in the right place.
Mr. B: While I feel a little sorry for Bush the first, as I say, because of his doofus son, I'm not as fond of the old guy as you are, and I certainly don't think "his heart was in the right place." Consider, for example, how he red-baited Dukakis (a poor candidate, I'll admit) with that stuff about "card-carrying member of the ACLU." The old man also countenanced all that Willie Horton bullshit. I will, however, give GHWB credit for one thing: He did put David Souter on the Supreme Court. Without him, the court would have been far, far worse in recent years.
I'll admit the Willie Horton campaign ads were revoltingly racist, but if we judged every candidate for President on their TV ads, we wouldn't want to elect anyone. It just bothers me that the elder Bush gets slammed even by the Republicans while Ronald Reagan, who did much more damage to this country, is revered.
I'll say this for the old man: He was a genuine hero on World War II. The kid, however, supported the Vietnam War but didn't want to fight in it. When he joined the National Guard, one of the questions on his application form was whether he wanted to go overseas. Young George checked the box that said: "do not volunteer."
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