When George H.W. Bush was turned out of office in 1992, this page predicted that histor🐎y would prove far kinder to him than the voters had been. A quarter-century later, that’s already true.
The 41st president died Friday at 94, short months after the passing of his beloved Barbara — and after a remarkably full, vigorous and enormously successful ꧃life.
Few, if any of his predecessors came to the White House better prepared for the job: He’d already served eight years as Ronald Reagan’s vice president plus stints as CIA director, UN ꦅambassador, head of the first US liaison office in Beijing and congressman.
And of course his public life followed other remarkable service to the nation. He was a combat hero during WWII, lying about his age after Pearl Harbor t🌳o enlist as a Navy pilot; shot down ove𓆉r the Pacific, he was plucked from certain death by a patrolling US submarine.
Though born to New England wealth and privilege, he moved to Texas and made his own fortunಞe as an oilman — then found that public service excited him more. He also instilled that trait in his fami🅷ly, and lived to see one son elected president and another governor of Florida.
🔥Bush’s single term as president was marked by tremendous🌠 accomplishments in foreign policy — but a rocky enough economy that (together with a third-party run by billionaire Ross Perot) voters denied him re-election in favor of Bill Clinton.
Perhaps the Bush administration’s crowning achievement was assembling an impressive international coalition that drove Saddam Hussei🍷n from Iraqi-occupied Kuwait in the first Gulf war. That forceful display of US leadership set an important precedent and standard for dealing with Third World aggressio💖n.
It’s also no accident that the Berlin Wall came down on his watch:𓄧 His clear commit🅰ment to Reagan’s forceful policies helped bring about the final collapse of the Soviet bloc.
But his actions could be disappointing, too.
He w🎉as far too forgiving of Beijing after the brutal 1989 Tiananmen massacre. And he distanced him💟self from traditional US support of Israel to a virtually unprecedented degree.
But his biggest disappointments came on the domestic front, chief🌊 among them the abrupt reversal of his signature 1ꦍ988 campaign pledge: “Read my lips — no new taxes.” His failure to stick to that vow damaged both his personal credibility and the economy, for which he paid a huge political price.
Bush was burdened politically by the fact that he did not enjoy a natural political base: Conservatives were distrustful of him even before he ran for president in 1980🅠 as the “moderate” alternative to Reagan.
An even-tempered man not prone to public expressions of emotionಌ, even in partisan battl🃏e, he did not excite particularly strong emotion from his followers.
What George Bush did command, though, throughout his career was respect — 🐼and 𝐆well-earned respect at that.
Th🧸e nation was certainly in better shape when he left office than the Democrats’ campaign rꦯhetoric had suggested. It certainly is far better off — more secure and prosperous — for his lifetime of service.
As the years progress, his stature will only continue to꧙ grow. RIP.