George H. W. Bush: A Retrospective Look

A Navy flier during World War II, the loss of two crewmen weighed heavily on Mr. Bush for the rest of his life. That, and an upbringing which taught him that for whom much is given, much is expected, contributed to his decision to pursue a career in public service. Among the positions he held during that career were Congressman, ambassador to the United Nations under Richard Nixon, head of the CIA under Gerald Ford, and Vice President under Ronald Reagan. He was elected 41st President of the United State in 1988.

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Although he began his political career in Texas after more than fifteen years in the oil business, Mr. Bush generally is viewed as an establishment Republican, his pandering to the far right faction of the party notwithstanding. He definitely was not the kind of Republican we see too regularly today, where ideology and name-calling come ahead of the facts.

This more open-minded approach to policy-making contributed to President Bush losing his 1992 bid for re-election. In order to address the burgeoning budget deficits following the multiple Reagan tax cuts of the 1980's, Mr. Bush put the good of the country ahead of his own "no new taxes" pledge. Angering the right wing ideologues, he agreed to sign a bi-partisan Congressional bill to raise taxes. This increase, along with a second tax reform enacted under Bill Clinton (which received no GOP support and which many Republicans were predicting would bring economic disaster - another example that shows the GOP knows little about macroeconomic policy), led to the Clinton budget surpluses of the late 1990's.

And what thanks did Mr. Bush receive for this politically courageous action? Primary challenges by far right conservative Pat Buchanan and a third party general election challenge by Ross Perot.

Mr. Bush also was the last national Republican who seemed to care about the environment. As we explained in our article "How Bush Sr. Solved Acid Rain Using Basic Economics", Mr. Bush didn't question the scientific facts around acid rain. Rather, he signed off on a solution that worked, one that did not dampen economic growth as the far fight claimed it would.

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Richard Nixon campaigned for Mr. Bush during Mr. Bush's unsuccessful bid for the Senate in 1970

A lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, Mr. Bush resigned his NRA membership in 1995 after leaving the Presidency. In his strongly worded letter of resignation, which followed the NRA's characterization of agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms as "jack-booted thugs", Mr. Bush penned the following words: "…your {NRA's} broadside against Federal agents deeply offends my own sense of decency and honor; and it offends my concept of service to country. It indirectly slanders a wide array of government law enforcement officials, who are out there, day and night, laying their lives on the line for all of us."

Unfortunately, Mr. Bush's sense of decency slipped up badly when he allowed his 1988 Presidential campaign strategist, Lee Atwater, to run one of the dirtiest presidential campaigns in history, something that many Citizens now have forgotten. (But something Mr. Atwater apologized for soon thereafter when he was dying of cancer). The television ad featuring African-American murderer Willie Horton was the most over-the-top example of this. Its intent was to scare white America into thinking Mr. Bush's opponent, Michael Dukakis, was soft on crime, although most observers do not believe Mr. Bush ever harbored any overtly racist beliefs himself.

With respect to his governing, one of our biggest concerns with Mr. Bush was his evaluation of qualified individuals to hold important government positions. This concern began immediately after winning the Republican Presidential nomination when he selected Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana to be his Vice Presidential running mate and then kept Mr. Quayle on the ticket in 1992. Conservatives may have approved of this choice, but most observers never felt Mr. Quayle was Presidential material.

Mr. Bush also nominated Clarence Thomas as an associate justice for the Supreme Court. Mr. Thomas only received the American Bar Associations' "qualified" rating, not its highest rating of "well qualified". This rating was substantiated to many during his Senate confirmation hearings, where Mr. Thomas' frequent stumbling testimony did not reveal a legal mind worthy of the Court. The hearings also brought to light many far right positions espoused by Mr. Thomas over the years, positions he tried to downplay or run away from during the hearings, but which his subsequent opinions on the high Court have confirmed. The hearings also revealed Mr. Thomas likely had engaged in sexual misconduct toward other government employees.

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Having come from well-to-do families, both Mr. Bush and his wife Barbara frequently had difficulty relating to voters and they seemed out of touch with the problems faced by the average American Citizen. This also contributed to Mr. Bush's re-election defeat, as the country was experiencing an economic downturn in 1992 and Mr. Bush routinely did not seem to know the cost of everyday goods and frequently came across as aloof and uncaring.

One of the unanswered questions (to us) of the Bush presidency relates to whether Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait was precipitated by poor communication with the Iraqi leader or by a bad policy decision by the Bush foreign policy team. Many observers believe Mr. Bush's ambassador to Kuwait, April Glaspie, inadvertently gave Saddam the green light to invade Kuwait by intimating that the Iraqi-Kuwait border dispute was of no interest to the United States. Was this a mistake on Ms. Glaspie's part, or did she accurately communicate the U.S. position at the time, or did Saddam interpret her statements as he wished them to be?

Unanswered questions also remain regarding Mr. Bush's role in President Reagan's Iran-Contra scandal. At the end of his Presidency, Mr. Bush pardoned a number of Reagan administration officials who had been convicted or indicted in the scandal. These pardons effectively ended the criminal investigation into the scandal just before the trial of former Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger could begin, a trial that some believe may have implicated Mr. Bush or Mr. Reagan. Following the pardons, special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh stated that "the Iran-Contra cover-up, which has continued for more than six years, has now been completed."

Although we criticized Mr. Bush for some of his talent evaluation, in his last years the former President did recognize the danger of electing a man like Donald Trump to the Presidency. Not only did he not endorse Mr. Trump, but he reportedly went so far as to cast his last Presidential vote for Hillary Clinton. True to form, though, Mr. Bush did not ban Mr. Trump from his funeral, even though his wife Barbara and Senator John McCain had felt differently when it came to their 2018 funerals.

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Was it just our imagination or did many of the speakers at Mr. Bush's funeral deliberately describe characteristics and tell stories of Mr. Bush that stand in direct contrast to the current occupant of the White House? Unfortunately, given Mr. Trump's repeated lies, name-calling, narcissism, and placing of his own self-interest above that of our country and our institutions, one could make the case that almost anyone's funeral orations would stand in obvious contrast to Mr. Trump.

But we have no reason to doubt the sincerity or accuracy of the words spoken for Mr. Bush and will conclude with a quote from former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, a long-time friend of Mr. Bush. Mr. Mulroney said that when Mr. Bush was President, "every single head of government in the world knew that they were dealing with a gentleman, a genuine leader, one who was distinguished, resolute and brave."