RIP George HW Bush

bykfixer

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A gentleman who was known for his famous line "I will not raise taxes" and then did has left this world. A man who according to some was a course man and others saw him as a saint, he certainly made an impression on the world of politics.

Like many married for life individuals, the passing of his beloved wife certainly took a lot of wind from his sails. I used to notice in cemeteries as a lad it was not unusual to see Mr and Mrs (insert name here) has passed away within a year of the other.

I was not a huge fan, nor foe of our 41st President but did understand his ways. I liked the man, but not the politician. It was him that solidified my reason to become a political junky. So decent on one hand, but when it came to politics there were few who played dirty pool any better.

I learned to separate the person from the politics. Otherwise you go crazy trying to reason between the life of a man versus the life of a politician. I was intrigued by the polar opposite sides of Mr. Bush and have been studying politics from the middle ground since he was handily defeated by a phrase.... "I feel your pain" by candidate Bill Clinton, which was the moment when Mr Bush's chance at re-election whithered away like breath steam on a January morning in Minnesota. Mr. Clinton was a better politician.

So with the passing of George HW Bush another chapter in the life of the Bykfixer closes. The game has changed greatly since the Ronald Reagan replacement had his time in the Oval Office. But George Herbert Walker Bush helped write the rules of this new era of politics. Be it W, Obama, or Trump, they all played the game that HW invented.

RIP sir. Please say hello to Barabara for us.
 

StarHalo

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I'm not on the guy's team either, but it would be unfair to reduce his presidency to just the bit about taxes; he successfully worked with Gorbachev during the fall of the Soviet Union/reunification of Germany, oversaw an economy that essentially set up the 90's to be a huge success, and conducted a war in roughly a thousand hours with roughly a hundred casualties. It's another great loss that he never wrote a memoir or provided an oral history for his presidential library, which means he'll be another one of those lesser-known presidents to history.
 

SCEMan

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RIP to the last WWII veteran to serve as POTUS.

I was definitely on "this guy's team" and he proved the right man to steer us through the Tiananmen Square massacre, Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the implosion of the Soviet Union. I can only imagine how Michael Dukakis would have managed the country through these perilous times.

His breed is sorely missed and rarely seen today.
 

karlthev

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Honest man of integrity....amazingly refreshing these days. Sorry to see him "go".....may he rest in peace....


Karl
 

peter yetman

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Thanks Mike, it's refreshing to read an articulate non partisan evaluation of of a politician that I don't know much about. I do try and follow US politics, and it's good to hear about it from someone who's there.
P
 

aginthelaw

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He amazed me with his ability to utilize "3 degrees of separation". He could get a hold of anyone in the world with just 3 phone calls. I kept the same number for 30 years just to make it easy. I think service in the military and the CIA, Trumps a business degree for running this country any day
 

bykfixer

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Thanks Mike, it's refreshing to read an articulate non partisan evaluation of of a politician that I don't know much about. I do try and follow US politics, and it's good to hear about it from someone who's there.
P

HW was not one of the Presidents most will remember. He was something like Winston Churchill in that he made a big impact in his term but was voted out shortly after.

What I admired most was him jumping out of airplanes well into his 80's. He served his country as a lad, then as an executive and finally Commander in Chief. He continued to serve after that in ways most will never know.
They say he voted for Hillary. But if I were a betting man I'd bet a Pepsi he wrote in Jeb. lol
 
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''I do not like broccoli, and I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. I'm president of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli!''

- George H.W. Bush
 
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I'm not on the guy's team either, but it would be unfair to reduce his presidency to just the bit about taxes; he successfully worked with Gorbachev during the fall of the Soviet Union/reunification of Germany, oversaw an economy that essentially set up the 90's to be a huge success, and conducted a war in roughly a thousand hours with roughly a hundred casualties. It's another great loss that he never wrote a memoir or provided an oral history for his presidential library, which means he'll be another one of those lesser-known presidents to history.

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, his press secretary, Marlin Fitzwater, rushed to the Oval Office, eager to craft a powerful speech about the victory of democracy. To his dismay, President Bush seemed oddly disinterested in making a big deal about what seemed to Fitzwater to be a very big deal.

Nothing could convince him to appear before cameras. "Listen, Marlin," he finally said. "I'm not going to dance on the Berlin Wall. The last thing I want to do is brag about winning the Cold War, or bringing the wall down." He endured a great deal of criticism in the press for what was viewed as a lack of enthusiasm, but he refused to score political points when he still had tough negotiating to do with the Soviets.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/bret-baier-george-bush-will-be-remembered-most-for-his-humanity

- Bret Baier
 

bykfixer

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Dana Carvey told a story on the Dennis Miller radio show where he was staying in the White House at Mr. Bush's request. He does a great HW imitation.

It seems George had a wonderful sense of humor and wanted Dana to play a prank on the secret service. I forget the details but it had something to do with George asking Dana to order a sandwich.

https://youtu.be/D815eVH6Kwg
Here's a video of Dana doing George.
 

bykfixer

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*irrelevant political commentary to this topic removed*

Mr. Bush (like him or not) led with a dignity befitting the Executive Branch of America. I think our Founding Fathers would have taken issue with some of his beliefs. But he also did some things those same Founding Fathers would have been ok with.
 
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Right you are, Mr. Fixer.

Also, Thank you for the great video link.
:)

~ CG

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."
 
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