George H.W. Bush - Classic or Dud

Highlight of the presidency

pretty indefensible for his role in iran-contra -- including (especially) pardoning the main players. i'm kind of amazed at how completely that's been forgotten (along with everything else about iran-contra,).

i'm not so keen on the gulf war either, tbh.

http://www.topchinatravel.com/pic/about-us/world-vip-travel/-US-ex-president-George-Bush-and-his-wife.jpg

He seems like maybe a less terrible person than his older son or his wife, but that's a low bar. The least-awful Republican president of the past 50 years is not high praise either. Can't think of any grounds on which he's actually somehow defensible.

http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/WL010925/george-bush-and-jennifer-fitzgerald

Barbara hasn't aged a day since 1975. Of course, she already looked about 100.

Image keywords

Caucasian ethnicity

http://www.corbisimages.com/images/Corbis-IH055332.jpg?size=67&uid=588acb60-23e7-4932-b50f-2e7583ee76b8
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01384/Bush_Snr_and_Pups_1384851i.jpg

rather symbolic donchathink

http://www.eyerocketbooks.com/images/Bush_Guitar.jpg

I love the line in The Final Days about how Al Haig told RNC Chairman Bush that the smoking gun had been found in the Watergate tapes and the president would likely have to resign.

When asked what Bush's reaction had been, Haig said that "he opened himself into assholes and shit himself to death."

First president since Truman? LBJ? to wear glasses in public on a regular basis.

Last one too.

Bwah ha! xp

I really miss the days when you didn't have to include the "H.W." when referring to this guy.

don't we all.

i kinda feel like no one can be director of the c.i.a., even for a year, and not be a complete asshole.

don't forget we have him to thank for Clarence Thomas

Oh shit, that's right.

don't forget: we have him to thank for loathing broccoli.

never forget:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ervjj_qRXXQ

2 Bad Neighbors

"It's your sons, Jeb Bush and George Bush Jr.!"

http://www.hwdyk.com/q/images/twobadneighbors_12.jpg

http://youtu.be/GkyBfJfcIoM?t=23s

ebruceii 9 months ago

This video makes me want to punch that old man Bush in his effing face. HE was the person running the CIA when THEY brought that shit into our cities to pay for wars in Central America under President Reagan. Glad that old scumbag is dead.

ebruceii is clairvoyant.

Poppy Bush never had an Alec Baldwin tell him "Nice guy? I don't give a shit. Good father? Fuck you. Go home and play with your kids!

Being the father of George W., Neil & Jeb is probable cosmic blowback for being the son of a Nazi financier.

Also ironic for him being the son of the first national treasurer of Planned Parenthood.

'never understood lemonade myself...not my forte.'

morbs' favorite president!

he's loathsome... just less so than the 3 who've followed.

(weighing everything, that is)

On one of the modern rock chart polls we tossed around the idea of the 1988-1992 musical interzone when certain ideas about presentation and arrangements reached their apex then started to slowly wilt until the next set of jolts. Poppy's presidency was a perfect match: a purported continuation of Reagan, only not so; a sense of sitting in a waiting room for the Next Big Thing. Reagan of course is still with us, the corpse that keeps getting exhumed; so is the Lobster of Hope. Bush will never be reexamined though...except when Obama refers to his foreign policy as a model of excellence.

i kinda feel like no one can be director of the c.i.a., even for a year, and not be a complete asshole.

― packt like phoebe cates's dad in a chimney (strongo hulkington's ghost dad)

sums it up for me, there's plenty we'll never know about.

So he's the unplugged "Layla."

He's Richard Marx's "Angelia."

JCM's Whenever We Wanted might have been his best.

what's that painting of him and clinton in front of the mosque upthread?

I think it was part of the 2004 Tsunami Relief fund?

Bush tried to surprise Clinton with a visit to his friend's office in New York City's Harlem; when Bush arrived, he found Clinton was overseas. So Bush sat down in his successor's office, put his feet up and called him on the phone. "Bill! It's George. Nice view! Nice desk!"

Ha, what is this, trying to get there first to hold open the door?

http://news.yahoo.com/famed-gulf-war-u-general-schwarzkopf-dies-former-012253521.html

weird times, those were.

http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/image.php?id=1168&filename=P22412-16.jpg

http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/image.php?id=2261&filename=HS767.jpg

Bar?

open and wet

During the 1988 presidential campaign, Donna Brazile, a campaign aide to Bush's opponent Michael Dukakis, was asked to resign after she told reporters that George H.W. Bush needed to "'fess up" about unsubstantiated rumors of an extramarital affair. Said Brazile, "The American people have every right to know if Barbara Bush will share that bed with him in the White House."

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ipk3HlMEmp8/Tta3aCfE74I/AAAAAAAACnI/jH3b6dZd7v8/s1600/pict435.jpg

Looks like No. 3 is aping No. 5's hairstyle.

http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/16/42/57/3812324/3/628x471.jpg

How this picture features not one, but two future presidents shows that America has a lot to answer for.

http://ww3.hdnux.com/photos/17/03/43/3946702/3/628x471.jpg

http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/16/42/56/3812239/3/628x471.jpg

"Of course not, Biff. Now, I wouldn't want that to happen."

Anyway. The funniest about this thread so far is that we're all pretty much doing this:

http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/06/33/03/1683672/3/628x471.jpg

Damn, no video of "Message: I care" on YouTube.

Bill Wilson
MLK
Jackie Robinson

Dawn Powell

to say there is no such thing as presidential virtue is facile and incorrect. each president makes thousands of consequential decisions that affect millions, if not billions of people. some percentage of these are intentionally beneficial and not based wholly upon cynical political calculation. pretending every president is being of pure viciousness is stupid and just reinforces a false conservative narrative about progressives.

Otm

That’s bably a controversial opinion on ilx though

Probably*

Committing or actively aiding crimes against humanity tends to zero out "intentionally beneficial" acts IMO. John Wayne Gacy made a lot of kids happy when he did his clown act.

To disregard those acts, one must assume that you can't be President without doing horrible, inhuman things for indefensible reasons. If true, then we deserve to be wiped off the face of the planet.

heroism is generally portioned out in small doses, but to a surprisingly large number of people. it's nearly impossible to maintain a conspicuous heroism consistently over decades, and we should never expect it of anyone. but ascribing more than the ordinary amount of heroism to G. H. W. Bush is just the usual political posturing.

I’m not saying Bush was good I just think it’s gross to gloat at someone’s death. I thought the same thing about people cheering when Bin Laden was killed.

If true, then we deserve to be wiped off the face of the planet.

It's closer to true than most of us would like to admit, but your conclusion is just more hyperbole.

Donne was wrong.

It makes the left look like assholes when they act like this for figures who 99% of America consider to be nothing like Bin Laden.

I’m not saying Bush was good I just think it’s gross to gloat at someone’s death. I thought the same thing about people cheering when Bin Laden was killed.

― Trϵϵship, Friday, December 7, 2018 11:58 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ok i was going to give you shit for your initial statement but now that you've made it clear you extend this courtesy to bin laden i find you more consistent

I think it's a positive development in the Trump era that people are much less eager to cede to media narratives about "profiles in courage" or whatever and the "gloating" is, like Simon said, more of a corrective on this sickness than simply being glad a 94-year-old man finally died

cheering when Bin Laden was killed was muted anyway because it happened a decade after 9/11 and two awful unnecessary wars. it was a dulled, cloudy, anticlimactic feeling. if he were taken out in Tora Bora I think Americans would've celebrated as they did at the death of Hitler, not that much of a stretch.

xp. my reaction is more sam jackson in a time to kill

Shakespeare was right:

Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
As to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimmed in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And gilded honor shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
And strength by limping sway disablèd,
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,
And simple truth miscalled simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill.

  Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,
  Save that to die, I leave my love alone.

Jarvis Cocker was right:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd6E1JpwMj4

many xps - Alfred, why Dawn Powell?

hottake: probably at least 50% of American presidents are both war criminals AND "decent people." It's function of being at the helm of American Empire.

many xps - Alfred, why Dawn Powell?

― flappy bird,

She wrote well and was no one's fool, hence she's a hero.

fortunately i have never cared what 99% of America thinks (fuck "Family Feud")

no argument there but I think the usual definition of "American hero" excludes artists, business, and most people... it's someone that made a (largely) selfless and substantial contribution and impact on the country/world... so Bill W. is obvious, MLK as well. Jackie Robinson also an easy pick despite being paid for his work. Jonas Salk is another big one I forgot. the guy that invented air conditioning? maybe.

xp

xp we know, morbs.

the "war criminal" stuff always seems a bit glib to me. there are valid criticisms of FDR's conduct of WW2 but i still wouldn't be comfortable throwing it in the same category as W's invasion of iraq.

For me it's simple: how many Americans had their lives improved thanks to a president's leadership? Hence my not giving two shits about James Polk's comfy residence in the upper echelon.

here's a Poppy grace note I learned: James Baker snuck in a Morton's steak and a bottle of Grey Goose one time that Jefe was in the hospital.

I assume everyone who wanted to read Maureen Dowd's lengthy paean to her friendship with Bush has done so w/out a link here.

biggest yuk: GWHB referred to Dubya as "my son Quincy"

that picture of them in front of the Xmas tree is something else

Can't wait till we get back to normal. pic.twitter.com/QtdjNgKBCB

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) May 30, 2020