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A Note on George H. W. Bush
President George Bush’s visit to Dartmouth College for an honorary degree in 2011 produced an array of memorable moments. When the former president came forward to receive his degree, to name one, the graduating students rose in an ovation. Then, as President Jim Kim read the citation—“George Herbert Walker Bush…[you have led] one of the most distinguished careers of public service in the history of this Republic”—Mrs. Bush teared up. Minutes later Conan O’Brien began his Commencement address (in accepting the College’s invitation, the former president had asked to be excused from any speaking duties himself). “I must point out,” O’Brien said, “that behind me sits a highly admired president of the United States and decorated war hero, while I, a cable television talk show host, have been chosen to stand here and impart wisdom.” (Laughter.) “I pray I never witness a more damning example of what is wrong with America today.” (Roars of laughter, in which the former president and first lady participated.)
To me, though, the most memorable aspect of the fortieth chief executive’s visit is that it nearly didn’t happen.
A former speechwriter for Bush—in my first job after Dartmouth I worked for him when he was vice president—I nominated him for his honorary degree, then helped arrange the visit. This took some doing. My fellow trustee Trevor Rees-Jones ’73, offered to have a private aircraft on hand to fly the Bushes from Kennebunkport to Lebanon, while David Spalding ’76, a senior vice president at Dartmouth, handled a dozen tasks, from working with Bush’s security detail to having a small lift or elevator installed at the rear of the Commencement platform to hoist up the former president, who would be in a wheelchair.
The day before Commencement, as the temperature in Hanover dropped and rain clouds rolled in, I received an email from Jean Becker, the former president’s chief of staff. Bush had had a bad day, she explained. He was unusually tired and might be coming down with a virus. She would make a final decision the next morning, but she asked me to warn everyone at Dartmouth that the former president and Mrs. Bush might have to drop out. The following morning the temperature had fallen farther. Rain had moved in. A sheering wind had begun. Then the emails from Jean Becker began to arrive. First, she explained that Bush’s physician had advised him to stay right there in Kennebunkport where he could stay warm and rest up. Then she informed me that Mrs. Bush had had a word with her husband. Never shy in any event, the first lady had sided with the physician–emphatically. In a third email, Jean admitted that she had had a conversation with Bush herself. Her advice? The same as that of the physician and Mrs. Bush: stay home.
And then, just as I was about to tell Trevor and David that the Bush trip had fallen through, Jean Becker sent me one more email. The former president, she explained, had carefully considered everyone’s advice—and rejected it. “He doesn’t want to let people down,” she said.
There are a hundred dissertations still to be written about George Bush and his place in our history. But if you want to grasp his character, this incident—this visit to Hanover on a frigid, blustery spring day seven-and-a-half years ago—represents a good place to start. Eighty-seven years old and confined to a wheelchair, he would still rather put himself out than let anyone down.
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What s beautiful reminiscence. It totally explains the man! Thank you, Peter. And thank you, Mr. President, for your kindness, your graciousness, and your diligence, in Loving and serving our beloved land so well.
Rest in Peace, you Dear Man!
Peter,
This guy never let us down. He was far from perfect but perfect isn’t what we need. We need somebody who knows what he’s doing and is willing to do it. When G. H. W. Bush busted Iraq and brought the oil prices down he unleashed our economy that had been in a debt spiral before Reagan had taken the buzz saw out and started cutting. Now the interest rates came down, the inflation didn’t come back, and we went into high gear again. Incredibly, he was rewarded for this by losing his second term. The Arkansas horndog and his psycho wife just had to be given the White House. I have no idea why they had to be given the White House as it was still Jimmy Carter’s party that had ruined the American economy in the first place. Nailed down by Reagan-Bush-Gingrich the hideous irrationalist Democratic Party couldn’t ruin the American Economy again as much as they wanted to.
I am praying that we don’t see a repeat and the party of Carter-Clinton-Obama doesn’t come back after our very short burst of sanity and wreck it all over again.
Regards,
Jim
I was going to word-cop Peter, but then realized that he was correct when he said that GHWB was the fortieth person to serve as our President. While GHWB was our 41st President, Grover Cleveland (perhaps one of the best Democratic Presidents in history) was both our 22nd and 24th President. Therefore, GHWB was the 40th person to have served as President.
A friend (D) said about him: “ He was our last statesman.” Which just about sums it, I think. I just loved him.
This is great. He gets voted out of office because he knows what he’s doing. He knows what to do with all of the levers and dials. We have such a wonderful system don’t we?
This is the guy I voted for in 1988. RIP
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-time-george-h-w-bush-stuck-it-to-dan-rather-on-live-television
I have admired this family so some time, especially since I changed political parties and voted for “shrub” in 2000. The Bush family has served and continue to serve our country with devotion to the American spirit. A war hero, devoted husband and father, and political force is a great example of a life well lived. God bless George HW Bush and his family.
I just love that man.
We would be blessed if more like him filled the ranks of leadership in this era.
Jim,
One of the big contributors to the 1992 election had to do with one specific failed election promise (“read my lips, no new taxes”), which, granted, is not all of his own doing, but was a critical component of his platform.
He was “rewarded” for failing to live up to a campaign promise. The Clintons weren’t “given” the WH, any more than Trump was, and Hillary wasn’t “given” the WH in the last election.
The Clintons were unable to ruin the economy due to the later tax cut Clinton signed, reluctantly, under threat of veto, due to the mix in the house and senate. He then rolled his opposition to that tax cut into credit-taking for it, when the economy took off. He also took credit for budget surpluses, when all 8 of his submitted budgets called for deficit spending.
As much as I admire Bush, that one promise tripped him up, hard. Not sure how the world turns out differently, had that outcome been different, but that was a primary driver.
Thanks for the story, Peter. A telling anecdote about who he was.
This was a moving story and reflects a man not willing to let age or infirmity stand in his way.
But quite frankly, having himself get flown/carted in a wheelchair onto a stage at 87 is peanuts compared to what he did two-and-a-half years later:
https://www.foxnews.com/us/george-h-w-bush-loved-to-skydive-took-last-one-for-90th-birthday
During this sad time, I am most deeply touched by the personal stories that people are sharing. I know a great deal about his presidency, his military service, the love his children have for him, but those personal interactions that are unique to each storyteller are the most wonderful Thank you, @peterrobinson, for adding to that collection.
Chris,
First, I think your version of events is very much the same as mine. Second, maybe we ought to think about “that one promise”. What happens when you become so hyper-critical of your own people that you have impossible to reach expectations? In a two party system, you end up giving it away to the other side which absolutely doesn’t deserve the reward. Gingrich did the idiot a favor and kept his natural spending inclinations (or inclintonations) in check. HRC, probably from law school on couldn’t keep his other inclinations in check. Between them and the idiot media, they made respect for marriage a joke and accelerated the debasement of the American Family.
Chris, GHW deserved his second term. Bill Clinton deserved a good swift kick in the #ss.
Regards,
Jim
No public servant “deserves” another term. President GHW Bush, in breaking his word to the American people, was reverting to pre-VP form. He considered President Reagan’s policies “voodoo economics.” GHW Bush used his inaugural address to side with the left against the man who got him there — as GHW called for “kinder” “gentler” government.
He attacked the economic success, driven by President Reagan’s policies:
The point was reportedly not lost on Nancy Reagan:
His no new taxes pledge at the 1988 Republican Convention was in the context of wrapping himself in Reagan’s success and assuring the American people he would continue the same policies:
Breaking his promise was just part of pivoting back to what he had always believed, but could not say if he wanted to get elected.
@cliffordbrown ‘s post just shows how ridiculous having so much centralized government is. What is he trying to accomplish with that speech?
I tend to believe the ark of history as described by David Stockman. They needed to be more tactical and strategic about shrinking the government down and getting entitlements under control, especially after the Soviet Union fell. It was easier said than done, giving who they were surrounded by, and the gulf war and Ross Perot, etc.
My first presidential election was Reagan 1984. I voted military absentee for GHW Bush, while serving in West Germany in the army Reagan had renewed. President Bush’s betrayal of his campaign promise, and his noblesse oblige air, put me in Ross Perot’s voter base — until election evening. Then, stationed in the state of Washington, I was driving to my polling station after the duty day. On the radio, I heard the early returns from the East Coast and Midwest. Washington had not yet turned hard left, so I strategically voted for Bush, to stop Clinton.
Thanks to @peterrobinson for this kind remembrance of our 41st president in his winter years.
James had a post on a
differentthis thread. It made me think that Bush actually knew how to manage big government. Maybe if he had another term, he would have taken some real shots and shrinking it.I realize no one is interested in this, but Ronald Reagan wanted to get rid of that stupid Fed dual mandate. That should’ve been the first order of business right after the Soviet Union fell. If the Fed just controls inflation only, you have a much better possibility of shrinking the government and marketing conservative and libertarian policy.
Cliff,
By encouraging the Clinton victory over your own man on the right, you ensured that not only would the economic debacle continue but also that it would be a social debacle as well. You were doctrinaire on economics but anything goes on the social issues and you lost on both counts.
Now we are in the reverse situation. People are socially doctrinaire against Trump but fail to grasp that economically he handles himself very well. Oddly, by placing two solid social conservatives on the court, he has done more for the social policy side of things than anybody in a long time. This is why the religious have not attacked him. Religion itself was on the verge of being declared illegal by the hyper-liberals through their perverse first agenda. Thus strangely we have been winning on both fronts with Trump.
I think my evaluation is objective. Whether it meets your doctrinaire needs or not, I think it is objective. Bill Kristol has nothing to offer anyone but his reputation. I’ve liked Bill Kristol all along but he is living in a dream world now. Trump is the antidote to the Marxist-Perversity axis that has dominated through the media and academia. Far too many of the young have been captured by this mental illness and it may take them a very long time to escape it. Meanwhile, the only thing that is effective against it is Trump. If Kristol and the rest of the party had arisen from their anti-Trump obsession earlier at least some of the losses of this mid-term would have been averted. This is still a very lazy party. They sit back and let the Tea Party win the House for them and then let Trump win the Presidency for them. Perhaps they’ve won the Senate but I think the Kavanaugh hearing gave them a taste of who their “colleagues” on the other side of the aisle really are and what a disaster relying on them for anything is.
Those Democrats what innovators. They don’t support a single policy that isn’t an obvious disaster but they know how to corrupt the voting process so that fraud is undetectable or in the case of vote harvesting perfectly legal. Sure what we need is to reach across the aisle. I’d wear rubber gloves, you wouldn’t want to catch anything.
That’s the way I see it.
Regards,
Jim
Before going on a lengthy comment riff, you might read what I actually wrote. I switched from Perot to Bush based on Election Day early evening information about how the states to the east were breaking. I voted for the reelection of GHW Bush to stop Clinton.
I was unaware of Billy Crystal being involved in politics.
Perhaps you meant Bill Kristol.
Thanks to Mark Davis for pointing out this cartoon.
Mark Davis on remembering 41, or any other person: “Politics is the fourth most important thing. The three most important things: service to God, service to family, and service to country.” In these, George H.W. Bush shined.
Cliff,
I haven’t made a spelling error that bad in a while. Perhaps I have some deep unconscious urge to see Billy rather Bill in politics but as I think on it, not really. Anyway, glad you voted for GHW not Perot. It’s ancient political history right now. We’d better be prepared for Kamala (did I spell that right) & Cory & Bernie and whoever they come up with that might even be stranger (if that is possible).
Regards,
Jim
John Sununu was on the third hour of Howie Carr, just now. This was very good. The Democrats knew his back was up against the wall because he had a war to fund, and in those days, there really was such a thing as the bond vigilantes. He had to take the political hit on raising taxes. There was some other good stuff too. Very recommended.