Daniel Foster of National Review Online and Greg Corombos of Radio America reflect on the life and political legacy of President George H.W. Bush, who died on Friday.  They applaud Bush’s service in World War II and many stops in his career of public service and also remember his leadership and the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union crumbled, his successes in the Gulf War, and his support for embattled Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.  They also wince at some low points, namely the selection of David Souter to the Supreme Court and breaking his pledge never to raise taxes.  And they point out that while the media  is largely extolling Bush for his leadership and decency today, their despicable coverage of Bush during his political career painted a much different picture.

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  1. Taras Coolidge
    Taras
    @Taras

    Back in the day, my pet names for George HW Bush were Inepto-Man and The Clueless One.

    He deserves little or no credit for the fall of the Soviet Union.

    According to Peter Schweizer, he went to Saudi Arabia to jawbone them to raise the price of oil (to help his pals in the oil bidness), even when it was the policy of the Reagan administration to lower the price of oil and thereby help bankrupt the Soviet Union.

    And don’t forget his “Chicken Kiev“ speech, in which he urged Ukraine not to break with Russia.

    It was sheer luck that, between Souter and Thomas, he merely canceled out his influence on the Supreme Court.   If  Judge Thomas had been a black liberal Republican, HW would probably still have nominated him.

    When HW broke his “read my lips, no new taxes“ pledge, Steven Hayward commented that he must have  gotten something very big from the Democrats in return for doing something so politically damaging .  But, in fact, he got nothing:  listening to Republican elites rather than the rank-and-file, he didn’t realize he had done anything wrong.

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