Some Things Are Partisan, Some Are Just Dope

Kazzy

One man. Two boys. Twelve kids.

Related Post Roulette

18 Responses

  1. Badtux says:

    H.W. was always the sane Bush. I voted for him in 2002 because the Democrats had not run a compelling candidate, they’d run some unknown good ole’ boy from Arkansas. Plus unlike a lot of people, I didn’t mind that he’d pulled us out of Iraq before toppling Saddam and that he’d raised taxes to eliminate the deficit (which his tax increases later did during the Clinton administration) while at the same time cutting spending by sending hundreds of old B-52 bombers to the scrapyard and putting thousands of tanks into storage into Kuwait and the troops who’d used them on a plane back to civilian life, giving Bill Clinton the peace dividend that led to the technology boom that Clinton helped foster with tech-friendly policies. On a scale of 1 to 10, I put H.W. at about a 7, he wasn’t the most dynamic of Presidents but he was sane and competent, which made him definitely unusual compared to too many recent Presidents :(. Which of course is why he could never win re-election in the Republican Party… proving your sanity is a sure-fired way to alienate the Republican base, even though Barry Goldwater was a liberal compared to George H.W. Bush. So it goes. It does’t surprise me that H.W. did a decent thing. He never struck me as a vindictive or vicious man — just very conservative in the old sense of the word.Report

    • NewDealer in reply to Badtux says:

      I think you mean 1992…..

      I don’t know if I would say Goldwater was a liberal compared to H.W. Bush. H.W. Bush signed the American with Disabilities Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1991.

      I don’t see Goldwater doing either…..Report

    • Kim in reply to Badtux says:

      I know someone who met H.W. personally (in Japan). Never had a bad word to say about the man.
      And yeah, HW got vilified for Reagan’s economic policies, not his own. 4 year gap between changing economic policies and when they hit (Carter’s policies made Reagan’s recovery)… until we get to GW Bush, whose policies were really that dunderheaded that they hit while he was still in office.Report

  2. BlaiseP says:

    There’s a story told about Bill Clinton and Bush41. Both were ex-presidents by this time. They were touring the world, doing tsunami relief. Bill Clinton always admired Bush41 and treated him with deference. The two were flying in a bizjet on a long haul across the ocean. There was only one bed on the aircraft and Clinton gave it to Bush41, ostensibly for just a nap.

    Bush41 awoke some hours later, to find Bill Clinton asleep, stretched out in the aisle of the aircraft, his coat under his head.

    Bush43 got wind of this incident and his opinion of Bill Clinton went up considerably. Bush43 is nothing if not loyal, especially to his father. Bush41 had lived in the shadow of his own father and great things had been expected of him. Bush41 was at one point the youngest pilot in the US Navy and had been shot down.

    I admired Bush41, though I was never a big fan of him, politically. He was, as Badtux says, a conservative of the old school, which is to say a man of duty and honour. Not all Bush41 did was wise or good: his role in Iran-Contra was more than a little dogshit on his heel but I’ve had some on mine. On the whole he was — and still is — a fundamentally decent man.Report

  3. Mike Schilling says:

    He’s 89. How much could there have been to shave?Report

  4. greginak says:

    Yeah…big thumbs up for Bush the Elder.Report

  5. Shelley says:

    I’d be more impressed if he were also spending time trying to get his party not to cut medical and supportive care to sick kids and their families.Report

  6. Pinky says:

    The gross thing is that politicians can only be praised for their good acts after they retire from politics. If Biden or Ryan did something decent, half the country wouldn’t acknowledge it, and the other half would do so for partisan points.Report