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George H.W. Bush, 41st President of the United States, Dies At 94 (washingtonpost.com)
George H.W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States, has passed away tonight at the age of 94. As The Washington Post reports, he was "the last veteran of World War II to serve as president, he was a consummate public servant and a statesman who helped guide the nation and the world out of a four-decade Cold War that had carried the threat of nuclear annihilation." From the report: Although Mr. Bush served as president three decades ago, his values and ethic seem centuries removed from today's acrid political culture. His currency of personal connection was the handwritten letter -- not the social media blast. He had a competitive nature and considerable ambition that were not easy to discern under the sheen of his New England politesse and his earnest generosity. He was capable of running hard-edge political campaigns, and took the nation to war. But his principal achievements were produced at negotiating tables.
Despite his grace, Mr. Bush was an easy subject for caricature. He was an honors graduate of Yale University who was often at a loss for words in public, especially when it came to talking about himself. Though he was tested in combat when he was barely out of adolescence, he was branded "a wimp" by those who doubted whether he had essential convictions. This paradox in the public image of Mr. Bush dogged him, as did domestic events. His lack of sure-footedness in the face of a faltering economy produced a nosedive in the soaring popularity he enjoyed after the triumph of the Persian Gulf War. In 1992, he lost his bid for a second term as president. Bush's spokesman Jim McGrath announced his death on Twitter, but didn't provide the cause of death. In 2012, he announced that he had vascular Parkinsonism, a condition that limited his mobility.
UPDATE: George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, has issued a statement on the passing of his father: "Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro, and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died. George H. W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for. The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41's life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad, and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens."
Despite his grace, Mr. Bush was an easy subject for caricature. He was an honors graduate of Yale University who was often at a loss for words in public, especially when it came to talking about himself. Though he was tested in combat when he was barely out of adolescence, he was branded "a wimp" by those who doubted whether he had essential convictions. This paradox in the public image of Mr. Bush dogged him, as did domestic events. His lack of sure-footedness in the face of a faltering economy produced a nosedive in the soaring popularity he enjoyed after the triumph of the Persian Gulf War. In 1992, he lost his bid for a second term as president. Bush's spokesman Jim McGrath announced his death on Twitter, but didn't provide the cause of death. In 2012, he announced that he had vascular Parkinsonism, a condition that limited his mobility.
UPDATE: George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, has issued a statement on the passing of his father: "Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro, and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died. George H. W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for. The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41's life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad, and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens."
Thus goeth the last Republican politician that I still respected.
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and then raising taxes. Awful liar
Not raised on his initiative or by his choice. At least he didn't promise that every family would save $2500 on their health insurance in order to ram a massive new tax through.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Seriously, there isn't even a hint of a tech or geek angle to post this story on slashdot.
Ken
And we'll be paying for Clinton's balanced budget for decades to come. We'll pay for Reagan's mass deflation of currency forever. We'll pay for Obama's limp dicked social healthcare which started as "Healthcare for all" to a piece of paper that said "Affordable Healthcare Act" and really meant "There's nothing left in here from the original policy and we've let every politician in America earmark the shit of it. Oklahoma can no declare black people as aliens and teach creationism as science. But at least I passed my bill".
Rule #1 : If you think you're the right person to represent hundreds of millions of people with hundreds of millions of different and generally conflicting needs. You probably should be shot before entering office.
Rule #2 : If you need to associate with a political party who will sell you a chance at the presidency in return for what few drops of your soul you have left... you should not run for president.
Rule #3 : If you are either a conservative or a liberal... you can not represent people fairly. You should not be allowed to run for present.
Rule #4 : If you actually become president and when midterms come around you're supporting only one political party or worse... you're supporting a political party instead of the merits of the individual candidates... you should be burned on a cross.
Please don't pretend like one president is better than the next. The system specifically permits only bankers and lawyers and oilmen into the office. They are people who like to play the game or to represent themselves and their families. After two Bushes and a Trump, American is clearly becoming something of an oligarchy.
Worse, we see things like Hillary running for office because well if GWB can be president after daddy, then shouldn't she be able to be president after Bill? And the most fucked up thing is, she might have been the most technically qualified presidential candidate we've had since the founding fathers died since she might be the only candidate that actually had real experience running the country because she and Bill were a team. Now, considering that like all other presidents, Bill sucked at the job.. even with her help, I'm not sure if that's a good thing.
Dukey was a mess. He would have been a lame duck. Nah... he'd have been a limp dick. He was almost as stupid as Al Gore.
We sit here judging US presidents as though we really think there's such a thing as a possibility of having a good one. When you have one part of a country who get's their education from the Westboro Baptist Church, another part of the country idolizing and learning from Kim Kardashian, another part rallying for Donald Trump and wearing hats specifically designed to target rednecks, another part like Jamaica Queens NY where there are multiple police officers on every corner all day and night trying to either maintain the peace, simply keep people alive, or beating teenaged kids for carrying a joint... and then close to a hundred million retired people who mostly have burned through their savings that were stored based on 10 years of life after retirement but now everyone is living 20-30 more...
You know what... I can make a list that sounds like Billy Joel's we didn't start the fire that lists everything from modern day hippies to wall street one per-centers and I would never get close to covering even the smallest portion of America.
Let's make it simple... GHWB wasn't any worse than the rest of them. When he went to war and he incarcerated people for being poor.... he wasn't being any worse than the rest of them. He was an unqualified person being controlled by an unqualified party voted for by unqualified voters and criticized publicly by unqualified journalists who were trying to make a buck by turning The New York Times into just another tabloid like the rest of them with bold and shocking headlines.
Guess what... bold shocking headlines aren't bold or shocking when you've shocked everyone so much that no one gives a shit anymore. If the Post
Set the stage for the 2003 homicide spree in Iraq (Gulf War II).
No he didn't. He very eloquently and clearly explained why "going to Baghdad" would have been a supremely stupid thing to do in 1991. Everything he said applied just as much in 2003.
It is not his fault that his son was a moron.
Homicide spree? You mean Obama's drone campaign? He murdered more children than any other Nobel peace prize winner. Remember when he bombed a Doctors Without Borders hospital and then sent gunners in to murder the fleeing doctors and patients? This was 2015. Don't pretend you don't remember.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
highly doubtful you respected him while he was president.
A *whole* lot of people who claim to respect him now were claiming he was hitler at the time.
Kind of like Trump now...
No. Bush I had an average approval rating of 61% in office, as high as 89%. ... keep going ...
Guess what Trump's approval rating is?
No, lower.... lower still
Ross Perot cost him the election, not Quayle.
Go jump out of an airplane over the Pacific and let us know how much kinship you feel you vicarious-living charade.
Jumping out of a plane going down in flames isn't really the accomplishment. Flying a perfectly good airplane to the island that is heavily defended and known to be commanded by someone who beheads captured pilots and practices ritualistic cannibalism is the accomplishment.
I was not in agreement much the time with the elder Bush when he was in office. But at least he knew enough to look and act the part, and to speak about things in a somewhat intelligent fashion.
My opposition to Trump stems not so much from his political or philosophical positions (he essentially has none), but rather from the fact that he was plainly incompetent and quite possibly detached from reality having spent all his life surrounded by yes-men. He's done nothing but confirm this since he's been in office. Add to that the fact that the same crew who engineered his election victory were also responsible for engineering the Brexit vote.
Oh, and treason. Lots and lots of treason.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Fun fact: guess what Obama's approval rating was at the same time in his presidency? No, lower...
I'm going to guess higher than Trump. Hey I was right. Why would you tell me to go lower? Do you have some blind partisan agenda to support the Organeutan?
Trump is the first US president in modern times to never get above 45%. That can still change, but smart money says it won't.
Dan Quayle? The man who spoke out against single mothers? Remember when Murphy Brown stopped her hit TV show, broke character, and spoke directly to him and all the misogynist bigots just like him, vigorously defending single mothers?
History judges such people harshly.
There is nothing wrong with single mothers (or fathers) /per se/, but it's not something that should be encouraged or looked on as an ideal situation. At the time that is how I interpreted his message (regardless of what he did or did not actually intend).