Greatness of George H. W. Bush

                    George Herbert Walker Bush was born on June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts, to Senator Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush.  He is currently the oldest surviving former President of the United States.  Before serving in the highest office of our nation, he served as Vice President under President Ronald Reagan (1981-89), US Congressman, ambassador, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

                    Bush was 18 years old when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941; he postponed going to college to enlist where he became the youngest aviator at the time in the Navy.  He flew for the Navy until the end of World War II and then entered Yale University.  After he graduated in 1948, he and Barbara moved their family to West Texas where he became a millionaire by the age of 40 in the oil business.

                    Soon after Bush founded his own oil company, he entered politics and was elected as a member of the House of Representatives.  He ran an unsuccessful campaign for President of the United States in 1980 but was chosen by Ronald Reagan to run as his vice presidential nominee.  After the Reagan/Bush team were elected, Bush was represented the administration on regulation and fighting drug abuse.

                    Bush ran a successful campaign in 1988 to be Reagan's successor as President in which he defeated Democrat Michael Dukakis.  Foreign policy was at the top of the Bush agenda.  World conditions made military operations in Panama and the Persian Gulf necessary.  The Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and the Soviet Union came apart two years later.  Americans supported the very short war to drive Saddam out of Kuwait and showed their patriotism.

                    President Bush promised during his campaign that he would not raise taxes, but he signed an increase in taxes after a big struggle with Congress.  Historians say that he lost the 1992 presidential election partly because he went back on his promise and partly because of economic concerns.  I believe that he lost simply because Bill Clinton was so handsome and so charismatic that unthinking women voted for him in masses!

                    Bush 41 is the father of Bush 43 - George Walker Bush - and Jeb Bush, former Governor of Florida.  He is the latest President to have served in World War II.  Until 2000 when his son George was elected as President of the United States, Bush was known as "George Bush;" after the 2000 election, the father became known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush 41", "Bush the Elder", and "George Bush, Sr."  President Bush stayed active in both politics and life, parachute jumping at age 80.

                    I thought that President Bush was a good President and deserved to serve a second term. Some of his quotes are very funny to me. 

                  "America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle.  We as a people have such a purpose today.  It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world."

                    "But let me tell you, this gender thing is history.  You're looking at a guy who sat down with Margaret Thatcher across the table and talked about serious issues."

                    "Gulf Lesson One is the value of airpower."

                    "I can tell you this:  If I'm ever in a position to call the shots, I'm not going to rush to send somebody else's kids into a war."

                    "I do not like broccoli.  And I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it.  And I'm President of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli."

                    "I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them."

                              "I'll be glad to reply to or dodge your questions, depending on what I think will help our election most."

                    "I'm conservative, but I'm not a nut about it."

                    "It's a very good question, very direct, and I'm not going to answer it."

                    "It's no exaggeration to say that the undecideds could go one way or another."

                    "Please don't ask me to do that which I've just said I'm not going to do, because you're burning up time.  The meter is running through the sand on you, and I am now filibustering."

                    "Read my lips:  no new taxes."

                    "We are a nation of communities… a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.

                    "We are not the sum of our possessions."

                    "We don't want an America that is closed to the world.  What we want is a world that is open to America."

                    "What's wrong with being a boring kind of guy?

                    "You cannot be President of the United States if you don't have faith.  Remember Lincoln, going to his knees in times of trial in the Civil War and all that stuff."