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Thread: RIP GHW Bush

  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ultralight View Post
    Larry Elder said this back in 2016: "The legacy of Barack Obama is Donald Trump."
    I think there is some truth to that. They both defeated Clinton. Trump’s victory was to a great extent a reaction against identity politics and elitist contempt. The other big factor was the incompetent campaign of the most qualified candidate in the universe.

  2. #12
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by catherine View Post
    I agree with what people said about him.. A decent, honorable man.

    I have to admit, I was disappointed to see rancorous comments about him following Bernie Sanders' online condolence post on Facebook. Can't people EVER put things behind them? "Good riddance" is NOT an appropriate response to this man's death, no matter how different your politics are.

    And this is a silly thing that I've been wondering about.. why couldn't 43 make it from Dallas to Houston to see his Dad off? The NYTimes said that he talked to him on speaker phone. None of my business, but I was just curious.

    Anyway, I liked George Bush because he seemed like a decent human being, because he was adventurous in his old age, because he was beyond adventurous--he bravely served his country in WWII, because he had a 73 year love affair with his wife, and because he gave Dana Carvey such great fodder to work with.

    I just heard former Senator John Danforth talk about GHWBush. The rafio interviewer hypothethized that Dana Carvey’s bits on Saturday Night Live hurt his election. Senator Danforth said no not at all, it was fiscally conservative Republicans who supported Ross Perot, the beginnings of the Tea Party, that took him down.

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    Ross Perot got so many votes!! We tend to forget that and it is very relevant in discussion of three party presidential elections.

  4. #14
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LDAHL View Post
    I never saw Obama as a classic gentleman. He spent eight years in such intense self-celebration that he didn’t notice his party withering. In that sense, he was the other side of the Trump coin.
    Interesting that we all see the world through our own, sometimes warped, lenses. I saw no such self-celebration; I saw a consummate gentleman. He wasn't "classic" only because he wasn't white. And he certainly was the opposite of a public embarrassment.

    And I think "identity politics" is a fiction and a Fox talking point. Unless you consider Evangelicals, right-to-lifers, Big Money, white nationalists/bigots, Pharma, Big Oil, gun lovers, etc. as "identities," which of course the right doesn't.

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    Some useful perspective.

    HW was a bona fide war hero; I'll give him that. A holdover from a time when patricians still felt some sense of obligation to lead from the front.

    But the celebration of his supposed good qualities--overdone as usual by the news media--needs to be kept in context. The Republican Party has succeeded in setting the ethical bar so abysmally low that almost anyone starts to look good, and he played as much a role as anyone in that. Saying he wasn't Donald Trump--or for that matter, his own son--is not exactly high praise.

  6. #16
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by oldhat View Post
    Some useful perspective.

    HW was a bona fide war hero; I'll give him that. A holdover from a time when patricians still felt some sense of obligation to lead from the front.

    But the celebration of his supposed good qualities--overdone as usual by the news media--needs to be kept in context. The Republican Party has succeeded in setting the ethical bar so abysmally low that almost anyone starts to look good, and he played as much a role as anyone in that. Saying he wasn't Donald Trump--or for that matter, his own son--is not exactly high praise.
    I was scrupulous in couching my praise for public service so as not to set off those spoiling for a fight. I'll allow him the inevitable fawning praise in death.

  7. #17
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JaneV2.0 View Post
    Interesting that we all see the world through our own, sometimes warped, lenses. I saw no such self-celebration; I saw a consummate gentleman. He wasn't "classic" only because he wasn't white. And he certainly was the opposite of a public embarrassment.

    And I think "identity politics" is a fiction and a Fox talking point. Unless you consider Evangelicals, right-to-lifers, Big Money, white nationalists/bigots, Pharma, Big Oil, gun lovers, etc. as "identities," which of course the right doesn't.
    Edited to add: I can't conceive of President Obama publicly (or privately) kicking Michelle in the backside, as Bush did--on camera--with Barbara.

  8. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by JaneV2.0 View Post
    I was scrupulous in couching my praise for public service so as not to set off those spoiling for a fight. I'll allow him the inevitable fawning praise in death.
    I spent the day with him once back in the late 90's and came away genuinely impressed with his humble and gracious demeanor. In honor of his memory, I'll scrupulously avoid setting off those spoiling to start one.
    "Things should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ~ Albert Einstein

  9. #19
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    Larry Elder said this back in 2016: "The legacy of Barack Obama is Donald Trump."
    to the extent that it really was people voting disgust with economics maybe. But this is probably overstated as a percent of the Trump voters. But yes the economy was in deep recession (depression is far more accurate) for years and years and only the bankers got bailed out. That was truly obscene and criminal really. There was extension of unemployment though. And people remember that if they had to go through it. This is somewhat the legacy of Bill Clinton too, of NAFTA etc., but it was much more directly the fallout of the great recession and insufficient programs for ordinary people.

    Also of course some people back-lashed against a black man in the white house. Unlike the former there really is no legitimate basis to that so what can you say, that this was a real factor is shown by how many openly racist people have run recently and won. Add that to people who were never ever going to vote Dem anyway just your usual Republican base, and those who just liked Trumps authoritarian rich famous strongman bent - and there you go.
    Trees don't grow on money

  10. #20
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alan View Post
    I spent the day with him once back in the late 90's and came away genuinely impressed with his humble and gracious demeanor. In honor of his memory, I'll scrupulously avoid setting off those spoiling to start one.
    I'm a big fan of humble and gracious; we need more of those.

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