Dying today of a blood infection after a long slog of declining health, especially after his wife of 73-years Barbara Bush died April 17, wheel-chair bound former President George W. Bush said a final goodbye. His final words were reportedly “I love you” to his 72-year-old son former President George W. Bush. With a distinguished public career as U.S. representative from Texas, U.N. Ambassador, CIA Director, two-term vice president to Ronald Reagan, the 41st president road the coattails of retiring GOP icon Ronald Reagan to the White House in 1998, defeating former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis in a landslide. While Bush-41 had his accomplishments, he couldn’t win a second term, beaten by former President Bill Clinton who spent two terms in office. Clinton was helped by Texas oil man H. Ross Perot, pulling some 16% of the 1988 GOP vote away from Bush-41.
Had Perot not thrown a monkey wrench into H.W.’s plans for a second term, he would have beaten Clinton handily in 1992. Bush-41’s boldest foreign policy accomplishment was the 1991 Gulf War, where he stood up to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein who had been slant-drilling into British Petroleum’s oil wells in Kuwait. Bush-41’s multinational coalition dealt Saddam a devastating military defeat in what was known as the “Highway to Hell,” where U.S.-led coalition jets decimated the Iraqi military en route back to Baghdad. Despite the Gulf War victory, a stubborn recession didn’t bode well for H.W.’s reelection, giving Perot the perfect opportunity to hand the White House to 47-year-old Bill Clinton. What H.W. Bush liked least was handling the media’s insatiable appetite for news, but, more importantly, headlines for the broadcast and print media.
Bush followed the most mediagenic president in Ronald Reagan since President John F. Kennedy. Hanging on every word with Reagan, it was the opposite with Bush-41 whose low-key style didn’t play well following the ever-charismatic Reagan. “Hope, “ “humble,” “quiet,” “unflappable” and “inspired,” were adjectives describing H.W. Bush in contrast to the bombast of President Donald Trump. What the media forgets is that Trump created a media bonanza for broadcast and print news outlets, hanging on every Tweet, every word, every bit of gossip that plays well in today’s 24/7 new cycle. Bush- 41’s death prompted immediate comparisons to Trump who routinely takes on the broadcast and print media. Since Trump took office Jan. 20, 2017, the media’s sold former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton’s narrative that Trump’s controlled by the Kremlin.
Bush-41 deserves all the credit for handling the office with dignity and grace but the media knows there wasn’t much pizzazz in Washington when he occupied the White House from Jan. 20, 1989 to Jan. 20, 1993. “Today boasting and insults are viewed as strong leadership while humility & dignity are viewed as weakness,” Tweeted Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fl.), one of Trump’s biggest critics during-and-after the 2016 campaign. Trump beat Rubio handily, calling Florida’s junior senator “little Marco.” “The passing of our 41st president,” Rubio wrote “reminds of what true leadership looks like,” taking another swipe at Trump. What Rubio doesn’t get is using Bush-41’s death to rip Trump is appalling. Whether Trump attends H.W.’s funeral or not, Rubio’s proved he’s the master of the cheap shot.
No one questions Bush-41’s distinguished career in elected office and public service, including serving as a decorated Navy fighter pilot in WW II. Whether or not Trump had the same credentials is irrelevant. Voters thought enough of his real estate empire and Hollywood career to elect him the 45th president Nov. 6, 2016, precisely because he was a businessman outsider. Comparing Bush-41 to Trump, only gives the media more ammunition to sell advertising, something that’s never been better since Trump took office. When you consider Trump’s former personal attorney accepted a perjury charge from Special Counsel Robert Mueller for lying about talking to Russian officials about a Trump Tower project in 2016, it’s more fodder for media binge. Rubio likes to grab headline slamming Trump over Bush-41’s death but it’s par-for-the-course during the media’s feeding frenzy with Trump.
George H.W. Bush spent four uneventful years in the White House, with the exception on the 1991 Gulf War, where the U.S. military whipped Saddam’s behind. Apart from some military sparks, the Bush-41 presidency was hampered by a recession and failed promise to not raise taxes. “His [Bush-41’s] yearning for a kinder and gentler nation seems more needed now when he first called for it,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), another one Trump’s worst critics on Capitol Hill. Using Bush-41’s death to take a cheap shot at Trump shows how far politicians on both sides of the aisle have no scruples when it comes to exploiting a past president’s death for political gain. George H.W. Bush is remembered as a worthy placeholder for Reagan but gave the media none of the pizzazz needed to sell more advertising. Using his death to slap Trump shows how low things have gone.
