Posted on 01/12/2012 9:12:56 AM PST by SmithL
There's a curious thing going on in the GOP primary race for the presidential nomination. A few people have remarked on it, but mostly it's gone unnoticed. When looked at from a historical viewpoint, it's remarkable, but when looked at in specific, it's normal. It confirms what we pretty much already knew.
Where's George W. Bush?
The most recent ex-president is usually perceived to be a power broker in his party. His opinion is sought; his endorsement is desired. He works behind the scenes to promote one candidate or another. Bill Clinton, although leaving office under a cloud (a cloud that he magically managed to puff away), still found the resources to become a power broker.
And he wanted that role. One of the questions about George Bush is: Did he ever want to be a politician at all? He seemed animated by no driving passions; his proposals and actions seemed to be the work of others. Oh, he liked playing dress-up, but that was about it.
Surrounded by people who cared a lot more about power than he did, he agreed to agree with their views. He got invested in the whole Iraq thing, but we'll never know how much he participated in their various lies. Did he know from fuel rods? What was he told about waterboarding? I suspect he just listened to the briefings and nodded, finally at the end doing what deciders do. He liked that part; he liked appearing powerful. Being powerful: time-consuming.
That's why he liked that darned ranch in Texas so much. I mean, he had a chance to live in the White House for eight years, and he preferred a split-level in the middle of nowhere. He had no taste for Washington.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
For as long as I can remember (that goes back to 1968 or so), the Comicle has been worth it for two things: The Sporting Green every day and the NY Times crossword puzzle on Sunday.
Jon Carroll is one of the reasons the rest of it is dangerous to use lining your bird cage.
It has long been a tradition that most Presidents with any class and dignity have followed- you stay out of the game once your time is over
Yep...except for Carter and Clinton!
The fact that Jon Carroll snots at George Bush as “wanting to play dress up” is laughable in light of his hero, the Colorforms President. Bush may have had his faults, but I never doubted for one minute that he cared about his country.
Carroll, on the other hand, idolizes a complete incompetent whose whole Presidency is vacations, golf, jetting to fundraisers, blaming Bush and taking credit for the bravery of the soldiers.
Every insult he tosses at Bush could easily stick to his idol - mm mmm mmm Barack Hussien Obammy mmm mmm mmm.
Bush was seriously abused by the Left and the GOP did not manage to muster a defense of him thanks to Karl Rove’s mismanagement. He was totally demonized and ruined by a million unchallenged lies. The kook left, totally infiltrated by Pallywood, sucessfully sold him as a demon.
From the get go his political fate was foretold when the GOP and Rove put Clinton’s people in charge of the investigation of 911 and let slide those Clinton Admin. documents found hidden in Sandy’s pants.
What a douchebag.
And GHWB.
Even Bill Clinton managed to hang on ONLY because of modern medicine.
Here's the deal with Bush ~ once his Air Force records were located (just before Sandy Berger got left off the hook for being charged with felonies that'd put him in prison for life) it was revealed that he'd FAR EXCEEDED the allowable limits for flying that particular jet fighter. As I recall it was 50% more time.
That can damage parts of your brain. It was obviously the case that he had aphasia ~ or a sort of slurring of speech almost peculiar to too many hours in the cockpit of that type of fighter.
We haven't been hearing of him falling down, dozing off, or any of that, but he's likely suffering from his years in the Air Force Reserve/TNG.
Don’t recall Daddy Bush doing that..
I marvel at Jon’s tiny little brain. His smugness is quaint in a way.
Guess you have a case of amnesia, or you missed the GHWB endorsement of Romney on CNN just as the 2012 primary campaigns were gearing up.
Your comment has to be one of the most uninformed, ignorant and just plain stupid comment I have read on any forum. It totally lacks fact. On what do you base your comments about Bush’s flying, other than a very active imagination? There are no studies or even discussions to support your claim. To say “mostly a theory.” is also uninformed. Clinton and Carter constantly insert themselves into political discourse while Reagan, Bush I and Bush II have not. And, yes, Reagan had his mental facilities for quite a while after his presidency.
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