Posted on 10/25/2015 9:29:35 AM PDT by Hojczyk
Former President George Bush, 91 and frail, is straining to understand an election season that has, for his son and the Republican Party, lurched sharply and stunningly off script. And he is often bewildered by what he sees.
“I’m getting old,” he tells friends, appraising today’s politics, “at just the right time.”
These are confounding days for the Bush family and the network of advisers, donors and supporters who have helped sustain a political dynasty that began with the Senate victory by Prescott Bush, the older Mr. Bush’s father, in Connecticut 63 years ago. They have watched the rise of Donald J. Trump with alarm, and seen how Jeb Bush, the onetime Florida governor, has languished despite early advantages of political pedigree and campaign money.
[…]
No one, it seems, is more perplexed than the family patriarch by the race, and by what the Republican Party has become in its embrace of anti-establishment outsiders, especially the sometimes rude Mr. Trump.
In July, even after breaking a vertebra in a fall that left him hospitalized in Maine, the elder Mr. Bush was fuming at the news of the day: Mr. Trump had belittled Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)41% of Arizona for being taken prisoner in Vietnam.
“I can’t understand how somebody could say that and still be taken seriously,” said Mr. Bush, himself a naval aviator in World War II, according to his longtime spokesman, Jim McGrath, who had visited him.
[…]
Contempt for Mr. Trump runs deep in the clan. Two people interviewed, who are in direct communication with the elder Mr. Bush but requested anonymity to avoid betraying a confidence, said Mr. Trump had revived painful memories among the Bushes of another blunt populist: H. Ross Perot. The family has long believed Mr. Perot’s third-party candidacy helped Bill Clinton
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
John McCain went in harm’s way so if he forgot procedures after being hit my missile/gunfire while trying to escape his aircraft as it was about to crash I would cut him some slack. However, since then he has shown what a despicable man he is first to his wife who waited for him to everyone else that got in his way.
Sen. Paul Laxalt should’ve been the choice for VP in 1980 and would’ve carried on the legacy of Reagan for 2 terms (he’s still with us today). Phil Crane may have already been battling alcoholism in 1980. He was diminished enough because of it by 1994 that Gingrich passed him over for a key House Committee chairmanship (with the final indignity of needlessly losing to a leftist moonbat when he should’ve retired and passed the seat to another Republican).
Also, let’s not forgot that it was Bush Sr. that pledged our allegiance to the stinkin UN. FYGB!
This was years ago when they asked him and not recently.
I remember Laxalt’s name, but not much about him.
I just looked him up, and I agree: he should have been Reagan’s VP.
I wonder what kind of pressure they put on Reagan to pick Bush? I hear that when a man is President (or selected to be President) that “they” have a talk with him, and he is never the same.
Reagan thought having a ticket from adjoining states wasn’t a good idea (back then, it was believed having candidates from different areas of the country would bolster the ticket — which really has been proven to be nonsense. Clinton broke that in 1992 when he chose adjacent stater Gore). Since GHW Bush was the “runner up” and establishment preference, he chose him, which was a big mistake.
Reagan similarly goofed in 1976 when he picked liberal Pennsylvania Senator Dick Schweiker as his running mate (which may have ended up costing him the nomination that year). Unfortunately, his goodwill towards ideological opponents within the party proved disastrous for the long run.
There may not have been that much pressure at all as Bush was the runner-up. Reagan reached out to party liberals in 1976 picking Sen. Schweiker as his running mate, but it got him nowhere (it didn’t get him liberal support, and may have cost him with Conservatives wondering what he was thinking).
Remember, there was brief pressure to get Reagan to pick Gerald Ford in 1980 (”Two Presidents for the price of one”). Of course, the upside to picking Ford would’ve meant he likely would not have run in 1988 at 75 (unlike Bush, Sr).
I read also that there was a stigma issue of Laxalt representing Nevada, that the casino and backroom image of the state made too many people nervous and scared off a possible Laxalt pick.
I second the motion!
They could always cite something. Laxalt had no personal corruption in his background.
To be a little fair. It was Colin Powell who did not want to finish off Saddam. He saw American forces annilating Iraqi troops. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. Powell ‘s only thought was how does this make America look?. So he advised Bush to call off the dogs.
So, Powell was his commander in chief? Feh.
I will always believe papa Bush orchestrated the first influx of illegal aliens into our country by suckering Ronald Reagan.
IMO, the Bush’s are 100% to blame for our HUGE illegal alien problem. Our country can not withstand another Bush in the white house!!
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