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Why Bush 41, a Great President, Won Only One Term
National Review ^ | 12/03/2018 | Jay Cost

Posted on 12/03/2018 8:35:07 AM PST by SeekAndFind

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To: SeekAndFind
Yes, the broken tax promise played a big part, but it was more.

The Clinton Team and the complicit media managed to market a small cyclical economic downturn under Bush into "the worst economy since the Great Depression".

It's a model that they still use every election, but most people subconsciously tune them out on the economy. Mostly, they just label every Republican "literally Hitler" and hope for the best.

61 posted on 12/03/2018 8:56:02 AM PST by dead (Our next president is going to be sooooo boring.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Rarely has someone who has served 2 terms as VP and one term as president elected to a second term as president. It doesn’t happen.

Also Bush ran a lackluster campaign. And it was bad optics when he was shown looking at his wristwatch during one of the debates.


62 posted on 12/03/2018 8:56:02 AM PST by GSWarrior
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To: SeekAndFind
Why Bush 41, a Great President, Won Only One Term

1. He wasn't a great President.

2. He was an aloof, detached candidate who simply didn't appeal to many voters.

63 posted on 12/03/2018 8:56:05 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("The Russians escaped while we weren't watching them ... like Russians will.")
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To: No Socialist; SeekAndFind

Yesterday, somebody posted on a GHWB thread, the popular vote totals for Bush, Perot, and Clinton. If his data, and my arithmetic were right, Clinton got more than the combined totals for Bush and Perot.


64 posted on 12/03/2018 8:57:23 AM PST by VMI70
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To: SeekAndFind
Yes, the broken tax promise played a big part, but it was more.

The Clinton Team and the complicit media managed to market a small cyclical economic downturn under Bush into "the worst economy since the Great Depression".

It's a model that they still use every election, but most people subconsciously tune them out on the economy. Mostly, they just label every Republican "literally Hitler" and hope for the best.

65 posted on 12/03/2018 8:57:44 AM PST by dead (Our next president is going to be sooooo boring.)
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To: dfwgator

Definitely. it’s was the perfect “get rid of the old guard” campaign. And Bush was terrible in debates, always had been. Got lucky running against Dukakis who found a way to be even worse.


66 posted on 12/03/2018 8:58:51 AM PST by discostu (Every gun makes its own tune.)
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To: GSWarrior

But if Clinton looked at his watch, it would never have been reported. I wonder sometimes if Bush didn’t himself vote for Clinton in 1992. He confessed to doing so with Mrs. Bill in 2016.


67 posted on 12/03/2018 8:58:51 AM PST by Theodore R.
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To: SeekAndFind

The Elephant in the room is the stark fact that in 1988, the Republican Party fractured, dooming President Bush to a single term and elevating the Clinton Crime Family into the White House. The face of the fracture was Ross Perot, painted by the press as an idiot. It turns out he was an idiot, but the real story of the election was the inability of the Republican Party to arrange their internal affairs to maintain their political power for the good of the party and for the good of the country.

This was a foreshadow of the 2016 election, where a populist outsider decided to run for the Presidency. The press reprised their 1988 role and set out to destroy Donald Trump. The outcome was reversed and the American people refused to be led down the primrose path, electing Donald Trump. Of course, Donald Trump turns out to be anything but an idiot, outsmarting everyone in the Washington establishment with a plan of action and an uncanny ability to achieve what he set out to do. That plan is not yet done, and faces fierce opposition from both the press and the Democrat Party who still want to overthrow Trump’s government. And, don’t forget that many within the Republican Party are enablers of this overthrow effort.

Would a Bush 2d term turned out better than two terms of Clinton and what would have followed?


68 posted on 12/03/2018 8:59:28 AM PST by centurion316
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To: Snickering Hound

So completely out of touch that the first time he encountered a supermarket barcode scanner was at a photo op.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A guy in his position probably doesn’t do much grocery shopping. I remember when that happened. They asked him how much is bread, milk etc. He didn’t know and was portrayed as being completely out of touch.

Guess what?? I have no idea how much that stuff costs either. On the rare instances when I get groceries I just grab it and pay for it. No idea what an item costs.

That’s womens work.


69 posted on 12/03/2018 9:00:13 AM PST by shelterguy
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To: dfwgator

Clinton played the sax
He went on tv talk shows
Old women liked his “charm”
And the MSM sold him as the next JFK.
This was before we learned he was a rapist.
Even than many women stuck by him.
And to many still do..but not So publically.


70 posted on 12/03/2018 9:01:05 AM PST by Leep (we need a Trump like leader for President 2024!)
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To: SeekAndFind
The bottom line is that he wasn't a great president; he was a mediocre president. Of all the presidents in the last century, I'd put him in the same class as Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy. Good to mediocre, but not great.

Both Truman and JFK deserve kudos for handling the economy but get less than stellar marks in foreign affairs. It is ironic that fans of JFK count his greatest deed as handling of the Cuban missle crisis (which he did well), but fail to mention that his dithering shameful handling of the Bay of Pigs set the stage for it. Fans of Truman count his greatest deed in firing Douglas MacArthur while failing to mention that said action ensured no better than an indecision in the Korean War, a mess which only our current president has made any real progress in cleaning up. So, yes, the two greatest Democrat presidents of the 20th century were merely mediocre.

So was George H.W. Bush.

The seeds of the greatest event in the Bush legacy (collapse of the iron curtain) were sewn by his predecessor. I'll give him credit for being a great supporter of Ronald Reagan, but he was a globalist at heart who got rolled by the Democrats.

71 posted on 12/03/2018 9:01:30 AM PST by Vigilanteman (The politicized state destroys all aspects of civil society, human kindness and private charity.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Perot delivered the Trump/MAGA message 24 years earlier and it worked on working-class white Republicans. But working-class white Democrats weren’t listening yet, so all Perot accomplished was to give us Clinton.


72 posted on 12/03/2018 9:01:55 AM PST by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
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To: SeekAndFind
Yeah, I agree with many criticisms of him. His version of Republican-lite wasn't my cup of tea.

But IMHO, the main reason Bush Sr. didn't win a 2nd term is because it would have been the 4th term in the row for the same party (Republican). The fact that he won the 1st term is remarkable.

Think about it. When Bush Sr. won in 1988 it was the first time since the 1950's that we had one political party in the WH for more than 2 terms (Bush Sr. following 2 terms of Reagan). And Bush Sr. was the first time sitting VP to win Presidential election since 1836. I count him as being successful at overcoming a huge trend obstacles, at least regarding election successes.

73 posted on 12/03/2018 9:02:00 AM PST by Tell It Right (Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true. 1st Thes 5:21)
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To: SeekAndFind

The left has learned the value of a third party candidate. The deep state will try this in 2020. Mark my words.


74 posted on 12/03/2018 9:02:01 AM PST by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything, it's that history rarely teaches us anything.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I will mention Perot but first....

As I remember the election, Bush was (as said in a previous post) “A Caretaker president..... He was uninspiring and he was not a true conservative.”

Picture Jeb as president

Quayle did not help either. Bush should of had someone else. Dan was like Joe Biden, just a little weird. But you couldn’t really say what was wrong.

I was living in the Dallas area at that time and saw Perot at a luncheon for the Salvation Army and you could feel the energy. He was very impressive.

Trump-like energy, ideas, goals, direction, strategy.

Think “Build the wall” only his battle cry was reduce debt and keep jobs in the US, improve the economy.

Unfortunately a flawed character, as we later found out.

In addition to his personal problems, Perot’s talking points were stolen towards the end of the campaign by Clinton, who was more charismatic than Bush.

So Clinton, then had ideas plus charisma versus Jeb.


75 posted on 12/03/2018 9:02:51 AM PST by Hang'emAll (If guns kill people, do pencils misspell words?)
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To: VMI70
Bill Clinton Democratic 44,909,889

George Bush Republican 39,104,545

Ross Perot Independent 19,742,267

76 posted on 12/03/2018 9:03:23 AM PST by bankwalker (Immigration without assimilation is an invasion.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Why is it NOBODY in the Conservative Commitariat, and NO Republican politicians will call this man out for his crime against the American people?

He brought the intelligence agencies into the pinnacle of governance, creating the “deep state” that is now trying to overthrow a duly elected President.

Is it because he is not yet in the ground, or is it because they fear what he created?


77 posted on 12/03/2018 9:03:52 AM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: SeekAndFind

God, if only we had a few more Bushes and McCains, what a world it would be!


78 posted on 12/03/2018 9:03:56 AM PST by Mr Ramsbotham ("God is a spirit, and man His means of walking on the earth.")
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To: major-pelham

““A Great President” - good grief - stop with this stuff. He sold out the Reagan Coalition to the the New World Order and George Mitchell. Pleez.”

He sent his own VP to gut Reagan’s true legacy which was manned hypersonic flight. This from a war pilot, spit.


79 posted on 12/03/2018 9:05:14 AM PST by OftheOhio (never could dance but always could kata - Romeo company)
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To: outofsalt
The left has learned the value of a third party candidate. The deep state will try this in 2020. Mark my words.

"outsider" third party candidates only harm establishment boring uninspiring rudderless entitled leaders like George HW Bush. A third party candidate in 2020 would only harm the Dems.

80 posted on 12/03/2018 9:06:59 AM PST by 1Old Pro
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